Diversity and community structure of soil microorganisms are increasingly recognized as important contributors to sustainable agriculture and plant health. In viticulture, grapevine scion cultivars are grafted onto rootstocks to reduce the incidence of the grapevine pest phylloxera. However, it is unknown to what extent this practice influences root-associated microbial communities. A field survey of bacteria in soil surrounding the roots (rhizosphere) of 4 cultivars × 4 rootstock combinations was conducted to determine whether rootstock and cultivar genotypes are important drivers of rhizosphere community diversity and composition. Differences in α-diversity was highly dependent on rootstock–cultivar combinations, while bacterial community structure primarily clustered according to cultivar differences, followed by differences in rootstocks. Twenty-four bacterial indicator genera were significantly more abundant in one or more cultivars, while only thirteen were found to be specifically associated with one or more rootstock genotypes, but there was little overlap between cultivar and rootstock indicator genera. Bacterial diversity in grafted grapevines was affected by both cultivar and rootstock identity, but this effect was dependent on which diversity measure was being examined (i.e., α- or β-diversity) and specific rootstock–cultivar combinations. These findings could have functional implications, for instance, if specific combinations varied in their ability to attract beneficial microbial taxa which can control pathogens and/or assist plant performance.


The highly diastereoselective anti-aminohydroxylation of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters, via conjugate addition of lithium (S)-N-benzyl-N-(alpha-methylbenzyl)amide and subsequent in situ enolate oxidation with (+)-(camphorsulfonyl)oxaziridine, has been used as the key step in the asymmetric synthesis of N,O-diacetyl xestoaminol C (41% yield over 8 steps), N,O,O-triacetyl sphinganine (30% yield over 8 steps) and N,O,O-triacetyl sphingosine (30% yield over 7 steps).


Abstract. This paper detects the ionospheric irregularities with rate of total electron content (TEC) change index, ROTI from GPS observation at Taoyuan (24.95° N, 121.16° E) for the solar medium and minimum years of 2003 and 2008 in the declining phase of cycle 23, the solar maximum of 2014 in solar cycle 24. Local occurrence rate (LOR) is proposed to clarify the characteristics of the irregularities together with monthly occurrence rate (MOR) and ROTI maximum for 3 latitude belts, 20–23° N, 23–26° N, 26–29° N, around the equatorial anomaly crest. MOR in May/June is larger than those in equinoxes in 2008 and 2003, which is different from that of equatorial plasma bubbles. In 2014 although MOR maximum is observed in equinoxes, the MOR in May and June is much larger than that in September. Moreover, MORs in May to August at higher latitude belt 26–29° N are larger than those in lower latitude belts and smaller in the equinoxes. The latitudinal dependence of the LORs tends to be similar to that of MORs. Seasonal variations of LORs have a similar trend for different solar activities. Maximum LORs are observed in Feb/Mar and Sep/Oct, and moderate around June, which resemble those of plasma bubbles in seasonal variations, except for latitude belt 26–29° N where maximum LORs are seen in May–Jul. The seasonal variation of ROTI maximum conforms to that of the LOR. The results suggest that irregularities near the crest in May to August are mainly originated from nonequatorial process, which is more frequently happened but weaker than plasma bubble in both spatiotemporal scale and strength.


The introduction of student accountability systems across the United States has been controversial both because of its focus on standardized achievement tests and because of questions about its effectiveness. Past evidence, however, shows that performance on standardized tests of the type central to state accountability systems has powerful economic effects. Additionally, analysis of performance across states indicates that accountability policies in general lead to higher levels of achievement, though the magnitudes of the effects are influenced by the design of the policy. Finally, however, despite positive effects overall, recent work shows that these policy instruments are not effective at closing the black-white achievement gap.


Rapidly spinning neutron stars are promising sources of continuous gravitational waves. Detecting such a signal would allow probing of the physical properties of matter under extreme conditions. A significant fraction of the known pulsar population belongs to binary systems. Searching for unknown neutron stars in binary systems requires specialized algorithms to address unknown orbital frequency modulations. We present a search for continuous gravitational waves emitted by neutron stars in binary systems in early data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors using the semicoherent, GPU-accelerated, B inary S ky H ough pipeline. The search analyzes the most sensitive frequency band of the LIGO detectors, 50 – 300 Hz. Binary orbital parameters are split into four regions, comprising orbital periods of three to 45 days and projected semimajor axes of two to 40 light seconds. No detections are reported. We estimate the sensitivity of the search using simulated continuous wave signals, achieving the most sensitive results to date across the analyzed parameter space.


