Research on the problem of clustering tends to be fragmented across the pattern recognition, database, data mining, and machine learning communities. Addressing this problem in a unified way, Data Clustering: Algorithms and Applications provides complete coverage of the entire area of clustering, from basic methods to more refined and complex data clustering approaches. It pays special attention to recent issues in graphs, social networks, and other domains. The book focuses on three primary aspects of data clustering: Methods, describing key techniques commonly used for clustering, such as feature selection, agglomerative clustering, partitional clustering, density-based clustering, probabilistic clustering, grid-based clustering, spectral clustering, and nonnegative matrix factorization Domains, covering methods used for different domains of data, such as categorical data, text data, multimedia data, graph data, biological data, stream data, uncertain data, time series clustering, high-dimensional clustering, and big data Variations and Insights, discussing important variations of the clustering process, such as semisupervised clustering, interactive clustering, multiview clustering, cluster ensembles, and cluster validation In this book, top researchers from around the world explore the characteristics of clustering problems in a variety of application areas. They also explain how to glean detailed insight from the clustering processincluding how to verify the quality of the underlying clustersthrough supervision, human intervention, or the automated generation of alternative clusters.


Ever since Adam Smith there has been a contention that dispersed ownership in a joint stock company is accompanied by low firm performance. This belief has reached its theoretical hights in agency theory. The aim of the paper is to show that mthe contention has to be developed in order to be more attuned with empirical data. It will be argued 1.) That the influence of ownership structure upon performance is mediated through mechanisms inside the firm, the strategy being the most prominent; 2.) That performance has to be divided into profit and risk, and into firm performance, using accounting data, and market performance, using share market performance data; 3.) That the ownership structure is not exclusively a factor that influences the firm, but that the firm and its strategy influence the ownership structure through attracting certain shareholders and repulse others; 4.) That ownership structure is but one mechanism of several corporate governance mechanisms and that performance is ultimately influenced by the mix of the mechanisms; and 5.) Those institutional differences, such as culture, traditions, legislation and history, influence the opportunity set of corporate governance structures and therefore the relative importance of ownership structures in influencing the performance of the firm. A data set from Sweden and from the hard years of 1990 is used in order to empirically support the statements.


The study of the number of independent sets in a graph has a rich history. Recently, Kahn proved that disjoint unions of $K_{r,r}$'s have the maximum number of independent sets amongst $r$-regular bipartite graphs. Zhao extended this to all $r$-regular graphs. If we instead restrict the class of graphs to those on a fixed number of vertices and edges, then the Kruskal-Katona theorem implies that the graph with the maximum number of independent sets is the lex graph, where edges form an initial segment of the lexicographic ordering. In this paper, we study three related questions. Firstly, we prove that the lex graph has the maximum number of weighted independent sets for any appropriate weighting. Secondly, we solve the problem of maximizing the number of independents sets in graphs with specified independence number or clique number. Finally, for $m\leq n$, we find the graphs with the minimum number of independent sets for graphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges.


Recent academic and policy preoccupations with 'Black Swans' underscore the predicament of capturing and communicating risk events when information is absent, partial, incomplete or contingent. In this article, we wish to articulate some key thematic and theoretical points of concurrence around which academic and practitioner interests in risk communication under conditions of 'high uncertainty' intersect. We outline the historical context and recent debate concerning the limits to 'risk thinking' spurred by Black Swans, and in particular how this calls for a more holistic approach to risk communication. In order to support a more critical foresight agenda, we suggest incorporating 'adaptive governance' principles to decentre focal risk communication concerns on the mitigation of short-term security threats, which critics argue can also lead to other unforeseen dangers. Finally, we welcome further interdisciplinary inquiry into the constitution and use of risk communication under high uncertainty.


The ecology of soils associated with dead mammals (i.e. cadavers) is poorly understood. Although temperature and soil type are well known to influence the decomposition of other organic resource patches, the effect of these variables on the degradation of cadavers in soil has received little experimental investigation. To address this, cadavers of juvenile rats ( Rattus rattus ) were buried in one of three contrasting soils (Sodosol, Rudosol, and Vertosol) from tropical savanna ecosystems in Queensland, Australia and incubated at 29 °C, 22 °C, or 15 °C in a laboratory setting. Cadavers and soils were destructively sampled at intervals of 7 days over an incubation period of 28 days. Measurements of decomposition included cadaver mass loss, carbon dioxide–carbon (CO 2 –C) evolution, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), protease activity, phosphodiesterase activity, and soil pH, which were all significantly positively affected by cadaver burial. A temperature effect was observed where peaks or differences in decomposition that at occurred at higher temperature would occur at later sample periods at lower temperature. Soil type also had an important effect on some measured parameters. These findings have important implications for a largely unexplored area of soil ecology and nutrient cycling, which are significant for forensic science, cemetery planning and livestock carcass disposal.


Abstract Deciding to engage in a software project typically results in incurring costs and generating revenues over a long time period. Introducing new technology into the software process can likewise be considered an investment decision. This paper presents capital budgeting techniques employed among financial analysts and upper-level management to evaluate such investment decisions. Examples are given to illustrate financial analysis techniques based on actual data reported in the software engineering literature. Under proper time discounting, the commonly reported effect of modern programming practices to shift costs to earlier in the lifecycle decreases the net present value of a project unless resulting gains in quality and productivity more than compensate. The principal theses of this paper are that software managers should use these techniques in performing cost analyses and that software process measurement programs need to be designed with the goal of supporting such analyses.


The physical origin of frequency shift and dynamic instability in a photorefractive self-pumped phase conjugator is analyzed by use of four-wave mixing and multi-four-wave mixing. We show that the frequency shift and the instability result from the requirement of the maximal energy transfer between the interacting beams. Two examples of numerical results in a cat self-pumped phase conjugator are given, which are in good agreement with previous experimental results. A simple method is proposed to change an unstable phase-conjugate output to a stable one.


Gender and Sexuality in Russian Civilisation considers gender and sexuality in modern Russia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapters look individually at gender and sexuality through history, art, folklore, philosophy or literature,but are also arranged into sections according to the arguments they develop. A number of chapters also consider Russia in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Thematic sections include: *Gender and Power *Gender and National Identity *Sexual Identity and Artistic Impression *Literary Discourse of Male and Female Sexualities *Sexuality and Literature in Contemporary Russian Society


General-purpose multiprocessors (as, in our case, Intel IvyBridge and Intel Haswell) increasingly add GPU computing power to the former multicore architectures. When used for embedded applications (for us, Synthetic aperture radar) with intensive signal processing requirements, they must constantly compute convolution algorithms, such as the famous Fast Fourier Transform. Due to its "fractal" nature (the typical buttery shape, with larger FFTs dened as combination of smaller ones with auxiliary data array transpose functions), one can hope to compute analytically the size of the largest FFT that can be performed locally on an elementary GPU compute block. Then, the full application must be organized around this given building block size. Now, due to phenomena involved in the data transfers between various memory levels across CPUs and GPUs, the optimality of such a scheme is only loosely predictable (as communications tend to overcome in time the complexity of computations). Therefore a mix of (theoretical) analytic approach and (practical) runtime validation is here needed. As we shall illustrate, this occurs at both stage,


Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer tells the story of a boy's adventures in a Midwestern American town during the mid-nineteenth century, but it also provides an insightful account of how many children respond to literature. Although Tom is not seen reading over the course of the novel, the depictions of Tom's play provide amble evidence that Tom enjoys reading adventures stories. The novel includes many instances of Tom incorporating elements from stories, especially pirate stories, in his pretend play. Tom's response to pirate stories has significant connections to both reader-response theory and play theory. Although the terms reader-response theory and play theory were not yet coined when Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, Twain's depiction of Tom's playful response to pirate stories anticipated many of the key arguments and observations that these theorists have made concerning children's responses to literature.


Coleus root spent (CRS) was used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue (MB). Morphological properties of the adsorbent were studied using SEM and FTIR. The adsorption parameters such as initial dye concentration, contact time, pH and temperature were studied. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to explain the adsorption behaviour. Pseudo first order and second order kinetic models were used to study adsorption kinetics. The
maximum adsorption capacity value (qmax = 66.66 mg g-1) for Langmuir isotherm was near to the experimental value (Qmax = 58.00 mg g-1). It is confirmed that, CRS is an efficient adsorbent for removal of MB from aqueous solution.


Physicians are confronted with increasingly complex patient histories based on which they must make life-critical treatment decisions. At the same time, clinical researchers are eager to study the growing databases of patient histories to detect unknown patterns, ensure quality control, and discover surprising outcomes. Designers of Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs) have great potential to apply innovative visual methods to support clinical decision-making and research. This work surveys the state-of-the-art of information visualization systems for exploring and querying EHRs, as described in the scientific literature. We examine how systems differ in their features and highlight how these differences are related to their design and the medical scenarios they tackle. The systems are compared on a set of criteria: (1) data types covered, (2) multivariate analysis support, (3) number of patient records used (one or multiple), and (4) user intents addressed. Based on our survey and evidence gained from evaluation studies, we believe that effective information visualization can facilitate analysis of EHRs for patient treatment and clinical research. Thus, we encourage the information visualization community to study the application of their systems in health care. Our monograph is written for both scientific researchers and designers of future user interfaces for EHRs. We hope it will help them understand this vital domain and appreciate the features and virtues of existing systems, so they can create still more advanced systems. We identify potential future research topics in interactive support for data abstraction, in systems for intermittent users, such as patients, and in more detailed evaluations.


