In this thesis, I present results from a two-year study of strain-rate variations along a flow line on the western margin of the Greenland ice sheet. I used baseline network solutions to investigate variations in longitudinal strain rates over the 2006 and 2007 melt seasons. Analyses revealed high-magnitude, short-duration events of increased longitudinal strain early in the melt season coincident with a high melt year, suggesting a link between melt production and its effects on seasonal ice flow. Results from 2006 data show that longitudinal strain rates became variable shortly after the onset of melt (day 186) changing up to ~ 15 x 10 a within 24 hours. The onset of melting occurred earlier in 2007 (day 153) and was also followed closely by strain-rate deviation from background rates calculated prior to melting. The data revealed rapid (hours to days), high-magnitude (two to ten times greater than background rates) changes in longitudinal strain rates (hereafter referred to as 'high-strain' events) that occurred both on the small-scale (affecting 1-4 baselines) and on the large-scale (affecting 5 or more baselines). Large-scale high-strain events were infrequent, on the order of two events per season. Events were likely caused by drainage of supraglacial meltwater that penetrated to the bed of the glacier raising the basal water pressure. The increase in pressure reduced the basal resistive stress, and allowed rapid local acceleration. The basal stress reduction was transmitted to areas of higher stress which resulted in longitudinal compression of the ice down glacier and longitudinal extension up glacier. The evolution of high-strain events altered longitudinal strain rates more than 15 km along flow from the site of initiation. I estimated the origin and spatial extent of highstrain events by assessing the magnitude of the strain-rate variations in various baselines, and observing whether the altered strain regime was extensive or compressive. Magnitude and timing of changes in strain suggest that high-strain events originated in the ablation zone, the equilibrium zone, and inland of the equilibrium zone, and indicate that short-term altered stress conditions are not confined to the ablation zone. The background strain-rate for 2007 (~ -7 x 10 a for a 37 km longitudinal baseline) was similar to the 2006 longitudinal background rate. When extrapolating the 2006 background rate over the melt season, the expected change in baseline length (~ 11 m) was similar to the observed change (~ 9 m). In contrast, when extrapolating the 2007 background rate over the melt season, the expected shortening was ~ 6 m, but the observed shortening was less than 1 m. This result suggests that seasonal high-strain events have the ability to alter longitudinal baseline length, allowing a greater ice flux to lower elevations where melting occurs for a larger portion of the year. However, the cumulative seasonal effects of both large-scale and small-scale strain events are modest, and indicate that seasonal changes in strain rates have a minor effect on the overall stability of the ice sheet. Nevertheless, it is possible that over much longer timescales these seasonal changes may become more important with increasing temperatures and available melt. Results from this study may also be useful in making broader inferences regarding the response of grounded portions of the ice sheet to seasonal changes in basal resistive stress.


We present and discuss a framework for computer-aided multiscale analysis, which enables models at a fine (microscopic/stochastic) level of description to perform modeling tasks at a coarse (macroscopic, systems) level. These macroscopic modeling tasks, yielding information over long time and large space scales, are accomplished through appropriately initialized calls to the microscopic simulator for only short times and small spatial domains. Traditional modeling approaches first involve the derivation of macroscopic evolution equations (balances closed through constitutive relations). An arsenal of analytical and numerical techniques for the efficient solution of such evolution equations (usually Partial Differential Equations, PDEs) is then brought to bear on the problem. Our equation-free (EF) approach, introduced in (1), when successful, can bypass the derivation of the macroscopic evolution equations when these equations conceptually exist but are not available in closed form. We discuss how the mathematics-assisted development of a computational superstructure may enable alternative descriptions of the problem physics (e.g. Lattice Boltzmann (LB), kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) or Molecular Dynamics (MD) microscopic simulators, executed over relatively short time and space scales) to perform systems level tasks (integration over relatively large time and space scales,"coarse" bifurcation analysis, optimization, and control) directly. In effect, the procedure constitutes a system identification based, "closure-on-demand" computational toolkit, bridging microscopic/stochastic simulation with traditional continuum scientific computation and numerical analysis. We will briefly survey the application of these "numerical enabling technology" ideas through examples including the computation of coarsely self-similar solutions, and discuss various features, limitations and potential extensions of the approach.


Extreme multi-label text classification (XMC) seeks to find relevant labels from an extreme large label collection for a given text input. Many real-world applications can be formulated as XMC problems, such as recommendation systems, document tagging and semantic search. Recently, transformer based XMC methods, such as X-Transformer and LightXML, have shown significant improvement over other XMC methods. Despite leveraging pre-trained transformer models for text representation, the fine-tuning procedure of transformer models on large label space still has lengthy computational time even with powerful GPUs. In this paper, we propose a novel recursive approach, XR-Transformer to accelerate the procedure through recursively fine-tuning transformer models on a series of multi-resolution objectives related to the original XMC objective function. Empirical results show that XR-Transformer takes significantly less training time compared to other transformer-based XMC models while yielding better state-of-the-art results. In particular, on the public Amazon-3M dataset with 3 million labels, XR-Transformer is not only 20x faster than X-Transformer but also improves the Precision@1 from 51% to 54%.


The urban networks discussed in this volume, and that appear in the literature more broadly, are characterized by significant diversity. This is perhaps not a surprise as the study of urban networks is necessarily interdisciplinary, drawing on theoretical foundations from geography, economics, psychology and sociology, and on methodological tools including ethnographic and qualitative methods from sociology, and quantitative methods from mathematics and physics. However, although the flexibility of network models to capture a wide range of urban phenomena is a key strength of the approach and a source of intellectual diversity, it can also be a source of confusion. Different fields and different research questions require studying different types of urban networks, often defined in very different ways, which obscures their commonalities. In this introductory chapter, we sketch a framework for integrating the diversity of urban networks by situating them along the dimensions of level and scale. These two dimensions define, respectively, the aggregation and spatial scope of the nodes, and therefore provide critical parameters for defining an urban network. In some instances, a network's level and scale are defined implicitly by the research question, but we contend there is still value in being explicit about level and scale. Similarly, although a great deal of past research on urban networks has explored only specific intersections of level and scale (for example, networks of people at the local scale, or networks of cities at the global scale), we contend that exploring urban networks with different combinations of levels and scales offers opportunities for new insights that the reader will find in this volume. We begin by describing the level/scale framework in general, then discuss the case of economic urban networks as an extended example, and use the framework to explore commonalities among the diverse urban networks in this volume. We conclude by discussing ways that levels and scales can be made more explicit in urban networks, and the potential benefits for studying urban networks at multiple levels and scales.


While social relationships play an important role for individuals to cope with missing market institutions, they also limit individuals' range of trading partners. This paper aims at understanding the determinants of trust at various social distances when information asymmetries are present. Among participants from an informal housing area in Cairo we find that the increase in trust following a reduction in social distance comes from the fact that trustors are much more inclined to follow their beliefs when interacting with their friend. When interacting with an ex-ante unknown agent instead, the decision to trust is mainly driven by social preferences. Nevertheless, trustors underestimate their friend's intrinsic motivation to cooperate, leading to a loss in social welfare. We relate this to the agents' inability to signal their trustworthiness in an environment characterized by strong social norms.


Patterned mineralisation is a feature of many hard-tissues. The impressive mechanical properties exhibited by such tissues can be, in part, attributed to the patterned deposition of mineral within the organic matrix. Although not thermodynamically favourable, the deposition of calcium phosphate based mineral within collagen fibres occurs in vivo in bone and dentine. As a consequence, numerous researchers have investigated how matrix proteins may be conditioned to enable patterned mineral deposition to recapitulate the structures found in nature. In this study, we have demonstrated that this patterned mineralisation of collagen type I may be induced simply by the pretreatment of the collagen with orthosilicic acid (OSA). The OSA treatment of the collagen resulted in a structural change to the collagen fibres, modifying the fibril diameter and changing the kinetics of fibre formation. NMR demonstrated that the OSA was preferentially located at the termini of the procollagen fibrils, thereby templating the formation of apatitic calcium phosphate crystals within the collagen fibrils (as shown using TEM, EDX and SAED). This work demonstrates how simple inorganic ions can have potent effects on structuring biological precipitates and suggests why trace quantities of silicon ions are essential to the formation of healthy hard tissues.


