Cancer inducible molecular chaperone HSP90 is of great importance as an anticancer target. Proteomic analysis showed that inhibiting HSP90 by the geldanamycin derivative, 17-AAG elevated the expression of the co-chaperone Hsp70. In this study we used HSP90 selective inhibitor 17-AAG and HSP70/90 dual inhibitor, VER155008 (VER) in U87-MG glioma cells. miRNAs microarray technology was used to evaluate the efficacy of these inhibitory drugs compared with temozolomide (TMZ), used as a standard treatment for glioma. Microarrays data identified 154 differentially expressed miRNAs using stringent or unstringent parameters. 16 miRNAs were overlapped between treatments, 13 upregulated and one downregulated miRNA were overlapped between TMZ and VER. The miRNA target prediction software was used for these overlapped miRNAs and identified 6 of the 13 upregulated miRNAs target methyltransferase genes. The IC50, together with Akt and HSP70 and 90 protein level data favour VER and TMZ to 17-AAG, however due to the selectivity of VER to cancer cells as a potent antichaperon, it may be more favourable to the standard TMZ.


"The loss of the dream Leaves nothing the same." Langston Hughes, "Beale Street" On April 6, 1968, Bayard Rustin received the United Federation of Teachers' (UFT) Dewey Award, an acknowledgment by the New York City union of the civil rights leader's incalculable contributions to progressive social activism. A founder of CORE and close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Rustin had helped invent the Freedom Rides and had organized the celebrated 1963 March on Washington. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he was a leading American pacifist and shaped the theory and practice of nonviolence. As the protege of black labor leader A. Philip Randolph, Rustin also championed the victims of economic inequality. "More than anyone else in the postwar era," comments historian John D'Emilio, Rustin "was a bridge linking the African American freedom struggle, peace campaigns, and a socialist vision of economic democracy." (2) As much as the United Federation of Teachers' John Dewey Award acknowledged Rustin's activism, it also signaled his estrangement from the movement he had done so much to create. In the late 1960s, New York's white teacher unionists and black activists were locked in a bitter struggle over control of the city's mammoth school system. Black demands for "community control" followed a long, well-organized and singularly unsuccessful campaign to integrate New York's schools, a campaign in which white liberal organizations, including the UFT, offered little support. As white resistance undermined black hopes of integrating education and achieving full participation in American life, black parents and activists turned to demanding power in running segregated schools. Whereas black activists saw community control as a prerequisite to democratizing school governance, eliminating racism in education, and opening school jobs to African Americans, teacher unionists saw it as a threat to due process, job security, and unbiased, quality education. The conflict between black activists and white teacher unionists placed New York at the epicenter of America's racial strife. Despite Bayard Rustin's long record at the forefront of the African American freedom struggle, in 1968 he distanced himself from black activists. The call for community control both reflected and propelled the growing power of nationalist ideas and ideals among African Americans across the United States. Blacks would gain more by aligning themselves with the labor movement, Rustin countered, than from protests reflecting their racial identity and particular concerns. Amid the rancor of the school conflict, this dual commitment to economic democracy and the integrationist ideal led Rustin to sever ties with old allies and became one of the UFT's few prominent black supporters. (3) Rustin's arguments, grounded in decades of struggle, failed to stem the growing appeal of nationalist calls for Black Power and self-determination among school activists and the declining hopes for school integration among activists and policymakers alike. And yet, no less than advocates of community control, Rustin addressed the quandary that confronted all black activists once America's commitment to racial equality had reached its limits and then begun to recede. The argument in this essay that Rustin's estrangement from old allies reflected a profound shift in his politics and in the movements of the 1960s stands in contrast to much recent scholarship. Of late, historians have highlighted the essential continuity in Rustin's career and in the broader flow of recent American history. Their accounts have generated nuanced understandings of the interplay of integration and black nationalism in the African American struggle for social justice and of the enduring presence of both democratic ideals and racial inequality in American life. John D'Emilio exemplifies the recent historiography. He portrays Rustin's politics as steadfastly grounded in "a bedrock optimism that the American political system was flexible and responsive enough to embrace change of revolutionary dimensions. …


An international open competition by Metamode. A proposal for a new Gallery and Cultural Centre for Nanshan, a district in the Shenzhen special economic zone. Nanshan, traditionally known as Nantou, was is a traditional fishing village focussing on the oyster and pearl industries. The port of Nanshan was the first to be developed with the special economic zone in 1981. Since this time the city has developed rapidly with virtually no traces of its previous incarnation evident. The city that has emerged is around the port is characterised by its inauspicious architectural language and and unremarkable cityscape. The building responds to this setting by reconstructing a new version of the city in its reflective and shimmering facade. Through the blandness of the city context a new architectural icon emerges. The new Cultural Centre is intended to serve the Nanshan district. There is an art gallery, opera house, theatre and exhibition spaces. Total building area 12,000 sq m. Construction cost £28.5m.


The Altiplano Plateau is a high-elevation, internally drained basin located in the hinterland of the Central Andean fold-thrust belt of Bolivia. Cenozoic strata exposed along the margins of the basin provide a unique record of deposition and deformation in this region and can also be applied to understanding synorogenic sedimentation in other fold-thrust belts. We examined Oligocene conglomerate units deposited along the margin of the nascent Altiplano in an effort to better understand how this large hinterland basin has evolved, and examine the relationship between upper crustal deformation and sedimentation in the interior of the Central Andean fold-thrust belt. Facies associations indicate initial deposition occurred in alluvial-fan and braidplain settings, and growth strata in these units record syndeformational deposition. Facies associations in overlying units contain a greater proportion of fine-grained material and were deposited in isolated fluvial channels surrounded by well drained- floodplain deposits. These units are less deformed relative to the alluvial-fan and braidplain deposits, suggesting that deformation waned as deposition continued. Clast counts and paleocurrents indicate that much of the Oligocene sediment was locally derived from Paleozoic strata and deposited in semi-isolated basins located between major thrusts and folds. Uranium- lead ages of detrital zircons from the conglomerate beds correspond to those from surrounding Paleozoic strata, supporting the hypothesis that most of sediment in the Oligocene conglomerate beds were derived directly from these older units. The youngest population of detrital zircon ages in the conglomerate beds are identical to the inferred ages of the deposits themselves. Collectively, the data indicate that the eastern margin of the Altiplano during Oligocene time was dominated by active upper crustal deformation, with alluvial-fan and braidplain deposition occurring in topographic lows. As deformation waned, deposition shifted from alluvial fans to isolated fluvial channels surrounded by extensive floodplains. In the regional setting, Upper Oligocene sediments exposed along the eastern margin of the Altiplano represent the remnants of a feeder zone to large fluvial distributary systems that occupied and infilled the center of the Altiplano.


The effect of cooking on proteins from acha and durum wheat was assessed from an analysis of protein extractability, gel electrophoretic profiles, in-vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) and the amino acid compositions of wholemeal flour and residue proteins. Heating wholemeal flour samples at 100-140 degrees C (t = 10-40 min) resulted in 0-30% and 45-55% decreases in acha and durum protein solubility, respectively. In general, high molecular weight (30-70 kDa) protein subunits were more susceptible to heat damage. For both cereals, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS; 10 g litre-1) and/or dithiothreitol (DTT; 10mM) increased protein solubility in unheated and heated samples. The IVPD index was 90-91% and was not significantly altered by cooking (100-120 degrees C, t = 40 min). Cooking at extreme temperatures (140 degrees C, t = 40 min) reduced the IVPD by 8% (P = 0.05). Osborne fractionation resulted in a durum or acha residue level of 7.8% or 55.2%. Treatment with solvent containing propanol, SDS and/or DTT at room temperature followed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of non-solubilised proteins showed that the glutelin fraction of acha, with the exception of a 65 kDa subunit, was insoluble owing to strong inter-subunit hydrophobic and disulphide interactions. Wholemeal acha flour and residue protein showed a significantly greater level of hydrophobic and sulphur amino acids as well as glutamine which is associated with H-bonding. The possibility that cereal protein solubility is also dependent on protein-carbohydrate links is discussed.


By all accounts, the constitutional and antitrust state-action doctrines are strangers. Courts and scholars see the constitutional state-action doctrine as about the applicability of constitutional rights in private disputes, and the antitrust state-action doctrine as a judicial negotiation between the scope of the Sherman Act and the demands of federalism. In this conventional view, the only thing the doctrines share in common is that they are both an awful mess. This Article challenges the conventional wisdom and argues that the two state-action doctrines are fundamentally connected, and when viewed in a certain light, really not even all that messy. It's not that the traditional readings of the two doctrines have been wrong, so much as they persistently fail to take notice of the political theory that threads the two doctrines together. That theory is liberal legalism, and in the context of liberalism the two state-action doctrines bear witness to a story about American "competition law" that is only half-told in the conventional fields of law and economics. To better understand the legal foundations of market society, as well as the requisites of market reform, we need something other than an "economic analysis of law," much less a singular focus on various forms of economic regulation. What is needed instead is an image of the structure of market society, and an understanding of the deep premises that make that image possible. In the service of that goal this Article maps the manner in which these underground notions inform the background rules of the market through the use of the constitutional state-action doctrine, and simultaneously manage the market through the use of regulatory devices like antitrust law. These are the premises of our liberal legalism, and a fruitful field of their study lies in the surprising connection between the two state-action doctrines.


