The ability to monitor the nascent peptide structure and respond functionally to specific nascent peptide sequences is a fundamental property of the ribosome. An extreme manifestation of such a response is nascent peptide-dependent ribosome stalling, involved in the regulation of gene expression. Examples of bacterial genes regulated by programmed ribosome stalling include secA, tna and ermC. These genes contain an upstream regulatory ORF during the translation of which, ribosome stalling occurs, resulting in upregulation of the downstream gene. For ribosome stalling, the sequence of the nascent peptide encoded by the upstream ORF is critical. In case of ermC, ribosome stalling is also dependent on the presence of a specific antibiotic. The molecular mechanisms of programmed translation arrest are unclear. By using bioinformatics, we carried out a systematic analysis of the upstream regions of inducible macrolide resistance genes and identified various putative regulatory ORFs. The sequences of the peptides encoded in these ORFs were found to contain common sequence motifs, based on which we classified the leader peptides into different groups. Analysis of representative ORFs from each group revealed that programmed ribosome stalling occurs during translation. Investigation of the role of the antibiotic in ribosome stalling revealed that different peptides can cooperate with different antibiotics in order to cause translation arrest. By detailed analysis of ribosome stalling at the regulatory cistron of the ermA resistance gene, we uncovered a carefully orchestrated cooperation between the ribosomal exit tunnel and the A-site of the peptidyltransferase center in halting translation. The presence of an inducing antibiotic and a specific nascent peptide in the exit tunnel abrogate the ability of the peptidyltransferase center to catalyze peptide bond formation with a subset of amino acids. The extent of the conferred A-site selectivity is modulated by the C-terminal segment of the nascent peptide, where the third-from-last residue plays a critical role.


The translation of the colour change that occurs in chameleons into synthetic functional materials has attracted increasing interest, and conjugated polymers such as polydiacetylenes that undergo chromatic transitions under heating represent one of the most studied systems. However, they suffer from a slow and irreversible colour change, typically at low temperatures, e.g., 50–90 °C, which limits their sensing applications. In addition, they occur as powders or films and cannot satisfy the requirements for wearable electronics, a mainstream direction in sensing. Herein, it is shown that the introduction of a peptide to the side chain enables a continuous polydiacetylene fibre to exhibit ultrafast, reversible thermochromatic transitions at a high temperature of 200 °C. In particular, the reversible thermochromism occurs even at a temperature change rate of 5000 K s−1, much higher than the typical ∼1 K s−1 of other sensing polymers. The formation of a hierarchically assembled structure is responsible for this remarkable chromatism. In addition, a general and effective model is discovered to quantitatively predict the critical temperature of the colour change in polydiacetylene and guide the development of chromatic materials.


This paper shows that deep learning, i.e., neural networks trained by SGD, can learn in polytime any function class that can be learned in polytime by some algorithmm, including parities. This universal result is further shown to be robust, i.e., it holds under possibly poly-noise on the gradients, which gives a separation between deep learning and statistical query algorithms, as the latter are not comparably universal due to cases like parities. This also shows that SGD-based deep learning does not suffer from the limitations of the perceptron discussed by Minsky-Papert '69. The paper further complement this result with a lower-bound on the generalization error of descent algorithms, which implies in particular that the robust universality breaks down if the gradients are averaged over large enough batches of samples as in full-GD, rather than fewer samples as in SGD.


In the early 1970s, the midpoint of this academic society's history, the "excessive employment" in Japanese agriculture was one of the most important research subjects. Recent studies of Southeast Asian agriculture, which followed the empirical methods of investigation of the Japanese case, revealed the existence of contrasting mechanisms of wage determination. In Java, wage is determined as the average labor productivity by the work-sharing principle. Contrastively in Central Thailand, wage is determined as the marginal productivity by bilateral contracts in the market principle. In the light of the contemporary trend toward economic globalization, our next task of investigation should be why and how these contrasting systems and diversity of agrarian structure come about and coexist in the world.


Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) utilizes a two-dimensional adaptive filter to detect targets within a radar data set with speeds similar to the background clutter. While adaptively optimal solutions exist, they are prohibitively computationally intensive. Thus, researchers have developed alternative algorithms with nearly optimal filtering performance and greatly reduced computational intensity. While such alternatives reduce the computational requirements, the computational burden remains significant and efficient implementations of such algorithms remains an area of active research. This paper focuses on an efficient graphics processor unit (GPU) based implementation of the extended factored algorithm (EFA) using the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) framework provided by NVIDIA.


Accounts from victims and observers, including new research in the U.S. National Archives and the Bavarian National Archives, suggest that American soldiers committed crimes against persons—especially rape and various forms of assault—and against property in Europe after World War II more often than statistics about charges and prosecutions at the time indicated. More importantly, previously unexamined statistical summaries of crimes committed by American troops, as recorded by the U.S. Provost Marshal, provide unprecedented quantitative information about these crimes in the European Theater of Operations (eto) during the first postwar year, May 1945 to June 1946. The absolute number of crimes decreased as the number of troops declined, but the rate of crime (number per 10,000 troops) increased during the same period.


Perceptions of risks from two groups of industrial radiographers, one from Hungary, (n = 45) and from the United Kingdom, (n = 29) were compared by the psychometric method. The comparison was made because both groups were at risk for high doses of ionizing radiation. We found the groups had similar demographic profiles but poor socio-economic conditions of Hungarians were associated with higher levels of emotional distress. Correlation HU-UK for personal and general risks were at a significant level for topics that included lifestyle and radiation risks. Perceptions of risks from radiation were small except for large personal risk from East European nuclear power plants. Knowledge of radiation risk intranationally was correlated positively with personal risk for UK radiographers and negatively for Hungarians. However, average overall risk perceptions from the same topic list for all radiographers did not differ significantly from a group (n = 1461) of UK citizens, though radiographer's risks from radiation were considerably greater. As a new lifesaving intervention it was proposed that radiation risk reduction could be achieved by genetic testing.


How does the brain work? How do billions of neurons bring about ideas, sensations, emotions, and actions? Why do children learn faster than elderly people? What can go wrong in perception, thinking, learning, and acting? Scientists now use computer models to help us to understand the most private and human experiences. In The Mind Within the Net, Manfred Spitzer shows how these models can fundamentally change how we think about learning, creativity, thinking, and acting, as well as such matters as schools, retirement homes, politics, and mental disorders. Neurophysiology has told us a lot about how neurons work; neural network theory is about how neurons work together to process information. In this highly readable book, Spitzer provides a basic, nonmathematical introduction to neural networks and their clinical applications. Part I explains the fundamental theory of neural networks and how neural network models work. Part II covers the principles of network functioning and how computer simulations of neural networks have profound consequences for our understanding of how the brain works. Part III covers applications of network models (e.g., to knowledge representation, language, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease) that shed new light on normal and abnormal states of mind. Finally, Spitzer concludes with his thoughts on the ramifications of neural networks for the understanding of neuropsychology and human nature.


Engineering of inorganic–organic lead halide perovskites for photovoltaic applications has experienced significant advances in recent years. However, the use of the relatively expensive spiro-OMeTAD as a hole-transporting material (HTM) poses a challenge due to dopant-induced degradation. Herein we introduce two new three-armed and four-armed HTMs (BTT-4 and BTT-5) based on isomeric forms of benzotrithiophene (BTT). The isomerism impact on the optical, electrochemical and photophysical properties and the photovoltaic performance is systematically investigated. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) using BTT-4 and BTT-5 as HTMs show remarkable light-to-energy conversion efficiencies of 19.0% and 18.2%, respectively, under standard measurement conditions. These results validate the readily available BTT heteroaromatic structure as a valuable core for the design of highly efficient HTMs for the preparation of PSCs.


Summary Since Pnueli's seminal paper in 1977, Temporal Logic has been used as a formalism for specifying and verifying the correctness of reactive systems. In this paper, we show that, besides its expressive power, Temporal Logic enjoys a very strong structural property: it is categorical on processes. That is, we show how temporal specifications (as theories) can be embedded in categories of process behaviour, and out of this adjunction we build an institution that is categorical in the sense of Meseguer. This characterisation means that temporal logic is, in a sense, 'sound and complete' with respect to process specification and interconnection techniques.