Purpose: To determine the prevalence of refractive condition and its risk factors among students in Mashhad. Methods: A total of 2510 students representing a cross-sectional of the population of Mashhad were sampled using random cluster sampling strategy. Primary and middle school students underwent cycloplegic refraction. The refractive errors of high school students were measured using non-cycloplegic autorefraction. Myopia was defined as spherical equivalent (SE) of -0.5 diopter (D) or more, and hyperopia was defined as SE of +0.5 diopter (D) or more, and astigmatism of 0.75 cylinder diopter or greater. Examination was carried out in the school using standardized testing protocols. Results: 2150 students (group 1: 1163 primary and middle school, group 2: 947 high school students and 13 missed data) participated. The prevalence of refractive errors in the 1st group was: myopia=2.4%, hyperopia=87.9%, astigmatism=9.8% and anisometropia=3.0% (SE difference at least 1.00 D), and in the 2nd group myopia=24.1%, hyperopia=8.4%, astigmatism=11.8% and anisometropia=5.6%. There was significant difference in refractive errors between girls and boys (P<0.001). In primary and middle school prevalence of myopia increased with age (OR=1.3 95% CI: 1.03 to 1.7 and P=0.013). Conclusion: The prevalence of refractive errors among students in Mashhad is high. Effective detection and treatment of these refractive errors is expected to reduce the incidence of amblyopia and strabismus and also can prevent substantive effects on academic performance.


This thesis covers three aspects in the field of graph analysis and drawing. Firstly, the depth-first-search–based algorithm for finding triconnected components in general biconnected graphs is presented. This linear-time algorithm was originally published by Hopcroft and Tarjan [17], and corrected by Mutzel and Gutwenger [13]. Since the original paper is hard to understand, the algorithm is presented with illustrations to ease getting the vital ideas. Also, the crucial proposition is stated and proven in a way which is closer to the actual proceeding of the algorithm. Secondly, a simple linear-time algorithm for triangulating a biconnected planar graph is presented. Finally, a vertex-weighted variant of the so-called "shift-method" algorithm by de Fraysseix, Pach and Pollack [11] is introduced. The shift method is a linear-time algorithm to produce a straightline drawing of triangulated graphs on a grid with an area bound quadratic in the number of vertices of the graph. The original algorithm is modified to draw vertices as diamond shapes with area according to vertex weights. It is proven that the modified algorithm still produces a straight-line grid drawing of the graph in linear time with an area bound quadratic in the sum of vertex weights, and that edges do not cross the drawings of other vertices' representations. The algorithm is presented within a framework to draw a special class of clustered graphs. The algorithm for finding triconnected components is implemented in JAVA for the yFiles graph drawing library [27]. The vertex-weighted shift method is implemented in JAVA for the visual analysis tool GEOMI [1].


Microbially driven iron redox cycling in soil and sedimentary systems, including during diagenesis and fluid migration, may activate secondary abiotic reactions between aqueous Fe(II) and solid Fe(III) oxides. These reactions catalyze dynamic recrystallization of iron oxide minerals through localized and simultaneous oxidative adsorption of Fe(II) and reductive dissolution of Fe(III). Redox-active trace elements undergo speciation changes during this process, but the impact redox-driven recrystallization has on redox-inactive trace elements associated with iron oxides is uncertain. Here we demonstrate that Ni is cycled through the minerals goethite and hematite during redox-driven recrystallization. X-ray absorption spectroscopy demonstrates that during this process adsorbed Ni becomes progressively incorporated into the minerals. Kinetic studies using batch reactors containing aqueous Fe(II) and Ni preincorporated into iron oxides display substantial release of Ni to solution. We conclude that iron oxide recrystallization activated by aqueous Fe(II) induces cycling of Ni through the mineral structure, with adsorbed Ni overgrown in regions of Fe(II) oxidative adsorption and incorporated Ni released in regions of reductive dissolution of structural Fe(III). The redistribution of Ni among the mineral bulk, mineral surface, and aqueous solution appears to be thermodynamically controlled and catalyzed by Fe(II). Our work suggests that important proxies for ocean composition on the early Earth may be invalid, identifies new processes controlling micronutrient availability in soil, sedimentary, and aquatic ecosystems, and points toward a mechanism for trace element mobilization during diagenesis and enrichment in geologic fluids.


The emergence of augmented reality and computer vision based tools offer new opportunities to visually impaired persons (VIPs). Solutions that help VIPs in social interactions by providing information (age, gender, attire, expressions etc.) about people in the vicinity are becoming available. Although such assistive technologies are already collecting and sharing such information with VIPs, the views, perceptions, and preferences of sighted bystanders about such information sharing remain unexplored. Although bystanders may be willing to share more information for assistive uses it remains to be explored to what degree bystanders are willing to share various kinds of information and what might encourage additional sharing of information based on the contextual needs of VIPs. In this paper we describe the first empirical study of information sharing preferences of sighted bystanders of assistive devices. We conducted a survey based study using a contextual method of inquiry with 62 participants followed by nine semi-structured interviews to shed more insight on our key quantitative findings. We find that bystanders are more willing to share some kinds of personal information with VIPs and are willing to share additional information if higher security assurances can be made by improving their control over how their information is shared.


Most of the recent intellectual property literature concerns the enclosure of the public domain or the one-way ratchet of intellectual property protection. While these concerns are significant and rightly placed, a different, and perhaps more important, enclosure movement is currently taking place at the international level. Instead of the public domain, this concurrent movement encloses the policy space of individual countries and requires them to adopt one-size-fits-all legal standards that ignore their local needs, national interests, technological capabilities, institutional capacities, and public health conditions. As a result of this enclosure, countries are forced to adopt inappropriate intellectual property systems, and they as a result have also lost their ability to respond to domestic crises within their borders. The crisis that hitherto has received the widest international attention concerns the lack of ability by less developed countries to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. To respond to these crises and to mitigate the adverse impact of the TRIPs Agreement, WTO members agreed during the Hong Kong Ministerial to amend the Agreement to allow member states with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity to import generic versions of on-patent pharmaceuticals. The proposed amendment marked the first time the WTO agreed to amend one of its core agreements. If adopted, the amendment would make permanent the temporary waivers granted by the General Council in August 2003. Using the access-to-medicines problem in less developed countries, this article illustrates the complexity of decisions that countries need to make at the national level and the complex, symbiotic relationship of the different types of factors that inhibit access to medicines. It then traces the development of the international enclosure movement and shows how the international intellectual property system was originally designed to preserve the autonomy of countries to devise their own intellectual property policies. Focusing on the developments from the August 2003 decision to the recently proposed article 31bis of the TRIPs Agreement, this article further illustrates the danger of the international enclosure movement, in particular how countries failed to reclaim their lost policy space once that space has been enclosed. The article concludes with suggestions on how countries can reform the international intellectual property system to preserve the autonomy needed to tailor policies to local conditions and how less developed countries can reclaim their lost policy space to facilitate greater access to essential medicines. In designing these suggestions, the article focuses on three main attributes of the international enclosure movement: (1) the power asymmetry between developed and less developed countries; (2) the incentive-investment divide between national and foreign intellectual property policies; and (3) the globalization of intellectual property rights.


This study was conducted to evaluate the physical/mechanical characteristics of typical selected mining tasks and the energy expenditure required for their performance. The study comprised two phases designed to monitor and record the typical activities that miners perform and to measure the metabolic energy expenditure and thermal responses during the performance of these activities under a non-heat stress environmental condition (ambient air temperature of 25.8°C and 61% relative humidity with a wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 22.0°C). Six common mining jobs were evaluated in 36 miners: (1) production drilling (jumbo drill) (n = 3), (2) production ore transportation (load-haul dump vehicle) (n = 4), (3) manual bolting (n = 9), (4) manual shotcrete (wet/dry) (n = 3), (5) general services (n = 8) and, (6) conventional mining (long-hole drill) (n = 9). The time/motion analysis involved the on-site monitoring, video recording, and mechanical characterization of the different jobs. During the second trial, continuous measurement of oxygen consumption was performed with a portable metabolic system. Core (ingestible capsule) and skin temperatures (dermal patches) were recorded continuously using a wireless integrated physiological monitoring system. We found that general services and manual bolting demonstrated the highest mean energy expenditure (331 ± 98 and 290 ± 95 W, respectively) as well as the highest peak work rates (513 and 529 W, respectively). In contrast, the lowest mean rate of energy expenditure was measured in conventional mining (221 ± 44 W) and manual shotcrete (187 ± 77 W) with a corresponding peak rate of 295 and 276 W, respectively. The low rate of energy expenditure recorded for manual shotcrete was paralleled by the lowest work to rest ratio (1.8:1). While we found that production drilling had a moderate rate of energy expenditure (271 ± 11 W), it was associated with the highest work to rest ratio (6.7:1) Despite the large inter-variability in energy expenditure and work intervals among jobs, only small differences in average core temperature (average ranged between 37.20 ± 0.22 to 37.42 ± 0.18°C) were measured. We found a high level of variability in the duration and intensity of tasks performed within each mining job. This was paralleled by a large variation in the work to rest allocation and mean energy expenditure over the course of the work shift.