In recent years climatic fluctuations have been increasingly associated with seasonal variation in yield and quality of forage crops. Although considerable information is available concerning environmental influences on yield and quality of many temperate and tropical grasses, very little is known about these relationships in the major grasses grown in the southern U.S.A. The objectives of this study were to determine the relative influences of temperature (T) and photon flux density (L) on dry matter yield (DMY) and in vitro true digestibility (IVD) of four warm-season perennial grasses grown at two soil moisture levels and to relate the differences in IVD to fiber component concentrations. Coastal and common hermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.], Pensacola hahiagrass (Paspalurn notatum Flugge), and dallisgrass (P. dilatatum Poir.) were grown in an artificial growth medium at 4 dayhight temperatures (35/24, 32/21, 29/18, 26/15 C), four photon Aux densities (1,050, 840, 630, 420 µEm⁻² sec⁻¹ PAR) and two soil moisture levels in growth cabinets. After 14 and 21 days regrowth, DMY and IVD were measured. Regression equations were developed to predict DMY and IVD as functions of T and L at each soil moisture level and regrowth period. The study clearly showed that DMY of all grasses increased with increasing T and L. The imposed moisture stress sharply reduced DMY of dallisgrass (DAL) hut not of the other grasses. In all grasses IVD consistently decreased as T increased, resulting in maximum IVD at the lowest T. The effect of L on IVD ranged from positive to negative, depending on the grass and T. Maximum IVD values occurred at the high soil moisture (HM) level after 14 days regrowth. At the HM level maximum IVD of Coastal bermudagrass (COA), common hermudagrass (COM), and Pensacolabahia grass (BAH), respectively, was 5.7, 4.9, and 3.6 percentage units higher after 14 than after 21 days regrowth. In DAL at the HM level and in all grasses at the low soil moisture level, these differences due to age were only about one percentage unit or less. The Paspalum spp. averaged about seven percentage units higher in IVD than the Cynodon spp. Significant (P ≤ 0.01) negative correlations were obtained between IVD and previously reported concentrations of acid detergent fiber (ADF), cellulose, permaganate lignin (LIG), and silica in all grasses and concentrations of neutral-detergent fiber in COA and COM. Although correlation coefficients were ≤ 0.50, hemicellulose concentration and IVD were positively correlated in all grasses. Strongest correlations were obtained between IVD and concentrations of ADF and LIG.


Almost 20 years ago it was suggested that restrictions in tobacco advertising would only be partly successful as the 'pack itself is a powerful form of advertising'.1 These words have proved prescient as the pack has indeed emerged as the primary marketing tool in jurisdictions with tight marketing controls. In the UK, for instance, following the introduction of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act between 2003 and 2005, which banned all forms of tobacco advertising and promotion, the pack has became the main marketing driver.2 Moodie and Hastings2 explain how UK tobacco industry marketing documents from between 1995 and 2000 both predicted the increasing importance of the pack in the face of marketing restrictions and highlighted the different ways the pack can be employed to promote the product, via what they refer to as value, image and innovation (or gimmick) packaging. Value packaging is used to communicate value via altered pack size (for instance, packs containing 24 cigarettes rather than the standard 20) or price-marking (which displays the price of the cigarettes on the pack, see figure 1). Both altered pack size and price-marking, most evident for value and economy brands, are used to communicate value to the consumer although they are not necessarily indicative of reduced price relative to other …


Abstract : Although Americans and Europeans do not always agree on political strategies in the Middle East, they have a compelling reason to reach an accord on the need to strengthen North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military forces for future operations in that region and elsewhere. If adequate military capabilities are lacking, the Alliance will not be able to act even when its political leaders agree on the need to do so. But if it creates such capabilities, it will be able to act either ad hoc or across the board if a common political strategy eventually were to emerge. This article proposes a new and comprehensive military framework to help guide NATO improvements in the years ahead. This framework envisions a pyramid-like structure of future NATO forces and capabilities in five critical areas: a new NATO Special Operations Force, the NATO Response Force, high-readiness combat forces, stabilization and reconstruction forces, and assets for defense sector development. The United States would provide one-third of the necessary forces, and Europe would be responsible for the other two-thirds. For the Europeans, creating these forces and capabilities is a viable proposition because they require commitment of only 10 percent of their active military manpower, plus investments in such affordable assets as information networks, smart munitions, commercial lift, logistics support, and other enablers. If NATO succeeds in creating these forces for power projection and expeditionary missions, it will possess a broad portfolio of assets for a full spectrum of operations against such threats as terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and cross-border aggression.