Earth's climate is always changing. As the debate over the Earth's climate has grown, the term "climate change" has come to refer primarily to changes we've seen over recent years and those that are predicted to be coming, mainly as a result of human behavior. Climate Change: Observed Impacts on Planet Earth, Second Edition, serves as a broad, accessible guide to the science behind this often political and heated debate by providing scientific detail and evidence in language that is clear to both the climatologist and the non-specialist. The book contains 35 chapters on all scientific aspects of climate change, written by the world's authority of each particular subject. It collects the latest information on all of these topics in one volume. In this way, readers can make connections between the various topics covered in the book, leading to new ways of solving problems and looking at related issues. The book also contains major references and details for further research and understanding on all issues related to climate change, giving a clear indication of a looming crisis in global warming and climate change. * Provides an up-to-date account of the current understanding of climate change and global warming* Includes 23 updated chapters and 12 new chapters* Includes coverage on modeling climate change, geological history of climate change, and on engineering aspects of climate change* Written by the world's leading experts on the issues related to climate change


Speech impairment in Parkinson's Disease (PD) has been extensively studied. Our understanding of speech in people who are at an increased risk of developing PD is, however, rather limited. It is known that isolated Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) is associated with a high risk of developing PD. The aim of this study is to investigate smartphone speech testing to: (1) distinguish participants with RBD from controls and PD, and (2) predict a range of self- or researcher-administered clinical scores that quantify participants' motor symptoms, cognition, daytime sleepiness, depression, and the overall state of health. The rationale of our analyses is to test an initial hypothesis that speech can be used to detect and quantify the symptoms associated with RBD and PD. We analyzed 4242 smartphone voice recordings collected in clinic and at home from 92 Controls, 112 RBD and 335 PD participants. We used acoustic signal analysis and machine learning, employing 337 features that quantify different properties of speech impairment. Using a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation scheme, we were able to distinguish RBD from controls (sensitivity 60.7%, specificity 69.6%) and RBD from PD participants (sensitivity 74.9%, specificity 73.2%), and predict clinical assessments with clinically useful accuracy. These promising findings warrant further investigation in using speech as a digital biomarker for PD and RBD to facilitate intervention in the early and prodromal stages of PD.


Applying reinforcement learning in physical-world tasks is extremely challenging. It is commonly infeasible to sample a large number of trials, as required by current reinforcement learning methods, in a physical environment. This paper reports our project on using reinforcement learning for better commodity search in Taobao, one of the largest online retail platforms and meanwhile a physical environment with a high sampling cost. Instead of training reinforcement learning in Taobao directly, we present our environment-building approach: we build Virtual-Taobao, a simulator learned from historical customer behavior data, and then we train policies in Virtual-Taobao with no physical sampling costs. To improve the simulation precision, we propose GAN-SD (GAN for Simulating Distributions) for customer feature generation with better matched distribution; we propose MAIL (Multiagent Adversarial Imitation Learning) for generating better generalizable customer actions. To further avoid overfitting the imperfection of the simulator, we propose ANC (Action Norm Constraint) strategy to regularize the policy model. In experiments, Virtual-Taobao is trained from hundreds of millions of real Taobao customers' records. Compared with the real Taobao, Virtual-Taobao faithfully recovers important properties of the real environment. We further show that the policies trained purely in Virtual-Taobao, which has zero physical sampling cost, can have significantly superior real-world performance to the traditional supervised approaches, through online A/B tests. We hope this work may shed some light on applying reinforcement learning in complex physical environments.


AN EXAMINATION OF METHODOLOGY IN COMMUNITY STUDIES By Lisa Vaughan Jordan, M.A. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010. Major Director: Dr. John Kneebone, Associate Professor – Department of History This thesis examines correspondence between a mother, Alma Irene Vaughan and her son, Ammon Cliborne Vaughan from Darvills, Virginia, in the rural Southside area of the state, written during 1965-1967 when the son was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in the Army. In addition to presenting a background of rural southern history and insights gained through the study of these letters, the thesis also includes a historically edited transcription of the letters, as well as those of other members of the community and/or family. It also includes oral history interviews with surviving participants and those connected to this period through the correspondents. The first chapter presents a broad historical background of the rural South as it relates to this community and the lives of these individuals. The second chapter examines the process of historical editing, including history, practice and methods involved in the editorial process. It also includes the editorial method of the process of editing the letters in detail. The third chapter discusses the research methodology involved in the oral history component, including validity, methods of analysis, and presentation of data. The fourth chapter contains selected transcriptions of both the letters and interviews, providing annotations as footnotes. Chapter five concludes with an analysis of insights gained through the study of the Vaughan letters relating to rural southern history and the process of documentary editing.


New values of heat flow are reported from thirty-one sites in England and Wales. Thermal conductivity of core material from fourteen of the sites and thermal gradients, obtained over several hundred metres, were used to calculate reliable heat flow values for these localities. At the remaining seventeen sites the value of heat flow is calculated from thermal gradient measurements alone, assigning conductivity on the basis of stratigraphic logs. An average heat flow of 1.40 μcal/cm2s is computed for the region, based upon 40 sites. Slightly higher than average heat flow may characterise the Lincolnshire sedimentary basin, within which temperatures may reach 100°C at about 3 km depth. Surface heat flow is linearly correlated with heat production in local granitic or low-grade metasedimentary basement encountered in ten boreholes. The intercept of the dependence is 0.56±0.07 μcal/cm2s; and the high slope, 16.0±1.6 km compared with 5–11 km reported for other areas, is held to reflect the nature of late Precambrian, Lower and Upper Palaeozoic tectonic events in the region.


Language change is neutral if the probability of a language learner adopting any given linguistic variant only depends on the frequency of that variant in the learner's environment. Ruling out non-neutral motivations of change, be they sociolinguistic, computational, articulatory or functional, a theory of neutral change insists that at least some instances of language change are essentially due to random drift, demographic noise and the social dynamics of finite populations; consequently, it has remained little investigated in the historical and sociolinguistics literature, which has generally been on the lookout for more substantial causes of change. Indeed, recent computational studies have argued that a neutral mechanism cannot give rise to 'well-behaved' time series of change which would align with historical data, for instance to generate S-curves. In this paper, I point out a methodological shortcoming of those studies and introduce a mathematical model of neutral change which represents the language community as a dynamic, evolving network of speakers. With computer simulations and a quantitative operationalization of what it means for change to be well-behaved, I show that this model exhibits well-behaved neutral change provided that the language community is suitably clusterized. Thus, neutral change is not only possible but is in fact a characteristic emergent property of a class of social networks. From a theoretical point of view, this finding implies that neutral theories of change deserve more (serious) consideration than they have traditionally received in diachronic and variationist linguistics. Methodologically, it urges that if change is to be successfully modelled, some of the traditional idealizing assumptions employed in much mathematical modelling must be done away with.


This book review is devoted to the interdisciplinary volume Reconnecting Marketing to Markets edited by Luis Araujo (Lancaster University Management School), John Finch (Strathclyde University), and Hans Kjellberg (Stockholm School of Economics). The volume includes texts authored by scholars representing fields of academic marketing, economic sociology, science and technology studies, and economics. These collected texts aim to re-examine the historical link between markets and marketing and develop an integrative approach to connections between academic marketing, marketing management and markets with the help of the performativity argument. In this review, Radaev discusses the relationship between the sociology of markets and academic marketing as neighbor research areas, which focus on studying markets, but he discusses how they ignore each others' achievements. He notes that the interest in how markets really work integrates both economic sociology and academic marketing. Then, Radaev describes the general idea of the book - marketing produces markets - and points out its four conceptual premises. First, markets are practical outcomes of organizing efforts. Second, theories about markets are performative. Third, market exchanges require framing with considerable investment in material arrangements and measurement instruments. Fourth, market agents are hybrid collectives, involving material elements and non-human objects. Finally, Radaev briefly describes the content of the book, which covers various empirical research on branding, retailing, product qualifications and so forth.


The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) family of peptides, binding proteins, and receptors are ubiquitous and important for normal human growth and development. Modern techniques including specific radioimmunoassays, radioreceptor assays and recombinant DNA technology have improved our understanding of the role of IGFs in growth and development. In addition to enhancing our understanding of normal physiology, these techniques assess changes in these hormones, binding proteins, and receptors in pathologic conditions including growth retardation, acromegaly, malnutrition, diabetes, and malignancy. Further, these studies have led to improvement in the assessment of responses to certain therapies used in the treatment of these diseases and may lead to improvements in these therapies.


Quality-of-service (QoS) aware reliable data delivery is a challenging issue in underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs). This is due to impairments of the acoustic transmission caused by excessive noise, extremely long propagation delays, high bit error rate, low bandwidth capacity, multipath effects, and interference. To address these challenges, meet the commonly used UWSN performance indicators, and overcome the inefficiencies of the existing clustering-based routing schemes, a novel QoS aware evolutionary cluster based routing protocol (QERP) has been proposed for UWSN-based applications. The proposed protocol improves packet delivery ratio, and reduces average end-to-end delay and overall network energy consumption. Our comparative performance evaluations demonstrate that QERP is successful in achieving low network delay, high packet delivery ratio, and low energy consumption.


The newsletter is devoted to enhancing communication between Colorado water users and managers and faculty at the state's research universities.