The effectiveness of knowledge graph embedding (KGE) largely depends on the ability to model intrinsic relation patterns and mapping properties. However, existing approaches can only capture some of them with insufficient modeling capacity. In this work, we propose a more powerful KGE framework named HousE, which involves a novel parameterization based on two kinds of Householder transformations: (1) Householder rotations to achieve superior capacity of modeling relation patterns; (2) Householder projections to handle sophisticated relation mapping properties. Theoretically, HousE is capable of modeling crucial relation patterns and mapping properties simultaneously. Besides, HousE is a generalization of existing rotation-based models while extending the rotations to high-dimensional spaces. Empirically, HousE achieves new state-of-the-art performance on five benchmark datasets. Our code is available at https://github.com/anrep/HousE.


Our paper reports findings from a two-phase deployment of iPod Touch and iPad devices in a large, urban Canadian school board. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of the infrastructure required to support handheld devices in classrooms; the opportunities and challenges teachers face as they begin to use handheld devices for teaching and learning; and the opportunities, challenges and temptations students face when gaining access to handheld devices and wireless networks in K – 12 schools. A mixed method approach was used: online survey, monthly professional development activities with teachers, collected samples of lesson plans and student work, and regular classroom observations. Phase 1 findings (exploring only the use of the iPod Touch devices) suggest participants (students, teachers, and IT support staff) preferred a range of devices for a variety of commonplace tasks. They indicated they would select the iPod Touch for recording voices / sounds, listening to podcasts, and playing games. They preferred a laptop for searching the Internet, creating media, and checking email, and they selected paper or traditional options for drawing, reading, and tracking work / maintaining an agenda. Sixty percent had never used the device prior to the project. Despite that surprising finding, 70% of respondents felt it took less than hour to become familiar with it. However, this question did not probe comfort levels with the syncing / charging, iTunes' account management side of use, and herein lay a challenge. In order to use personal devices in school settings, the school / district needed to create a common iTUNEs account and dedicate a computer to sync, share, and organize applications (apps), content, and system settings. This common account formed a "digital commons" of sorts; a place where participants had to negotiate what apps to share and permissions and access protocols. Participation in the commons required an ongoing exploration of what digital citizenship meant in classrooms and how this impacted teacher's work, parental responsibility and changes in disciplinary approaches for administrators. Year 1 of Phase 1 yielded a wealth of data. Specifically, the iPod Touch devices were well received and well used by the majority of participants in the elementary and junior high settings. The high school students and teachers were more critical, as both appeared to struggle to find educational uses for the devices. Further, high school students initially appeared to "resent" the intrusion of school issued personal devices. Phase 2 continued to work with the Phase 1 participants and added the deployment of the iPad devices in three additional schools. Probably the most interesting finding was the lack of familiarity of these devices by all the participants. We anticipated many would have owned similar devices and be proficient in their use – this was not the case.


This article analyses housing policy, production and consumption in Harare. It reviews most (hopefully all) of the recent literature on urban housing in Zimbabwe, most of which is on the low-income sector in Harare. The principal aim of the article is to synthesize what is known about urban housing in Harare and, having determined the state of our knowledge, to point out directions for future research. In addition, current policy problems are highlighted and their implications for the production and consumption of housing explored.
The article is in two parts. Following a brief theoretical discussion, Part I focuses on the production of housing in Harare. Part II (to be published in the next issue of Zambezia) will focus on the consumption of housing in Harare, and will conclude with an outline of the main findings of the study and directions for future research.


Image semantic segmentation is the task of partitioning image into several regions based on semantic concepts. In this paper, we learn a weakly supervised semantic segmentation model from social images whose labels are not pixel-level but image-level; furthermore, these labels might be noisy. We present a joint conditional random field model leveraging various contexts to address this issue. More specifically, we extract global and local features in multiple scales by convolutional neural network and topic model. Inter-label correlations are captured by visual contextual cues and label co-occurrence statistics. The label consistency between image-level and pixel-level is finally achieved by iterative refinement. Experimental results on two real-world image datasets PASCAL VOC2007 and SIFT-Flow demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art weakly supervised methods and even achieves accuracy comparable with fully supervised methods.


The aim of this review was to provide an evidence base for policy development on vocational rehabilitation:
• To assess the evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation interventions.
• To develop practical suggestions on what vocational rehabilitation interventions are likely to work, for whom, and when.
Vocational rehabilitation was defined as whatever helps someone with a health problem to stay at, return to and remain in work: it is an idea and an approach as much as an intervention or a service. The focus was on adults of working age, the common health problems that account for two thirds of long-term sickness (mild/moderate musculoskeletal, mental health and cardiorespiratory conditions), and work outcomes (staying at, returning to and remaining in work). Data from some 450 scientific reviews and reports, mainly published between 2000 and December 2007, were included in evidence tables. Using a best evidence synthesis, evidence statements were developed in each area, with evidence linking and rating of the strength of the scientific evidence.
Findings
Generic findings:
This review has demonstrated that there is a strong scientific evidence base for many aspects
of vocational rehabilitation. There is a good business case for vocational rehabilitation, and
more evidence on cost-benefits than for many health and social policy areas. Common health problems should get high priority, because they account for about two-thirds of long-term sickness absence and incapacity benefits, and much of this should be preventable.
Vocational rehabilitation principles and interventions are fundamentally the same for work related and other comparable health conditions, irrespective of whether they are classified as
injury or disease. Return-to-work should be one of the key outcome measures.
Healthcare has a key role, but vocational rehabilitation is not a matter of healthcare alone – the evidence shows that treatment by itself has little impact on work outcomes. Employers also have a key role - there is strong evidence that proactive company approaches to
sickness, together with the temporary provision of modified work and accommodations, are effective and cost-effective. (Though there is less evidence on vocational rehabilitation
interventions in small and medium enterprises). Overall, the evidence in this review shows that effective vocational rehabilitation depends on work-focused healthcare.
Executive summary
Vocational Rehabilitation: What Works, for Whom, and When? and accommodating workplaces. Both are necessary: they are inter-dependent and must be coordinated. The concept of early intervention is central to vocational rehabilitation, because the longer anyone is off work, the greater the obstacles to return to work and the more difficult vocational rehabilitation becomes. It is simpler, more effective and cost-effective to prevent people with common health problems going on to long-term sickness absence. A 'stepped-care
approach' starts with simple, low-intensity, low-cost interventions which will be adequate for most sick or injured workers, and provides progressively more intensive and structured
interventions for those who need additional help to return to work. This approach allocates
finite resources most appropriately and efficiently to meet individual needs.
Effective vocational rehabilitation depends on communication and coordination between
the key players – particularly the individual, healthcare, and the workplace.
Condition specific findings:
There is strong evidence on effective vocational rehabilitation interventions for musculoskeletal conditions. For many years the strongest evidence was on low back pain, but more recent evidence shows that the same principles apply to most people with most common musculoskeletal disorders.
Various medical and psychological treatments for anxiety and depression can improve symptoms and quality of life, but there is limited evidence that they improve work outcomes. There is a lack of scientific clarity about 'stress', and little or no evidence on effective interventions for work outcomes. There is an urgent need to improve vocational rehabilitation interventions for mental health problems. Promising approaches include healthcare which incorporates a focus on return to work, workplaces that are accommodating
and non-discriminating, and early intervention to support workers to stay in work and so
prevent long-term sickness.
Current cardiac rehabilitation programmes focus almost exclusively on clinical and disease
outcomes, with little evidence on what helps work outcomes: a change of focus is required.
Workers with occupational asthma who are unable to return to their previous jobs need better support and if necessary retraining.
Practical suggestions
Given that vocational rehabilitation is about helping people with health problems stay at,
return to and remain in work, the policy question is how to make sure that everyone of working age receives the help they require. Logically, this should start from the needs of people with health problems (at various stages); build on the evidence about effective interventions; and finally consider potential resources and the practicalities of how these interventions might be delivered. From a policy perspective, there are three broad types of clients, who are differentiated mainly by duration out of work, and who have correspondingly different needs:
In the first six weeks or so, most people with common health problems can be helped to return to work by following a few basic principles of healthcare and workplace management. This can be done with existing or minimal additional resources, and is low cost or cost-neutral. Policy should be directed to persuading and supporting health professionals and employers to embrace and implement these principles.
There is strong evidence on effective vocational rehabilitation interventions for the minority (possibly 5-10%) of workers with common health problems who need additional help to return to work after about six weeks, but there is a need to develop system(s) to deliver these interventions on a national scale. These systems should include both healthcare and workplace elements that take a proactive approach focused on return to work. To operationalise this requires a universal Gateway that a) identifies people after about 6 weeks' sickness absence, b) directs them to appropriate help, and c) ensures the content and standards of the interventions provided. Pilot studies of service delivery
model(s) will be required to improve the evidence base on their effectiveness and costbenefits
in the UK context. This will involve investment but the potential benefits far outweigh the expenditure and the enormous costs of doing nothing.
For people who are out of work more than about 6 months and on benefits, Pathways to work is the most effective example to date. There is good evidence that Pathways increases the return to work rate of new claimants by 7-9%, with a positive cost-benefit ratio. Continued research and development is required to optimise Pathways for claimants with mental health problems and for long-term benefit recipients.
Vocational rehabilitation needs to be underpinned by education to inform the public, health professionals and employers about the value of work for health and recovery, and their part in the return to work process.
Conclusion
There is broad consensus among all the key stakeholders on the need to improve vocational
rehabilitation in the UK. This review has demonstrated that there is now a strong scientific
evidence base for many aspects of vocational rehabilitation, and a good business case for
action. It has identified what works, for whom, and when and indicated areas where further
research and development is required. Vocational rehabilitation should be a fundamental element of Government strategy to improve the health of working age people.


Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a powerful tool for in-vivo examination of a variety of skin diseases. However, current use of RCM depends on qualitative examination by a human expert to look for specific features in the different strata of the skin. Developing approaches to quantify features in RCM imagery requires an automated understanding of what anatomical strata is present in a given en-face section. This work presents an automated approach using a bag of features approach to represent en-face sections and a logistic regression classifier to classify sections into one of four classes (stratum corneum, viable epidermis, dermal-epidermal junction and papillary dermis). This approach was developed and tested using a dataset of 308 depth stacks from 54 volunteers in two age groups (20-30 and 50-70 years of age). The classification accuracy on the test set was 85.6%. The mean absolute error in determining the interface depth for each of the stratum corneum/viable epidermis, viable epidermis/dermal-epidermal junction and dermal-epidermal junction/papillary dermis interfaces were 3.1 μm, 6.0 μm and 5.5 μm respectively. The probabilities predicted by the classifier in the test set showed that the classifier learned an effective model of the anatomy of human skin.


This research is motivated by the fact that literary works should also be useful in addition to attract and serve a positive influence on the literary connoisseur. Literature lovers can take a lesson from the story elements are displayed. The novel is one of the literary elements of stories featuring a complete and broad societal issues to enable studied from various aspects, both intrinsic and extrinsic. One of the extrinsic approach to literature based on psychological science or psychology is the psychology literature. Literary work is seen as a psychological phenomenon, will feature aspects of the psyche through his characters. In the act, a character can not be separated from the state of the environment in which it is located. This is a stimulating environment that will affect a person's behavior. Behavorisme psychology views human beings as an organism which reacts as a whole to external stimuli. The purpose of this study was to describe the behavior of female characters in the collection of the works Dorodasih novelet Imam Budhi Santosa. And describe the stimulus that affects the formation behavior of female characters in the collection of the works Dorodasih novelet Imam Budhi Santosa. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method. In a qualitative descriptive study, which analyzed the data in the form of a description of the phenomenon, the tangible elements of the story that fit with the focus of research, so that the data collected in the form of excerpts of stories contained in the collection of the works Dorodasih novelet Imam Budhi Santosa. The steps taken by the researcher is analyzing a collection of novelet Dorodasih to obtain data about the behavior of female characters as well as stimuli that influence the formation of character behavior. This study used the approach of literary psychology, particularly behaviorism psychology. Approach psychology literature, especially the psychology of behaviorism in the study used as a starting point in reviewing the literature relating to issues of women's behavior and the stimuli that affect the formation of these behaviors. From the analysis of data obtained picture of the behavior of female characters as well as stimuli that affect the formation of female character's behavior as follows: (1) picture of the behavior of leaders Dorodasih, Kartika Pertiwi Hapsari Maharani well, that is: responsible, caring, emotional, dedicated, agile, brave, sensitive, clever, wise, obedient, brave, loving, spoiled, and diligent. (2) picture stimulus that affects the formation behavior of female characters, namely: education and stimulus stimulus family.


Air polishing was introduced as an alternative approach for the supra- and submucosal biofilm management at dental implants. An international expert meeting involving competent clinicians and researchers took place during the EUROPERIO 8 conference in London, UK, on 4 June 2015. Prior to this meeting a comprehensive systematic review dealing with the efficacy of air polishing in the treatment of peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis was prepared and served as a basis for the group discussions. This paper summarizes the consensus statements and practical recommendations on the clinical application of air polishing for the management of peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis.


This article seeks to explain the development of Arabic linguistics in the hands of al-Khalil bin Ahmad al-Farahidi. Although not the first pioneers of the science of Nahwu and Sharf, he was seen as the layer of the formal rules of Nahwu and Sharf. His contribution in the Nahwu and sharf field includes, codified all linguistic cases that had been carried out by the predecessor. He then perfected the analogous rules, formulated technical terms Nahwu and Sharf, formulated morphological rules, and created punctuation in Arabic. In addition to having expertise in the field of linguistics, he also has extensive knowledge in the sciences of Sharia and Mathematics. More than that, he has an extraordinary talent in the field of Music Arts and stringing. His intelligence in the last two areas helped him in creating the principles of the science of al-udarudh and al-qawafi.


Combined grazing by black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and bison (Bison) produces and maintains a series of changes in the vegetation of prairie dog colonies. However, because their grazing patterns differ in frequency and intensity through time, their individual impacts may be different. The objective of this study was to determine the individual and combined influences of these 2 herbivores in maintaining selected vegetation characteristics of a prairie dog colony in a mixed-grass prairie at Wind Cave National Park, S.D. This was assessed by monitoring plant responses during 2 years following exclusion from grazing by 1 or both species. In spite of their different grazing patterns, prairie dogs and bison had similar and independent (i.e., additive) effects in maintaining plant community structure. For example, total above-ground biomass increased 32-36% within 2 years of removal of each species, primarily as a result of increases in accumulation of graminoid biomass. Plant species diversity, equitability, and dominance concentration were similar in all treatments both years, although there were slight decreases in relative abundance of forbs and increases in relative abundance of grominoids in the second year after removal of grazers. Mean graminoid leaf nitrogen concentration (May to September) declined slightly but significantly after removal of prairie dogs (1.49 to 1.38%) in 1985, and after bison exclusion (1.64 to 1.50%) in 1986. We suggest that rate of vegetation change following removal of grazers depends upon weather conditions, plant species composition, and prior intensity and duration of grazing.


We investigated breeding patch fidelity and between-year territory movements in relation to breeding success and habitat characteristics in a colour-ringed urban population of the Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus. In 1996–2004, 111 marked adults (59 males and 52 females) produced 60 recapture events (41 in males and 19 in females) from 39 individuals (29 males and 10 females). Redstarts showed moderate between-year breeding patch fidelity of 46.3% males and 31.1% females returning. However, 56.1% of males and 47.4% of females shifted territory within the study area between consecutive seasons. Most of the Redstart males moved to an adjoining territory, whereas females on average moved further (197 vs. 331 m). We suggest that local experience is important for territory choice in males, whereas females use other cues, such as quality of nest cavities and mates, for dispersal decisions. We found no effect of breeding success (nest failure and number of fledglings) in the previous season on the probability of between-year territory shifts. However, Redstarts showed a tendency to switch territories towards areas with a higher proportion of tree cover and the latter could probably provide some advantage, e.g. supply of food and nest cavities, lower competition and predation rates.


Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) constitute about 8% of the human genome. There are around 4000 pol-containing retroviral integrations in the human genome, which makes it impractical to measure each of them separately. Therefore we developed a set of degenerate real time PCRs to detect major groups bearing sequence similarities to gammaretroviruses, one of the largest groups of human endogenous retrovirus, and betaretroviruses, some of which have integrated into the human genome most recently and which remain the most intact. It was found that, although both gammaretroviral and betaretroviral RNAs were broadly expressed in various healthy tissues including reproductive tissues and brain, a differential expression pattern was observed. My work further revealed that HERVE and HERVW, two gammaretroviral sequences, were ubiquitously and highly expressed in pathologic and normal female reproductive tissues with tissue specific patterns. Expression of HERVE was higher in endometriotic tissue than in normal endometrium. HERVE and HERVW RNAs were higher in normal ovarian tissue than in ovarian cancer. Besides these tissue- and neoplasia-related differences, there were wide differences in HERV expression among individuals. Next, a selective pattern of HERVW upregulation was demonstrated in SK-N-DZ, a neuroblastoma cell line, upon re-oxygenation after a period of hypoxia or with 5-azacytidine, a demethylating agent. Furthermore, broad and high expressions of gammaretrovirus-like transcripts in different brain areas analyzed were identified. The expression levels were variable among different donors. In conclusion a ubiquitous HERV expression was observed in tissues and cell lines, with various patterns. At this stage the data are not sufficient to conclude whether HERV has any physiological or pathological roles in humans. However, their differential expression patterns are compatible with functional roles of HERV in humans.


The reactions of 1,3-dioxolane-2-thione (3) with (S)-2-methyloxirane ((S)-1) and with (R)-2-phenyloxirane ((R)-2) in the presence of SiO2 in anhydrous dichloroalkanes led to the optically active spirocyclic 1,3-oxathiolanes 8 with Me at C(7) and 9 with Ph at C(8), respectively (Schemes 2 and 3). The analogous reaction of 1,3-dimethylimidazolidine-2-thione (4a) with (R)-2 yielded stereoselectively (S)-2-phenylthiirane ((S)-10) in 83% yield and 97% ee together with 1,3-dimethylimidazolidin-2-one (11a). In the cases of 3-phenyloxazolidine-2-thione (4b) and 3-phenylthiazolidine-2-thione (4c), the reaction with (RS)-2 yielded the racemic thiirane (RS)-10, and the corresponding carbonyl compounds 11b and 11c (Scheme 4 and Table 1). The analogous reaction of 4a with 1,2-epoxycyclohexane (= 7-oxabicyclo[4.1.0]heptane; 7) afforded thiirane 12 and the corresponding carbonyl compound 11a (Scheme 5). On the other hand, the BF3-catalyzed reaction of imidazolidine-2-thione (5) with (RS)-2 yielded the imidazolidine-2-thione derivative 13 almost quantitatively (Scheme 6). In a refluxing xylene solution, 1,3-diacetylimidazolidine-2-thione (6) and (RS)-2 reacted to give two imidazolidine-2-thione derivatives, 13 and 14 (Scheme 7). The structures of 13 and 14 were established by X-ray crystallography (Fig.).