Designed for everyone using Linux operating systems, this Linux quick guide covers all daily used Linux features and options, provides quick tips and solutions for common Linux security problems and other operations. * A comprehensive yet portable Linux reference for every Linux user to harness the power of Linux features, functions and tools. * Linux operating system architecture. * Historic chart of Linux distributions and popular shells deployed in Linux systems. * Linux file system structure and commonly used configuration files in Linux systems. Frequently used commands and tools for file and directory management. * Security risks and Linux solutions in the categories of data protection, system update, user management, Internet threats, and more. * Frequently used commands and tools for user and group management, jobs and processes management, networking operations, system management and more. * Designed by experts with decades of experience in Unix and Linux operating systems.


The Ontong Java Plateau in the western Pacific is anomalous compared to other oceanic large igneous provinces in that it appears to have never formed a large subaerial plateau. Paleoeruption depths (at 122 Ma) estimated from dissolved H2O and CO2 in submarine basaltic glass pillow rims vary from 1100 m below sea level (mbsl) on the central part of the plateau to 2200–3000 mbsl on the northeastern edge. Our results suggest maximum initial uplift for the plateau of 2500–3600 m above the surrounding seafloor and 1500 ± 400 m of postemplacement subsidence since 122 Ma. Our estimates of uplift and subsidence for the plateau are significantly less than predictions from thermal models of oceanic lithosphere, and thus our results are inconsistent with formation of the plateau by a high-temperature mantle plume. Two controversial possibilities to explain the anomalous uplift and subsidence are that the plateau (1) formed as a result of a giant bolide impact, or (2) formed from a mantle plume but has a lower crust of dense garnet granulite and/or eclogite; neither of these possibilities is fully consistent with all available geological, geophysical, and geochemical data. The origin of the largest magmatic event on Earth in the past 200 m.y. thus remains an enigma.


Objective: To study the surgical aspect in the management of Wilms tumour in children. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted for all children who underwent nephrectomy for Wilms tumours in a university teaching hospital in Hong Kong from January 1996 to June 2011. Results: A total of 13 children (6 boys and 7 girls) were studied. The median age at diagnosis was 37 months (range, 9 months10 years). Two children had stage I disease, 4 had stage II disease, 4 had stage III disease, 1 had stage IV and 2 had stage V disease. Pre-operative chemotherapy was given to children with stage III or above disease. The median tumour size was 10 cm (range, 5 to 17 cm). Unilateral radical nephrectomy was performed in children with unilateral disease. Children with bilateral disease underwent nephron-sparing surgery. Lymph node biopsies were performed in 8 cases while 1 had positive lymph node involvement. There was no intraoperative tumour rupture. Intraoperative complications including small bowel injury (n=1), diaphragmatic injury (n=1) and major bleeding that required transfusion (n=2). Post-operatively, all children received chemotherapy. Children with advance disease also received radiotherapy. There was no post-operative surgical complication. At a median follow-up of 76 months, all children survived and 2 children had distant tumour recurrence. Conclusion: This study provides updated surgical experience in the management of Wilms tumour. Zero intraoperative tumour ruptured rate was achieved. With multidisciplinary management, the long term outcome of Wilms tumour was excellent.