Greenhouse gas release from land use change (the so-called "carbon debt") has been identified as a potentially significant contributor to the environmental profile of biofuels. The time required for biofuels to overcome this carbon debt due to land use change and begin providing cumulative greenhouse gas benefits is referred to as the "payback period" and has been estimated to be 100-1000 years depending on the specific ecosystem involved in the land use change event. Two mechanisms for land use change exist: "direct" land use change, in which the land use change occurs as part of a specific supply chain for a specific biofuel production facility, and "indirect" land use change, in which market forces act to produce land use change in land that is not part of a specific biofuel supply chain, including, for example, hypothetical land use change on another continent. Existing land use change studies did not consider many of the potentially important variables that might affect the greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels. We examine here several variables that have not yet been addressed in land use change studies. Our analysis shows that cropping management is a key factor in estimating greenhouse gas emissions associated with land use change. Sustainable cropping management practices (no-till and no-till plus cover crops) reduce the payback period to 3 years for the grassland conversion case and to 14 years for the forest conversion case. It is significant that no-till and cover crop practices also yield higher soil organic carbon (SOC) levels in corn fields derived from former grasslands or forests than the SOC levels that result if these grasslands or forests are allowed to continue undisturbed. The United States currently does not hold any of its domestic industries responsible for its greenhouse gas emissions. Thus the greenhouse gas standards established for renewable fuels such as corn ethanol in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 set a higher standard for that industry than for any other domestic industry. Holding domestic industries responsible for the environmental performance of their own supply chain, over which they may exert some control, is perhaps desirable (direct land use change in this case). However, holding domestic industries responsible for greenhouse gas emissions by their competitors worldwide through market forces (via indirect land use change in this case) is fraught with a host of ethical and pragmatic difficulties. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with indirect land use change depend strongly on assumptions regarding social and environmental responsibilities for actions taken, cropping management approaches, and time frames involved, among other issues.


'The God of peace' in the New Testament. Why does the New Testament use the expression 'the God of peace' and what is the meaning of this phrase? In the Old Testament, the God of Israel is often connected with peace, but he is never called 'the God of peace'. Not until the Hellenistic period is this expression sporadically found in Judaism (once in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and once in Philo). As for the biblical Umwelt, the gods of the ancient Near East were not very peace-loving, and in the perception of Greco-Roman culture the god of war, Ares /Mars, as one of the twelve Olympians was much more prominent than Eirene /Pax. However, the expression 'the God of peace' is found several times in the Corpus Paulinum and once in the letter to the Hebrews. This article investigates all New Testament texts that have this formula, suggesting that the apostle Paul could be responsible for the wording. In conclusion, Paul states that the God of Israel desires to establish a definitive peace in his creation through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and by finally defeating all powers of evil. This apostolic message further indicates that Christians are supposed to be bearers of peace, promoting a peaceful atmosphere in their environment and in the world.


Organ formation is a complex, multi-scale event involving changes at the intracellular, cellular and tissue level. A key step in organogenesis is the formation of characteristically shaped organ precursors. However, the cellular mechanisms driving organ precursor formation are not well understood. Here, we investigate the epithelial rearrangements responsible for the development of the hemispherical retinal neuroepithelium (RNE), a part of the optic cup. We show that, surprisingly, active collective epithelial migration of cells at the rim of the cup is the most prominent player in RNE formation. This rim involution is driven by progressive cell-matrix contacts and actively translocates prospective RNE cells to their correct location before they adopt neuroepithelial fate. Failure of rim migration during neuroepithelium formation leads to ectopic determination of RNE cells and consequently impairs eye formation. Overall, this study illustrates how spatiotemporal coordination between morphogenic movements and fate determination critically influences organogenesis.


PURPOSE
The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is a payment model from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services designed to reduce costs and improve quality in cancer care. Key components of quality for the OCM originate from the 13-component cancer care plan. We surveyed the literature to understand the value of prognosis in OCM-directed planning for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) care and to investigate how the results of a prognostic, proteomic biomarker test, the VeriStrat test, can help OCM-participating providers meet the specific quality measures.

DESIGN
A targeted literature review was supplemented by real-world author experience.

METHODOLOGY
Available MEDLINE-indexed literature on the topic of lung cancer prognosis and cancer care planning (1997-2017) were reviewed. Authors also included relevant commentary based on their own real-world experience with VeriStrat testing and prognostic conversations.

RESULTS
There was near-universal consensus in guidelines and literature about the critical importance of early, candid, and ongoing physician-patient discussions about prognosis, which informs most components of the OCM care plan. The VeriStrat test has been shown to provide accurate predictions of outcomes in all lines of therapy and in various treatments for patients with NSCLC, including chemotherapies and EGFR-TKI therapies.

CONCLUSION
Accurate prognostic estimates, such as those provided by the VeriStrat test, are useful for predicting and documenting expected response to treatment, avoiding ineffective and costly overtreatment and for facilitating meaningful conversations with NSCLC patients about the timing of best supportive care and hospice care when appropriate, thereby improving cancer care planning and quality scores.


What is the relationship between waking experience and dreams, and between dreams and literary creativity? In this book, Bert States explores the nature of dream imagery, the metaphorical processes in dreaming, and the nature and source of dream narrative. Challenging the classical psychoanalytic view that dreams represent censored wishes, he argues instead that dreams are nonrepressive, unplanned constructions, the most integral use of the images at hand. Dreams are a phenomenon of mind and, like art, are manifestations of a biological need to convert experience into structure, says States.


The Bank has prepared a new set of strategies, presented in this volume, for the two overarching objectives established (Sustainable Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction and Promotion of Social Equity) and for each of the four priority areas highlighted in the Institutional Strategy (Competitiveness, Social Development, Regional Integration, and Modernization of the State). The four priority areas were defined, among other things, in view of the current challenges; the Bank's presence in the region; its experience in working in spheres that require capacity for diagnosis and dialogue; actions that require persistence over time; programs that depend on developing consensus; reforms to policies and institutions; and actions that demand technical and financial assistance. The strategies take on board the cross-cutting nature of the environmental dimension, which is developed in a new Environment Strategy that aims to adequately internalize environmental sustainability.


Like other bacterial species, Mycobacterium tuberculosis has multiple sigma (σ) factors encoded in its genome. In previously published work, we and others have shown that mutations in some of these transcriptional activators render M. tuberculosis sensitive to various environmental stresses and, in some cases, cause attenuated virulence phenotypes. In this paper, we characterize a M. tuberculosis mutant lacking the ECF σ factor σH. This mutant was more sensitive than the wild type to heat shock and to various oxidative stresses, but did not show de‐creased ability to grow inside macrophages. Using quantitative reverse transcription‐PCR and microarray technology, we have started to define the σH regulon and its involvement in the global regulation of the response to heat shock and the thiol‐specific oxidizing agent diamide. We identified 48 genes whose expression increased after exposure of M. tuberculosis to diamide; out of these, 39 were not induced in the sigH mutant, showing their direct or indirect dependence on σH. Some of these genes encode proteins whose predicted function is related to thiol metabolism, such as thioredoxin, thioredoxin reductase and enzymes involved in cysteine and molybdopterine biosynthesis. Other genes under σH control encode transcriptional regulators such as sigB, sigE, and sigH itself.


The National Design Triennial, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's groundbreaking exhibition series, celebrates the most creative and forward-thinking designs, cutting-edge trends, and future horizons across the fields of design practice, from architecture, interiors, and landscapes to product design, graphic design, fashion, animation, and new media. Published in conjunction with the latest installment of the Triennial series, Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006 features eighty-seven individuals and companies that are changing the face of design, including Pixar Films, Apple, Google, Nike, Target, Narciso Rodriguez, Tobias Wong, Santiago Calatrava, Herman Miller, and NASA. Four original essays by the exhibition's curators, profiles of the designers, and vibrant illustrations bring to life the ways in which these designers are challenging existing paradigms and expanding our understanding of the design world. Design Life Now is the inaugural title published by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's new publishing imprint, and marks a historic collaboration with Assouline Publishing, which will sell and distribute Cooper-Hewitt books to the trade worldwide.


Chronic intermittent or episodic hypoxia, as occurs during a number of disease states, can have devastating effects, and prolonged exposure to this hypoxia can result in cell injury or cell death. Indeed, intermittent hypoxia activates a number of signaling pathways that are involved in oxygen sensing, oxidative stress, metabolism, catecholamine biosynthesis, and immune responsiveness. The cumulative effect of these processes over time can undermine cell integrity and lead to a decline in function. Furthermore, the ability to respond adequately to various stressors is hampered, and this is traditionally defined as premature aging or senescence. This review highlights recent advances in our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that are involved in the response to intermittent hypoxia and the potential interplay among various pathways that may accelerate the aging process.


The prostate-specific antigen test has been a major factor in increasing awareness and better patient management of prostate cancer (PCA), but its lack of specificity limits its use in diagnosis and makes for poor early detection of PCA. The objective of our studies is to identify better biomarkers for early detection of PCA using protein profiling technologies that can simultaneously resolve and analyze multiple proteins. Evaluating multiple proteins will be essential to establishing signature proteomic patterns that distinguish cancer from noncancer as well as identify all genetic subtypes of the cancer and their biological activity. In this study, we used a protein biochip surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry approach coupled with an artificial intelligence learning algorithm to differentiate PCA from noncancer cohorts. Surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry protein profiles of serum from 167 PCA patients, 77 patients with benign prostate hyperplasia, and 82 age-matched unaffected healthy men were used to train and develop a decision tree classification algorithm that used a nine-protein mass pattern that correctly classified 96% of the samples. A blinded test set, separated from the training set by a stratified random sampling before the analysis, was used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the classification system. A sensitivity of 83%, a specificity of 97%, and a positive predictive value of 96% for the study population and 91% for the general population were obtained when comparing the PCA versus noncancer (benign prostate hyperplasia/healthy men) groups. This highthroughput proteomic classification system will provide a highly accurate and innovative approach for the early detection/diagnosis of PCA.