The process of forming coalitions of software agents generally requires calculating a value for every possible coalition which indicates how beneficial that coalition would be if it was formed. Now, since the number of possible coalitions increases exponentially with the number of agents involved, having one agent calculate all the values is inefficient. Given this, we present a novel algorithm for distributing this calculation among agents in cooperative environments. Specifically, by using our algorithm, each agent is assigned some part of the calculation such that the agents' shares are exhaustive and disjoint. Moreover, the algorithm is decentralized, requires no communication between the agents, and has minimal memory requirements. To evaluate the effectiveness of our algorithm we compare it with the only other algorithm available in the literature (due to Shehory and Kraus). This shows that for the case of 25 agents, the distribution process of our algorithm took 0.00037% of the time, the values were calculated using 0.000006% of the memory, the calculation redundancy was reduced from 477826101 to 0, and the total number of bytes sent between the agents dropped from 674047872 to 0 (note that for larger numbers of agents, these improvements become exponentially better).


The soluble amyloid β precursor protein α (sAβPPα) released after α-secretase cleavage of the amyloid β precursor protein (AβPP) has several functions including modulation of neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity; it has been suggested that some of these effects are mediated by activation of NF-κB via induction of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. We have recently described the presence of several consensus binding sites of c-Rel transcription factor in the promoter region of the GNB2L1 gene, coding for the Receptor for Activated C Kinase -1 (RACK-1). We investigated whether sAβPPα could influence the expression of RACK-1 through NF-κB involvement. Our data demonstrate that sAβPPα regulates RACK-1 gene expression through PI3K/Akt-dependent pathway, inducing c-Rel nuclear translocation and NF-κB activation. Since RACK-1 is the scaffold of protein kinase C βII (PKCβII), we turned our attention to this kinase in order to evaluate whether sAβPPα could also influence PKCβII signalling demonstrating that sAβPPα induces PKCβII translocation and interaction with its scaffold with consequent RACK-1/PKCβII complex increase in membrane. Altogether these results suggest the existence of an interesting loop between the functions of the metabolic products of AβPP and the role of PKC and that the impact of a dysregulated AβPP metabolism occurring in several conditions (from physiological aging to injury response) may have consequences on the potential protective functions of the non amyloidogenic sAβPPα.


Popular transport is the most significant form of urban mobility in the majority urban world and will continue to play an important role even as cities around the world overhaul and upgrade their transport systems. Since January 2019 a new type of popular transport, taxi-tricycles locally named "salonis," has taken root at the peripheries of Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. This article offers an initial description of this new mode of mobility, the service it offers, the labor force it draws on, the forms of regulation that govern it, the spatial practices it has engendered, and its implications for sustainable urban mobility. We show that this new transport option has evolved from within the existing norms and practices of the city's existing popular transport sector. Arguing that salonis have emerged at the intersection of multiple overlapping marginality – spatial, infrastructural, socio-economic, legal, and regulatory – we contribute to multi-disciplinary conceptualization of urban margins as a site of infrastructural creation and the production of space. Based on our analysis, we posit three possible future trajectories for salonis: illegality, expulsion, and experimentation.


This thesis explores the depiction of masculinity by one of literature's most famous female masculine writers, Radclyffe Hall. Chapters One and Two discuss two extremes in the reception of Hall's work: one a successful poem, 'The Blind Ploughman' (1913); and the other, The Master of the House (1932), a novel that was a commercial and critical failure for Hall. Both 'The Blind Ploughman' and The Master of the House depict spiritual, sensitive working class men who are different. While these texts are often mentioned in Hall scholarship, they have rarely been discussed individually. Chapter One addresses the impact of 'The Blind Ploughman' and its success as poem/song through association with the war wounded and how this, in turn, influenced Hall's depiction of damaged/different masculinity and its relationship to homosexuality. Chapter Two explores Hall's engagement with themes that were also being explored by modernist writers, in particular D. H. Lawrence's reimagining of the Christ story in his novella, 'The Escaped Cock' (1928); the chapter argues that The Master of the House uses Christianity to disguise the homoromantic subtext of the novel. In contrast, Chapter Three explores the more familiar topic of female masculinity in relation to Hall, but instead of focusing on male masculine identities, it presents evidence that Joan of Arc, one of history's most famous crossdressing women, was a female masculine role model for Hall. The influence of Joan of Arc is present both in Hall's understanding of her own female masculine identity and in the representation of her female characters. The aim of all three chapters in this thesis is to present a new way of viewing Hall and her work in order to demonstrate that she is more than just a writer of lesbian fiction.


Abstract. Modification of the intensity of a low level jet (LLJ) and near-surface wind speed by mineral dust is important as it has implications for dust emission and its long-range transport. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF/Chem) regional model, it is shown that direct radiative forcing by mineral dust reduces temperature in the lower atmosphere, but increases it in the layers aloft. The surface cooling is shown to be associated with a reduction of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and hence vertical mixing of horizontal momentum. Changes in the vertical profile of temperature over the regions that are under the influence of a LLJ are shown to result in an intensification of the LLJ and near-surface wind speed, but a decrease of winds aloft. These changes in the wind speed profile differ from results of previous research which suggested a decrease of wind speed in the lower atmosphere and its increase in the upper boundary layer.


Epidemiological research investigates the natural occurring variation of complex traits and the covariance between these traits in the general population. By doing so, epidemiological research is an important tool to understand influential factors on complex traits such as neuropsychiatric diseases and related phenotypes. However, epidemiological studies are challenged by interpretational difficulties and are often limited to inferential data analysis especially when based on a cross-sectional design. Different strategies exist to optimize the impact generated by such inferential data analyses. One strategy is to increase the depth of information by adding intermediate related traits, which is especially done in the field of genetics. However, complex covariance pattern typically underlie the relation between e.g. genotype, intermediate phenotype and primary phenotype of interest, which have to be resolved. In this situation, more complex analytical strategies might help to identify the most plausible model of relationship. The downside of these more comprehensive analytical models lies in the increase of model complexity, that might result in a less stable outcome. Finding a good balance between model complexity and analytical simplicity is a major challenge when performing combined analyses with several complex phenotypes. In the current thesis I presented three different works dealing with complex analytical strategies. The main goal behind all three of them was not to build up comprehensive theoretical frameworks, but to perform more preparatory analytical steps. The meta-analysis validated and extended a genetic association finding of the single nucleotide polymorphism rs17070145 with human memory performance by accumulating information of about 6 years of research performed worldwide. The heritability analysis verified that a common SNP-chip array is an appropriate dataset to perform more complex genetic analysis with human working memory performance measurements. The analysis of common epigenetic variation validates the DNA CpG methylation dataset in the context of complex analyses in mentally healthy young adults. Additionally, when comparing the three analyses, they also shed light on the varying complexity of putative intermediate phenotypes in human research. This knowledge can be used to build up comprehensive theoretical models and complex statistical analyses that combine several complex phenotypes.


Aerosol particles are ubiquitous in Earth's atmosphere, influencing the quality of life through their climatic and health effects and by affecting visibility. In recent years, the formation and growth of nanometer-scale particles have been observed in situ in many different atmospheric environments, including urban plumes, clean Arctic air, the continental boundary layer, and coastal environments. However, as [Kulmala][1] explains in his Perspective, the mechanisms of atmospheric nucleation have not yet been resolved. An interdisciplinary approach involving laboratory experiments, continuous field observations, new theories, and dynamic models will be required to determine which mechanisms dominate in different environments.

 [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/302/5647/1000


CADM1 (Cell adhesion molecule 1), a cell adhesion molecule belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily, is involved in cell-cell interaction and the formation and maintenance of epithelial structure. Expression of CADM1 is frequently downregulated in various tumors derived from epithelial cells. However, the intracellular signaling pathways activated by CADM1-mediated cell adhesion remain unknown. Here, we established a cell-based spreading assay to analyze the signaling pathway specifically activated by the trans-homophilic interaction of CADM1. In the assay, MDCK cells expressing exogenous CADM1 were incubated on the glass coated with a recombinant extracellular fragment of CADM1, and the degree of cell spreading was quantified by measuring their surface area. Assay screening of 104 chemical inhibitors with known functions revealed that LY294002, an inhibitor of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), efficiently suppressed cell spreading in a dose-dependent manner. Inhibitors of Akt and Rac1, downstream effectors of PI3K, also partially suppressed cell spreading, while the addition of both inhibitors blocked cell spreading to the same extent as did LY294002. Furthermore, MPP3 and Dlg, membrane-associated guanylate kinase homologs (MAGuK) proteins, connect CADM1 with p85 of PI3K by forming a multi-protein complex at the periphery of cells. These results suggest that trans-homophilic interaction mediated by CADM1 activates the PI3K pathway to reorganize the actin cytoskeleton and form epithelial cell structure.


The main issue discussed this article is the role of Iranian Judiciary in implementation of international conventional and customary obligations. The argues that the Iranian judiciary and its judges ought act their legal duty i.e.: settlement of disputes and punishment of unlawful behaviors within law framework, based on both domestic and international laws. However, the Iranian legal system has not completely developed in this aspect. In spite of art. 9 of Iranian Civil Code on acceptance legally binding force of treaties ratified by Iranian parliament, the status of international customary obligations of the state and their implementation by the courts is not clear. The author in particular in the light of responsibility, believes that implementation of international legally binding obligations in internal courts, is an established rule in the contemporary international law. Therefore, the Iranian legal system shall be developed in this case. The new Jurisprudence of a Tehran Public Court on obligatory status of implementation of the United Nations Charter and the relevant Security Council Resolutions for the Iranian courts has a legal consequence of its acceptance in the parliament, is the main focus here.