Gerald Janecek describes the experiments in visual, literature conducted from 1900 to 1930, the heyday of the Russian Avant Garde. Focusing on an aspect of Russian literary history that has previously been almost ignored, he shows how Russian writers of this period tried unusual methods to make their texts visually interesting or expressive. The book includes 183 illustrations, most from rare publications and many reproduced for the first time. The author discusses such figures as the Symbolist Andrey Bely, the Futurists Aleksey Kruchonykh, Vasili Kamensky, and Vladimir Mayakovsky, and the post-Futurist Ilya Zdanevich, and their use of devices ranging from unorthodox layouts and florid typography to roughly done lithographed or handmade books.Originally published in 1984.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


This Article proposes the metaphor "connected contracts" for understanding collaborative economic activity. Connected contracts refers to the interrelating agreements and relationships among the participants in a business venture. From the perspective offered by this metaphor, there are no firms, no predetermined hierarchies, no organizations with personalities of their own, and no a priori notions of ownership or control; there is no shareholder or managerial primacy and no centralizing "nexus." The view is from the bottom up rather than from the top down. Boundaries and governance are neither central issues, nor do they loom in the background. There are no boundaries and there is nothing to govern. The connected contracts perspective is applied to an important aspect of joint activity?the putative bargain over control. Looking at business activity as bargains among individuals who agree to undertake a specific project leads to the insight that control of the venture is not automatically allocated to equity. The concept of an "owner" has little value. The connected contracts perspective suggests, among other things, that, all else equal, different capital structures can be viewed as representing different bargains over control. Capital structure is not irrelevant, but reflects unique bargains over control in general and future decisions about projects in particular. The inquiry then broadens to encompass more participants and types of contributions and to speculate on how the connected contracts metaphor might affect thinking about a variety of topics in corporate and tax law, including piercing the corporate veil, insider trading, executive compensation, the taxation of corporations, and the differential taxation of debt and equity. Finally, and tentatively, the essay offers a list of criteria that might be used to judge the value of models and metaphors and, by offering the list, suggests that scholars should be more conscious of the risks and rewards of reliance on models and metaphors.


In the Federalist Papers, James Madison invited readers to consider a hypothetical Constitution providing for the supremacy of state law over federal law. In that case, he said, "the world would have seen . . . the authority of the whole society everywhere subordinate to the authority of the parts; it would have seen a monster, in which the head was under the direction of the members." The modern doctrine of non-self-executing treaties (NSE doctrine) illustrates the problems posed by Madison's hypothetical monster. In practice, judicial application of NSE doctrine is almost entirely arbitrary. Courts decide whether a treaty is self-executing by invoking a fictitious "intent of the treaty makers." If a court holds that the treaty makers intended the treaty to be self-executing, it places congressional inertia on the side of treaty compliance. But if the court holds that the treaty makers intended the treaty to be non-self-executing, it places congressional inertia on the side of non-compliance. Since courts do not want to admit they are making decisions about treaty compliance, they hide behind a fictitious "intent of the treaty makers" to evade responsibility. Insofar as state courts engage in this behavior, Madison's monster is real. However, federal court decisions applying the fictitious intent test are more numerous than state court decisions. Therefore, the main problem involves a transfer of power over treaty compliance decisions from the political branches to federal courts. Treaty violations by state and local government officers are largely a consequence of federal court decisions applying a fictitious intent test to justify a holding that a treaty is not self-executing.This article analyzes the fictitious intent test, focusing on the practical implications for the supremacy of treaties over state law. Part One distinguishes among three concepts of self-execution. Part Two summarizes the historical evolution of NSE doctrine. Part Three analyzes the Supreme Court's opinion in Medellin v. Texas; it demonstrates that the Court applied a fictitious intent test in Medellin. The Court's decision effectively authorized state government officers to breach U.S. treaty obligations, contrary to the express policy goals of the federal political branches. Part Four presents recommendations designed to ensure that, in matters related to treaty implementation, the head retains control of the members — not just in theory, but also in practice.


In Antitrust Law and Intellectual Property Rights: Cases and Materials, Christopher R. Leslie describes how patents, copyrights, and trademarks confer exclusionary rights on their owners, and how firms sometimes exercise this exclusionary power in ways that exceed the legitimate bounds of their intellectual property rights. Leslie explains that while substantive intellectual property law defines the scope of the exclusionary rights, antitrust law often provides the most important consequences when owners of intellectual property misuse their rights in a way that harms consumers or illegitimately excludes competitors. Antitrust law defines the limits of what intellectual property owners can do with their IP rights. In this book, Leslie explores what conduct firms can and cannot engage in while acquiring and exploiting their intellectual property rights, and surveys those aspects of antitrust law that are necessary for both antitrust practitioners and intellectual property attorneys to understand. This book is ideal for an advanced antitrust course in a JD program. In addition to building on basic antitrust concepts, it fills in a gap that is often missing in basic antitrust courses yet critical for an intellectual property lawyer: the intersection of intellectual property and antitrust law. The relationship between intellectual property and antitrust is particularly valuable as an increasing number of law schools offer specializations and LLMs in intellectual property. This book also provides meaningful material for both undergraduate and graduate business schools programs because it explains how antitrust law limits the marshalling of intellectual property rights.


This book explains techniques and examples for designing stable amplifiers for high-frequency applications, in which the signal is small and the amplifier circuit is linear. An in-depth discussion of linear network theory provides the foundation needed to develop actual designs. Examples throughout the book will show you how to apply the knowledge gained in each chapter leading to the complex design of low noise amplifiers. Exercises at the end of each chapter will help students to practice their skills. The solutions to these design problems are available in an accompanying solutions booklet (Small Signal Microwave Amplifier Design: Solutions).


Tracing microtubule centerlines in serial section electron tomography requires microtubules to be stitched across sections, that is lines from different sections need to be aligned, endpoints need to be matched at section boundaries to establish a correspondence between neighboring sections, and corresponding lines need to be connected across multiple sections. We present computational methods for these tasks: 1) An initial alignment is computed using a distance compatibility graph. 2) A fine alignment is then computed with a probabilistic variant of the iterative closest points algorithm, which we extended to handle the orientation of lines by introducing a periodic random variable to the probabilistic formulation. 3) Endpoint correspondence is established by formulating a matching problem in terms of a Markov random field and computing the best matching with belief propagation. Belief propagation is not generally guaranteed to converge to a minimum. We show how convergence can be achieved, nonetheless, with minimal manual input. In addition to stitching microtubule centerlines, the correspondence is also applied to transform and merge the electron tomograms. We applied the proposed methods to samples from the mitotic spindle in C. elegans, the meiotic spindle in X. laevis, and sub-pellicular microtubule arrays in T. brucei. The methods were able to stitch microtubules across section boundaries in good agreement with experts' opinions for the spindle samples. Results, however, were not satisfactory for the microtubule arrays. For certain experiments, such as an analysis of the spindle, the proposed methods can replace manual expert tracing and thus enable the analysis of microtubules over long distances with reasonable manual effort.


This study elucidates the underlying relationships for the distribution of oak landcover on bedrock and soil orders in two counties in Texas and one in Oklahoma. ESRI's ArcGis and ArcMap was used to create surface maps for Denton and Coke Counties, Texas and Choctaw County, Oklahoma. Attribute tables generated in GIS were exported into a spreadsheet software program and frequency tables were created for every formation and soil order in the tri-county research area. The results were both a visual and numeric distribution of oaks in the transition area between the eastern hardwood forests and the Great Plains. Oak distributions are changing on this transition area of the South Central Plains. The sandy Woodbine and Antlers formations traditionally associated with the largest oak distribution are carrying oak coverage of approximately 31-32% in Choctaw and Denton Counties. The calcareous Blackland and Grand Prairies are traditionally associated with treeless grasslands, but are now carrying oak and other tree landcover up to 18.9%. Human intervention, including the establishment of artificial, political and social boundaries, urbanization, farming and fire control have altered the natural distribution of oaks and other landcover of this unique georegion.


There are many patients with inflammatory acne vulgaris who are not compliant or eligible to consume acne medications, such as oral antibiotics or isotretinoin. PubMed and Medline databases were searched for all related articles. All finding were summarized and chronologically presented in the tables. Nonmedical device-based therapies largely improve the treatment of active inflammatory acne vulgaris, especially in patients who are not compliant or eligible to consume acne medications, do not respond to these drugs over a specified period of time, or do not sustain in the remission phase.


Abstract Lake models have the potential to assist decision-making authorities regarding issues in environmental planning. However, validating ecosystem models over relatively short time spans can lead to deceptively good results, especially if the initial conditions of poorly known states are themselves regressed. This is most noticeable when the ecosystem is not in a steady periodic cycle, such as is the case with large lakes. These problems are illustrated using a water-quality lake model for Lake Vänern in Sweden compared with over a century of validation data. This paper shows that it is possible to construct a convincing, but erroneous, 30-year simulation at the expense of exhausting the accumulated phosphorus in the sediment. To address this problem, it is necessary to use validation data collected over much longer time spans, such as 100 years. Consequently, this work highlights the extensive data collection requirements for the adequate validation of freshwater ecosystems.


NEURUODIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM: PILOT OF A TRAINING RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS EDUCATING AUTISTIC INCLUSION STUDENTS IN A GENERAL EDUCATION SETTING Ariel Detzer Antioch University Seattle Seattle, WA Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental differences in the United States, with estimates of prevalence as high as 1 in 68 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016). Over recent decades, two trends have converged to bring autism to the fore as a challenge facing public education. First, changes in the conceptualization of autism have led to greater diagnostic capture of autistic individuals, and second, changes in special education practice regarding inclusion (emphasizing placement in Least Restrictive Environment) have increased the number of autistic students in mainstream classrooms. Meanwhile, autism research has largely been driven by a DSM definition based the behavioral and social deficits rather than the cognitive and sensory traits of autism. The legacy of this social functioning deficit lens is a lopsided emphasis in available educational interventions. A review of available educator resources online indicates that the majority of educational support has been developed to meet the behavioral challenges of autistic inclusion students, while differences in autistic ways of perceiving, thinking, and learning have gone largely unacknowledged and unsupported by standard available educational approaches. This Action Research project gathered input from a group of educators via a mixed methods approach (Likert-type survey and focus group) on their experiences and needs regarding effective support of autistic inclusion students. Drawing on educator input, author experience in the schools, and current psychological


Lamotrigine has undergone a remarkable series of systematic studies since 1994 that now establish it as an efficacious, well-tolerated treatment in bipolar disorder. Its efficacy principally addresses both acute and maintenance phase benefits on depressive symptomatology. These benefits have been demonstrated in placebo-controlled studies, rapid cycling patients, bipolar I and II patients and monotherapy as well as in combination therapy, although this has been less well studied. The drug is exceptionally well-tolerated in long-term treatment, although initial dosing requires gradual dosage escalation to avoid the risk of inducing serious rashes with features within the spectrum of Stevens–Johnson syndrome. Administration with valproate requires a slower dosage titration, whereas, as with many drugs, administration with carbamazepine requires a more rapid dosage increase. In contrast to marketed antidepressants, lamotrigine appears not to induce manic or hypo-manic episodes, nor to increase cycling frequency. This combination of properties makes it a first-choice treatment for acute bipolar depression and continuation treatment, especially, but not limited to, prophylaxis against recurrent depression and depressive symptoms. Lamotrigine appears not to have acute antimanic properties. A small number of studies suggest a broader spectrum of efficacy, including in some axis I disorders that are comorbidly associated with bipolar disorder.


We attempted to clarify the organ distribution of human and murine proteinase-resistant prion protein (PrPCJD) in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and to measure the concentration of PrPCJD, using a semi-quantitative Western blot analysis. Human PrPCJD was restricted to the central nervous system, whereas murine PrPCJD was present in the central nervous system and in the lymphoreticular system at the end stage of CJD. PrPCJD concentration in the central nervous system of mice was almost identical to that of humans. The minimum wet weight of an organ with a positive reaction was 0.3 mg for brain, 1 to 3 mg for spleen, 3 mg for spinal cord, 3 mg for lymph node, 10 mg for thymus and 10 to 30 mg for intestine of the CJD-infected mice. There were no immunoreactions in purified PrPCJD fractions from 300 mg of spleen, lymph node, liver or peripheral nervous systems of humans, nor in 300 mg of liver, lung or kidney of CJD-infected mice. Within the limits of our method, the distribution of murine PrPCJD differed from that of human PrPCJD. Antibodies on the Western blot membrane from murine spleen PrPCJD fractions stained the kuru plaques in the CJD-infected mouse brain. Therefore, PrPCJD in the murine spleen probably shares the epitopes of the antigen in the murine kuru plaques. Although the immunological detection of PrPCJD does have limits of sensitivity, PrPCJD concentrations did correlate with infectivity titres in scrapie-infected or CJD-infected mice.


SUMMARY Necrotizing lymphadenitis caused by Nocardia asteroides in a healthy girl. A case of a healthy girl with a trauma in her right leg is described. Twelve hours later she developed fever and pain in the inguinal region. Two days later, she was admitted to the Hospital, and there, an aspiration of pus from the lymph node was performed, and this sample was sent for culture. The Gram smear showed gram-positive filamentous bacilli and when Kinyoun was used they were observed as weakly acid fast rods. After four days of incubation under aerobic conditions, white and hemolitic colonies were seen on human blood agar plates. Biochemical tests as urea hydrolysis and gelatin liquefaction were performed. To complete the identification it was sent to a reference laboratory, INEI-ANLIS Dr. Carlos G. Mal bran, where the isolate was confirmed as Nocardia asteroides sensu stricto. The patient was treated with intravenous cephalotin with good evolution. Therapy was followed with oral trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. This case is the first report of a Nocardia infection in the Hospital de Ninos de Santa Fe. The fact that N. asteroides was isolated from an immunologically competent girl should be highlighted. This species is uncommon in children and it is rare in our region. In addition, N. asteroides infections are usually seen in pulmonary disease and rarely producing cutaneous infections.


White plastic garden furniture stands on the street outside a cheap eatery. The forlorn facades of urban buildings – shopfronts, car showrooms, apartments, grand public offices – suggest sterile functionality, repetition and perhaps recent dereliction. Semiological complexes are formed by a montage of pedestrian crossings and by an entranceway to a multi-storey carpark. There is woodland too but it is eerie and ghostly. Overwhelmingly in washed out, leached out colours – white, beige, charcoal greys – but then an occasional intense scarlet or vivid blue; everything on the cusp of reversal into a photographic negative. "Non-lieu" entitles not only each of these thirty or so individual canvases by the South Korean artist Sungsoo Kim but also the exhibition itself staged at the felicitously named Gallery Skape in Seoul last year (5th November – 19th December 2014). This paper explores and reflects upon this exhibition in relation not only to Kim's work but also to the (unmentioned) usual source of the concept of 'non-lieux' (non-places), the celebrated French anthropologist Marc Auge. Kim uses the term not so much in Auge's sense, that is to say, with reference to those banal, simulated sites and setting in the contemporary city that seem bereft of meaning and significance (shopping malls, carparks, airports, etc.), but more with regard to loci where meaning and collective /individual memory is fading and/or dissipating (ruins, sites of dereliction and neglect – counterpoints to the historian Pierre Nora's notion of lieux de memoire). The exhibition catalogue makes much of Kim's emotional ambivalence towards these non-lieux. My interest though is in another kind of ambiguity / contradiction. In depicting them in artworks, that is to say, in transforming these non-places into sites of acute aesthetic interest and intense contemplation, into 'scapes', are these non-places not (re)invested with meaning and significance (aura?) through aestheticisation? In short, are these non-places not reconfigured, one might say redeemed, as places? I coin the terms 'non-scapes' and 'scapescapes'in an attempt to capture the paradoxes of the representation of non-lieux.


In the eastern part of the Aix-en-Provence basin (SE France), a thick clay and sandstone alternance represents the Begudian to Rognacian transition (part of the continental Late Cretaceous of the Provence area). These levels include the La Neuve fossil site. Only briefly cited until now, this locality is the matter for a first general account. Its geological, stratigraphic and sedimentological aspects are stated. The fossil assemblage includes plants as well as terrestrial and freshwater animals. Among them, charophytes, gastropods, ostracods, amphibians and reptiles are significantly documented. Original data are obtained for ostracods with a new generic type, amphibians, and eggshell material with four structural types represented. On the charophyte evidence, the age of the locality is Begudian, and the concerned biozone directly correlates to the Chron 33N (middle and late Campanian). Aspects of taphonomical genesis, relative diversity, paleoenvironment and paleogeography are discussed.


Business development in emerging markets, known as the "base of the pyramid", is not without financial risk and a key concern in South African communities are the costs associated with HIV/AIDS. Due to the enormous demand for healthcare, many governments have opted for home-based care systems. Caregivers are mainly older women and their financial survival is critically important. We found that as the patient's illness progressed: 1) the cultural norm ubuntu led the caregiver to increase spending on the patient and a decreased spending on themselves and 2) the social pressure of stigma led to a very dramatic drop in direct interpersonal assistance to the patient and an increase in spending on themselves. Their resulting coping strategies and implications for economic development are discussed. Keywords - Emerging Markets, Cultural, Health Services


Limited empirical research exists on the explicit relevance of hedonic dimensions (aesthetics and playfulness) of humancomputer interaction design to usability. This research aims to determine the effects of color temperature on the perceptions of websites aesthetics, playfulness, and in turn usability. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis of data collected from 328 participants in a four-group between-subject research design involving the use of a mock hotel website offered support for all nine hypotheses proposed. 'Cooler' colors (e.g. blue) were found to favorably impact perceptions of classical aesthetics, which in turn influenced perceptions of efficiency positively, while also correlating with perceptions of expressive aesthetics. The latter, on the other hand, were affected favorably by warmer colors (e.g. red), and had a positive effect on perceptions of playfulness. In line with prior usability studies, positive relationships between efficiency and effectiveness respectively and satisfaction with the Website were supported, and by considering the shown positive relationship between playfulness and satisfaction 60% of the variance in satisfaction was explained. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.


Some recent developments in the field of Church History elsewhere in the world The academic subject of church history in South Africa is facing various challenges on its way into the twenty first century. In many ways it can also be regarded as a science in transition with realities like paradigm-switches, processes of reinterpretation and a new dialogue between church historians and secular historians. In this process the knowledge and understanding of recent developments in the field of church history elsewhere in the world can be of great value and relevance for the church historian in the South African context.