A theoretical analysis of the spatial resolution of the Stereo Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique has been performed. This has been done in terms of Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) and by applying the technique with and without the correction of the misalignment error between calibration and measurement planes. The results show that some wavelengths of the flow field can be significantly dephased and modulated. The theoretical analysis has been extended to investigate also the effects caused by the laser thickness and the linear dimension of the interrogation window W (i.e. the modulation associated to the Stereo PIV process). As it will be shown in detail in this work, the modulation associated to the last two parameters cannot be corrected, differently from the modulation due to the misalignment. A performance assessment has been conducted with both synthetic and real images and shows a good agreement with the theoretical analysis.
The reconstruction of the three-dimensional displacement field is achieved using both methods proposed by Soloff et al. (1997) and by Willert (1997).
Finally, the Stereo PIV technique has been used to analyse the vortex shedding caused by both finite and infinite cylinders immersed in a uniform flow field. The Reynolds numbers investigated are within the Shear-Layer Transition Regime, indicated by Williamson (1996) for the infinite cylinder. This regime is characterized by the formation of von Karman vortices. For the finite cylinder, a counter-rotating pair of tip vortices forms at the free end, extends into the wake and interacts in a complex manner with the von Karman vortex shedding.
To detect the von Karman vortex shedding a phase averaged method has been chosen. This approach uses the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) technique and it has been evidenced that it works properly for the infinite cylinder and for some sections near the base of the finite one.


We will consider for publication only letters submitted in duplicate, printed in letterquality type without proportional spacing and not exceeding 450 words. All the authors must sign a covering letter transferring copyright. Letters must not duplicate material being submitted elsewhere or already published. We routinely correspond only with authors ofaccepted letters. Rejected letters are destroyed. Accepted letters are subject to editing and abridgement.


Foreign affairs legalism, the dominant approach in academic scholarship on foreign relations law, holds that courts should abandon their traditional deference to the executive in foreign relations, and that courts and Congress should take a more activist role in foreign relations than in the past. Foreign affairs legalists argue that greater judicial involvement in foreign relations would curb executive abuses and promote international law. We argue that foreign affairs legalism rests on implausible assumptions about the incentives and capacities of courts. In U.S. history the executive has given more support to international law than the judiciary or Congress has; this suggests that foreign affairs legalism would retard rather than spur the advance of international law.


Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). Workshop on Tactile User Experience Evaluation Methods at CHI 2014 Abstract Designing haptic phenomena is increasingly important but difficult. Eliciting user feedback is particularly challenging. Direct means of sharing haptic sensations are limited, and the absence of unifying conceptual models for working with haptic sensations further restricts communication between designers and users. This is especially troublesome for pleasurable, affectively targeted interactions that rely on subjective user experience. In this paper, we summarize a recently-published qualitative study evaluating mHIVE, a What-You-Feel-Is-What-I-Feel (WYFIWIF) device for the direct manipulation and communication of vibrotactile stimuli. mHIVE is designed for rapid feedback and collaborative exploration, and shows promise for providing an additional, tactile mode of communication between designers and users in support of improved haptic design.


Invariably, the Quality of output is directly dependent upon that of the participating constituents, some of which are sustainably and effectively controlled while others are fluid. The latter category of participating elements are as complex as a possible interaction, as if between the Head and Heart of people. If one is nurtured in one direction, the other resists.So, while 'People' remain a critical, yet inevitable input (in even a fully automated process), they are as ubiquitous in control as TQM (Total Quality Management) could be. Hence it may be understandable as to why higher sophistication of automated processes renders more difficulty into managing people too? While industrial sophistication is proportional to the complexity of the processes, the role of people who must govern those processes becomes all the more vital. When one adjusts with the trend of first part of the industrial development... that of continual advancement, and consequently an increase in complexity; the second requirement of improving the Quality of people tends to overtake the first imperative. Truly, the requirements regarding their improving of 'peoples' excellence' takes a front seat today, vis-a-vis the attempts on improving the Competency and/or Quality attributes. It is because 'People' are the primary growth paths and/or the communicating channels of the organization. One can summarise by saying that the people are like resources whose combined 'Aura' causes a brilliance which has big a potential as that of Brilliance of the sun. Though the sun is there at limited hours, yet people are ever there, Omnipresent, to contribute to improvements; continually.


Title of Document: IMMIGRANT ASSIMILATION, FAMILY FUNCTIONING AND DELINQUENCY: A TEST OF MEDIATING AND MODERATING INFLUENCES Stephanie Maura DiPietro, Ph.D. 2010 Directed By: Professor Gary LaFree, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Since the earliest writings on immigrant adaptation scholars have speculated that assimilation may relate to delinquency through its effects on the family. Despite this longstanding line of inquiry, empirical research on family processes across immigrant generations has yielded equivocal findings, with some studies offering support for the mediating influence of the family on the assimilation-crime link, while others finding little variation across immigrant generations with respect to family functioning or its implications for offending behavior. Further, while research on immigrant adaptation has proliferated in recent years, consideration of how immigration relates to crime at the individual level has all but ignored the salient role of gender. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the growing literature on the individual level mechanisms linking immigrant status to offending behaviors in two important ways: First, using a diverse sample of youth from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, I test the mediating role of five interstitial family processes— monitoring, attachment, support, harsh discipline and conflict—to determine whether generational differences in maladaptive behaviors are indeed attributable to differences in family characteristics. Second, I address a glaring gap in the immigrant-crime literature by examining the moderating influence of gender on the linkages among generational status, family processes and delinquency. Results of OLS and negative binomial regression analyses offer, at best, limited support for the hypothesized mediating role of family processes in the assimilation-crime link. For only one family process—family conflict—is generational status a significant correlate, net of controls. Sobel tests indicate that family conflict—which is higher among more assimilated youth—partially mediates the relationship between generational status and violence, but not substance use. Notably, however, I find important gender differences in the influence of assimilatory status on both family functioning and problem behaviors. Collectively, girls appear to be better ―protected‖ by their immigrant status than boys. I discuss the implications of these findings and my proposed directions for future research. IMMIGRANT ASSIMILATION, FAMILY FUNCTIONING AND DELINQUENCY: A TEST OF MEDIATING AND MODERATING INFLUENCES


Development and dissemination of biofortified maize is essential for communities at risk of malnutrition. This further requires that the improved maize varieties retain all their nutritional attributes up to the end users. Weevils (Sitophilus zeamais) are among the most economically important storage pests of maize in the tropics and present a permanent threat to the availability of maize nutrients for human consumption. This study aimed at evaluating resistance to maize weevils in 24 provitamin-A maize inbred lines and their single cross hybrids. Evaluation was done by artificial infestation and the Dobie Index of Susceptibility was used to group the genotypes. Results showed that Provitamin-A maize genotypes evaluated were in general susceptible to S. zeamais. Two inbred lines CLHP0014, and CLHP0005; and five single crosses; CLHP00434/CLHP0020, CLHP00306/CLHP0005, CLHP00434/CLHP0003, CML486/CLHP0005, CLHP0331/CLHP0020 were moderately resistant to S. zeamais. Grain damage (GD) was strongly positively correlated with number of F1 weevils which emerged (R2= 0.74, P<0.001). The index of susceptibility (IS) was positively and strongly correlated with number of weevils which emerged (R2= 0.86, P<0.001) and grain damage (R2= 0.69, P<0.01). Susceptibility of the maize genotypes was not correlated with differences in kernel colours. Lines with moderate resistance to weevil were identified and could be improved for the use in developing nutritional qualities maize varieties to minimize loss due to storage pests. * Corresponding Author: Frejus A. K. Sodedji  firstname.lastname@example.com International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2223-7054 (Print) 2225-3610 (Online) http://www.innspub.net Vol. 9, No. 5, p. 1-13, 2016 International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2223-7054 (Print) 2225-3610 (Online) http://www.innspub.net Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 14-22, 2014


Previous research has shown that non-gendered (epicene) words, such as creature, person and child are often used with a gender-bias, both today and in historical material. The present study, which is based on sections of my dissertation (Lilja 2007) looks into the use of these three words in historical texts, with a focus on speech-related material from the courtroom setting (examinations and depositions) in England and New England 1670–1720. The findings are contrasted with those from previous research, which has used fictional material (novels and plays) from the same period. With regard to creature and child, the present study finds that they are primarily used with female reference, which confirms the findings of previous research. However, with regard to person, which in previous research has been found to be used with primarily male reference, the results indicate a difference between the material from England and that from New England: in the English material person is mainly used with male reference, whereas it is mainly used with female reference in the American material. This might be due to the specific nature of the New England material, most of which comes from the Salem witch trials.