Wrestling is one of the most celebrated cultures of the Ikwerre people, especially in Elimgbu community of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State of Nigeria. Wrestling is dialectically known as "Egelege" both in Elimgbu and Otah and other parts of the Ikwerre communities. It is one of the physical calisthenics that tend to foster unity amongst the people. The idea is to situate the (Egelege) wrestling contest as a typical traditional theatre. This work goes into the study of rituals and wrestling festival in Ikwerre land, but with a focus on the theatrical dimension in Elimgbu wrestling festival in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. The work looks at such relevant aspects as the performer and performing styles, dialogues, music, dance, movement, and performance area. The study identifies the problems and prospects of wrestling festival in Ikwerre clan and its attraction to tourists. The work concludes that there is a mutual relationship between ancestors and performers, and that ritual and performance are in harmony before metamorphosing into entertainment. Finally, it is recommended that the festival be given greater relevance as a tourist based project. Ritual


Abstract From a comment by Wessler made in 2007 that philosophy could be at the center of REBT, the article takes a trip down memory lane concerning Ellis and his philosophical machinations over the years. Thereafter, there is explication of Heidegger's work as well as existentialism as crucible for REBT. Finally, the idea of using REBT as common language with a client is developed so that new possibilities are constructed within a therapeutic relationship. This writer's bias toward pragmatism was explicated. Keywords: rational emotive behavior therapy, philosophy At a recent international conference on REBT (rational-emotive behavior therapy) in November 2007 in New York, a former Director of Training at the Albert Ellis Institute, Richard Wessler, made a comment about philosophy and REBT. His comment came after the audience of about fifty people listened to discussions of scientific research, future directions of REBT research, and applications of REBT now and in the future. Wessler suggested that perhaps room could be made for the philosophy of REBT to be centerpiece of REBT-at least as a subtext-now and in the future for its own sake and not as a matter of research or applied research (but surely as a matter of consistency, coherence, and composition). A few of the people gathered at AEI for the above referenced meeting insisted that there was an essential REBT, whereas others countered that essentialism invariably led to dogmatism. Some discussants judged that outcome studies led to cook-book interventions that satisfied third-party insurance payers that wanted results, whereas others saw research as a key to maintaining REBT as a solid player within the field of cognitive-behavior therapy and as a way to keep it abreast of research in similar domains or to push it in front of the progress curve. Raymond DiGiuseppe reminded the discussants of the great debate in psychotherapy written of so eloquently by Wampold (2007). A distinguishing feature between REBT and CBT according to Ellis (1994) was that the former represented a top-down, philosophically guided system replete with Socratic methods as the basis for information that had led to irrational or rational guiding philosophies of life by an individual, whereas CBT interventionists typically began from an empirical or data collection base and then worked to achieve symptom relief or resolution or schema driven behavior redirection-all consistent with the theory of CBT lest random data be gathered for no apparent reason. REBT therapists usually but not always invite clients into discussion, whereas consistent with its empiricism CBT interventionists might ask what problem a person wished to resolve. REBT therapists usually look for a combination of guiding philosophies that involve evaluations of situations as their negative or positive origins (Socratic nuance) and acceptance of the self as representing profound redirection. The CBT literature generally seems to report symptom relief through cognitive or schema redirection or reconstruction (David, 2003; Dryden, 2003). Ways of Organizing One's Life in the World Science and philosophy are but two of the many ways of organizing one's life in the world according to Ruben Ardila (2007). One can look through those lenses but also through the lenses of poetry, literature, history, religious adherence, meditation, communism, mysticism, relationships or through the lenses of many other paradigms. Distinctions between science and philosophy show that science from Bacon onward involved starting with information that came through the senses. Conscious human beings could then codify that information to learn about standards for hearing, sight, and thresholds for pain, pleasure, and touch. Thereafter, studies concerning attention, memory (trace, working and longer term), symbol manipulation and abstraction became part of the study mix. Contrasting one group exposed to an independent variable compared to a matched group not so exposed allowed for inferences of change and the reasons for the change having taken place. …


THE SON AND THE SPIRIT: THE PROMISE OF SPIRIT CHRISTOLOGY IN TRADITIONAL TRINITARIAN AND CHRISTOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Kyle David Claunch, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017 Chair: Dr. Bruce A. Ware This dissertation evaluates various contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals. Herein, Spirit Christology is defined as an approach to Christology that affords paradigmatic prominence to the Holy Spirit for understanding traditional Christological categories. Contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals occur along a spectrum of faithfulness to Nicene Trinitarianism and Chalcedonian Christology. While modifications to traditional formulae (implicit or explicit) are commonplace in contemporary proposals of Spirit Christology, it is the thesis of this dissertation that such modifications are neither helpful nor necessary. Rather, Spirit Christology can and should offer a pneumatological enrichment of traditional Christology and a boon to Christian devotion. Such a model will not move Christians away from the traditional Christocentric soteriological impulse of the Christian tradition (as is the case with some proposals) but will rather affirm the strength and necessity of that impulse. As an introduction, chapter 1 establishes the significance of this dissertation. Chapter 2 is a survey of the contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals that are furthest removed from the Trinitarian and Christological heritage of orthodoxy. These revisionist Spirit Christologies do not represent an advance in Christian doctrinal formation but a return to the early Christological heresy of adoptionism, which was soundly and rightly rejected by the church. Chapter 3 is a survey of proposals that purport to be developed within the tried Trinitarian and Christological heritage of the church. These Trinitarian Spirit Christologies, however, often raise serious questions concerning the consistency of the proposals with traditional categories. This chapter also identifies a list of advantages to Spirit Christology that are to be commended and a list of inherent dangers that must carefully be avoided. Chapters 4 and 5 seek to advance the discussion of Spirit Christology. Chapter 4 advances the discussion by means of retrieval, examining the Spirit Christology of John Owen as an example of a proposal that achieves the advantages and avoids the dangers of this approach. Chapter 5 advances the discussion by way of a constructive proposal of an "Owenite" Spirit Christology in conversation with contemporary Spirit-Christology proponents and its detractors.


The term disaster porn has evolved over time, from an epithet directed at extreme depictions of suffering in the developing world, to a broader critique today of all sorts of disaster-related media—even fictional Hollywood blockbusters. Sociologist Timothy Recuber examines how disaster porn, in all its iterations and for all its flaws, is a vital political terrain in which publics are at least implicitly asked to struggle with the social significance of the suffering of others.


Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR), emitted when an electron beam is traveling above a metallic grating, has attracted a lot of attention as a source of electromagnetic (EM) radiation in the millimeter to visible spectrum. We conducted a theoretical investigation of SPR in the optical region using a two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The permittivity of metal was represented using the Drude model. During the simulation, we observed three types of EM radiations when an electron bunch passes above a metal grating. We think these three types of EM radiation were basic SPR, original surface plasmon polariton (SPP), and mimic-SPP, caused by the periodic grating structure. Our observations were in accordance with analytical models of original SPP and mimic-SPP EM radiation.


Predicting responses of plankton to variations in essential nutrients is hampered by limited in situ measurements, a poor understanding of community composition, and the lack of reference gene catalogs for key taxa. Iron is a key driver of plankton dynamics and, therefore, of global biogeochemical cycles and climate. To assess the impact of iron availability on plankton communities, we explored the comprehensive bio‐oceanographic and bio‐omics data sets from Tara Oceans in the context of the iron products from two state‐of‐the‐art global scale biogeochemical models. We obtained novel information about adaptation and acclimation toward iron in a range of phytoplankton, including picocyanobacteria and diatoms, and identified whole subcommunities covarying with iron. Many of the observed global patterns were recapitulated in the Marquesas archipelago, where frequent plankton blooms are believed to be caused by natural iron fertilization, although they are not captured in large‐scale biogeochemical models. This work provides a proof of concept that integrative analyses, spanning from genes to ecosystems and viruses to zooplankton, can disentangle the complexity of plankton communities and can lead to more accurate formulations of resource bioavailability in biogeochemical models, thus improving our understanding of plankton resilience in a changing environment.


Gammons, C. H., Harris, L.N., Castro J.M., Cott, P.A., and Hanna, B.W. 2009. Creating lakes from open pit mines: processes and considerations with emphasis on northern environments. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 2826: ix + 106 p. This document summarizes the literature of mining pit lakes (through 2007), with a particular focus on issues that are likely to be of special relevance to the creation and management of pit lakes in northern climates. Pit lakes are simply waterbodies formed by filling the open pit left upon the completion of mining operations with water. Like natural lakes, mining pit lakes display a huge diversity in each of these subject areas. However, pit lakes are young and therefore are typically in a non-equilibrium state with respect to their rate of filling, water quality, and biology. Separate sections deal with different aspects of pit lakes, including their morphometry, geology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, and biology. Depending on the type and location of the mine, there may be opportunities to enhance the recreational or ecological benefits of a given pit lake, for example, by re-landscaping and re-vegetating the shoreline, by adding engineered habitat for aquatic life, and maintaining water quality. The creation of a pit lake may be a regulatory requirement to mitigate environmental impacts from mining operations, and/or be included as part of a closure and reclamation plan. Based on published case studies of pit lakes, large-scale bio-engineering projects have had mixed success. A common consensus is that manipulation of pit lake chemistry is difficult, expensive, and takes many years to achieve remediation goals. For this reason, it is prudent to take steps throughout mine operation to reduce the likelihood of future water quality problems upon closure. Also, it makes sense to engineer the lake in such a way that it will achieve its maximal end-use potential, whether it be permanent and safe storage of mine waste, habitat for aquatic life, recreation, or water supply.