This is a textbook on Christology for the undergraduate, graduate, and seminary market written by eleven distinguished North American Roman Catholic theologians. The structure of the book and of the individual essays follows a pattern of recovery (analysis of the tradition), critique (consideration of special problems), and reconstruction (distinctive Christologies in the contemporary American context). Part I, devoted to historical recovery, treats Jesus of Nazareth and the significance of historical Jesus research for Christology today; Christological developments resulting in the conciliar definitions of Nicaea and Chalcedon; and diverse conceptions of Christ's redemption in the early and medieval church. Part II treats four problems in modern debate: religious pluralism and Christian exclusivist claims; theological anti-Semitism embedded in Christological formulations; legitimation of male privilege via appeals to the masculinity of Jesus and Christ's headship of the church; the use of the Christ symbol to legitimate colonialism and racial exploitation. Finally, Part III offers two examples of contemporary Christologies of social transformation: mujerista Christology and black Christology.Contributors: Lisa Sowle Cahill, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Roger Haight, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Robert Lassalle-Klein, William Loewe, John Pawlikowski, Jamie Phelps, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gerard Sloyan, and Tatha Wiley.


An easily implemented and flexible calibration technique for partial demand systems is introduced, combining recent developments in incomplete demand systems and a set of restrictions conditioned on the available elasticity estimates. The technique accommodates various degrees of knowledge on cross-price elasticities, satisfies curvature restrictions, and allows the recovery of an exact welfare measure for policy analysis. The technique is illustrated with a partial demand system for food consumption in Korea for different states of knowledge on cross-price effects. The consumer welfare impact of food and agricultural trade liberalization is measured.


Genetic parameters were estimated using uni- and bi-variate random regression models for weight, eye-muscle depth and fat depth measures between 60 and 360 days of age. Each trait was measured up to five times in 50-day intervals following weaning on approximately 4000 Australian Poll Dorset Sheep. The model accounted for rearing type, dam age, management group and age of recording. The model used for analysing weight included quadratic, orthogonal polynomials for direct genetic and environmental effects, a linear polynomial for maternal genetic effects and heterogeneous error variance across ages. The fat and muscle analysis used linear orthogonal polynomials for direct genetic and environmental effects and heterogeneous error variance.Throughout the 300-day trajectory heritability for weight traits ranged from 0·20 to 0·31, while heritability for fat depth ranged from 0·24 to 0·34 and heritability for eye- muscle depth ranged from 0·24 to 0·40. Genetic correlations between repeated measures of the same trait at different ages were positive and declined as the age interval increased, to minimum values of 0·60, 0·31 and 0·50 for weight, fat and muscle respectively between 60 and 360 days of age. Genetic correlations between weight and fat and weight and eye muscle were moderate to high (0·6 to 0·8) and positive but decreased slightly with age. The genetic correlations between fat and muscle were moderate to high (0·5 to 0·7) throughout the 300-day trajectory. In all cases, the estimates produced in this study were reasonably consistent with the limited number of studies that exist in the reported literature. This study demonstrated the relationships that exist between repeated measures of weight, fat and muscle measures over time, which is of interest to prime lamb producers looking to select for specific breeding objectives or market end points requiring precise weight, fat and muscle combinations at certain ages.


Study Design In Vitro cell culture study. Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-β1) and lovastatin on differentiating human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) toward nucleus pulposus (NP)-like phenotype. Overview of Literature MSCs offer a cell source to the cell-based therapy for intervertebral disc degeneration. TGF-β1 is used to induce MSCs to differentiate into NP-like cells; however, an undesired expression of collagen type I has been reported. Statins reportedly stimulate expression of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) and promote the chondrogenic phenotype to NP cells. However, the effects of statins with or without TGF-β1 on the differentiation of MSCs into NP-like cells remain unclear. Methods Human MSCs were treated with TGF-β1 alone, lovastatin alone, and simultaneous or sequential treatment with TGF-β1 and lovastatin. After the proposed stimulation, the total RNA was extracted to assess the expression profile of NP cells-specific genes. Hematoxylin–eosin staining was used for examining the microscopic morphology. Furthermore, we detected the syntheses of S-100 protein, aggrecan, and collagen type II in the extracellular matrix using immunohistochemical staining. Results Simultaneous or sequential treatment of TGF-β1 and lovastatin could further augment the BMP-2 overexpression compared with lovastatin-alone treatment. However, the mRNA expression of aggrecan and collagen type II was not compatible with the expression level of BMP-2. Immunohistochemical studies revealed compatible production of aggrecan, collagen type II, and S-100 protein in all three groups treated with lovastatin. Cells in groups treated with lovastatin were less populated than that in the group treated with TGF-β1 alone. Conclusions This study demonstrates a promising role of lovastatin in inducing human MSCs into NP-like cells. However, further optimization of cell density before lovastatin treatment, treatment duration, and combination with TGF-β1 are warranted to attain better stimulatory effects.


Background— Cardiovascular magnetic resonance based on the Lake Louise Criteria is used to make the diagnosis of acute myocarditis. Novel quantitative parametric mapping techniques promise to overcome some of its limitations. We aimed to evaluate quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance to detect and monitor acute myocarditis. Methods and Results— Eighteen patients with clinical diagnosis of acute myocarditis (25 years [23–38 years]; 78% males) were prospectively enrolled and repeatedly underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance at 1.5 T seven days (5–10 days) after symptom onset (FU0), after 5 weeks (FU1), and after 6 months (FU2). Eighteen age- and sex-matched healthy subjects served as controls. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance included imaging of edema, hyperemia, necrosis, and fibrosis using semiquantitative T2-weighted spin echo, T2 mapping, and T1 mapping before and 3 and 10 minutes after gadobutrol administration. Extracellular volume for diffuse and late gadolinium enhancement for focal fibrosis were assessed. Compared with controls, patients had significantly higher global T2 times at FU0 (55.1 ms [53.3–57.2 ms] versus 50.2 ms [49.2–52.0 ms]; P<0.001) and at FU1 (52.0 ms [52.0–53.2 ms]; P=0.007), which normalized at FU2 (50.9 ms [49.6–53.3 ms]; P=0.323). Global native T1 times in patients were elevated acutely (1004 ms [988–1048 ms] versus 975 ms [957–1004 ms]; P=0.002) and remained elevated throughout the follow-up (FU1: 998 ms [990–1027 ms]; P=0.014; FU2: 1000 ms [972–1027 ms]; P=0.044). Global extracellular volume fraction was statistically not different between patients and controls (P=0.057). 77.8% (14/18) of patients had focal late gadolinium enhancement. T2 ratio was significantly elevated in patients with myocarditis at FU0 (2.2 [2.0–2.3] versus 1.6 [1.5–1.7]; P<0.001). The difference decreased during follow-up (FU1: 1.9 [1.7–1.9]; P=0.001 and FU2: 1.7 [1.7–1.8]; P=0.053). The diagnostic accuracy to discriminate between patients with acute myocarditis and healthy controls was 86% for T2>52 ms, 78% for native T1>981 ms, 74% for extracellular volume fraction >0.24, and 100% for T2 ratio >1.9. Conclusions— Although both T2 and T1 mapping reliably detected acute myocarditis, only T2 mapping discriminated between acute and healed stages, underlining the incremental value of T2 mapping.


Ultra-reliable and low latency communications is envisioned to enable new services and applications with high reliability, availability and low latency, e.g, factory automation, Tactile Internet. Device-to-device communication is one such mean that allows devices to experience benefits in terms of shorter communication latency. Currently most device-to-device communication in frequency-division duplex system occurs in uplink spectrum. However, due to unbalanced cellular traffic in uplink and downlink bands may result poor spectrum utilization of network resource. In this paper, we investigate resource allocation where network offers reliable communication using normal cellular and device-to-device communications. We consider flexible allocation for device-to-device communication in both uplink and downlink bands in a frequency-division duplex system. The network optimizes resource allocation to improve the network rate with 99.999 % availability target. We demonstrate the usability of the proposed protocol in a factory scenario.


Through examining the experiences of Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia this paper analyses the complicated relationship between legal status and protection from violence and abuse. While legal status has often been promoted as a means to protect migrants, we suggest that legal status is actually pursued only at particular moments and on the basis of particular cost/benefit calculations made by migrants. Even as legal status offers some protection from state authorities, the linkage between legal status and employer sponsorship means that it also binds migrants to specific employers. Crucial to these calculations too is the cost of legal status for both migrants and employers, imbuing the relationship with financial risk on both sides and turning legal status into an expensive "commodity". Therefore, while migrant labour is often constructed as being "cheap", our study reveals that a key factor in the exploitation of migrants is that they are in fact so expensive to hire. Thus, as we argue here, it is important to look beyond a narrow focus on legal status and consider the basis on which such status is extended – especially as such status is increasingly predicated on a sponsoring employer and significant financial investments.