A number of successful systemic therapies are available for treatment of disseminated cancers. However, tumor response to these treatments is almost invariably transient and therapy fails due to emergence of resistant populations. The latter reflects the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment as well as the evolutionary capacity of cancer phenotypes to adapt to therapeutic perturbations. Interestingly, although cancers are highly dynamic systems, cancer therapy is typically administered according to a fixed, linear protocol. Treatment is changed only when the tumor progresses but successful tumor adaptation begins immediately upon administration of the first dose. Applying evolutionary models to cancer therapy demonstrate the potential advantage of using more dynamic, strategic approaches that focus not just on the initial cytotoxic effects of treatment but also on the evolved mechanisms of cancer cell resistance and the associated phenotypic costs. The goal of evolutionary therapy is to prevent or exploit emergence of adaptive tumor strategies. Examples of this approach include adaptive therapy and double bind therapy. The former continuously alters therapy to maintain a stable tumor volume using a persistent population of therapy-sensitive cells to suppress proliferation of resistant phenotypes. The latter uses the cytotoxic effects of an initial therapy to promote phenotypic adaptations that are then exploited using follow-on treatment. Citation Information: Clin Cancer Res 2010;16(14 Suppl):IA5-2.


This paper investigates how increases in the level of maximum earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax have affected Social Security benefits and taxes. The analysis uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to ask how different the present value of own benefits and taxes would be for the cohort born from 1948 to 1953 (ages 51 to 56 in 2004) if they faced the lower cap on the payroll tax that faced those born twelve and twenty four years earlier, but otherwise had the same earnings stream and faced the same benefit formula. We find that for those in the Early Boomer cohort of the Health and Retirement Study, ages 51 to 56 in 2004, that after adjusting for nominal wage growth, benefits were increased by 1.5 percent by the increase in the payroll tax ceiling compared to the cohort twelve years older, and by 3.7 percent over the benefits under the payroll tax ceiling for the cohort twenty four years older. Tax receipts were increased by 5.3 and 10.7 percent over tax receipts that would have been collected under the tax ceilings that applied to the cohorts 12 and 24 years older respectively. About 25 percent of the additional tax revenues created by the increase in the payroll tax cap between the Early Boomer cohort and those twelve years older was diverted to increased benefits. Similarly, about 31 percent of the additional tax revenues created by the increase in the payroll tax cap between the Early Boomer cohort and those twenty four years older took the form of increased benefits. Results are also presented separately for men and women, for those in the top quartile of earners, and for those at the tax ceiling throughout their work lives.


This book has brought together leading international experts to explore the similarities and the differences between autism and blindness. Current research with children as well as adults is described comparing early psychological development from a range of perspectives such as language, memory, thought and feelings as well as providing critical reviews of educational and intervention programmes.

New developments in the field have sparked debate that is well represented here and touches on a variety of issues ranging from musical talent to the basis of 'connectedness' to others. The readership will be drawn from many fields reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the topic and will include researchers and practitioners in psychology and psychiatry as well as educationalists, therapists, classroom teachers and parents.


Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the productivity characteristics related to the thesis rate of biomedical students of the PhD program in Health Sciences in Lima, Peru through a 20-year retrospective study. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective, comparative, cross-sectional study. The evaluation period consisted of two time periods, 1999–2014 and 2015–2019, to differentiate thesis defense production both before and after the promulgation of the new University Law 30220 in Peru. The student population included graduates from different professional areas (Dentistry, Medicine, etc.). An electronic search for all the data was carried out by using the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) SUM (Unique Registration System) software. Results: It was found that the highest prevalence of students who entered in the doctoral programs of the UNMSM Faculty of Medicine was 26.6% in 2013, whereas the highest prevalence of graduates was 24.4% in 2016. Finally, the highest prevalence of graduates who engaged in thesis defense was 41.4% in 2017. There has been a constant increase in thesis production, with the cutoff point being from 2014 onward. The Pearson's chi-square test showed a significant association between the type of PhD program and thesis defense (P = 0.008). Conclusion: The greatest production of thesis defense was carried out from 2014 to 2019. In addition, there was a significant association between thesis defense according to the PhD program and the professional career of the PhD student; however, none of the factors associated with the influence of obtaining a PhD degree in any of the programs evaluated was statistically significant.


Exhibitionism has historically been viewed as more of a nuisance than a serious criminal justice matter. Research has demonstrated that the number of exhibitionists who are detected re-offending is a significant under-representation of the number who actually re-offend. The objective of this study was to extend a previous study conducted on exhibitionists, while attempting to solve the limitations described in that study. Two hundred eight exhibitionists were assessed at a university teaching hospital between 1983 and 1996. Archival data were derived from police and medical files. Results indicated that, over a mean follow-up period of 13.24 years, 23.6, 31.3, and 38.9 percent of exhibitionists were charged with or convicted of sexual, violent, or criminal offenses, respectively. Undoubtedly, this is an under-representation of the true rate, as we have no way of knowing how many exhibitionists re-offended and did not get caught. Nevertheless, in the present investigation, sexual recidivists compared with non-recidivists were less educated, scored higher on the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST), the Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R), and the Pedophile Index. Violent recidivists were also less educated and scored higher on the MAST, PCL-R, and the Pedophile Index, and had accumulated a greater number of prior violent or criminal charges and/or convictions. Criminal recidivists were less educated; scored higher on the MAST, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI), PCL-R, and Pedophile Index; and had accumulated a greater number of prior sexual, violent, and criminal offenses. Finally, the hands-on sexual recidivists accumulated a greater number of prior violent and criminal charges and or convictions than did the hands-off sexual recidivists.


Recent literature suggests that gait dynamics plays a role in establishing healthy, adaptive gait behavior, and that illness or injury can alter the dynamic patterns of gait (termed fractal patterns). So called "dynamical diseases" change the fractal patterns in gait, hereby reducing adaptive gait ability and increasing fall-risk. Previous research has shown that fractal patterns in gait can be strengthened through the use of a fractal metronome stimulus. However, in previous research participants have consistently presented weaker fractal patterns than prescribed by the metronome, despite improvements from their baseline. One postulate is that this gap between the stimulus and the participants' response is due to the prescriptive nature of the stimulus – that is, the metronome is presented with no interaction with the user. If so, the introduction of real-time feedback regarding synchrony with the stimulus may be beneficial to strengthening fractal patterns. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of feedback in increasing synchrony with a fractal metronome stimulus, and in entraining fractal gait patterns. There were three hypotheses: First, feedback would elicit a stronger coupling between participants' gait dynamics and the dynamics of the stimulus relative to a non-feedback condition. Second, the addition of feedback to the visual metronome would lead to a stronger fractal pattern during the training and post-training (retention) phases. Third, participants with the strongest coupling during training would exhibit the strongest fractal patterns during training and post training. Results showed no difference in coupling between feedback and non-feedback conditions. The addition of feedback to the fractal metronome lead to no significant difference in fractal strength from baseline to training and baseline to retention. While greater coupling was correlated to stronger fractal patterns during training, there was no relationship between coupling and retention. This study provided further evidence supporting the use of metronomes to alter gait dynamics, and was one of the first to examine feedback in conjunction with fractal gait training.


Since 1988 Botswana has been experiencing an unprecedented increase in vehicular traffic which is suspected to be having contamination effects on soils along heavily used roads in the country. This study aimed at understanding the contamination trends of heavy metals on soils due to vehicular emissions. The soil physicochemistry (bulk density, particle size distribution, pH, electrical conductivity and cation exchange capacity), mineralogy (using x-ray diffraction techniques) and heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn) concentrations were determined for soil samples obtained along the roadside at 2m, 4m, 6m and 100 m of the Gaborone – Tlokweng Emigration/Immigration Boarder Post Road, which is one of the busiest in the country. Bulk density of soil samples were from 1.19 to 1.4; and sand, loamy sand and sandy loam textural classes constituted the soil samples. The soil pH was from 5.09 to 8.57; the EC ranged from 6.27 iS cm-1to 20.3 27 iS cm-1 and the CEC values were from 10.2 meq100g-1 to 27.2 meq100g-1. Clay minerals were identified in the samples as well as feldspar and quartz. The concentration levels for Pb were from 0 mgkg-1 to 71 mgkg-1; Zn were from 5.23 mgkg-1 to 51.26 mgkg-1 ; Cu were from 0.3 mgkg-1 to 18.1 mgkg-1 and Cd 0 mgkg-1 to 2.4 mgkg-1 . The interplay of soil physico-chemistry and mineralogy on heavy metals concentrations is discussed. Although levels of heavy metals concentrations fell below normal ranges, the values obtained were generally higher than those from some developed and developing countries.@JASEM


Objectives: To measure the prevalence of selected sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among urban men in Pakistan and identify associated factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 2400 urban men aged 16–45 years was carried out in six cities of Pakistan. Respondents were selected through a multistage systematic sampling design. After obtaining informed consent a structured behavioural questionnaire was administered. Blood and urine samples were also collected and tested for HIV (ELISA), HSV-2 (ELISA) syphilis (RPR and TPHA), chlamydia (PCR) and gonorrhoea (PCR). Results: Of the 2383 respondents whose results were received, 4.4% (n = 106) tested positive for at least one of the five STIs. The prevalence of the individual organisms was as follows: syphilis, 1.3%; HIV, 0.1%; HSV-2, 3.4%; gonorrhoea, 0.8% and chlamydia, no cases. City-wise, the highest prevalence was in Karachi (8.5%) followed by Lahore (5.3%), Faisalabad (4.0%) Quetta (4.3%), Rawalpindi (2.5%) and Peshawar (2.0%). At the univariate and multivariate level, older age, less schooling, and having more than four sexual partners were significantly associated with the presence of an STI. 92% of men who tested positive for any STI were asymptomatic. Conclusions: HIV prevalence in Pakistan remains low, however, the emergence of genital herpes is a matter of concern as it could lead to a future conduit for HIV spread. Health education messages should target less educated segments of society and specifically advocate safe sex practices and early diagnosis.