Surveys were conducted in eastern Washington and Idaho to determine the plant-parasitic nematodes associated with winegrape (Vitis vinifera) vineyards. The most commonly encountered plant-parasitic nematodes in eastern Washington and Idaho winegrape vineyards were Meloidogyne hapla, Paratylenchus spp., and Xiphinema spp. (detected in >50% of sampled vineyards) with Pratylenchus spp. and Helicotylenchus spp. also commonly detected in Idaho. The frequency of occurrence of these plant-parasitic nematodes was consistently greater in Idaho compared to eastern Washington, except for M. hapla, which had a similar frequency of occurrence in both states. The types of groundcover or irrigation method used in vineyards and estimates of previous crop yields did not influence nematodes present in soil, but differences in plant-parasitic nematode communities were found among geographical areas (American Viticultural Areas, AVAs). Xiphinema spp. was more commonly associated with vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills and Snake River Valley AVAs than in the Yakima Valley and Columbia Valley AVAs. Twenty-seven juice grape (Vitis labruscana) vineyards were sampled to enable a comparison of plant-parasitic nematode communities among red and white winegrapes (V. vinifera) and juice grape varieties. Meloidogyne hapla and Xiphinema spp. were more commonly found in red and white winegrape vineyards than in juice grape vineyards, while Mesocriconema xenoplax and Paratylenchus spp. were more commonly associated with white wine and juice grape vineyards than with red winegrape vineyards. While plant-parasitic nematodes were commonly found in eastern Washington and Idaho vineyards, the impact of these plant-parasitic nematodes on winegrape productivity in this region remains to be determined.


Abstract Donepezil hydrochloride containing polyurethane/hydroxypropyl cellulose (PU/HPC) nanofibers were prepared by the electrospinning for transdermal drug delivery. PU/HPC nanofibers were characterized with SEM, DSC, and Pascal mercury porosimetry. Drug–excipient interaction was studied by ATR-FTIR. In vitro release of PU/HPC nanofiber mat (10:2:1) exhibited Korsmeyer–Peppas release kinetics controlled by the diffusion of drug. In vitro permeation studies across skin resembling synthetic membrane demonstrated the flux of model drug. The in vitro cytotoxicity data obtained via MTT assay indicated that PU/HPC nanofiber mat could be well tolerated by the skin and the components was not irritant for the skin.


OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and coronary heart disease in Chinese and Europid adults. DESIGN: Population based, cross sectional survey. SETTING: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 1991-93. SUBJECTS: Altogether 380 Chinese and 625 Europid adults, aged 25-64 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Fasting lipid levels, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), the proportions who smoked, and the prevalence of coronary heart disease based on the Rose angina questionnaire and major electrocardiographic abnormalities on resting 12 lead electrocardiogram (Minnesota codes 1.1-1.2). All figures were age adjusted to the 1991 England and Wales population. RESULTS: Altogether 183 and 197 Chinese, and 310 and 315 Europid men and women respectively were seen. Compared with Europid men, Chinese men had a lower mean total cholesterol concentration (5.1 versus 5.6 mmol/l, p < 0.001) and LDL cholesterol (3.2 versus 3.6 mmol/l, p < 0.001); lower BMI values (23.8 versus 26.1 kg/m-2, p < 0.001); and smoked less (23% versus 35%, p < 0.01)). Compared with Europid women, Chinese women also had lower mean lipid levels (total cholesterol: 4.9 versus 5.4 mmol/l p < 0.001, LDL cholesterol: 2.8 versus 3.1 mmol/l p < 0.001); BMI values (23.5 versus 26.1 kg/m-2, p < 0.001); and far fewer were smokers (1.4% versus 33%, p < 0.001). Chinese women, however, had higher mean systolic (121 versus 117 mmHg, p > 0.05) and diastolic (75 versus 68 mmHg, p < 0.001) blood pressures. The prevalence of coronary heart disease was significantly lower in Chinese than Europid men (4.9% versus 16.6%, p < 0.001) but not significantly different in women (7.3% versus 11.1%, p = 0.16). CONCLUSION: Strategies for UK Chinese are needed to maintain this favourable risk factor profile and prevent any potential increase in the risk of coronary heart disease associated with increasing acculturation.


In his first encyclical letter, Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict XVI describes the Church as a community of love. In this letter, he explores the organized practice love by and through the Church, and the relationship between this practice, on the one hand, and the Church's commitment to the just ordering of the State and society, on the other. God is love, he writes. This paper considers the implications of this fact for the inescapably complicated nexus of church-state relations in our constitutional order. The specific goal for this paper is to draw from Deus caritas est some insight into what is a fundamental and - at present - the most pressing challenge in church-state law, namely, the preservation of the Church's moral and legal right to govern herself in accord with her own norms and in response to her own calling. It asks, what does the new Pope's work and thinking, about the future and present state of the Church and her organized practice of love, suggest about the appropriate content and vulnerable state of the rights and independence of religious groups - and of the freedom of the Church?


A network is described that performs classification based on self-regulatory feedback. Structurally it contrasts with current classifier methods by not requiring parameterized connection weights or lateral inhibition. Thus is it different from other biologically inspired networks such as: Neural Networks, Adaptive Resonance Networks.


Recent work done by Lovell, Adams, and Mansingka (2012) and Williamson, Dubey, and Xing (2013) has suggested an alternative parametrisation for the Dirichlet process in order to derive non-approximate parallel MCMC inference for it - work which has been picked-up and implemented in several different fields. In this paper we show that the approach suggested is impractical due to an extremely unbalanced distribution of the data. We characterise the requirements of efficient parallel inference for the Dirichlet process and show that the proposed inference fails most of these requirements (while approximate approaches often satisfy most of them). We present both theoretical and experimental evidence, analysing the load balance for the inference and showing that it is independent of the size of the dataset and the number of nodes available in the parallel implementation. We end with suggestions of alternative paths of research for efficient non-approximate parallel inference for the Dirichlet process.


CASE Worsening depression Mr. N, age 64, is a disabled factory worker with a complicated medical history. He has poorly controlled type II diabetes mellitus; obesity (body mass index 40 kg/ [m.sup.2] ); complicated cryptogenic cirrhosis with prior esophageal varices, portal gastropathy, splenomegaly, and no encephalopathy; surgically treated colon adenocarcinoma; and bilateral thalamic and right occipital infarcts with residual left homonymous hemianopsia and vertical gaze paresis. Mr. N sustained a perioperative stroke 18 months ago while undergoing a colectomy procedure for colon adenocarcinoma; an MRI done at that time showed the bilateral thalamic and right occipital infarcts. While in the internal medicine consultation clinic, Mr. N expresses suicidal and homicidal thoughts, which prompted the internal medicine team to refer him to the emergency department (ED). The team deems Mr. N's medical problems stable except for diabetic dyscontrol. In the ED, Mr. N says he feels sad, worthless, and "tired" of his complex family issues and multiple medical conditions. He says he's had these feeling for at least a year, but his depression has worsened in the last few days. Mr. N is tearful while explaining his discouragement with following a diet for diabetes; earlier that day he ate an entire chocolate cake. He says all 3 of his children have ongoing substance abuse and relationship problems, but he is particularly focused on his youngest daughter, who is involved with a man who is addicted to drugs and physically abuses her and her children. Mr. N describes a detailed plan to shoot him and then commit suicide. This disclosure prompts the ED physician to admit Mr. N to ensure his safety and stabilize his mood. Mr. N's temperature is 36.4 [degrees] C (97.5 [degrees] F), blood pressure is 123/60 mm Hg, pulse is 81 beats per minute, respiratory rate is 24 breaths per minute, and oxygen saturation is 96% on ambient air. His physical exam is notable only for dysphoria and mild gynecomastia. He shows no evidence of acute cardiopulmonary, gastrointestinal, or other neurologic changes. His serum glucose is 650 mg/dL, and his recent hemoglobin [A.sub.lc] (Hb [A.sub.lc] ) is 10.9%. His other laboratory tests include a hemoglobin of 117 g/dL; white cell count, 3500/ [mm.sup.3]; platelet count, 41,000/ [mm.sup.3]; sodium, 129 mEq/L; potassium, 5.0 mEq/L; alkaline phosphatase, 90 U/L; aspartate aminotransferase, 23 U/L; alanine aminotransferase, 21 U/L; total bilirubin, 1.8 mg/dL; creatinine, 1.2 mg/dL; prothrombin time, 10.4 sec; and arterial ammonia, Less than 50 [micro] g/dL. Arterial blood gases are normal. A year ago, his primary care physician prescribed fluoxetine, 20 mg/d, for fatigue and chronic back pain and neuropathic pain related to diabetes. We continue Mr. N's outpatient prescription of fluoxetine, 20 mg/d, and low-dose acetaminophen as needed for pain. Furosemide, 40 mg/d, spironolactone, 100 mg/d, and propranolol sustained release, 60 mg/d, are maintained for complications of cirrhosis. Insulin aspart, 22 units with breakfast, 24 units with lunch, and 24 units with supper, also are administered routinely. We consult with the internal medicine, ophthalmology, neurology, endocrinology, and diabetes services to assist in evaluating and managing Mr. N's multiple medical conditions. Which condition would you consider as part of the differential diagnosis? a) depression due to a general medical condition b) adjustment disorder with disturbance of conduct c) major depressive disorder, single episode d) post-stroke depression e) severe decompensation of an underlying personality disorder The authors' observations Depression and other forms of psychopathology may be underrecognized in geriatric patients because older adults may not report psychiatric symptoms that are secondary to physical conditions. Cognitive impairment in some older adults also may lead to underreporting of symptoms. …