Spatial and temporal distribution of Arctic aerosols: New insights from the CALIPSO satellite Maurizio Di Pierro Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Lyatt Jaeglé Atmospheric Sciences The Arctic is a receptor of pollution transported from distant regions. Pollution reaches the Arctic both in gaseous and aerosol form, both of which have important climatic and ecological implications. This dissertation focuses on aerosols in the Arctic, specifically their transport to and their distribution in space and time within the arctic troposphere. The cornerstone of this thesis is the analysis of the retrievals made by the satellite-borne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), a two-wavelength polarization-sensitive lidar that measures the atmospheric attenuated backscatter return and provides high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds. Chapter 2 uses CALIOP observations to follow the evolution of pollution aerosols transported from East Asia to the Arctic. The transport pathway is elucidated with backtrajectories and aerosol simulations with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. The polluted air mass experiences strong ascent within a cyclonic circulation near the source region. Once in the free troposphere, a block in the upper-air flow forces the circulation to take on a strongly southerly route. Since the air mass reaches the Arctic very rapidly (3-5 days), the aerosol scavenging is incomplete. Transport is nearly-isentropic except in its initial phase. Once in the Arctic, the aerosol plume slowly subsides due to radiative cooling. Using six years of CALIOP observations, Chapter 3 focuses on the horizontal, vertical and temporal distribution of Arctic aerosols. At low altitudes in the High Arctic (poleward of 70oN), aerosol extinctions maximize in winter/early spring and reach their lowest values during summer. In the lower troposphere in the Low Arctic, in addition to the winter/early spring maximum, aerosol extinctions also display a secondary maximum in summer due to boreal forest fires. CALIOP measurements show that a major low-level Eurasian pollution transport pathway occurs on the western flank of the Siberian anticyclone. There is a progressive shift of the extinction maximum with altitude, from January at 0–2 km, to March at 2–5 km, to April at 5–8 km. In the free troposphere, the most polluted aerosol transport pathway occurs downwind of East Asia. Biomass burning emissions anomalies and the Arctic Oscillation control the interannual variability of aerosol extinction throughout the Arctic troposphere. Chapter 4 focuses on comparing the Arctic aerosol distribution observed by CALIOP against a simulation from the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model. Independent in situ observations are also used in this evaluation. The model successfully reproduces the seasonal cycle of sulfate aerosol concentrations at the surface, the vertical and temporal distribution of extinction in the free troposphere and the variability and magnitude of column optical depth from March to September. However the model does not reproduce the low-level extinction maximum observed by CALIOP and in situ instruments during winter. The model significantly underestimates observed sea-salt aerosol concentrations maximum at three High Arctic surface stations. This suggests a potential missing source of sea salt aerosols from blowing snow over sea ice from November to March. In summer, aerosol wet removal within the Arctic is too weak, possibly due to a raindrop size distribution in the parametrization of below-cloud scavenging that is too large for the Arctic summer stratocumulus drizzle. The model underestimates extinction over central and eastern Russia through the troposphere in all seasons, suggesting that emissions in northern Russia are likely underestimated.


Abstract : Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of Pacific forces in World War II, viewed the Battle of the Bismarck Sea as a disaster for the Japanese and a triumph for the Allies. In that great air-sea confrontation, U.S. and Australian air forces proved that air power could be decisive in preventing the resupply of ground troops by sea. Months of torturous warfare in the jungles of New Guinea had left Japanese troops vulnerable to disease and starvation. In the end, Allied airmen were able to break Japan's grip on New Guinea and end its threat to Australia through the innovative and aggressive use of air power. MacArthur's strength lay in a dedicated and courageous band of airmen who could attack enemy ships from all directions at any time.


A unifying theory is presented for the process of heave in freezing soils. Out of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) school of D.M. Anderson came the concept of the segregation potential. Out of the Cornell school of R.D. Miller came the model for the heave rate. Here ideas from both schools are put on a fundamental thermodynamic footing, leading to the definition of a new heave index. Both schools use the temperature gradient in the frozen fringe as the driving force for heave. We argue and demonstrate that this choice leads to erratic results. The driving force should be the temperature gradient over the complete layer of soil that is at sub‐zero (°C) temperature, that is, the combined frozen zone plus the frozen fringe. The value of the heave index is completely dominated by the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function of both the unfrozen soil below the frozen fringe and the soil layer at sub‐zero temperature.


The present article intends to produce new historiography about the nineteenth century Romanian women's writing from transnational and relational perspectives. It also takes as its starting point not only the production aspect of women's literary writing, but their reception-- especially by readers or other women writers or translators contemporary to the publication. This approach takes into account all the contributions to the literary field of both canonical and non-canonical women writers. A second approach refers to the fact that women's writing is viewed from an explicitly transnational perspective, underlining the connections between women writers across the world at the literary and translation levels. By using these methods, the students get familiar with social and cultural contexts in which women's writing was produced, promoted, and translated.
As a member of the European project Women Writers in History I have taken part into training schools, workshops and conference where along with my colleagues from other 25 countries I have worked for the Women Writers database (www.womenwriters.nl) as an electronic means for teaching literature. The present database contains information on the production of women writers from the Middle Ages up to 1900, and on the reception of their writing in the world. Thus the database offers students the possibility to study these women's writing in their international context and make connections concerning their transnational historiography. The entries for authors refer to biographical details, professional situation, writing achievements (fictional and non-fictional writings), translations, national and international critical reception, allowing the students to analyze women's writing from a comparative perspective.


This study was designed to be a follow up of the WERF III (Adams, et al., 2007) odor study. It was found in the WERF III study that iron and aluminum appeared to play important roles in odor generation so some additional data was sought to determine the role these play in determining odor. In this portion of the study, the impact of iron and aluminum in sludges on both digestion and odors was investigated. Three distinct locations for the iron and/or aluminum were studied. First, the impact of iron and aluminum in the raw sludges on digestion and odors was evaluated. Second, the impact of the addition of iron or aluminum for chemical phosphorus removal in the activated sludge process was studied. Third, the direct addition of iron to the feed to an anaerobic digester was evaluated. All studies were conducted in the lab using a variety of sludges collected from seven wastewater utilities. In addition to digestion and odors, data were collected for sludge dewatering properties as indicated by the polymer conditioning requirements and dewatered cake solids.

Both the iron and aluminum content in raw sludges being fed to anaerobic digesters impact the digestability, dewatering and TVOSC generation. A reasonable correlation between the iron content in the raw sludge and volatile solids reduction by anaerobic digestion was found. More iron resulted in higher volatile solids reduction except for the two plants that either received chemical sludge in the influent that contained iron and/or aluminum (Plant E) or had iron added in the treatment process (Plant F). This finding is important in that it provides for the prediction of digester performance based on the influent iron content. Aluminum appeared to also influence digestion, reducing the digestability of sludges. However, in this study, it was difficult to separate both the effects of iron and aluminum. Iron also had a major impact on dewatering. There was a distinct relationship between the iron content of the raw sludge and polymer dose requirements. As the iron increased, the polymer dose increased following digestion. As suggested in the WERF III report, iron appeared to play a role in TVOSC production from dewatered sludge cakes. As the iron content increased, the TVOSC generation increased. As a result, iron increases both the volatile solids reduction and TVOSC generation. The implication of this is that sludges that digest better also generate higher TVOSC. This has important implications for the regulations governing vector attraction based on volatile solids reduction. These regulations need to be changed or dropped from the regulations. Some of the data in this study shows a result that is contradictory to conventions thought. That is: as the volatile solids destruction increases, the TVOSC generation will also increase.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series .

ISBN: 9781843392835 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780403557 (eBook)


Sea surface temperature (SST) is identified as one of the essential climate/ocean variables. The increased SST levels worldwide is associated with global warming which is due to excessive amounts of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere causing the multi-decadal tendency to warmer SST. Moreover, global warming has caused more frequent extreme El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, which are the most dominant mode in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system on an interannual time scale. The objective of this research is to calculate the contribution of global warming to the ENSO phenomenon.  SST anomalies (SSTA) variability rosed from several mechanisms with differing timescales. Therefore, the Empirical Orthogonal Function in this study was used to analyze the data of Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature anomaly. By using EOF analysis, the pattern in data such as precipitation and drought pattern can be obtained. The result of this research showed that the most dominant EOF mode reveals the time series pattern of global warming, while the second most dominant EOF mode reveals the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The modes from this EOF method have good performance with 95.8% accuracy rate.


Rousset et al. investigated interactions between the Drosophila proteins naked cuticle (Nkd) and dishevelled (Dsh) and discovered that, unexpectedly, binding was insensitive to Ca2+ but sensitive to Zn2+. The Wnt signaling pathway plays a critical role in regulating gene expression during development and inappropriate activation of genes under Wnt control has been implicated in cancer pathogenesis. Nkd, a protein that contains a single EF-hand, a motif associated with Ca2+ binding, participates in a negative feedback loop to attenuate Wnt signaling by binding to the Wnt effector Dsh in a region that contains a sequence high in basic residues as well as a PDZ domain. The authors used Nkd deletion mutants in both yeast two-hybrid and glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assays to determine that both the EF-hand domain and an adjacent region were involved in binding to Dsh. Using transgenic flies that misexpressed mutant Nkd, the authors determined that both of these regions contributed to Nkd activity in vivo. The divalent cation chelator EDTA inhibited Nkd association with Dsh in the GST pull-down assay, whereas EGTA, which binds Ca2+ with an affinity similar to EDTA's but has a much lower affinity for Zn2+, did not. Zn2+, but not Ca2+ or Mg2+, restored the association between Nkd and Dsh. Autoradiographic analysis on purified Nkd deletion mutants indicated that Nkd bound 65Zn2+ but not 45Ca2+, and that Zn2+ binding was mediated by a domain in the region adjacent to the EF-hand domain that contributed to Nkd interaction with Dsh. R. Rousset, K. A. Wharton, G. Zimmermann, M. P. Scott, Zinc-dependent interaction between dishevelled and the Drosophila Wnt antagonist naked cuticle. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 49019-49026 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Abstract Carbon-based codeposits formed in carbon-containing fusion devices have the potential to dominate tritium retention in the torus. One of the tritium removal techniques currently being studied is thermo-oxidation, which is unique in its ability to remove tritium from codeposits without mechanical intervention in the torus and in its ability to remove tritium from codeposits in tile gaps and shaded areas. In preparation for an oxidation experiment planned to be performed in DIII-D, we have investigated the potential collateral effects of thermo-oxidation on DIII-D in-vessel components. Laboratory oxidation experiments were performed at 2 Torr ([approximately]270 Pa) and 15 Torr ([approximately]2 kPa) O2 pressure and temperatures in the range 100 to 350°C (373 to 623 K) for 2 to 8 h. After oxidation, components were examined for visual or mechanical change, and when appropriate, mass changes were also obtained. In some cases, optical diagnostics were also performed. The specimens were mostly spare/surplus components and spanned a wide variety of materials and functions, e.g., cryopump components; structural, mechanical, and diagnostic components; and fast-wave antennas. The effect of oxidation was found to be negligible for nearly all DIII-D components and materials tested.