Resonance characteristics of Rayleigh backscattering in an optical passive ring-resonator gyro (OPRG) are theoretically formulated taking the temporal coherence of the optical source into account. This resonance has two peaks with separation equal to the Sagnac phase shift when rotation is induced. This phenomenon degrades the gyro's linearity in a configuration to obtain the frequency output. Rayleigh backscattering also can induce an enhanced noise at specific input rotation rates. The methods of solving these problems are discussed. The theoretical limit of rotation sensing, given by the detector shot noise, is also computed taking into account the optical source coherence. A spectrum width narrower than several tens of kHz is required to realize the OPRG for navigation use.


Abstract:This article uses data to analyze the geographic distribution and transformation of the poetic world in the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). There are two ways we can examine spatial distribution and movement in Tang poetry. The first is a static examination of poets' hometowns (jiguan 籍貫). This method looks at the distribution of poets during a specific period to understand where greater or lesser numbers of poets were born, which places could be considered the center of Tang poetry, and what kinds of geographical changes occurred over time in the Tang literary world. The second is a dynamic examination of poets' activities. When we compare various Tang poets, what differences and changes can we find in the places they lived and traveled? Are the poets' spatial distribution patterns even, or do they favor certain regions? Where were the centers of poetic activity in this period? Were they the same as the political center (the two capitals), or were they located farther out in the provinces? Were they in culturally or politically developed areas or in more remote, less developed ones? In which areas was poetic activity most frequent and intense? This article attempts to answer these questions with data.


The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a highly specialized sensory organ that provides crucial negative feedback during a meal, partly via a gut–brain axis. More specifically, enteroendocrine cells located throughout the GI tract are able to sense and respond to specific nutrients, releasing gut peptides that act in a paracrine, autocrine or endocrine fashion to regulate energy balance, thus controlling both food intake and possibly energy expenditure. Furthermore, the gut microbiota has been shown to provide a substantial metabolic and physiological contribution to the host, and metabolic disease such as obesity has been associated with aberrant gut microbiota and microbiome. Interestingly, recent evidence suggests that the gut microbiota can impact the gut–brain axis controlling energy balance, at both the level of intestinal nutrient‐sensing mechanisms, as well as potentially at the sites of integration in the central nervous system. A better understanding of the intricate relationship between the gut microbiota and host energy‐regulating pathways is crucial for uncovering the mechanisms responsible for the development of metabolic diseases and for possible therapeutic strategies.


From the latest TanDEM-X mission (bistatic X-Band interferometric SAR), globally consistent Digital Elevation Model (DEM) will be available from 2017, but their accuracy has not yet been fully characterised. This paper presents the methods and implementation of statistical procedures for the validation of the vertical accuracy of TanDEM-X iDEMs at grid-spacing of approximately 12.5 m, 30 m and 90 m based on processed ICESat data over the UK in order to assess their potential extrapolation across the globe. The accuracy of the TanDEM-X iDEM in UK was obtained as follows: against ICESat GLA14 elevation data, TanDEM-X iDEM has −0.028±3.654 m over England and Wales and 0.316 ± 5.286 m over Scotland for 12 m, −0.073 ± 6.575 m for 30 m, and 0.0225 ± 9.251 m at 90 m. Moreover, 90 % of all results at the three resolutions of TanDEM-X iDEM data (with a linear error at 90 % confidence level) are below 16.2 m. These validation results also indicate that derivative topographic parameters (slope, aspect and relief) have a strong effect on the vertical accuracy of the TanDEM-X iDEMs. In high-relief and large slope terrain, large errors and data voids are frequent, and their location is strongly influenced by topography, whilst in the low- to medium-relief and low slope sites, errors are smaller. ICESat derived elevations are heavily influenced by surface slope within the 70 m footprint as well as there being slope dependent errors in the TanDEM-X iDEMs.


Exercise can elicit morphologic and functional benefits to the heart, mainly on the left ventricle, that it is responsible for the systemic blood circulation. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of circuit resistance training (CRT) on body mass (BM), body free fat mass (FFM), body fat mass (FM), left ventricular mass (LVM), rest final diastolic volume (FDV), rest final systolic volume (FSV), rest systolic volume (SV), relationships LVM/body surface (BS), LVM/BM and LVM/FFM in sedentary women, 39.71 ± 3.8 years old (n=14). The protocol consisted of 3 sessions/week of a circuit training of 9 stations with alternating muscle groups. In each session, the subjects performed the circuit 2 times with one set of 8-12 maximal repetitions (RM) in each station, during 10 weeks. The body composition was analyzed by DXA and, the heart parameters by echocardioDoppler in pre and post experimental period. Student s t test was applied for all variables (α=0.05). There was increase in the FFM and LVM with maintenance of LVM/FFM, demonstrating that a left ventricular hipertrophy accompanied by the increase of the body free fat mass. There was increase in LVM/BS and LVM/BM, with maintenance of the variables FDV, FSV and SV, indicating an improvement in left ventricular morphology to achieve the systemic blood circulation. Besides the increase in FFM, there was a reduction of FM and maintenance of BM. The proposed CRT improved the body composition and the heart morphology in women.


"There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause:— through infancy's unconscious spell, boyhood's thoughtless faith, adolescence' doubt (the common doom), then skepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood's pondering repose of If. But once gone through, we trace the round again; and are infants, boys, and men and Ifs eternally."


Alterations in translation occur in cancer cells, but the precise pathogenic processes and mechanistic underpinnings are not well understood. In this study, we report that interactions between Pim family kinases and the translation initiation factor eIF4B are critical for Abl oncogenicity. Pim kinases, Pim-1 and Pim-2, both directly phosphorylated eIF4B on Ser406 and Ser422. Phosphorylation of eIF4B on Ser422 was highly sensitive to pharmacologic or RNA interference-mediated inhibition of Pim kinases. Expression and phosphorylation of eIF4B relied upon Abl kinase activity in both v-Abl- and Bcr-Abl-expressing leukemic cells based on their blockade by the Abl kinase inhibitor imatinib. Ectopic expression of phosphomimetic mutants of eIF4B conferred resistance to apoptosis by the Pim kinase inhibitor SMI-4a in Abl-transformed cells. In contrast, silencing eIF4B sensitized Abl-transformed cells to imatinib-induced apoptosis and also inhibited their growth as engrafted tumors in nude mice. Extending these observations, we found that primary bone marrow cells derived from eIF4B-knockdown transgenic mice were less susceptible to Abl transformation, relative to cells from wild-type mice. Taken together, our results identify eIF4B as a critical substrate of Pim kinases in mediating the activity of Abl oncogenes, and they highlight eIF4B as a candidate therapeutic target for treatment of Abl-induced cancers.


In 1992, HIV/AIDS researchers in Amsterdam were invited to work in partnership with researchers in Ethiopia to build an HIV/AIDS research infrastructure in Addis Ababa. This project, which began in 1994, was envisioned to contribute meaningfully to fighting the HIV pandemic in the decades to come. Its immediate objective was to establish an HIV research laboratory to serve international partnerships pursuing HIV vaccine research in Ethiopia and to support national health authorities fighting the HIV epidemic in Ethiopia. The overall goal was to develop research capacity at the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) by improving facilities, training technical and academic personnel at the Ph.D., M.Sc., and M.P.H. levels, establishing cohort studies to study HIV infection progression, and helping the government to implement a national HIV surveillance program.  During the period 1994-2002, the projected HIV/AIDS research laboratory was built and several existing sections of EHNRI were renovated and upgraded. An active HIV-research program also was established. Staff grew to more than 60, including three Ethiopian and three expatriate researcher/managers. Two Ph.D. students graduated in immunology and virology (University of Amsterdam, 2000), and five are currently in training. Several technical persons were trained, and over 19 M.Sc./M.P.H. programs were supported at Addis Ababa University (AAU). The first Ethiopian Ph.D. graduate became the national program manager for ENARP. Two ENARP cohort studies and several HIV-prevalence studies have helped document the severity of the HIV epidemic in Ethiopia, assisting national authorities in formulating national and regional policies to prevent HIV transmission.  Initial funding for ENARP from the Netherlands government was for eight years, to end by 2003. It was expected that management responsibilities would then be transferred from expatriate to Ethiopian staff and all ENARP activities integrated into EHNRI.