Objectives: To describe demographic and behavioral characteristics and the prevalence of HIV and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infections in men who had sex with men identified through a nationally representative, population-based survey. Methods: As part of National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys in 2001–2006, men 18 to 59 years of age were interviewed about sexual behavior using audio computer assisted self-interview and were tested for antibodies to HIV and HSV-2. Results: Of the 4319 men interviewed, 5.2% reported having ever had sex with men (MSM). MSM were more likely than non-MSM (those reporting female partners only) to have first sex at <15 years (31.9% vs. 17.3%), have ≥10 lifetime sex partners (73.6% vs. 40.8%), and have ever used cocaine (46.1% vs. 26.6%) (all P < 0.004). Among MSM, the prevalence of HIV and HSV-2 was 9.1% and 18.4%, respectively. Only 44.5% of MSM reported their sexual orientation as homosexual or gay. Comparing with bisexual and heterosexual MSM, homosexual MSM reported the highest number of lifetime male partners and had the highest HIV prevalence (16.5%). Conclusions: In this population-based sample of men in the United States, self-reported same-sex behavior and homosexual orientation are strong markers for high risk of HIV infection.


Most security books on Java focus on cryptography and access control, but exclude key aspects such as coding practices, logging, and web application risk assessment. Encapsulating security requirements for web development with the Java programming platform, Secure Java: For Web Application Development covers secure programming, risk assessment, and threat modelingexplaining how to integrate these practices into a secure software development life cycle. From the risk assessment phase to the proof of concept phase, the book details a secure web application development process. The authors provide in-depth implementation guidance and best practices for access control, cryptography, logging, secure coding, and authentication and authorization in web application development. Discussing the latest application exploits and vulnerabilities, they examine various options and protection mechanisms for securing web applications against these multifarious threats. The book is organized into four sections: Provides a clear view of the growing footprint of web applications Explores the foundations of secure web application development and the risk management process Delves into tactical web application security development with Java EE Deals extensively with security testing of web applications This complete reference includes a case study of an e-commerce company facing web application security challenges, as well as specific techniques for testing the security of web applications. Highlighting state-of-the-art tools for web application security testing, it supplies valuable insight on how to meet important security compliance requirements, including PCI-DSS, PA-DSS, HIPAA, and GLBA. The book also includes an appendix that covers the application security guidelines for the payment card industry standards.


We have carried out a radio-wavelength imaging survey of 45 bright-rimmed clouds (BRCs), using the Australia Telescope Compact Array to characterise the physical properties in their ionised boundary layers. We detected radio emission from a total of 25 clouds and using a combination of Digitised Sky Survey and mid-infrared MSX 8 µm images classified the emission into that associated with the ionised cloud rims, that associated with embedded possible massive YSOs and that unlikely to be associated with the clouds at all. A total of 18 clouds display radio emission clearly associated with the cloud rim and we determine the ionising photon flux illuminating these clouds and the electron density and pressure of their ionised boundary layers. Using a global estimate for the interior molecular pressure of these clouds we show that the majority are likely to be in pressure equilibrium and hence are currently being shocked by photoionisation-induced shocks. We identify those clouds where the predicted ionising photon flux is inconsistent with that derived from the observations and show that either the spectral types of the stars illuminating the BRCs are earlier than previously thought or that there must be additional ionising sources within the HII regions. Finally, we identify the radio sources embedded within the clouds with infrared stellar clusters and show that they contain late O and early B-type stars, demonstrating that a number of BRCs are intimately involved with high to intermediate-mass star formation.


Gene Network Modeling of Cancer Metabolism by Linglin Yu Abstract Metabolism plays a crucial role in cellular behaviors and activities. The abnormal metabolism has been proposed to be one of the hallmarks of cancer. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells largely depend on glycolysis to produce energy even in the presence of oxygen, which is referred as the Warburg effect. Recent evidences, however, suggest that oxidative phosphorylation is also required for cancer progression. Yet, the underlying regulatory mechanism of these metabolic modes in cancer cells is still poorly understood. Here, we use the computational systems biology approach to establish a theoretical framework for modeling genetic regulation of cancer metabolism. According to experimental evidences, we built a network of both regulatory proteins and metabolites. The network was first coarse-grained to a three-component regulatory circuit composed of HIF-1, AMPK and ROS. Thereafter, we further explored the interplay between the circuit and the metabolic pathways, including glucose oxidation, glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation. By exploring the dynamics of the metabolic circuits, we show that, while normal cells have two stable steady states – an oxidative state (O: low HIF-1, high AMPK) and a Warburg state (W: high HIF-1, low AMPK), cancer cells open an additional hybrid state (W/O: high HIF-1, high AMPK) due to higher mitochondrial ROS production and lower HIF-1 degradation rate. The 'W/O' hybrid phenotype contributes to cancer metabolic heterogeneity and plasticity, thus allowing cancer cells to adapt to the microenvironment changes and to promote cell proliferation and metastasis. Based on the model, we investigated the effectiveness of possible cancer therapies targeting metabolism in reducing the metabolic plasticity and circumventing the hybrid state during the course of treatment. We also discuss the connection of the metabolic hybrid state to EMT and stemness of cancer cells.Metabolism plays a crucial role in cellular behaviors and activities. The abnormal metabolism has been proposed to be one of the hallmarks of cancer. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells largely depend on glycolysis to produce energy even in the presence of oxygen, which is referred as the Warburg effect. Recent evidences, however, suggest that oxidative phosphorylation is also required for cancer progression. Yet, the underlying regulatory mechanism of these metabolic modes in cancer cells is still poorly understood. Here, we use the computational systems biology approach to establish a theoretical framework for modeling genetic regulation of cancer metabolism. According to experimental evidences, we built a network of both regulatory proteins and metabolites. The network was first coarse-grained to a three-component regulatory circuit composed of HIF-1, AMPK and ROS. Thereafter, we further explored the interplay between the circuit and the metabolic pathways, including glucose oxidation, glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation. By exploring the dynamics of the metabolic circuits, we show that, while normal cells have two stable steady states – an oxidative state (O: low HIF-1, high AMPK) and a Warburg state (W: high HIF-1, low AMPK), cancer cells open an additional hybrid state (W/O: high HIF-1, high AMPK) due to higher mitochondrial ROS production and lower HIF-1 degradation rate. The 'W/O' hybrid phenotype contributes to cancer metabolic heterogeneity and plasticity, thus allowing cancer cells to adapt to the microenvironment changes and to promote cell proliferation and metastasis. Based on the model, we investigated the effectiveness of possible cancer therapies targeting metabolism in reducing the metabolic plasticity and circumventing the hybrid state during the course of treatment. We also discuss the connection of the metabolic hybrid state to EMT and stemness of cancer cells.


Additive manufacturing (AM) has enabled not only designers over the last few years to boost a huge boom in the design and optimization of machine components. Part of the additive manufacturing is not only the design of the component itself, but the individual steps involved in the creation of computer documentation necessary for the preparation of the AM, the selection of suitable material and the printing itself with possible subsequent heat treatment. Process parameters, including the choice of powder, have a significant effect on the resulting component properties. The powder is one of the process features that play a significant role. The main aim of the research is to compare the properties of materials made from different powders manufacturers. A micro tensile tests (M-TT), reinforced by metallographic and fractographic analysis, were used to analyse the materials, allowing a detailed discussion of the resulting material properties.


Typically, we teach the way we were taught unless we can learn new approaches to pedagogy. The literature on adult learning can guide meaningful, practical pedagogy that catalyzes the process of constructing meaning and the improvement of student learning. Moreover, when the quality of learning opportunities improves, underrepresented populations are more likely to benefit. Transformative change (Mezirow, 2000) in individual learning requires new approaches in thinking in how one can engender growth and learning with adults. This suggests that adults desire active versus passive learning that is also practical. Learners construct new knowledge that builds upon their prior understanding and experiences. Learning can be enhanced by what is termed "sociocentric," rather InnovatIons In teachIng adults 12 13 than egocentric thinking, when learners share ideas, inquire, and solve problems together and address the constant human need for dialogue (Brookfield, 2003; Garmston, 1997). By implementing simple strategies that create conditions and opportunities for adults to construct meaning, it is quite possible for cognition and understanding to improve significantly.


Clinical prognostic models derived from largescale healthcare data can inform critical diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. To enable off-theshelf usage of machine learning (ML) in prognostic research, we developed AUTOPROGNOSIS: a system for automating the design of predictive modeling pipelines tailored for clinical prognosis. AUTOPROGNOSIS optimizes ensembles of pipeline configurations efficiently using a novel batched Bayesian optimization (BO) algorithm that learns a low-dimensional decomposition of the pipelines high-dimensional hyperparameter space in concurrence with the BO procedure. This is achieved by modeling the pipelines performances as a black-box function with a Gaussian process prior, and modeling the similarities between the pipelines baseline algorithms via a sparse additive kernel with a Dirichlet prior. Meta-learning is used to warmstart BO with external data from similar patient cohorts by calibrating the priors using an algorithm that mimics the empirical Bayes method. The system automatically explains its predictions by presenting the clinicians with logical association rules that link patients features to predicted risk strata. We demonstrate the utility of AUTOPROGNOSIS using 10 major patient cohorts representing various aspects of cardiovascular patient care.


The digital storage and communication of significant geological data became increasingly more objective and accessible through the development of new technologies or the implementation of already well-known techniques as photogrammetry. Digital acquisition of geometries (both structural and depositional) of significant geological outcrops is deemed necessary, especially if the site concerned is liable to be damaged or hopelessly involved in natural processes of geological and geomorphological evolution. In this paper, we tested the performances of two different open-source software (i.e. VisualSFM and ARC3D) on a small-scale but paradigmatic outcrop in the Umbria-Marche Apennines (Italy). The test showed that ARC3D provides an high-resolution model, employing a relatively short time and requiring inexpensive hardware support for processing hundreds of photos. In the text, 3D models of the selected outcrop are reported and discussed emphasizing the potential of the method to highlight structural, sedimentological and paleontological details.