In the latter half of gestation in the mare, progesterone concentrations decline to near undetectable levels while other 5α-reduced pregnanes are elevated. Of these, 5α-dihydroprogesterone and allopregnanolone have been reported to have important roles in either pregnancy maintenance or fetal quiescence. During this time, the placenta is necessary for pregnane metabolism, with the enzyme 5α-reductase being required for the conversion of progesterone to 5α-dihydroprogesterone. The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of a 5α-reductase inhibitor, dutasteride on pregnane metabolism (pregnenolone, progesterone, 5α-dihydroprogesterone, 20α-hydroxy-5α-pregnan-3-one, 5α-pregnane-3β,20α-diol and allopregnanolone), to determine circulating dutasteride concentrations and to assess effects of dutasteride treatment on gestational parameters. Pregnant mares (n = 5) received dutasteride (0.01 mg/kg/day, IM) and control mares (n = 4) received vehicle alone from 300 to 320 days of gestation or until parturition. Concentrations of dutasteride, pregnenolone, progesterone, 5α-dihydroprogesterone, 20α-hydroxy-5α-pregnan-3-one, 5α-pregnane-3β,20α-diol, and allopregnanolone were evaluated via liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Samples were analyzed as both days post treatment and as days prepartum. No significant treatment effects were detected in pregnenolone, 5α-dihydroprogesterone, 20α-hydroxy-5α-pregnan-3-one, 5α-pregnane-3β,20α-diol or allopregnanolone for either analysis; however, progesterone concentrations were increased (P < 0.05) sixfold in dutasteride-treated mares compared to control mares. Dutasteride concentrations increased in the treated mares, with a significant correlation (P < 0.05) between dutasteride concentrations and pregnenolone or progesterone concentrations. Gestational length and neonatal outcomes were not significantly altered in dutasteride-treated mares. Although 5α-reduced metabolites were unchanged, these data suggest an accumulation of precursor progesterone with inhibition of 5α-reductase, indicating the ability of dutasteride to alter progesterone metabolism.


The aim of this article is to discuss the meanings of a specific place chosen in different literary texts, using preliminary results of the research of Franco Moretti in the field of distant reading, to ponder upon the approach towards this specific location in different cultures – in literary texts of Lithuanian and American authors. The main instrument to reach the aforesaid aim is the statements of network theory which are important to the distant reading method. The main focus is on the specific kind of network ties: the so-called bridging tie, which in the network theory is considered to be a potential source of new ideas. The bridging tie connects the node/individual to somebody who is not connected to other friends of this particular node/ individual. This type of tie stipulates the possibility to generate new ideas, to widen one's horizons and to gain more information. The bridging tie allows the character to learn something new, which is not known by the members of the concrete group, who are connected with each other through strong or weak ties of state or event. Speaking about the vast number of literary texts in the context of world literature and emphasizing the number of English literary works written during the period of more than one hundred years, Moretti looks for reliable ways to summarize literary facts, and to find some consistent patterns and particular schemes to reach this almost utopian aim. The author of this article tries to find a particular consistent pattern while looking at the randomly chosen novels of Rasa Askinytė and Ernest Hemingway and the short stories of Tomas Staniulis and Sherwood Anderson, and choosing the episodes in different bar settings. After the research there comes the conclusion that the bar is treated as a place, open to innovations; the pattern is violated in the short story of Anderson, but this exception could be explained by Anderson's intention to write the grotesque.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is an obstructive vasculopathy characterized by enhanced pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (PASMC) proliferation and suppressed apoptosis. This phenotype is sustained by the activation of the Src/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) axis, maintained by a positive feedback loop involving miR-204 and followed by an aberrant expression/activation of its downstream targets such as Pim1 and nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFATc2). Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a steroid hormone shown to reverse vascular remodeling in systemic vessels. Since STAT3 has been described as modulated by DHEA, we hypothesized that DHEA reverses human pulmonary hypertension by inhibiting Src/STAT3 constitutive activation. Using PASMCs isolated from patients with PAH (n = 3), we demonstrated that DHEA decreases both Src and STAT3 activation (Western blot and nuclear translocation assay), resulting in a significant reduction of Pim1, NFATc2 expression/activation (quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot), as well as Survivin and upregulation of bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2) and miR-204. Src/STAT3 axis inhibition by DHEA is associated with 1) mitochondrial membrane potential (tetramethylrhodamine methyl-ester perchlorate; n = 150; P < 0.05) depolarization increasing apoptosis by 25% (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP-mediated nick-end labeling; n = 150; P < 0.05); and 2) decreased intracellular Ca(2+) concentration (fluo-3 AM; n = 150; P < 0.05) and proliferation by 30% (PCNA). Finally, in vivo similarly to STAT3 inhibition DHEA improves experimental PAH (monocrotaline rats) by decreasing mean PA pressure and right ventricle hypertrophy. These effects were associated with the inhibition of Src, STAT3, Pim1, NFATc2, and Survivin and the upregulation of BMPR2 and miR-204. We demonstrated that DHEA reverses pulmonary hypertension in part by inhibiting the Src/STAT3.


Label acquisition projects with the grey parrot
 (Psittacus erithacus)
 demonstrated cognitive and communicative skills of this species comparable to great apes. However, results differ profoundly between individuals and laboratories. Two studies investigated the relationship between the characteristics, behaviors and attitudes of human trainers and caregivers, and the word-like sound production of grey parrots. In Study 1, 78 student subjects, who had trained two parrots for five years in our laboratory with the model/rival technique (used to teach animals to use vocal labels in a symbolic way), filled out the personality questionnaire NEO-Five Factor Inventory (
 Costa & McCrae, 1992
 ) and answered additional questions about motivation, approach to animals etc. Parrots' communication during sessions with individual trainers was associated with higher agreeableness, a more serious approach to training, and a shorter period of time serving as a trainer. In Study 2, 29 pet owners and their respective parrots were tested using analogous questions used in Study 1. Results confirmed the effect of agreeableness and a serious approach to training on the production of human words uttered by parrots. In addition, pet owners with higher interest in bird communication had parrots that produced more words. Both studies indicate that the success of communication projects with grey parrots or other species might have been influenced by the characteristics of trainers/caregivers and their relationships with the trained animals.


The problem which has still been faced in the Artificial insemination (AI) is the slow of shrimp to molt. Ecdysteroid hormone has been reported to stimulate molting of tiger shrimp. This study aims to isolate ecdysteroid hormone from Cycas revoluta, Portulaca oleracea and Morus sp. and evaluate its effect on molting period, growth and survival rate of tiger shrimp. Isolation of ecdysteroid from the leaves of three species was carried out by maceration and solvent partition method. Purification of ecdysteroid used repeated column chromatography and preparative thin layer chromatography (TLC). Evaluation of the isolated phytoecdysteroid hormone effect on molting period, growth and survival rate of shrimp was done by injecting of 100 µL phytoecdyasterod (27.5 µg/shrimp) at the first somite of ventral abdomen. As the comparison, the commercial ecdysteroid (positive control) and sterile saline solution (negative control) were also injected at the concentration of 8.6 µg/shrimp and 0 µg/shrimp, respectively. Finding showed that the highest percentage of phytoecdysteroid was obtained in Portulaca oleracea, followed by Morus sp. and Cycas revoluta with the ecdysteroid content of 0.43%, 0.22%, and 0.09%, respectively. Pytoecdysteroid isolated from the three plants was able to shorten molting period of shrimp into 4, 4, 2, and 5 days earlier for Portulaca oleracea, Morus sp., Cycas revoluta, and positive control, respectively, compared to the negative control. The highest survival rate and growth were obtained at the treatment of Portulaca oleracea, followed by Morus sp. and Cycas revoluta with the survival rate, length and weight increase of 86%, 75%, and 25%, 4.42%, 2.26% and 2.16%, and 15.90%, 10.55%, and 8.73%, respectively.


In the North Pacific, variations in isopycnal depth influence the biogeochemical characteristics of the water column and the aragonite saturation horizon (ZΩa) during interannual events. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of the 2011 La Niña conditions on ZΩa in Todos Santos Bay (Baja California, Mexico) and surrounding waters. The results showed that ZΩa variability was modulated by the intensity of interannual conditions and by the water masses that were present in the region. Subarctic Water predominated in the upper 200 m with anomalous characteristics, such as low temperature and low salinity. Also, isopycnals shoaled toward the coast and ZΩa was thus ~30 m in the nearshore area, in contrast with the oceanic region, where ZΩa was ~150 m. Prior to this study, there were no records of ZΩa in Todos Santos Bay, nor were there any records of its shallowness.


Coal continues to fuel more than 72 percent of the country's electricity generation and is also a vital input for other core industries like steel and cement.  However, the coal sector must incorporate social and ecological sensitivities into the mining process from the planning stage up to final mine closure. In this report, the authors present the results of a study on the water and air environment spread over an area of 163 km2 in and around four opencast coal mines in the Dorli - Bellampalli coalfield located in the State of Telangana. This study is based inter alia on the ambient air concentrations and water quality data extracted from the half-yearly compliance reports submitted by SCCL's four opencast coal mines between June 2012 and September 2019. In this study, the variations in airborne concentrations and water quality before and after stoppage of coal production from these opencast coal mines have also been compared in order to develop policy recommendations as well as areas for future research. In general, the particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations in the buffer zone around the opencast coal mines in the study area are slightly higher than the corresponding CPCB standards (60 and 40 µg/m3, respectively) when these mines are in operation. Therefore, opencast coal mines must implement more effective dust controls during all phases of the mining and mineral transportation processes and also maintain a suitable thick green belt to separate the core and buffer zones. The pH, electrical conductivity, and total dissolved solids values in the water samples exceed the pre-mining values but are within the prescribed BIS/CPCB limits. The dissolved oxygen values indicate optimal levels of aeration in the surface water. Pit lake systems evolved from open-cast coal mine voids have the potential to be a more cost-effective, environment-friendly and beneficial option for coal mine closure as opposed to the current mandate of backfilling the final void by re-handling the previously excavated and vegetated overburden dumps. According to the designated best use classes specified by the Central Pollution Control Board, the water quality around the opencast coal mines studied indicates the probable use of water for drinking (Class C) after adequate tertiary treatment, Class D for propagation of wildlife and fisheries, and Class E for irrigation. Therefore, it is possible to transform these final voids into water reservoirs for the benefit of the local communities by implementing a scientific approach to the design and management of pit lakes.