In September 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), conducted bathymetric and geophysical surveys in the Arctic Beaufort Sea aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Healy. The principal objective of this mission to the high Arctic was to acquire data in support of delineation of the outer limits of the U.S. and Canadian Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) in the Arctic Ocean in accordance with the provisions of Article 76 of the Law of the Sea Convention. The Healy was accompanied by the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St- Laurent. The science parties on the two vessels consisted principally of staff from the USGS (Healy), and the GSC and the Canadian Hydrographic Service (Louis). The crew included marine mammal and Native-community observers, ice observers, and biologists conducting research of opportunity in the Arctic Ocean. The joint survey proved an unqualified success. The Healy collected 5,528 km of swath (multibeam) bathymetry (38,806 km2) and CHIRP subbottom profile data, with accompanying marine gravity measurements. The Louis acquired 2,817 km of multichannel seismic (airgun) deep-penetration reflection-profile data along 12 continuous lines, as well as 35 sonobuoy refraction stations and accompanying single-beam bathymetry. The coordinated efforts of the two vessels resulted in seismic-reflection profile data of much higher quality and continuity than if the data had been acquired with a single vessel alone. Equipment failure rate of the seismic equipment gear aboard the Louis was greatly improved with the advantage of having a leading icebreaker. When ice conditions proved too severe to deploy the seismic system, the Louis led the Healy, resulting in much improved quality of the swath bathymetry and CHIRP sub-bottom data in comparison with data collected by the Healy in the lead or working alone. Ancillary science objectives, including ice observations, deployment of ice -monitoring buoys and water-column sampling for biologic (phytoplankton) studies, were also successfully accomplished.


Objective. This study was undertaken to evaluate uterine perfusion, which regulates uterine receptivity, in women with recurrent pregnancy loss. Methods. We evaluated the blood flow resistance in the uterine arteries of 104 pregnant women at 4 to 5 weeks' gestation by transvaginal pulsed Doppler ultrasonography (control group, n = 52; and recurrent pregnancy loss group, n = 52). Blood tests for antinuclear and antiphospholipid antibodies were also performed. Results. The uterine arterial pulsatility index in the recurrent pregnancy loss group was significantly higher than that in the control group. Women with antinuclear or antiphospholipid antibodies had an elevated pulsatility index in the uterine artery, which is prominent in women with recurrent pregnancy loss. Coagulopathy and vascular dysfunction caused by autoantibodies may impair uterine perfusion. However, the uterine arterial pulsatility index in the recurrent pregnancy loss group was significantly higher than that in the control group even among women without antinuclear antibodies or among women without antiphospholipid antibodies. This observation strongly suggests that the uterine artery pulsatility index may be an independent index for recurrent pregnancy loss. Conclusions. The introduction of pulsed Doppler ultrasonography has provided the means for noninvasive evaluation of uterine impedance and may identify patients with recurrent pregnancy loss associated with impaired uterine perfusion.


This paper proposes a remarkably facile staining protocol to visually investigate dynamic physiological events in insect tissues. We attempted to monitor Ca2+ dynamics during contraction of electrically stimulated living muscle. Advances in circuit miniaturization and insect neuromuscular physiology have enabled the hybridization of living insects and man-made electronic components, such as microcomputers, the result of which has been often referred as a Living Machine, Biohybrid, or Cyborg Insect. In order for Cyborg Insects to be of practical use, electrical stimulation parameters need to be optimized to induce desired muscle response (motor action) and minimize the damage in the muscle due to the electrical stimuli. Staining tissues and organs as well as measuring the dynamics of chemicals of interest in muscle should be conducted to quantitatively and systematically evaluate the effect of various stimulation parameters on the muscle response. However, existing staining processes require invasive surgery and/or arduous procedures using genetically encoded sensors. In this study, we developed a non-invasive and remarkably facile method for staining, in which chemical indicators can be orally administered (oral dosing). A chemical Ca2+ indicator was orally introduced into an insect of interest via food containing the chemical indicator and the indicator diffused from the insect digestion system to the target muscle tissue. We found that there was a positive relationship between the fluorescence intensity of the indicator and the frequency of electrical stimulation which indicates the orally dosed indicator successfully monitored Ca2+ dynamics in the muscle tissue. This oral dosing method has a potential to globally stain tissues including neurons, and investigating various physiological events in insects.


Lefort classification is the historic classification which is widely used to classify mid facial fractures. The lefort classification was given by Rene Lefort ,who classified mid facial fracture into Lefort I , II and III. Lefort 2 fracture is referred as ' PYRAMIDAL or SUBZYGOMATIC FRACTURE .' Lefort 2 is a floating maxilla which runs from the thin middle area of the nasal bones down either side , crossing the frontal processes of the maxilla into the medial wall of each orbit . Within the orbit , the fracture line runs across the lacrimal bone behind the lacrimal sac to cross the infra orbital margin medial to or through the infra orbital foramen . Extends downwards & backwards across the lateral wall of the antrum below the zygomaticomaxillary suture & divides the ptyergyoid laminae .Le fort fractures are blunt trauma facial fractures which involves specific pattern of facial bones injury. Pterygoid process of sphenoid bones is involved in all Le fort fractures. Lefort fractures are classified further depending upon the involvement of zygomatic, nasal and maxillary bones. Blunt facial traumas due to motor vehicle collision, assault, falls or sports injury are the most common causes. In our case, Le fort 2 fracture resulted from motor vehicle collision.


In the presence of hormone, steroid receptors modulate transcription by binding to specific response elements in chromatin and recruiting coactivators or corepressors. McNally et al. have observed the interaction of glucocorticoid receptor, labeled with green fluorescent protein, with response elements in living cells. With ligand continuously present, the receptor exchanges rapidly between chromatin and the nucleoplasmic compartment. This finding is inconsistent with the view that the receptor remains bound to chromatin as long as ligand is present. Instead, it supports the "hit and run" mechanism in which the receptor interacts transiently and recruits secondary factors to form a stable complex that modulates transcription. McNally, J.G., Müller, W.G., Walker, D., Wolford, R., and Hager, G.L. (2000) The glucocorticoid receptor: Rapid exchange with regulatory sites in living cells. Science 287: 1262-1265. [Abstract] [Full Text]


It has been five years since the Carnegie Report "Educating Lawyers" called upon law schools to adopt an integrated approach to professional education that teaches practical skills and professionalism across the curriculum. Yet so far, very few schools have responded to this clarion call for wholesale curricular reform. Considering the inertial effect of traditional law school pedagogy and the institutional impediments to change, this delay is not surprising. A fully integrated approach to teaching professional skills (such as the medical school model) would require major resource reallocations, realignment of teaching responsibilities, redesign of courses, and a change to graduation requirements. While I fully support such comprehensive reform, the pragmatist in me knows that it will take years to accomplish. My goal in this essay is to offer a "self-help" remedy for faculty members and administrators interested in responding to the Carnegie Report's call for greater emphasis on experiential education, but uninterested in waiting for the committee deliberations, reports, faculty votes, and tough resource trade-offs that lie ahead. We drag our heels at our own perils, and to the serious disadvantage of our current students. What follows is a description of nine changes that individual faculty members and deans can make now to improve the professional education of law students. While each initiative when viewed in isolation may seem modest, collectively they could have a huge impact on our programs.


The use of keyphrases is a common oratory technique in political discourse, and politicians often guide their statements by recurrently making use of keyphrases. We propose a statistical method for extracting keyphrases at document level, combining simple heuristic rules. We show that our approach can compete with state-of-the-art systems. The method is particularly useful for the study of policy preferences and issue competition, which relies primarily on the analysis of political statements contained in party manifestos and speeches. As a case study, we show an analysis of Portuguese parliamentary debates. We extract the most used keyphrases from each parliamentary group speech collection to detect political issue emphasis. We additionally show how keyphrase clouds can be used as visualization aids to summarize the main addressed issues


Apis cerana honey (honey of Apis cerana Fabricius), widely distributed in the mountain areas of East Asia, has not been studied fully. The hepatoprotective activity of A. cerana honey was evaluated against bromobenzene-induced liver damage in mice. In high dose, A. cerana honey can significantly alleviate liver injury, as is indicated by the depressed levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (59.13%) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (79.71%), the inhibited malondialdehyde (MDA) content (63.30%), the elevated activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) (73.12%) and glutathione-Px (57.24%), and the decreased expression of Transforming growth factor β1 (51.83%) induced by bromobenzene (P < 0.05). The quantitative analysis of twelve major constituents (1 to 12) of A. cerana honey was executed by high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector. The results indicate that treatment with A. cerana honey can prevent bromobenzene-induced hepatic damage in mice. Polyphenols might be the bioactive substances attributed to its antioxidant properties and intervention of oxidative stress.