As a result, 3D photogrammetry proved to be a powerful and effective tool to digitally conserve and objectively communicate important geological observations and to facilitate accessibility and dissemination of the collected data within the scientific community.


Background—Although the hemodynamic changes associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) have been extensively studied, the neural changes remain unclear. We hypothesized that AF is associated with an increase in sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) and that the irregular ventricular response contributes to this state of sympathoexcitation. Methods and Results—In 8 patients referred for an electrophysiological study, SNA, blood pressure (BP), central venous pressure (CVP), and heart rate were recorded during 3 minutes of normal sinus rhythm (NSR) and 3 minutes of induced AF. In 5 of 8 patients who converted to NSR, right atrial (RA) pacing was performed for 3 minutes in atrial pacing triggered by ventricular sensing mode triggered by playback of an FM tape previously recorded from the right ventricle during AF (RA-irregular) and atrial pacing inhibited by atrial sensing mode at a rate equal to the mean heart rate obtained during AF (RA-regular). SNA data were expressed as percentage of baseline during NSR. SNA increased in all 8 patients during induced AF compared with NSR (171±40% versus 100%, respectively;P <0.01). This was associated with a trend for a decrease in BP and an increase in CVP (P =0.02). Similarly, SNA was significantly higher during RA-irregular pacing compared with RA-regular pacing (124±24% versus 91±20%, respectively;P =0.03). BP and CVP were not significantly different between the 2 pacing modes. Conclusions—Induced AF results in a significant increase in SNA, which is in part attributable to the irregular ventricular response. Our findings suggest that restoring NSR or regularity might be beneficial, particularly in patients with heart failure.


In the field of software development, the processes, technologies, and practices have matured over the time to achieve a higher level of delivery and quality. However, the de- velopment phase, which is an essential part of the software development life cycle (SDLC), is still consuming a significant cost (time and resources) in both approaches, waterfall and agile. The reason behind that, current technologies and approaches of software develop- ment are somehow following the same rules and practices for decades, and have not evolved with the proper velocity over the time. In this article, and based on real-life case studies, we will discuss how the utilization of components re-usability (API's and frameworks), metadata-driven development, code generation, and Artificial Intelligence can make the software development more efficient by creating a holistic approach to creating software systems.


Escalation
of drug resistant microbes (bacteria) had forced researchers to search new and
improved therapeutic compounds from different possible sources, including
metabolites secreted by the actinomycetes. The aim of this study was to
evaluate the pattern of antimicrobial actinomycetes from physiologically
distinct soil of different geographical locations. Forty five soil samples were
collected from 5 districts of Gujarat including two sanctuaries as source of
survey for bioactive actinomycetes. Crowded plate technique was used for
isolation and Agar cylinder method was employed for the antimicrobial
screening. A total of 171 actinomycetes were isolated and screened against
eighteen pathogens responsible for causing diseases in plants and humans.
Results indicate that 79% of the isolates were active against at least one of
the eighteen tested pathogens. Some of the actinomycetes strain had shown
strong antibacterial and antifungal activity which may be a good source of
obtaining novel antimicrobials.


In this paper we revisit Safra's determinization constructions for automata on infinite words. We show how to construct deterministic automata with fewer states and, most importantly, parity acceptance conditions. Determinization is used in numerous applications, such as reasoning about tree automata, satisfiability of CTL*, and realizability and synthesis of logical specifications. The upper bounds for all these applications are reduced by using the smaller deterministic automata produced by our construction. In addition, the parity acceptance conditions allows to use more efficient algorithms (when compared to handling Rabin or Streett acceptance conditions).


Abstract. SO2 emission control has been one of the most important air pollution policies in China since 2000. In this study, we assess regional differences in SO2 emission control efficiencies in China through the modeling analysis of four scenarios of SO2 emissions, all of which aim to reduce the national total SO2 emissions by 8% or 2.3 Tg below the 2010 emissions level, the target set by the current twelfth Five-Year Plan (FYP; 2011–2015), but differ in spatial implementation. The GEOS-Chem chemical transport model is used to evaluate the efficiency of each scenario on the basis of four impact metrics: surface SO2 and sulfate concentrations, population-weighted sulfate concentration (PWC), and sulfur export flux from China to the western Pacific. The efficiency of SO2 control (β) is defined as the relative change of each impact metric to a 1% reduction in SO2 emissions from the 2010 baseline. The S1 scenario, which adopts a spatially uniform reduction in SO2 emissions in China, gives a β of 0.99, 0.71, 0.83, and 0.67 for SO2 and sulfate concentrations, PWC, and export flux, respectively. By comparison, the S2 scenario, which implements all the SO2 emissions reduction over North China (NC), is found most effective in reducing national mean surface SO2 and sulfate concentrations and sulfur export fluxes, with β being 1.0, 0.76, and 0.95 respectively. The S3 scenario of implementing all the SO2 emission reduction over South China (SC) has the highest β in reducing PWC (β = 0.98) because SC has the highest correlation between population density and sulfate concentration. Reducing SO2 emissions over Southwest China (SWC) is found to be least efficient on the national scale, albeit with large benefits within the region. The difference in β by scenario is attributable to the regional difference in SO2 oxidation pathways and the source–receptor relationship. Among the three regions examined here, NC shows the largest proportion of sulfate formation through gas-phase oxidation, which is more sensitive to SO2 emissions change than aqueous oxidation. In addition, NC makes the largest contribution to inter-regional transport of sulfur within China and to the transport fluxes to the western Pacific. The policy implication of this is that China needs to carefully design a regionally specific implementation plan of realizing its SO2 emissions reduction target in order to maximize the resulting air quality benefits, not only for China but for the downwind regions, with emphasis on reducing emissions from NC, where SO2 emissions have decreased at a slower rate than national total emissions in the previous FYP period.


Whether the December 2009 negotiations in Copenhagen produce "success" or real success (1)--that is to say, merely a foundation for further negotiations or a full-blown new post-Kyoto Protocol climate change agreement--the world seems headed for a period of extraordinary international environmental activity with implications for every nation, community, business, and individual on the planet. The scale, complexity, and potential cost of responding to the threat of climate change make this a policy challenge of unprecedented proportions. And it is becoming increasingly clear that the worldwide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the threat of global warming and related problems, including changed rainfall patterns, melting polar ice, sea-level rise, and increased intensity of windstorms, will not be successful without significant institutional support at the global scale. The existing global environmental governance system, centered on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, is by almost all accounts not up to the task of managing the response to climate change. UNEP suffers from a vague mandate, severe budget constraints, limited analytic capacity, and other human resource challenges as well as a lack of political support. UNEP has a record of success in some respects, notably in shepherding the process that led to the Montreal Protocol and a series of subsequent amendments that helped phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chemicals that threatened the world's protective ozone layer. But in recent years, UNEP has not been a major player on climate change. Indeed, fragmentation is one of the fundamental problems of our current regime of global environmental governance. Dozens of organizations have some degree of environmental responsibility, including the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, UN Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, and numerous environmental treaty secretariats. But these various entities often do not "play" well together. There has been little attempt to set consistent priorities, achieve a systematic division of labor, rationalize budgets, or pursue synergies across issues. Moreover, there has been little policy coordination between global-scale economic decisionmaking and parallel efforts at worldwide environmental protection. A successful global response to climate change will therefore require broad-scale revitalization of the global environmental governance regime. (2) In fact, the urgent need for strengthened environmental cooperation across the world in response to climate change offers an opportunity to rethink global governance more broadly. In this regard, now may be the time to launch a Global Environmental Organization (GEO), based on a new international organization model. Rather than a ramped-up UNEP, I envision a GEO that is leaner and more focused, and which subsumes existing environmental treaty secretariats and consolidates within it the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. It would have a small permanent staff in Geneva and a substantial virtual presence, drawing in expertise from around the world in an evolving set of global public policy networks. To be effective, the new international organization would need clear goals, a compelling set of core principles, carefully specified functions and capacities, and a strong commitment to "good governance." Goals Any reform of the global environmental governance structure needs to emphasize effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. These goals seem straightforward, yet past international environmental policy cooperation efforts have fallen short on all three of these elements. With a few notable exceptions (such as the Montreal Protocol), the existing regime has produced many meetings and some agreements, but few concrete improvements in environmental performance. Principles Successful international organizations have clear guiding principles. …