F most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination. It means release from care, boredom and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good. But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. Never could we recapture the great moments of the past. There was an insistent yearning to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt—and one more failure. The less people tolerated us, the more we withdrew from society, from life itself. As we became subjects of King Alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down. It thickened, ever becoming blacker. Some of us sought out sordid places, hoping to find understanding companionship and approval. Momentarily we did—then would come oblivion and the awful awakening to face the hideous Four Horsemen—Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, Despair. Unhappy drinkers who read this page will understand! Now and then a serious drinker, being dry at the moment says, "I don't miss it at all. Feel better. Work better. Having a better time." As ex-problem drink-


Bollywood, the Indian film industry based in Mumbai, is the cultural dominant of modern India. Both in India and in the Indian diaspora it exists as a cinematic form and as ever-changing cultural effects. The preeminent Indian film critic Ashish Rajadhyaksha has in fact distinguished between its reality and the hype around it. This essay acknowledges Rajadhyaksha's influential reading of Bollywood as cinema as well as a fad, a taste, an Indian exotica, and a global phenomenon growing out of the cultural and political economy of a film industry based primarily in Mumbai. However, it is argued that no amount of reading of Bollywood as a simulacral, 'techno-realist' image readily packaged and re-packaged for consumption gets to the heart of the system, to the crux internal to its design, to spectatorial response around the shedding of a tear. This knowledge and this response is pivotal to a Bollywood where sentimental dialogues dominate. The essay argues that Bollywood is more than its surface effects, more than just costume and romance, more than a series of selected images constructed primarily for upwardly mobile Indian and Indian diaspora consumption. Bollywood so understood is marked by a narrative of slippage, a narrative which leads to the shedding of a tear as the outpouring of sentiment on the part of the form's 'Model' spectator, an act of sentiment which distinguishes Bollywood from itself. To make the case two recent Bollywood films Eklavya (2007) and Saawariya (2007) are read to show the continuing strength of sentimental melodrama and, after Laura Mulvey, to show also how the form constructs a collective subjectivity which transcends gender difference.


Differential dijet cross sections in diffractive deep-inelastic scattering are measured with the H1 detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 51.5 pb−1. The selected events are of the type ep → eXY , where the system X contains at least two jets and is well separated in rapidity from the low mass proton dissociation system Y . The dijet data are compared with QCD predictions at next-to-leading order based on diffractive parton distribution functions previously extracted from measurements of inclusive diffractive deepinelastic scattering. The prediction describes the dijet data well at low and intermediate zIP (the fraction of the momentum of the diffractive exchange carried by the parton entering the hard interaction) where the gluon density is well determined from the inclusive diffractive data, supporting QCD factorisation. A new set of diffractive parton distribution functions is obtained through a simultaneous fit to the diffractive inclusive and dijet cross sections. This allows for a precise determination of both the diffractive quark and gluon distributions in the range 0.05 < zIP < 0.9. In particular, the precision on the gluon density at high momentum fractions is improved compared to previous extractions.


The analysis shows that the rankings are relatively stable: indeed, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries are still in the best performing group while the United States is still in the bottom of the ranking. Data analysis also highlights a common pattern for East European countries as material conditions improved and the behaviour of young people became more similar to their peers living in Western economies even though children's living conditions have not improved overall. On the whole, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom recorded the most positive changes, while Poland, Spain and Sweden recorded the most negative changes.


In 2014 the 'Trojan Horse' affair, an alleged plot to 'Islamify' several state schools in Birmingham, caused a previously highly successful school to be vilified. Holmwood and O'Toole challenge the accepted narrative and show how it was used to justify an intrusive counter extremism agenda.


The Strut-and-Tie model (STM) approach evolves as one of the most useful design methods for shear critical structures and for other disturbed regions in concrete structures. The model provides a rational approach by representing a complex structural member with an appropriate simplified truss model. The literature review showed that there is no single unique STM for most design situations encountered. This report summarizes the STM approach and related research as well as the results of linear and nonlinear analysis of a deep beam using SAP2000 and ABAQUS Software.


Postcholecystectomy bile duct injury (BDI) remains a devastating iatrogenic complication that adversely impacts the quality of life with high healthcare costs. Despite a decrease in the incidence of laparoscopic cholecystectomy-related BDI, the absolute number remains high as cholecystectomy is a commonly performed surgical procedure. Open Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy with meticulous surgical technique remains the gold standard surgical procedure with excellent long-term results in most patients. As with many hepatobiliary disorders, a minimally invasive approach has been recently explored to minimize access-related complications and improve postoperative recovery. Since patients with gallstone disease are often admitted for a minimally invasive cholecystectomy, laparoscopic and robotic approaches for repairing postcholecystectomy biliary stricture are attractive. While recent series have shown the feasibility and safety of minimally invasive post-cholecystectomy biliary stricture management, most are retrospective analyses with small sample sizes. Also, long-term follow-up is available only in a limited number of studies. The principles and technique of minimally invasive repair resemble open repair except for the extent of adhesiolysis and the suturing technique with continuous sutures commonly used in minimally invasive approaches. The robotic approach overcomes key limitations of laparoscopic surgery and has the potential to become the preferred minimally invasive approach for the repair of postcholecystectomy biliary stricture. Despite increasing use, lack of prospective studies and selection bias with available evidence precludes definitive conclusions regarding minimally invasive surgery for managing postcholecystectomy biliary stricture. High-volume prospective studies are required to confirm the initial promising outcomes with minimally invasive surgery.


We live in a globalized and globalizing world that is marked by the twin processes of economic globalization and cultural globalization. In this thought-provoking book, Kumaravadivelu explores the impact of cultural globalization on second- and foreign-language education. Kumaravadivelu examines in detail how the cultural component of second- and foreign-language education has been informed by the Western notions of cultural assimilation, cultural pluralism, and cultural hybridity. Drawing insights from international and interdisciplinary sources, he argues that they have only a limited and limiting relevance to language education in the era of cultural globalization.Grounded in Western as well as non-Western perspectives, and written in an easily accessible style that combines personal narrative and academic genre, this book is indispensable for graduate students, practicing teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and others who are interested in exploring the complexity of cultural globalization and language education.


This article reviews prior work studying reaction kinetics in solution, with the goal of using this information to improve detailed kinetic modeling in the solvent phase. Both experimental and computational methods for calculating reaction rates in liquids are reviewed. Previous studies, which used such methods to determine solvent effects, are then analyzed based on reaction family. Many of these studies correlate kinetic solvent effect with one or more solvent parameters or properties of reacting species, but it is not always possible, and investigations are usually done on too few reactions and solvents to truly generalize. From these studies, we present suggestions on how best to use data to generalize solvent effects for many different reaction types in a high throughput manner.


This article considers debates concerning the contribution of anthropology to an understanding of vernacular and marginal forms of cosmopolitanism in relation to the environmental cosmopolitics of zoning practices in and around the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), Peten, Guatemala. Zoning practices realize political and economic restructuring, integration, and fragmentation through conditionality and exceptionalism. The rationale for zoning of MBR territories evident in UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme and USAID MAYAREMA Resource Management Project have combined the instrumentalism of aid-tied development with a cosmopolitan appeal to the protection of the global environment in the interests of "humanity" imagined as an internally differentiated, and yet singular entity. As zoning practices have emerged as forms of conditionality placed on a range of human activities, they have been called into question by "Other" discrepant and cosmopolitan constituencies advancing different imagined relations between cosmos and polis, "environment" and "society." The article considers discrepant zoning practices and related imaginings adopted by the Communities of Population in Resistance. Q'eqchi' perspectives are also addressed, notably with reference to the environmental cosmopolitics of indigenous religious practice. By exploring the environmental cosmopolitics of the MBR, the article argues that through anthropological knowledge practices, plural and over lapping cosmovisions and related vernacular and discrepant forms of environmental cosmopolitanism are brought into view. The task lies in grappling with relativization, pluralization, and complexity as these follow on from anthropological knowledge practices and environmental cosmopolitan zoning practices alike.


Abstract. We present the first laboratory experiments of aerosol formation from oxidation of volatile organic species emitted by living plants, a process which for half a century has been known to take place in the atmosphere. We have treated white cabbage plants with methyl jasmonate in order to induce the production of monoterpenes and certain less-volatile sesqui- and homoterpenes. Ozone was introduced into the growth chamber in which the plants were placed, and the subsequent aerosol formation and growth of aerosols were monitored by measuring the particle size distributions continuously during the experiments. Our observations show similar particle formation rates as in the atmosphere but much higher growth rates. The results indicate that the concentrations of nonvolatile oxidation products of plant released precursors needed to induce the nucleation are roughly an order-of-magnitude higher than their concentrations during atmospheric nucleation events. Our results therefore suggest that if oxidized organics are involved in atmospheric nucleation events, their role is to participate in the growth of pre-existing molecular clusters rather than to form such clusters through homogeneous or ion-induced nucleation.


The impacts of the changing climate on the biological world vary across latitudes, habitats and spatial scales. By contrast, the time of day at which these changes are occurring has received relatively little attention. As biologically significant organismal activities often occur at particular times of day, any asymmetry in the rate of change between the daytime and night‐time will skew the climatic pressures placed on them, and this could have profound impacts on the natural world. Here we determine global spatial variation in the difference in the mean annual rate at which near‐surface daytime maximum and night‐time minimum temperatures and mean daytime and mean night‐time cloud cover, specific humidity and precipitation have changed over land. For the years 1983–2017, we derived hourly climate data and assigned each hour as occurring during daylight or darkness. In regions that showed warming asymmetry of >0.5°C (equivalent to mean surface temperature warming during the 20th century) we investigated corresponding changes in cloud cover, specific humidity and precipitation. We then examined the proportional change in leaf area index (LAI) as one potential biological response to diel warming asymmetry. We demonstrate that where night‐time temperatures increased by >0.5°C more than daytime temperatures, cloud cover, specific humidity and precipitation increased. Conversely, where daytime temperatures increased by >0.5°C more than night‐time temperatures, cloud cover, specific humidity and precipitation decreased. Driven primarily by increased cloud cover resulting in a dampening of daytime temperatures, over twice the area of land has experienced night‐time warming by >0.25°C more than daytime warming, and has become wetter, with important consequences for plant phenology and species interactions. Conversely, greater daytime relative to night‐time warming is associated with hotter, drier conditions, increasing species vulnerability to heat stress and water budgets. This was demonstrated by a divergent response of LAI to warming asymmetry.