KAZEMPOUR, Mostafa Niknejad and Seyed Ali ELAHINIA, 2007. Biological control of Fusarium fujikuroi, the causal agent of Bakanae disease by rice associated antagonistic bacteria. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 13: 393-408 In this research, effect of some isolates antagonistics bacteria were investigated against Fusarium fujikuroi the causal agent of bakanae disease and foot rot of rice, collected from infection farming in Rasht, Lahijan, Foman, Anzaly, Talesh and Astara in the Guilan Province under greenhouse conditions. Two hundred thirty eight bacterial isolates, separated from the rhizosphere and seeds of rice infected by the fungus which mentioned above and antagonistic ability of 13 isolates of these bacteria (8 gram negative and 5 gram positive) were demonstrated by using the dual culture method. According to the results of biochemical and morphological trials, 8 isolates: F1, F6, F12, F15, F16, F18, F21 and F25 were identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens. Five isolates, F14, F19, F21, F32 and F35 were introduced as Bacillus cereus. In greenhouse conditions antagonistic isolates were used by seed, plant and soil treatment. Statistical analysis of data indicated that there existed significant differences between seed, plant and soil treatments. The isolate F15 in seed, plant and soil treatment was most effective and disease incidence by 8.5, 8.5 and 12 % respectively. While the isolates F6 was least effective on F. fujikuroi. All of the isolates in seed treatments are more effective compared to other treatments. The results of used the mixed Rovral TS fungicide with mixed antagonistic isolates showed that there existed significant disease incidence by 6.5, 6.75 and 8 % respectively. In the field conditions foliar spray of isolate F15 mixed with Rovral TS (52.5% WP) were applied. The disease incidence in F15 isolate for seed coating, soil drenching and seed coating + foliar spray were 6.5, 6.75 and 5.5 % respectively, while the control plants showed 28% disease incidence. These results suggest that the P. fluorescens and B.cereus isolates studied have an excellent potential to be used as biocontrol agents of F. fujikuroi in rice at the field conditions.


Frailty is a clinical geriatric syndrome caused by physiological deficits across multiple systems. These deficits make it challenging to sustain homeostasis required for the demands of everyday life. Exercise is likely the best therapy to reverse frailty status. Literature to date suggests that pre-frail older adults, those with 1-2 deficits on the Cardiovascular Health Study-Frailty Phenotype (CHS-frailty phenotype), should exercise 2-3 times a week, for 45-60 min. Aerobic, resistance, flexibility, and balance training components should be incorporated but resistance and balance activities should be emphasized. On the other hand, frail (CHS-frailty phenotype ≥ 3 physical deficits) older adults should exercise 3 times per week, for 30-45 min for each session with an emphasis on aerobic training. During aerobic, balance, and flexibility training, both frail and pre-frail older adults should work at an intensity equivalent to a rating of perceived exertion of 3-4 ("somewhat hard") on the Borg CR10 scale. Resistance-training intensity should be based on a percentage of 1-repetition estimated maximum (1RM). Program onset should occur at 55% of 1RM (endurance) and progress to higher intensities of 80% of 1RM (strength) to maximize functional gains. Exercise is the medicine to reverse or mitigate frailty, preserve quality of life, and restore independent functioning in older adults at risk of frailty.


This study was carried out to investigate marketing system, market channel, nature of costs, market margins and the factors determining the marketing profit of fresh fish ( Clarias gariepinus ) in major towns in Ibarapa Zone, Oyo state. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire administered to the fish traders. Purposive and simple random sampling procedures were adopted in the study. The data were analyzed by descriptive method which involves percentages, frequency distributions, market margin and regression. The study showed that women (85%) formed the highest number of fish traders in Ibarapa zone, women of age 30 years and above formed the bulk of the fish traders (70%), seventy (70%) were married, and ninety- five (95%) of the respondents were educated and their source of capital investment was through personal saving. The fish traders recorded high sale in the evening and determined their market price by size. All fish traded internally moved through the processors, no intermediary was involved in dealing with fish distribution and marketing system. A great amount of profit was made by all the processors in the market. The marketing margin was 24.24 % and marketing efficiency was 22.46%. It was recommended that government should create a more enabling environment for more people to go into aquaculture so as to beat the seasonality of fresh fish supply in the towns.


Phil Westmoreland 14.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can contribute to community development. Public access venues such as telecentres, public libraries and cybercafes make ICT more broadly available, extending the benefits of ICT to underserved sectors of the population. Development is seen as a process of empowerment of marginalized communities to transform their immediate reality and improve their quality of life. This paper presents a case study of public access venues in the small municipality of Carmen de Bolivar, a small town in Northern Colombia. This municipality has a strong tradition of community organization for social development, and a long history of violence that have shaped its social fabric. The case study assesses the contribution of public access to ICT for community development, capitalizing on the region's experience with community organization. This study found that the introduction of public access to ICT may not have contributed significantly to community development. Venues that provide public Internet access are mostly used for personal social networking (e.g., Facebook) and to access pornography. To a much smaller degree, public access ICT is also used for homework by schoolchildren and for online banking and government transactions by adults. The absence of community development activities is especially surprising given the relative strength of the community organizations that have worked on communication activities in this region during the last decade. This vacuum may be a consequence of the violence suffered by the inhabitants of the region in its recent history, or of the preference for private access to computers and Internet at home or at work for community development purposes. We conclude that public access to ICT alone does not necessarily contribute to community development, especially if the political environment is not conducive or if there are no strong social organizations in the community.


Abstract Background The tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) lapatinib (L), a reversible dual EGFR/HER2 inhibitor, and afatinib (A), an irreversible pan-HER inhibitor, are approved for the treatment of HER2+ BC and EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), respectively. Anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors are showing clinical activity in HER2+ BC and NSCLC. Pre-clinical studies in EGFR-mutant NSCLC models suggest that there may be a link between EGFR activity and PD-L1 expression. This study investigates the potential of the EGF signalling pathway to alter PD-L1 expression in parental and L- or A-resistant HER2+ BC cell lines to examine the pre-clinical rationale for the combination of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agents and TKIs in HER2+ BC. Methods Parental (HCC1954-P, SKBR3-P) and TKI-resistant HER2+ breast cancer cell lines (L-resistant HCC1954-L, A-resistant SKBR3-A) were treated with the EGFR ligand EGF (10ng/ml) alone, L (1µM) alone or the combination of EGF and L for 24 hours. Protein lysates were generated. PD-L1 (CST E1L3N), EGFR (ThermoFisher MS665) and pEGFR y1068 (Millipore 07818) expression levels were assessed by Western blot. Densitometry analysis was carried out on triplicate data using Total Lab Quant. A Student's t test p value of  Results All cell lines examined showed a significant increase in PD-L1 expression upon EGF treatment (HCC1954-P – 3-fold increase (p = 0.02), HCC1954-L - 2.5 fold increase (p = 0.03), SKBR3-P - 4.4 fold increase (p = 0.03), SKBR3-A - 1.9 fold increase (p = 0.01)). L was capable of blocking EGF-mediated PD-L1 upregulation in the HCC1954-P, SKBR3-P an SKBR3-A cell lines (p = 0.04, p = 0.04 and p = 0.01 respectively). L was not capable of blocking EGF-mediated PD-L1 upregulation in the HC1954-L cell line. For parental and resistant cell line models, pEGFR levels corresponded to PD-L1 expression upon EGF and L treatment. Conclusions The results indicate PD-L1 expression can be altered by manipulation of EGFR activity in HER2+ breast cancer cell line models. The development of targeted therapy resistance can interfere with the ability of EGFR to impact PD-L1 levels. Further examination of EGFR and PD-L1 is warranted in HER2+ breast cancer models. Legal entity responsible for the study The authors. Funding Cancer Clinical Research Trust. Disclosure A. Canonici: Research grant/Funding (institution): Boehringer Ingelheim. J. Crown: Full/Part-time employment: OncoMark; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy, Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony, Research grant/Funding (institution): Eisai; Honoraria (self): Amgen; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy, Research grant/Funding (institution): Puma Biotechnology; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy: Seattle Genetics; Honoraria (self), Research grant/Funding (institution): Boehringer Ingelheim; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy, Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony, Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Pfizer; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy: Vertex; Honoraria (self), Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony: Genomic Health; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy, Research grant/Funding (institution), Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Roche; Honoraria (self), Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: MSD Oncology; Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: AstraZeneca; Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Abbvie. D.M. Collins: Research grant/Funding (self): Puma Biotechnology; Research grant/Funding (self): Roche. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


AIMS
To examine the extent to which problem alcohol users' self reports of drinking pattern and symptomatology derive primarily from a functional, learned social-cognitive schema (referred to as a 'script' in this paper), rather than from acts of recall or memory.