Performance Factors that Influence Marketing Measurement in Successful Small Businesses by Tareion Fluker BA, Clark Atlanta University, 1994 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University June 2016 Abstract During the 2009 economic recession, United States business leaders cut marketing expenditures between 33% and 50% more than they did for any other business expenditure to mitigate financial loss because business leaders often regard marketing as an expense and not an investment. Since there is not a widely applied marketing measurement standard, this multiple-case study focused on finding key performance indicators that healthcare and sales small business leaders in eastern United States with less than 500 employees, and marketing evaluation practices in place, used to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing. Institutional theory was used as the conceptual framework to explore the key drivers behind marketing measurement practices. The focus of this study was on the experiences of 4 small business leaders in Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, who have developed financial and nonfinancial strategies to measure their marketing performance. Data collected for this study included 20-minute interviews with each participant, strategic plans, and field notes. A modified van Kaam and triangulation approach was used for data analysis to identify themes, which included the need to tie marketing measurement to the product or service offering and drive revenue or traffic to their business. The results of the study may benefit practitioners who work on social change strategies because the conclusions clarify effective marketingDuring the 2009 economic recession, United States business leaders cut marketing expenditures between 33% and 50% more than they did for any other business expenditure to mitigate financial loss because business leaders often regard marketing as an expense and not an investment. Since there is not a widely applied marketing measurement standard, this multiple-case study focused on finding key performance indicators that healthcare and sales small business leaders in eastern United States with less than 500 employees, and marketing evaluation practices in place, used to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing. Institutional theory was used as the conceptual framework to explore the key drivers behind marketing measurement practices. The focus of this study was on the experiences of 4 small business leaders in Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, who have developed financial and nonfinancial strategies to measure their marketing performance. Data collected for this study included 20-minute interviews with each participant, strategic plans, and field notes. A modified van Kaam and triangulation approach was used for data analysis to identify themes, which included the need to tie marketing measurement to the product or service offering and drive revenue or traffic to their business. The results of the study may benefit practitioners who work on social change strategies because the conclusions clarify effective marketing practices and increase well-being of customers. Further, this study provides recommendations for successful marketing measurement strategies that may help businesses meet the needs of community members. Performance Factors that Influence Marketing Measurement in Successful Small Businesses by Tareion Fluker BA, Clark Atlanta University, 1994 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University June 2016


The Texas Hispanic population is projected to grow to 18.8 million, almost tripling its number within the state, in only 30 years. This rapid growth is a concern for Texas higher education because this group has traditionally been under-represented in colleges and universities. Also, according to national, state, and local data, Hispanic students are retained at a lower rate than are other ethnic groups. Because of lower retention rates for Hispanic students and because the majority of Hispanic college students are female, an increasing number of Hispanic women are heads of households. Studying the attrition rates of Hispanic females could provide a better understanding of how the state can improve both the participation and retention rates of this population. This study utilized descriptive statistics and regression analysis to identify the correlations between and among the dependent variable of attrition and independent variables derived from (1) pre-college survey responses measuring college expectations and (2) early-first semester survey responses measuring actual college experience. Institutional data were used to confirm enrollment status at the beginning of the second semester. The sample of the study was all female, full-time, first-time-in college student survey respondents attending a public 4-year institution in Texas. This number included Hispanic females (n = 176), Caucasian females (n = 278), and African American females (n = 209). Although not a focus of the study, Caucasian and African American females were included to enhance the understanding of Hispanic females' responses. The dependent variable of attrition in college attendance for Hispanic females correlated negatively with each two independent variables: (1) joining one or more campus organizations (r = -.252, p = 0.045) and (2) campus social life providing many opportunities for participation (r = -.272, p = 0.030). The dependent variable correlated positively with one independent variable, satisfaction with academic progress at the end of the freshman year (r = .301, p = 0.016). To have a positive impact on the attrition rates of Hispanic females, educators at Texas institutions of higher education must better understand Hispanic females' college expectations.


The Knowledge Graph Induction Service (KGIS) is an end-to-end knowledge induction system. One of its main capabilities is to automatically induce taxonomies from input documents using a hybrid approach that takes advantage of linguistic patterns, semantic web and neural networks. KGIS allows the user to semi-automatically curate and expand the induced taxonomy through a component called Smart SpreadSheet by exploiting distributional semantics. In this paper, we describe these taxonomy induction and expansion features of KGIS. A screencast video demonstrating the system is available in https://ibm.box.com/v/emnlp-2019-demo .


This article discusses EU law and practice with regard to tackling circumvention of trade defence instruments, notably anti-dumping measures. The author considers that, while strong legal arguments can be made that anti-circumvention rules are WTO-illegal, as a practical matter transparent and predictable anti-circumvention rules are to be preferred over vague and multi-interpretable non-preferential origin rules that vary from country to country. Furthermore, the many findings of transhipment in EU anti-circumvention investigations show that circumvention may constitute a real problem which warrants quick and effective relief. Therefore, the article suggests that the way forward is to agree on detailed anti-circumvention rules within the WTO with focus on further improvements in transparency and predictability.


Packaging has been on the environmental agenda for decades. It has been discussed and debated within the society mainly as an environmental problem. Production, distribution and consumption of food and drinks contribute significant to the environmental impact. However, consumers in the EU waste about 20% of the food they buy. The function of packaging in reducing the amount of food losses is an important but often neglected environmental issue.This thesis focuses on the functions of packaging that can be used to preserve resources efficiently and reduce the environmental impact of the food-packaging system. The service perspective is used to increase knowledge about consumer interaction with packages. Fifteen packaging attributes, for example, 'easy to empty', 'hygienic' and 'contain the right quantity', were identified as influencing the amount of food losses at the consumer. The result showed that there are potentials to both increase consumer satisfaction and decrease the environmental impact of the food-packaging system, when new packaging design reduces food losses. A model was developed that calculates the balance of environmental impact between reduction of food losses, and more packaging material. The result showed that it can be environmentally motivated to increase the environmental impact of packaging, if the amount of food losses is reduced. This is especially true for food items with high environmental impact, e.g. meat and dairy products, and for food items that have a high share of loss, e.g. bread.I have also explored to what extent packaging can influence food losses in households. The study showed that about 20% to 25% of household food waste was related to packaging. The households noted three packaging attributes as the main causes for food losses; 'too big packaging', 'difficult to empty' and 'best-before-date'.Finally there is a discussion of packaging research in the context of sustainability principles, and suggestions for further research.


A great population growth and rapid industrial development in Taiwan have placed ever increasing demands on the water supply. In fact, since the yield of known aquifers can no longer meet the current needs, new reservoirs must be found for emergency use, especially in those areas with a short of water. Traditionally, the selection of well sites in Taiwan was based on lineaments shown in aerial photographs and on the topographic conditions of a site. As much as this was successful in the past, the number of potential aquifers today continues to decrease rapidly. Conventional groundwater exploration methods do not give satisfactory results; and locating an aquifer by geoelectric represents a significant challenge. However, the combined geoelectric method and conventional methods provides a better approach for site evaluation, especially in those areas of water shortage. In this paper, it will be shown the way by which geoelectric methods are applied to locate aquifers in poor water storage areas and highlight the propriety of such methods used during this survey. In so doing, useful information as to the aquifer characterization will be acquired. Two selected sites in this study have different geologic settings; one in a volcanic area, the other in a hilly area. All the geoelectric features obtained in these areas not only delineate the water bearing zones clearly but also indicate the depth extent accurately.


Ropivacaine is an amide local anesthetic structurally related to, but appearing less cardiotoxic, than bupivacaine. The authors' investigation was designed in a randomized, double-blind fashion to compare the clinical effectiveness of ropivacaine and bupivacaine in patients undergoing lower-extremity surgery. Forty-five patients were randomized to receive 20 ml of 0.5% ropivacaine or bupivacaine. Intermittent sensory (pinprick) and motor (Bromage score) measurements were made while the block was in effect, and changes in heart rate, blood pressure and amounts of additional analgesics, sedatives and other medications were also recorded. Presence of tourniquet pain and the quality of anesthesia were also assessed. One patient was excluded from analysis; thus, 22 patients each received ropivacaine or bupivacaine. No differences were found in patient or perioperative characteristics between the groups. The quality and extent of sensory and motor blockade between groups were comparable, although bupivacaine was slightly longer acting. Cardiovascular changes, incidence of tourniquet pain, and the amounts of supplemental medications necessary were also similar between groups. The authors found 0.5% ropivacaine and bupivacaine to be clinically similar in both sensory- and motor-blocking characteristics, with the exception that bupivacaine produced a blockade of slightly longer duration. Because ropivacaine is reported to be less cardiotoxic than bupivacaine in animal studies, the similarity of clinical epidural anesthesia may make ropivacaine the preferred agent.


PURPOSE
Iron-containing products are atypical in terms of their pharmacokinetic properties because iron is only removed by plasma sampling and is non-linear. This study aims to present a novel way of assessing the relative bioavailability of two sodium ferric gluconate complex (SFGC) formulations and compare this approach to a standard previously published noncompartmental approach.

METHODS
Data were from open-label, randomized, single-dose studies (Study 1 was parallel whereas Study 2 was crossover). Subjects with low but normal iron levels were infused IV SFGC in sucrose by GeneraMedix Inc. and/or Ferrlecit ® Injection (Watson Laboratories Inc.). In Study 1 (n=240), 125 mg was infused over 10 minutes. In Study 2 (n=29), 62.5 mg was infused over 30 minutes. Samples were assayed for total iron (TI) and transferrin-bound iron (TBI) over 36 hours (Study 1) or 72 hours (Study 2) post-dose. Studies 1 and 2 used standard noncompartmental analysis. Study 2 also used population PK (PPK) analyses with ADAPT 5®. The final model predicted SFGC area-under-the-curve (AUCpred) and maximal concentration (Cmaxpred). Analyses of variance was conducted on ln-transformed PK parameters. Ratios of means and 90% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated. Bioequivalence was demonstrated if values were within 80-125%.

RESULTS
For Study 1, ratios and 90% CIs for TI baseline-corrected Cmax and AUC0-36 were 100.4 (96.5 - 104.5) and 99.7 (94.2 - 105.5). For TBI, results for TI baseline-corrected Cmax and AUC0-36 were 86.8 (82.7 - 91.1) and 92.4 (85.6 - 99.7). For Study 2, a multi-compartmental model simultaneously described the PK of TI, TBI and SFGC. Ratios and 90% CIs for SFGC Cmaxpred and AUCpred were 89.9 (85.9 - 94.0) and 89.7 (85.7 - 93.9), while ratios and 90% CI obtained from the noncompartmental analysis of Study 2 did not meet BE criteria because of low power.