One of the most influential philosophers in the English-speaking world, Charles Taylor is internationally renowned for his contributions to political and moral theory, particularly to debates about identity formation, multiculturalism, secularism, and modernity. In Modern Social Imaginaries, Taylor continues his recent reflections on the theme of multiple modernities. To account for the differences among modernities, Taylor sets out his idea of the social imaginary, a broad understanding of the way a given people imagine their collective social life.

Retelling the history of Western modernity, Taylor traces the development of a distinct social imaginary. Animated by the idea of a moral order based on the mutual benefit of equal participants, the Western social imaginary is characterized by three key cultural forms—the economy, the public sphere, and self-governance. Taylor's account of these cultural formations provides a fresh perspective on how to read the specifics of Western modernity: how we came to imagine society primarily as an economy for exchanging goods and services to promote mutual prosperity, how we began to imagine the public sphere as a metaphorical place for deliberation and discussion among strangers on issues of mutual concern, and how we invented the idea of a self-governing people capable of secular "founding" acts without recourse to transcendent principles. Accessible in length and style, Modern Social Imaginaries offers a clear and concise framework for understanding the structure of modern life in the West and the different forms modernity has taken around the world.


A recent study has revealed that the Earth's natural atmospheric greenhouse effect is around 90 K or about 2.7 times stronger than assumed for the past 40 years. A thermal enhancement of such a magnitude cannot be explained with the observed amount of outgoing infrared long-wave radiation absorbed by the atmosphere (i.e. ≈ 158 W m-2), thus requiring a re-examination of the underlying Greenhouse theory. We present here a new investigation into the physical nature of the atmospheric thermal effect using a novel empirical approach toward predicting the Global Mean Annual near-surface equilibrium Temperature (GMAT) of rocky planets with diverse atmospheres. Our method utilizes Dimensional Analysis (DA) applied to a vetted set of observed data from six celestial bodies representing a broad range of physical environments in our Solar System, i.e. Venus, Earth, the Moon, Mars, Titan (a moon of Saturn), and Triton (a moon of Neptune). Twelve relationships (models) suggested by DA are explored via non-linear regression analyses that involve dimensionless products comprised of solar irradiance, greenhouse-gas partial pressure/density and total atmospheric pressure/density as forcing variables, and two temperature ratios as dependent variables. One non-linear regression model is found to statistically outperform the rest by a wide margin. Our analysis revealed that GMATs of rocky planets with tangible atmospheres and a negligible geothermal surface heating can accurately be predicted over a broad range of conditions using only two forcing variables: top-of-the-atmosphere solar irradiance and total surface atmospheric pressure. The hereto discovered interplanetary pressure-temperature relationship is shown to be statistically robust while describing a smooth physical continuum without climatic tipping points. This continuum fully explains the recently discovered 90 K thermal effect of Earth's atmosphere. The new model displays characteristics of an emergent macro-level thermodynamic relationship heretofore unbeknown to science that has important theoretical implications. A key entailment from the model is that the atmospheric 'greenhouse effect' currently viewed as a radiative phenomenon is in fact an adiabatic (pressure-induced) thermal enhancement analogous to compression heating and independent of atmospheric composition. Consequently, the global down-welling long-wave flux presently assumed to drive Earth's surface warming appears to be a product of the air temperature set by solar heating and atmospheric pressure. In other words, the so-called 'greenhouse back radiation' is globally a result of the atmospheric thermal effect rather than a cause for it. Our empirical model has also fundamental implications for the role of oceans, water vapour, and planetary albedo in global climate. Since produced by a rigorous attempt to describe planetary temperatures in the context of a cosmic continuum using an objective analysis of vetted observations from across the Solar System, these findings call for a paradigm shift in our understanding of the atmospheric 'greenhouse effect' as a fundamental property of climate.


The pricing of bonds and bond options with default risk is analyzed in the general equilibrium model of Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross (1985). This model is extended by means of an additional parameter in order to deal with financial and credit risk simultaneously. The estimation of such a parameter, which can be considered as the market equivalent of an agencies' bond rating, allows to extract from current quotes the market perceptions of firm's credit risk. The general pricing model for defaultable zero-coupon bond is first derived in a simple discrete-time setting and then in continuous-time. The availability of an integrated model allows for the pricing of default-free options written on defaultable bonds and of vulnerable options written either on default-free bonds or defaultable bonds. A comparison between our results and those given by Jarrow and Turnbull (1995) is also presented.


Presurgical evaluation in many epilepsy programmes often includes the intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP). Sodium amytal is injected into the internal carotid artery to produce a temporary "pharmacological paralysis" of hemispheric function. Traditionally, the IAP has been employed in patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy being considered for anterior temporal lobectomy. In these cases it is used to determine cerebral dominance for language, to assess the risk of severe postsurgical amnesia, and to predict postsurgical material specific memory changes. More recently, the use of the IAP has been extended to compliment EEG localisation and radiological data by lateralising temporal lobe dysfunction. The IAP may have a hitherto unrecognised role in patients with refractory frontal lobe epilepsy being considered for frontal lobectomy. Specifically, observation of behavioural function during the period of the ablation may provide useful information about the integrity of the contralateral frontal lobe. This is particularly relevant in those candidates with a history of cerebral trauma in whom damage to the bifrontal lobe is known or suspected. A review of the IAP studies performed on patients with temporal lobe epilepsy in our comprehensive epilepsy programme (1991–8) suggests that the emergence of frontal lobe behavioural features is common in patients in whom the aetiology leads to the suspicion of bifrontal compromise (for example, a history of traumatic head injury). By contrast, these features rarely emerge in cases of non-traumatic aetiology, in which the integrity of frontal lobe systems is presumed. Although it remains an incidental finding in the context of determining the suitability of a candidate for anterior temporal lobectomy, this outcome may have potential implications for the selection of patients for frontal lobectomy. We report a case of frontal lobe epilepsy secondary to a traumatic head injury. Out of concern for untoward postoperative behavioural change, we employed the IAP in an attempt to predict the risk of a frontal lobe syndrome. A 39 year old man had a 23 year history of severe refractory epilepsy. The seizures postdated a motor car accident at the age of 12 years when he sustained a head injury with an ill defined period of loss of consciousness. Seizures commenced within months of that injury and, although initially well controlled, became refractory within a few years. The seizure types included staring spells, violent tonic-clonic seizures, and atonic drop attacks. He had complications from his epilepsy including a fractured jaw, two episodes of severe burning due to seizures while showering, multiple episodes of postictal confusion and probable postictal psychosis, a lung abscess secondary to aspiration, and episodes of status epilepticus. Interictal EEG recordings showed bilateral generalised spike and wave discharges at around 2 Hz-2.5 Hz with some mild increase in bilateral slow activity and no convincing evidence of electrographic focalisation. Video EEG monitoring showed apparent generalised seizures without any focal onset on scalp EEG. Brain MRI disclosed a well defined atrophic lesion involving the left frontal pole considered likely to be post-traumatic in origin. Interictal FDG PET and HMPO SPECT disclosed hypoperfusion in the left anterior frontal region commensurate with the abnormality shown on MRI. Although his electroclinical pattern was suggestive of symptomatic generalised epilepsy, because of the left frontal lesion, seizure onset from that region was considered likely. On neuropsychological examination, his general cognitive function was normal. At a behavioural level, however, he presented as very peurile in manner with a very rigid, inflexible cognitive style. The neuropsychological opinion was of a mild frontal lobe syndrome consistent with the history of traumatic head injury. There was no current evidence of psychiatric disorder. Although having successfully passed his final year of secondary school (together with several courses of advanced education), he had remained unemployed due to his seizures. He was socially isolated and his interpersonal relationships were limited. He had severe life threatening epilepsy with the surgical option the only remaining avenue of treatment. However, as surgical management would involve resection of the left frontal lobe against a background of traumatic head injury and the possibility of more generalised frontal lobe compromise, a left hemispheric IAP was performed. Sodium amytal (125 mg) was administered via a slow hand injection. Of relevance, no crossflow into the contralateral anterior cerebral artery via the anterior communicating artery was present (as assessed by a separate injection of contrast medium). The injection was accompanied by a dense right hemiplegia and global aphasic arrest. Resolution of language was characterised by a dense perseveration of counting which could not be influenced by the examiner. Despite normal comprehension, he showed severely impaired capacity for motor regulation (go-no go paradigm), together with marked behavioural disinhibition (agitation, swearing, verbosity, childishness). Although seemingly aware of some aspects of his behaviour (apologising for swearing), he seemed unable to modify his responses. The overall impression was of a pronounced frontal lobe syndrome, suggesting that the right frontal lobe had incurred some damage secondary to the documented head trauma and that he must have been reliant on some left frontal contribution. On the basis of the IAP findings, a selective cortical resection (as opposed to more extensive frontal lobectomy) restricted to the region of damage was advised. Intraoperative electrocorticography showed active focal epileptiform discharges maximal in the inferior frontal lobe in the electrodes closest to the lesion. A cortical resection was performed with frameless stereotaxy guidance excision of the frontal lesion. Histopathology on the resected tissue showed an old post-traumatic cyst involving the cortex and white matter. His postoperative course was unremarkable. When reviewed 3 months after surgery he was seizure free. His performance on neuropsychological evaluation remained commensurate with presurgical status. There were no novel subjective complaints. Mood, behaviour, and temperament remained stable. Despite its undoubted value in many individual cases of temporal lobe epilepsy, the IAP has remained a controversial assessment instrument. Amid this controversy its potential usefulness in other patient groups seems to have been overlooked. A primary criticism of its use in temporal lobe epilepsy has been the question of irrigation and whether the medial temporal lobe is adequately "disabled" during the procedure. This particular limitation is not applicable when used in the patient with frontal lobe epilepsy, as the region of interest is clearly ablated via supply from the carotid arterial system. Caution must, however, be exercised with respect to possible crossflow into the contralateral anterior cerebral artery via the anterior communicating artery. When such crossflow is present, the ability to assess validly the integrity of contralateral frontal lobe function will be confounded by virtue of a pharmacologically induced bilateral frontal lobe syndrome. As with the use in cases of temporal lobe epilepsy, only a restricted form of assessment is possible with the frontal lobe patient during the period of ablation. An assessment focusing on issues of behavioural regulation would seem most useful. It should be borne in mind that the degree of frontal lobe dysfunction induced by the IAP represents the "worst case scenario" as the entire frontal lobe is included in the ablation. There are likely to be few surgical scenarios in which a comparable extensive resection of tissue is likely to be considered, and results must be interpreted in this context. This limitation not withstanding, the IAP does seem to have a role in separating out those patients in whom more extensive frontal lobe resections could be considered as opposed to those in whom a more conservative approach is warranted. This case report forms only the basis for a novel hypothesis that clearly requires more rigorous scientific research before its clinical utility can be reliably established. Nonetheless, we think that it is worth drawing the attention of the epileptological community to the potential application of the IAP in the surgical management of extratemporal cases.