Abstract. The paper considers three scientific approaches and outlines a new concept of systematic cartography.The first approach – systems theorySystems theory has long been concerned with the study of complex systems (in recent times, complexity theory and complex systems have also been used as names of the field). Complex systems are present in the research of various disciplines, including geosciences, economics, social studies and technology. Recently, complexity has become a natural domain of interest in real-world socio-cognitive systems and emerging systemics research. Complex systems tend to be high-dimensional, non-linear, and challenging to study. Organised complexity is the degree of both the organisation and complexity of a system. When organisation and complexity are not part of the same system they each undoubtedly can occur naturally, but when both organisation and complexity are found in the same system, the odds of their occurring drop considerably, and the more of both that a system has, the less probable it becomes.It is often useful to consider spatial problems through a general systems approach. A general system is a group of fundamental elements bound together by specific linkages. Systems may be open or closed and may change through time. The earth is an open system in which there are inputs, outputs, and flow-through mechanisms. The linkages, or connections, that bind entities together into a system are paths through which matter, energy, ideas, and people pass from one element to another. General Systems Theory is useful to any approaches describing the earth – cartography is one of them.Cartography employs systems to develop analytical models with which they seek to understand and explain spatial patterns and interactions. Cartographers use the systems model, for example, to examine human migration patterns, the diffusion of ideas, and the spread of information. Moreover, research about maps relies on understanding the systems in which information and communication processes operate. Cartographers are interested in identifying, explaining, and predicting information flows in maps. They also seek to identify, describe, and explain cycles and patterns in both maps and map collections.The second approach – atlasesAtlases are, probably, the best known and the most flexible of popular cartographic products. Atlases are used to address different issues and to target different audiences. Historically, atlases have played different roles – from instruments of power, in the Renaissance to a current decision and planning support tools. Atlases are used for general reference, education, research and business. As they evolved, atlases were produced in different ways, from the initial manual compilation to current computer-generated processing. Atlases have experienced many changes in the way they are conceived, produced, disseminated and used.Many definitions of an atlas exist, and all of them involve words "systematic collection" or similar expression that an atlas is not a set of map randomly chosen maps and their random arrangement as a book. After a rapid ICT development provides fast map compilations, it seems that atlas cartography is much more comfortable. Various types of atlases can be distinguished by the region, theme, dissemination concept, presentation medium and interaction with users. All these kinds of atlases share the overall objective to communicate geographic knowledge and facilitate new insight into geographic phenomena.The third approach – Tobler's first law of geographyThe Tobler's first law of geography was introduced into the geographical literature in an article that Waldo Tobler (1930–2018) published in the journal Economic Geography in 1970. He described a simulation of population growth in Detroit and invoked the law: "everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."It considers the following questions for cartographers: Can the Tobler's law be applied in cartography when we replace objects with maps? How can "near" and "distant" be measured in an atlas? Is it right for Euclidean and network space?A concept of systematic cartographySystematic cartography is a set of interrelated approaches for visualising a wide range of spatial data sources by various techniques. A traditional field of systematic geovizualisation is the atlas production. At present, advanced display techniques and distributed spatial data sources multiply the possibilities and range of visualization outputs. A theoretical systematic approach plays a crucial role for content, designing, compilation and symbology of any atlas. This calls for the implementation of system theory into an atlas conceptualisation.Can atlas be described as a system? If a system consists of elements and relationships between them, then an atlas consists of maps and relationships between them. As a system has a structure and behaviour, an atlas has a structure and usage. In the system theory, a system has a language (information is passed through the information channels). In systematic cartography, an atlas passes spatial information through map language. If we describe an atlas as a system we might measure atlas and then to improve it, redesign it, reuse it etc.If an atlas is a system according to the theory of systems (a system universum A involves maps, symbols, map elements, graphs, texts, etc. and a system characteristics R involves all relationships between them) it make us possible to measure "a rate of systematization", and make atlas taxonomy better. It will also provide a view into an atlas structure and tools for its imporving. And it is really worth!Maps in atlases are organized gradually (i) from simple analytical maps (of the main theme components), (ii) to the complex and synthetic maps, (iii) the content of the thematic atlas is arranged like a storybook, (iv) from simple to complex, (v) from basic information to the culmination as the main message in sense of spatial synthesis (typology and regionalization). The relationships relate to map language either in map series, in atlas structure and design and between maps vs. graphs, tables and figures.


X-ray transients provide unique opportunity to probe accretion regimes of at a vastly dierent accretion rates. We analyze a collection of the RXTE observations (Galactic Center scans, ASM monitoring and a pointed observation) of enigmatic transient source high mass X-ray binary V4641 Sgr and argue that they broadly support the hypothesis that giant September 1999 outburst was associated with an episode of super-Eddington accretion onto the black hole. During the outburst an extended optically thick envelope/outflow has been formed around the source making the observational appearance of V4641 Sgr in many aspects very similar to that of SS433. These results suggest that objects like V4641 Sgr and SS433 indeed represent the class of objects accreting matter at a rate comparable or above Eddington value and the formation of an envelope/outflow is a generic characteristic of supercritical accretion. When the accretion rate decreased the envelope vanished and the source short term variability and spectral properties started to resemble those of other galactic black hole candidates accreting at a rate well below the Eddington value. Interestingly that during this phase the source spectrum was very similar to the Cygnus X-1 spectrum in the low state inspite of more than order of magnitude larger X-ray luminosity.


Computer games are common activities in the nineties and have become a new cultural
influence in children's lives. Games labeled 'educational software' are said to be
beneficial to the development of children's thinking and learning because they provide
opportunity to practise problem-solving skills. However, there is little evidence about
what really happens in this respect when children play an educational computer game.
Prior to this study, there have been no adequate means for assessing reasoning and
problem-solving skills in the context of computer games. The study aims to develop
ways to measure and analyze gains in children's cognitive skills acquired through
computer game activities. To develop a method of assessing children's reasoning, the
game chosen was an inferential problem-solving game called 'Find the Flamingo', one
of the 'Safari Search' series (O'Brien, 1985). Different versions of the 'Find the
Flamingo' game - computer, board and card games - were given with if-then sentences
as rules of the game. 282 primary school children took part in this research. Four
studies were carried out. Study 1 compared the effects of specific media on children's
performance in the game. No difference was found between the use of computers and
traditional game tools such as a board or playing cards. Study 2 explored
developmental trends and individual differences in problem solving with the game.
Differences in the curves of performance groups were shown to be stable across games.
The production and use of inferences in the process of playing the game were also
examined. Children used the inferences with different levels of accuracy according to
the conceptual difficulties in the information. Study 3 explored the impact of guidedplanning
and timed pausing for reflection on inferential problem solving with a
simplified version of the computer game. Children benefited from guided-planning in
the training period. Study 4 examined the development of operative logic of
inclusions and exclusions across three inferential tasks and the Flamingo game. The 6-
year-old children understood the inclusion rule of multiple possibilities, but they were
not able to coordinate the knowledge of inclusion and exclusion to represent more
complicated structures. The significant association between the performances of the
tasks and of the game even after the control for age allowed the prediction of the
Flamingo game performance. Applications of the findings could lead to the design of
computer programs that concentrate on specific aspects of problem-solving skills such
as planning, and the development of problem-related concepts and operations.


This paper presents finite element analysis (FEA) of a coated and uncoated cylinder heads of a diesel engine to examine the distribution of temperature and stress. A thermal barrier coating system was applied on the combustion chamber of the cylinder heads, consists of two-layer systems: a ceramic top coat (TC), made of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), ZrO2-8%Y2O3 and also a metallic bond coat (BC), made of Ni-Cr-Al-Y. The coating system in this research comprises 300 μm zirconium oxide TC and 150 μm BC. The three-dimensional model of the cylinder heads was simulated in abaqus software and a two-layer viscoplasticity model was utilized to investigate the elastic, plastic and viscous behavior of the cylinder heads. The elastic and plastic properties of BC and TC layers were considered and the effect of thermal barrier coatings on distribution of temperature and stress was investigated. The aim of this study is to compare the distribution of temperature and stress in the coated and uncoated cylinder heads under thermo-mechanical loads. The results of FEA showed that the thermal barrier coating system reduces the temperature about 53°C because of its lower thermal conductivity. As a result, the cylinder heads tolerates lower temperature and fatigue life will increase. The results of thermo-mechanical analysis indicated that the stress in the coated cylinder heads decreased approximately 24 MPa for the sake of depletion of temperature gradient which can lead to higher fatigue lifetime.