CONCLUSIONS
Both the standard and PPK modeling approach suggested bioequivalence between the iron products. However, with the PPK method, less subjects were required to meet study objectives compared to the standard noncompartmental approach which required considerably more subjects (29 vs 240).


For years, academics and practitioners have argued the social need and benefits of healthcare spending. Economists and medical researchers question the value of such spending, claiming small marginal benefits to the population's health relative to costs. Previous studies tend to address healthcare costs relative to benefits without considering the overall economic benefit to the community. While the investment-versus-health-gain debate continues, few articles deal with the actual beneficial short-and long-term impact on the economy of the additional economic activity generated by the healthcare investment itself.Healthcare investment may be especially critical to small, rural communities. This paper offers a guide to examining the economic impact of healthcare spending by providing a case study on Union Regional Medical Center (URMC) in Union County, North Carolina. It analyzes and reports the effects of healthcare and, specifically, hospital spending. The paper demonstrates how IMPLAN Pro(TM), a software model developed by the Minnesota IMPLAN Group, utilizes data to perform input/output analysis to evaluate the impact of investment and measure the resulting economic activity generated within the community. Based upon the significant positive contribution of the healthcare industry to the economy of Union County, North Carolina, this study suggests that practitioners should evaluate the economic impact as a primary consideration, at least for rural healthcare investment.Literature ReviewThe existing literature regarding healthcare spending focuses on two main areas: 1) various debates over whether and how public spending on healthcare should occur (Fuchs, 1998; and Arrow, 1963); and, 2) investigations of the economic consequences of healthcare spending (Auster et al., 1969; Emanuel, 1996; Cutler et al., 1998; and Cremieux et al., 1999). Papers in the former group address whether the benefits to society are commensurate with the amount of public spending on health service, or whether there is a significant difference in the population's health depending on the manner in which funds are distributed to various constituents within the healthcare industry. Brief reviews of both areas of the literature are presented, but it is the economic impact of healthcare investment on which this article concentrates.Spending and OutcomesFuchs (1998) discussed the challenges that nations face in the efficient and effective allocation of limited health resources. De Milto (2000) and Kolata (2000) argued that societal benefits of healthcare spending would be greatly enhanced by shifts in focus from technology to service and from care to prevention. Arrow (1963) and Haan et al. (1987) addressed a variety of socioeconomic factors that influence the overall effectiveness of healthcare. Conflicting evidence exists as to how healthcare dollars should be spent. Bunker et al. (1994), Blomqvist and Carter (1997), and McClellan and Newhouse (1997) all claim that more needs to be done to investigate the cost-effectiveness and application of preventative versus curative services. Yet, most taxpayers are reluctant to pay higher taxes for a public (curative) healthcare system and are opposed to the practice of rationing services (Price, 1999). While these issues are important and current topics in the healthcare debate, they are outside the purview of this paper.Economic Impact StudiesFew researchers have examined the economic impact of healthcare spending and/or the spending by specific facilities in a local area. None adopt the premise that promoting healthcare investment is a sound strategy for local economic growth. McDermott and Parson (1994) develop a methodology for researchers to calculate direct, indirect, and induced spending effects for a healthcare facility in a community or region. The model, formulas, and methodology are valid, but gathering all the necessary data is challenging, which limits its application. …


Background Epilepsy is one of the most common signs of Neurocysticercosis (NCC). In this study, spatial and temporal variations in the incidence of hospitalized cases (IHC) of epilepsy and NCC in Ecuadorian municipalities were analyzed. Additionally, potential socio-economic and landscape indicators were evaluated in order to understand in part the macro-epidemiology of the Taenia solium taeniasis/cysticercosis complex. Methodology Data on the number of hospitalized epilepsy and NCC cases by municipality of residence were obtained from morbidity-hospital systems in Ecuador. SatScan software was used to determine whether variations in the IHC of epilepsy and NCC in space and time. In addition, several socio-economic and landscape variables at municipality level were used to study factors intervening in the macro-epidemiology of these diseases. Negative Binomial regression models through stepwise selection and Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) were used to explain the variations in the IHC of epilepsy and NCC. Principal findings Different clusters were identified through space and time. Traditional endemic zones for NCC and epilepsy, recognized in other studies were confirmed in our study. However, for both disorders more recent clusters were identified. Among municipalities, an increasing tendency for IHC of epilepsy, and a decreasing tendency for the IHC of NCC were observed over time. In contrast, within municipalities a positive linear relationship between both disorders was found. An increase in the implementation of systems for eliminating excrements would help to reduce the IHC of epilepsy by 1.00% (IC95%; 0.2%–1.8%) and by 5.12% (IC95%; 3.63%-6.59%) for the IHC of NCC. The presence of pig production was related to IHC of NCC. Conclusion/Significance Both disorders were related to the lack of an efficient system for eliminating excrements. Given the appearance of recent epilepsy clusters, these locations should be studied in depth to discriminate epilepsies due to NCC from epilepsies due to other causes. Field studies are needed to evaluate the true prevalence of cysticercosis in humans and pigs in different zones of the country in order to better implement and manage prevention and/or control campaigns.


Climate change is the single most important global environmental and development issue facing the world today and has emerged as a major topic in tourism studies. Climate change is already affecting the tourism industry and is anticipated to have profound implications for tourism in the twenty-first century, including consumer holiday choices, the geographic patterns of tourism demand, the competitiveness and sustainability of destinations and the contribution of tourism to international development. Tourism and Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of climate change and tourism at the tourist, enterprise, destination and global scales. Major themes include the implications of climate change and climate policy for tourism sectors and destinations around the world, tourist perceptions of climate change impacts, tourism's global contribution to climate change, adaptation and mitigation responses by all major tourism stakeholders, and the integral links between climate change and sustainable tourism. It combines a thorough scientific assessment of the climate-tourism interrelationships with discussion of emerging mitigation and adaptation practice, showcasing international examples throughout the tourism sector as well as actions by other sectors that will have important implications for tourism. Written by three leading academics in this field, this critical contribution highlights the challenges of climate change within the tourism community and provides a foundation for decision making for both reducing the risks, and taking advantage of the opportunities, associated with climate change. This comprehensive discussion of the complexities of climate change and tourism is essential reading for students, academics, business leaders and government policy makers. (Less)


The location of ethanol plants is determined by infrastructure, product and input markets, fiscal attributes of local communities, and state and federal incentives. This empirical analysis uses probit regression along with spatial clustering methods to analyze investment activity of ethanol plants at the county level for the lower U.S. 48 states from 2000 to 2007. The availability of feedstock dominates the site selection decision. Other factors, such as access to navigable rivers or railroads, product markets, producer credit and excise tax exemptions, and methyl tertiary-butyl ether bans provided some counties with a comparative advantage in attracting ethanol plants.


The potential of gallium nitride–distributed transferred electron device is theoretically investigated for the realization of terahertz radio frequency (RF) power sources. The device numerical physical modeling relies on a 2D time‐domain electromagnetism/transport simulator. It is based on the coupled solution of the Maxwell and energy‐momentum macroscopic transport equations. The study is focused on the analysis of the device complex internal RF operation. The device technological and geometrical structure is optimized for an RF operation at 1 THz. The time and space, local and functional quantities are analyzed following both electromagnetic and quasi‐electrostatic approaches. We finally conclude on the feasibility of such a device.


We exploit the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937 to identify the causal impact of exposure to pneumonia in infancy on later life well-being and productivity in the United States. Using census data from 1980-2000, we find that cohorts born after the introduction of sulfa experienced increases in schooling, income, and the probability of employment, and reductions in disability rates. These improvements were larger for those born in states with higher pre-intervention levels of pneumonia as these were the areas that benefited most from the availability of sulfa drugs. These estimates are, in general, larger and more robust to specification for men than for women. With the exception of cognitive disability and poverty for men, the estimates for African Americans are smaller and less precisely estimated than those for whites. This is despite our finding that African Americans experienced larger absolute reductions in pneumonia mortality after the arrival of sulfa. We suggest that pre-Civil Rights barriers may have inhibited their translating improved endowments into gains in education and employment.


The Bohnerz Formation of the Swabian Alb (southern Germany) currently exists as a series of isolated pockets of iron rich pebbles, often pisolitic in nature and typically set within a kaolinitic matrix. These pockets represent infillings of karst solution pits located on the higher elevations of the Swabian Alb. A history of exploitation of the Bohnerze for their iron indicates their existence has long been recognized, however, their origin and evolution has remained a source of debate. Petrographical, mineralogical, and geochemical comparison between the Bohnerz and Indian laterite clearly demonstrates that their origin is consistent with the development of a widespread lateritic weathering residuum in southern Germany during the Cretaceous and early Tertiary. The Bohnerz Formation therefore represents the residues of a palaeo-weathering regime, and the last vestiges of a once extensive tropical weathering surface. Moreover the long term geomorphological evolution of the entire region is best explained in terms of a phase of Late Cretaceous - early Tertiary etchplanation which was terminated by erosion and stripping as a consequence of the climatic change since the later Eocene and early Oligocene. The geomorphology of southern Germany is clearly a landscape palimpsest controlled and influenced by regional tectonics associated with the adjacent Alpine orogeny, by Cretaceous 'greenhouse' conditions, and by dramatic climatic changes at the end Cretaceous and during the Tertiary.