BACKGROUND
Although various studies have examined the short-term effects of a ketogenic diet in reducing weight in obese patients, its long-term effects on various physical and biochemical parameters are not known.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effects of a 24-week ketogenic diet (consisting of 30 g carbohydrate, 1 g/kg body weight protein, 20% saturated fat, and 80% polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat) in obese patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
In the present study, 83 obese patients (39 men and 44 women) with a body mass index greater than 35 kg/m(2), and high glucose and cholesterol levels were selected. The body weight, body mass index, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting blood sugar, urea and creatinine levels were determined before and after the administration of the ketogenic diet. Changes in these parameters were monitored after eight, 16 and 24 weeks of treatment.

RESULTS
The weight and body mass index of the patients decreased significantly (P<0.0001). The level of total cholesterol decreased from week 1 to week 24. HDL cholesterol levels significantly increased, whereas LDL cholesterol levels significantly decreased after treatment. The level of triglycerides decreased significantly following 24 weeks of treatment. The level of blood glucose significantly decreased. The changes in the level of urea and creatinine were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study shows the beneficial effects of a long-term ketogenic diet. It significantly reduced the body weight and body mass index of the patients. Furthermore, it decreased the level of triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and blood glucose, and increased the level of HDL cholesterol. Administering a ketogenic diet for a relatively longer period of time did not produce any significant side effects in the patients. Therefore, the present study confirms that it is safe to use a ketogenic diet for a longer period of time than previously demonstrated.


A double-blind crossover study comparing the effect of aged garlic extract with a placebo on blood lipids was performed in a group of 41 moderately hypercholesterolemic men [cholesterol concentrations 5.7-7.5 mmol/L (220-290 mg/dL)]. After a 4-wk baseline period, during which the subjects were advised to adhere to a National Cholesterol Education Program Step I diet, they were started on 7.2 g aged garlic extract per day or an equivalent amount of placebo as a dietary supplement for a period of 6 mo, then switched to the other supplement for an additional 4 mo. Blood lipids, blood counts, thyroid and liver function measures, body weight, and blood pressure were followed over the entire study period. The major findings were a maximal reduction in total serum cholesterol of 6.1% or 7.0% in comparison with the average concentration during the placebo administration or baseline evaluation period, respectively. Low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol was also decreased by aged garlic extract, 4% when compared with average baseline values and 4.6% in comparison with placebo period concentrations. In addition, there was a 5.5% decrease in systolic blood pressure and a modest reduction of diastolic blood pressure in response to aged garlic extract. We conclude that dietary supplementation with aged garlic extract has beneficial effects on the lipid profile and blood pressure of moderately hypercholesterolemic subjects.


CIE4485. This course deals with background and application of various wastewater treatment technologies. Both high-tech and low-tech systems are discussed, which are applicable in industrialized and developing countries. Anaerobic treatment systems, focusing on resource recovery are extensively discussed. Modern technologies for (extensive) nutrient removal / recovery are dealt with as well as membrane techniques for wastewater treatment. The study goals are to acquire knowledge on conventional and modern wastewater treatment technologies.


The growing epidemic of obesity, which causes nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the more severe phenotype nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), has paralleled the increasing incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Accumulating evidence demonstrates that overnutrition and metabolic pathways can trigger modifications of DNA and histones via deregulation of chromatin modifiers, resulting in aberrant transcriptional activity. However, the epigenetic regulation of HCC development in NAFLD remains obscure. Here, we uncover key epigenetic regulators using both dietary and genetic obesitypromoted HCC models through quantitative expression profiling and characterize the oncogenic activities of histone deacetylase HDAC8 in NAFLD-associated hepatocarcinogenesis. HDAC8 is directly upregulated by the lipogenic transcription factor SREBP-1 where they are coexpressed in dietary obesity models of NASH and HCC. Lentiviral-mediated HDAC8 attenuation in vivo reversed insulin resistance and reduced NAFLDassociated tumorigenicity. HDAC8 modulation by genetic and pharmacologic approaches inhibited p53/p21-mediated apoptosis and G2–M phase cell-cycle arrest and stimulated b-catenin–dependent cell proliferation. Mechanistically, HDAC8 physically interacted with the chromatin modifier EZH2 to concordantly repress Wnt antagonists via histone H4 deacetylation and H3 lysine 27 trimethylation. In human NAFLD-associated HCC, levels of SREBP-1, HDAC8, EZH2, H4 deacetylation, H3K27me3, and active b-catenin were all correlated positively in tumors compared with nontumor tissues. Overall, our findings show how HDAC8 drives NAFLD-associated hepatocarcinogenesis, offering a novel epigenetic target to prevent or treat HCC in obese patients. Cancer Res; 75(22); 4803–16. 2015 AACR.


Buckling of single-walled and multiwalled carbon nanotubes SWNTs and MWNTs, respectively due to axial compressive loads has been studied by molecular mechanics simulations, and results compared with those from the analysis of equivalent continuum structures using Euler buckling theory and the finite element method. It is found that a MWNT of large aspect ratio length/diameter buckles as a column with axial strain at buckling given reasonably well by the Euler buckling theory applied to the equivalent continuum structure. However, a MWNT of low aspect ratio buckles in shell wall buckling mode with the axial strain at buckling corresponding to the highest axial strain at buckling of one of its constituent SWNTs. A finite element model has been developed that simulates van der Waals forces by truss elements connecting nodes on adjacent walls of a MWNT; the axial strain at buckling from it is close to that obtained from the MM simulations but the two sets of mode shapes are different.


The growing use of temporary contracts in Europe raises the question of whether long-term employment relations are eroding in coordinated market economies, where protective regulations are historically strong. This paper, using data from establishment-level surveys conducted in 2003–2005, examines the institutional and organizational factors that have shaped the extent of use of temporary contracts in call centers in six European countries: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, and Sweden. While differences in regulatory regimes appear to have influenced employer behavior in some cases, the exceptions are striking, as the countries with the most stringent restrictions on temporary workers were among the heaviest users of such workers. By contrast, firm-level strategies that retained work in-house and invested in work force skills and training were consistent predictors of the use of long-term contracts as opposed to temporary ones.


The invertebrate assemblages in sediments bordering exposed fringing reefs at Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii, were examined during July to September 1994. Densities of invertebrate animals larger than 0.5 mm in sediments of the bay ranged from counts of 10 260 m -2 in the fine carbonate sands of the central bay to 870 m -2 in the habitat dominated by terrigenous silt near the reef edge close to the Hanalei river mouth. Similar sediment types supported broadly similar infaunal commu- nities. Within the primarily carbonate sediments, mean grain size and wave exposure appear to have an important influence on the community. Taxonomic richness, number of individuals, and diversity showed significant negative relationships with exposure to wave energy (as estimated by sand ripple wavelength). The number of individuals was also significantly correlated with mean grain size. Over- all, polychaetes and small crustaceans were numerically dominant among the major taxonomic groups investigated. Macrophagous and microphagous polychaetes had significant, but opposite, associations with grain size. In addition, microphagous polychaetes were significantly negatively cor- related with wave exposure. No habitat variable measured could explain the variation in percent composition of crustaceans or echinoderms in the sedimentary habitats. The percentage of gas- tropods in the community was significantly negatively correlated with grain size, grain-size standard deviation and exposure, and positively with percent organic carbon. Bivalves were significantly positively associated with depth and grain size. These strong relationships imply that, in Hanalei Bay, physical processes are especially important in influencing assemblage structure, and that community structure and composition vary continuously along environmental gradients.