METHODS
Using a between-groups design with one repeated (within-subjects) measure, problem drinkers and non-problem drinkers were asked to complete a questionnaire about drinking behaviour and symptoms. Each group filled in the questionnaire twice, under both of two conditions. In condition one, they used the questionnaire to describe their own drinking and in condition two they were asked to describe the drinking of the other group (i.e. the problem drinkers filled out the questionnaire to describe non-problem drinking and the non-problem drinkers described problem drinking).

RESULTS
Using analyses of variance for the different sub-scales of the questionnaire, no overall differences were found between the two groups on four of the five subscales. However, clear and significant differences were found between the two conditions. That is, both groups were able to produce clearly differentiated scripts for both problem drinking and non-problem drinking.

CONCLUSIONS
These data, together with related data from other sources, suggest that 'scripts' for problem drinking and for non-problem drinking can be elicited from both problem-drinking and non-problem-drinking groups. The data support conclusions from an earlier study, suggesting that subjects may use learned 'scripts' rather than recall when responding to certain types of questionnaire instruments.


Purpose of review To review published data related to the potential applicability of apolipoprotein A-I mimetic peptides. Recent findings Despite a wealth of information on HDL-C levels and risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), little evidence is present to suggest that raising HDL-C levels per se will result in CVD risk reduction. Rather, increasing HDL functionality might be a more successful strategy to reverse the process of atherosclerosis. In as such, apoA-I mimetic peptides, either in single or tandem formulation, hold great promise. Evidence gathered over the last years has provided insight in the extent to which mimetics influence several cardio metabolic pathways. ApoA-I mimetics have shown to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiatherogenic effects. Direct comparisons between different mimetics have provided insight in factors influencing the differential beneficial consequences of these peptides. Data derived from recent studies suggest that mimetics might gain their position as a therapeutic intervention in the treatment of septicaemia, transplantation rejection, diabetes and auto-immune diseases. Summary This review provides a summary of the current literature on the potential application of apoA-I mimetics as therapeutic agents. There is increasing evidence that these mimetics should be considered as a promising supplement to current strategies. Results from human studies addressing the in-vivo effects of the different apoA-I mimetics are eagerly awaited.


Arif Dirlik's latest offering is a revisionist perspective on Chinese radicalism in the twentieth century. He argues that the history of anarchism is indispensable to understanding crucial themes in Chinese radicalism. And anarchism is particularly significant now as a source of democratic ideals within the history of the socialist movement in China. Dirlik draws on the most recent scholarship and on materials available only in the last decade to compile the first comprehensive history of his subject available in a Western language. He emphasizes the anarchist contribution to revolutionary discourse and elucidates this theme through detailed analysis of both anarchist polemics and social practice. The changing circumstances of the Chinese revolution provide the immediate context, but throughout his writing the author views Chinese anarchism in relation to anarchism worldwide.


ABSTRACT Few children with mental health problems access evidence-based interventions. Primary schools may be an ideal setting to improve access to treatment through screening and intervention programmes, but some families' circumstances and experiences may increase barriers to benefiting from this approach. Interviews were carried out with parents of children living in potentially challenging circumstances, including foster and military-connected families. We aimed to explore parent perceptions of a school-based screening/intervention programme and potential barriers to uptake. Parents described that due to their past experiences, that they might not trust or engage with a school-based screening/intervention. Nonetheless, parents considered that the delivery of a sensitive school screening/intervention programme might provide an opportunity for schools to strengthen their relationship with families. These findings highlight the need for future school-based screening/intervention programmes for child mental health to consider the needs of families of children from varied circumstances, and ensure steps are taken to promote trust.


The tension/compression hardening behavior is important in sheet metal forming processes because of complicated loading paths. Experimental methods to measure the tension/ compression behavior have not considered the effect of the strain rate although the strain rate is related to the hardening behavior of sheet metal. The tension/compression tests need to be conducted considering the strain rate to acquire accurate hardening behavior.This paper deals with an experimental technique to measure the tension/compression behavior of sheet metal at various strain rates. A new clamping device was developed to prevent a sheet specimen from buckling under compression loading condition. Compared to previous clamping devices, the clamping device was devised to uniformly impose a clamping force and easily measure the strain from side of a specimen. Tension/compression tests have been conducted at various strain rates for SPCC and DP590 with displacement of 10%. Hardening curves under the tension or compression loading condition were obtained and analyzed with respect to the strain rate.


The purpose of this paper is to clarify why people continuously live in places where a specific natural disaster comes with apparent frequency. Even after a natural disaster of tremendous scale occurs, some victims attempt to remain or later return "home" while inviting the risk of experiencing further catastrophe. Why do people opt to continuously live where they are prone to natural disasters instead of living at a distance from the coastline? Especially for those who have just experienced the tsunami; what motivates them to make the decision to go back to the coast?

As the case study of a community in a fishing village indicates, people know that life near the coast is inevitably entwined with both the severity and fertility of the sea. In other words, what people know is that they cannot have one without the other. Both sides of the sea have conditioned the life of people and that is what they have adapted to. Because of their closeness to the sea, the fertility they have enjoyed and the vulnerability as a coastal community are inseparable for them. When the tsunami struck, they did not know how to save all members of the community, their homes, nor their ships. Whereas, they did know how they should adapt to the inherent instability of their coastal community and how they should revive the community. This process would unfold only after having an understanding of the way in which they needed to adapt to their local bay. As a coastal community they were ready to accept their vulnerability, even immediately after the destruction of the tsunami, as it was the condition in which to enjoy the fertility of the sea as their ancestors had done throughout history.


—Through the recent emergence of joint resource and network virtualization, dynamic composition and provisioning of time-limited and isolated virtual infrastructures is now possible. One other benefit of infrastructure virtualization is the capability of transparent reliability provisioning (reliability becomes a service provided by the infrastructure). In this context, we discuss the motivations and gains of introducing customizable reliability of virtual infrastructures when executing large-scale distributed applications, and present a framework to specify, allocate and deploy virtualized infrastructure with reliability capabilities. An approach to efficiently specify and control the reliability at runtime is proposed. We illustrate these ideas by analyzing the introduction of reliability at the virtual-infrastructure level on a real application. Experimental results, obtained with an actual medical-imaging application running in virtual infrastructures provisioned in the experimental large-scale Grid'5000 platform, show the benefits of the virtualization of reliability.


Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2007. Research shows that between birth and early adulthood the brain requires sensory stimulation to develop physically. The nature of the stimulation shapes the connections among neurons that create the neuronal networks necessary for thought and behavior. By changing the cultural environment, each generation shapes the brains of the next. By early adulthood, the neuroplasticity of the brain is greatly reduced, and this leads to a fundamental shift in the relationship between the individual and the environment: during the first part of life, the brain and mind shape themselves to the major recurring features of their environment; by early adulthood, the individual attempts to make the environment conform to the established internal structures of the brain and mind. In Brain and Culture, Bruce Wexler explores the social implications of the close and changing neurobiological relationship between the individual and the environment, with particular attention to the difficulties individuals face in adulthood when the environment changes beyond their ability to maintain the fit between existing internal structure and external reality. These difficulties are evident in bereavement, the meeting of different cultures, the experience of immigrants (in which children of immigrant families are more successful than their parents at the necessary internal transformations), and the phenomenon of interethnic violence. Integrating recent neurobiological research with major experimental findings in cognitive and developmental psychology--with illuminating references to psychoanalysis, literature, anthropology, history, and politics--Wexler presents a wealth of detail to support his arguments. The groundbreaking connections he makes allow for reconceptualization of the effect of cultural change on the brain and provide a new biological base from which to consider such social issues as "culture wars" and ethnic violence.


Ethics by Design concerns the methods, algorithms and tools needed to endow autonomous agents with the capability to reason about the ethical aspects of their decisions, and the methods, tools and formalisms to guarantee that an agent's behavior remains within given moral bounds. In this context some questions arise: How and to what extent can agents understand the social reality in which they operate, and the other intelligences (AI, animals and humans) with which they co-exist? What are the ethical concerns in the emerging new forms of society, and how do we ensure the human dimension is upheld in interactions and decisions by autonomous agents?. But overall, the central question is: "Can we, and should we, build ethically-aware agents?" This paper presents initial conclusions from the thematic day of the same name held at PRIMA2017, on October 2017.


Background The 2014-5 West African Ebola epidemic highlights the need for rigorous, rapid clinical trials under difficult circumstances. Challenges include temporally and spatially patchy transmission, and the responsibility to deliver public health interventions during a randomized trial. An innovative design such as ring vaccination with an immediate arm and a delayed arm can address these issues, but complex trials raise complex analysis issues. Methods and Findings We present a stochastic, compartmental model for a ring vaccination trial of a vaccine for an Ebola-like disease. After identification of an index case, a ring of primary contacts is recruited and either vaccinated immediately or after a delay of 21 days. The primary outcome of the trial is effectiveness calculated from cumulative incidence in the two arms, counting cases only from a pre-specified window in which the immediate arm is assumed to be fully protected and the delayed arm is not protected. The results of simulating the trial are used to calculate the sample size necessary for 80% power and the estimates of effectiveness are reported under a variety of assumptions regarding the trial design and implementation. The three key components of sample size calculations – attack rate in controls, estimate of incidence difference between the arms, and intracluster correlation coefficient – are dependent on trial design and implementation in a way that can be quantitatively predicted by the model. Under baseline parameter assumptions, we found that a total of 8,900 study participants were needed to achieve 80% power to detect a difference in attack rate between the two arms, whereas a standard approach with the same parameters returns a necessary sample size of 7,100 individuals. Such a study would on average return a vaccine effectiveness estimate of 69.81%, with average 95% confidence interval (41.2%, 84.2%). We found that for this design the necessary sample size and estimated effectiveness are sensitive to properties of the vaccine – in particular, pre-exposure and post-exposure efficacy; to two setting-specific parameters over which investigators have little control – rate of infections from outside the ring and overall attack rate in the controls; and to three parameters that are determined by the study design – the time window in which cases are counted, intensity of case-detection and administrative delay in vaccinating individuals. This approach replaces assumptions about parameters in the trial with assumptions about disease dynamics and vaccine characteristics at the individual level. Conclusions Incorporating simulation into the trial design process can improve robustness of sample size calculations. Simulation can identify optimal values for study design parameters that can be controlled. For this specific trial design, vaccine effectiveness depends on properties of the ring vaccination design and on the measurement window, as well as the epidemiologic setting. Rejecting the null likely indicates one or more types of vaccine efficacy at the individual level, but the magnitude of the effect will vary across settings.


This work analyses the requirements for a comprehensive formal description of an IEC 61499 control device. The model captures functional properties, along with temporal properties, and architecture of a control device, which includes also underlying runtime environment and operating system. The paper presents a case study of an IEC 61499 control device utilizing the framework for distributed industrial automation and control (4DIAC) and gives an impression on analysis details that can be achieved by this modeling approach. The formal description is based on net condition/event systems and the model checking tools VisualVerifier and SESA.


This thesis investigates aspects of the intellectual and social structure of the field of information policy through a detailed examination of the serials literature. The aims of the research are to explore how information policy scholarship is organised—in terms of its relation to other fields and disciplines; whether it constitutes a distinct specialty in its own right; and what kinds of institutional structures and arrangements exist to support research and scholarship. In Part One, a literature review identifies previous bibliometric and other studies which are relevant to studies of scholarly disciplines and knowledge communities. It discusses the interdisciplinary problem-oriented nature of information policy and considers some of the modes of enquiry which characterise investigations this area. Part Two consists of a series of experiments carried out on a test collection of 771 periodical articles drawn from the Social science Citation Index The empirical work comprised four linked studies: a bibliometric census study an analysis of document clustering; an author cocit.ation study; and a content analysis. Extensive use was made of multivariate statistical techniques, notably principal components analysis, hierarchical clustering, discriminant and correspondence analysis to identify statistically significant and meaningful patterns and structures within the test collection. The study concludes that information policy is a growing and reasonably distinctive field of study with strong links to library and information science, law, media studies, and the political sciences. It is suggested that the field is not unified and that research is still primarily organised along national and traditional disciplinary lines, with little evidence of significant collaborative activity across institutions or sectors. The research base is highly dispersed, with practitioners playing a major role in the production of knowledge. In institutional terms, the field is very thinly spread, with few signs of concentration.


Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is a rare form of aggressive B cell lymphoma caused by Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). Current chemotherapy approaches result in dismal outcomes, and there is an urgent need for new PEL therapies. Previously, we established, in a direct xenograft model of PEL-bearing immune-compromised mice, that treatment with the proteasome inhibitor, bortezomib (Btz), increased survival relative to that after treatment with doxorubicin. Herein, we demonstrate that the combination of Btz with the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor suberoylanilidehydroxamic acid (SAHA, also known as vorinostat) potently reactivates KSHV lytic replication and induces PEL cell death, resulting in significantly prolonged survival of PEL-bearing mice. Importantly, Btz blocked KSHV late lytic gene expression, terminally inhibiting the full lytic cascade and production of infectious virus in vivo. Btz treatment led to caspase activation and induced DNA damage, as evidenced by the accumulation of phosphorylated γH2AX and p53. The addition of SAHA to Btz treatment was synergistic, as SAHA induced early acetylation of p53 and reduced interaction with its negative regulator MDM2, augmenting the effects of Btz. The eradication of KSHV-infected PEL cells without increased viremia in mice provides a strong rationale for using the proteasome/HDAC inhibitor combination therapy in PEL.


Abstract. The near-infrared spectra measured with the SCIAMACHY instrument on board the ENVISAT satellite suffer from several instrument calibration problems. The effects of three important instrument calibration issues on the retrieved methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO) total columns have been investigated: the effects of the growing ice layer on the near-infrared detectors, the effects of the orbital variation of the instrument dark signal, and the effects of the dead/bad detector pixels. Corrections for each of these instrument calibration issues have been defined. The retrieved CH4 and CO total columns including these corrections show good agreement with CO measurements from the MOPITT satellite instrument and with CH4 model calculations by the chemistry transport model TM3. Using a systematic approach, it is shown that all three instrument calibration issues have a significant effect on the retrieved CH4 and CO total columns. However, the impact on the CH4 total columns is more pronounced than for CO, because of its smaller variability. Results for three different wavelength ranges are compared and show good agreement. The growing ice layer and the orbital variation of the dark signal show a systematic, but time-dependent effect on the retrieved CH4 and CO total columns, whereas the effect of the dead/bad pixels is rather unpredictable: some dead pixels show a random effect, some more systematic, and others no effect at all. The importance of accurate corrections for each of these instrument calibration issues is illustrated using examples where inaccurate corrections lead to a wrong interpretation of the results.


The use of personas is an interactive design technique with considerable potential for product and content development. A persona is a representation of a group or segment of users, sharing common behavioral characteristics. Although representing a segment of users, a persona is generally developed in the form of a detailed narrative about an explicit but fictitious individual that represents the collection of users possessing similar behaviors or characteristics. In order to make the fictitious individual appear as real person to the product developers, the persona narrative usually contains a variety of both demographic and behavioral details about socio economic status, gender, hobbies, family members, friends, possessions, among many other data. Also, the narrative of a persona normally also addresses the goals, needs, wants, frustrations and other emotional aspects of the fictitious individual that are pertinent to the product being designed. However, personas have typically been viewed as fairly static. In this research, we demonstrate an approach for creating and validating personas in real time, based on automated analysis of actual user data. Our data collection site and research partner is AJ+ (http://ajplus.net/), which is a news channel from Al Jazeera Media Network that is natively digital with a presence only on social media platforms and a mobile application. Its media concept is unique in that AJ+ was designed from the ground up to serve news in the medium of viewer, versus a teaser in one medium with a redirect to a website. In pursuit of our overall research objective of automatically generating personas in real time, for research reported in this manuscript, we are specifically interested in understanding the AJ+ audience by identifying (1) whom are they reaching (i.e., market segment) and (2) what competitive (i.e., non-AJ+) content are associated with each market segment. Focusing on one aspect of user behavior, we collect 8,065,350 instances of sharing of links by 54,892 users of an online news channel, specifically examining the domains these users share. We then cluster users based on similarity of domains shared, identifying seven personas based on this behavioral aspect. We conduct term-frequency – inverse document frequency (tf-idf) vectorization. We remove outliers of less than 5 shares (too unique) and more than 80% of the all users' shares (too popular). We use K-means++ clustering (K = 2.. 10), which is an advanced version of K-means to improve selection of initial seeds, because K-means++ effectively works for a very sparse matrix (user-link). We use the "elbow" method to choose the optimal number of clusters, which is eight in this case. In order to characterize each cluster, we list top 100 domains from each cluster and discover that there are large overlaps among clusters. We then remove from each cluster the domains that existed in another cluster in order to identify the relevant, unique, and impactful domains. This de-duplication results in the elimination of one cluster, leaving us with a set of clusters, where each cluster is characterized by domains that are shared only by users within that cluster. We note that the K-means++ clustering method can be replaced easily with other clustering methods in various situations. Demonstrating that these insights can be used to develop personas in real-time, the research results provide insights into competitive marketing, topic interests, and preferred system features for the users of the online news medium. Using the description of each of shared links, we detect their languages. 55.2% (30,294) users share links in one just language and 44.8% users share links in multiple languages. The most frequently used language is English (31.98%), followed by German (5.69%), Spanish (5.02%), French (4.75%), Italian (3.46%), Indonesian (2.99%), Portuguese (2.94%), Dutch (2.94%), Tagalog1 (2.71%), and Afrikaans (2.69%). As there were millions of domains shared, we utilize the top one hundred domains for each cluster, resulting in 700 top domains shared by the 54,892 AJ+ users. We, as mentioned, de-duplicated, resulting in the elimination of a cluster (11,011 users, 20.06%). So, we have seven unique clusters based on sharing of domains representing 43,881 users. We then demonstrate how these findings can be leveraged to generate real-time personas based on actual user data. We stream the data analyze results into a relational database, combine the results with other demographic data that we gleaned from available sources such as Facebook and other social media accounts, using each of the seven clusters as representative of a persona. We give each persona a fictional name and use a stock photo as the face of our personas. Each persona was linked to the top alternate (i.e., non-AJ+) domains they most commonly shared with the personas shared links updateable with new data. Research implications are that personas can be generated in real-time, instead of being the result of a laborious, time-consuming development process.