The importance of carbohydrates in several biological processes is directly mirrored in a wide number of biotechnological applications, based mainly on glycoside hydrolases (GHs), including conversion of agricultural byproducts in fermentable sugars for the bioethanol production, the use of these biocatalysts in the formulation of laundry detergents and in food industry (e.g. hydrolysis of lactose and preparation of HFCS). Moreover, GHs are used also in several biomedical approaches, as the production of universal blood , the enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of lysosomal storage diseases and as alterative to the chemical synthesis of therapeutic biomolecules as heparin and galactooligosaccharides.
The development of a new class of enzyme, the glycosynthases (GS), obtained by mutating glycoside hydrolases, represent reliable alternative for the chemo-enzymatic synthesis of oligosaccharides. Here, the key of this approach is to cancel the hydrolytic activity of the enzyme by site-directed mutagenesis, but maintaining intact the structure of the active site. Therefore, by using substrate donor and certain reaction conditions, the engineered enzymes are able to synthesize products in quantitative yield.
This thesis is directed to the identification and characterization of glycosyl hydrolase for biotechnological applications and was divided in two different parts. The first part (Chapters I and II) is aimed to the application of glycosidases in the oligosaccharides synthesis. In particular, I adressed my work to the study and characterization of the catalytic mechanism of a beta-galactosidase from the moderate thermophile Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius (Aaβgal) for the development of a new β-galactosynthase (Chapter I). Moreover I have characterized a new alpha-galactosynthase from the hyperthermophile Thermotoga maritima (TmGalA D327G) (Chapter II) to validate the approach based on the use of beta-glycosyl azide donors recently proposed.
The second part of this thesis (Chapters III and IV) is dedicated to the characterization in detail of two new glycoside hydrolases: an alpha-glycosidase SSO1353 and an alpha-mannosidase (Ss-alpha-Man) both from the hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus. The characterization of SSO1353 was directed to the study of the catalytic mechanism and in particular to the identification of nucleophile and acid/base residues. Differently, the study of Ss-alpha-Man activity was directed to the analysis of its substrate specificity toward glycoconjugates and glycoproteins.


Tango-dancing and walking programs are compared in nondemented seniors at risk for falls. Fallers (N = 30) age 62-91 were randomly assigned to a 10-wk (40 hr, 2 hr 2x/wk) tango class or walk group. The Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale, sit-to-stand scores, and normal and fast walk were measured pre-, post-, and 1 month postintervention. Two-way repeated-measures ANOVAs indicated a significant main effect (p < .01) for time on all measures. Group and interaction effects for ABC led to improvement only in tango because of high baseline mean for the walk group. Clinical improvements measured using Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly scoring were greater for the tango group. From these preliminary results it is suggested that although both interventions are effective activities for increasing strength and walk speed, tango might result in greater improvements than walking in balance skills and in walking speed in the 10-wk intervention. The study needs to be repeated with a greater sample size to determine the effectiveness of walking on fear of falling.


The urgency of climate change is communicated profusely across governments, decision makers, scientific and research communities. In countries such as the UK, where the future impacts of climate change are hard to perceive, action does not reflect this urgency. Consequently there is a need for a tailored approach in terms of climate change communication, from information content and dissemination, audience targeting and considerations affecting its reception to maximise its impact on action. This paper addresses how climate change information can influence action by investigating opportunities for changes in travel behaviour. It presents results from a questionnaire survey of 903 householders and five focus group discussions conducted in Hampshire, South East UK, on the use of climate change messaging for behaviour change. It identifies three distinct awareness groups based on levels of understanding of the causes of climate change ('Human activities', 'Unsure' and 'Non-human') and demonstrates that individuals aged less than 25 years old and over 55 show a stronger likelihood of being unsure of the causes of climate change or thinking this is not related to human activities. In addition to identifying audiences to target, barriers to change are identified: low willingness to engage in sustainable travel behaviour was found to result from a perception that climate change is too forbidding to be tackled on a personal level. However environmental information was found to be a positive reinforcer of future behaviour rather than a direct driver of change. The paper concludes by presenting a framework on how to best deliver climate change information to influence lifestyle changes by clearly designing the information around behaviour, audience, messenger, content and delivery tools. It suggests that climate change information can be used directly to address perceived barriers to behaviour change and increase intention to change behaviours. Moving away from current models of linear and one-dimensional dissemination of climate information, the framework can be used for multiple audiences and behaviours allowing for comparison, monitoring, evaluation and transferability of results.


An independently controlled, three-color, organic light-emitting device was constructed with a vertically stacked pixel architecture that allows for independent tuning of color, gray scale, and intensity. The 12-layer device structure consists of sequentially stacked layers of metal oxide, amorphous organic, crystalline organic, and metal thin films deposited by a combination of thermal evaporation and radio-frequency sputtering. Each of the three addressable colors is sufficiently bright for flat panel video display applications. A novel inverted structure is used for the middle device in the stack to lower the maximum drive voltage of the compound pixel.


WHEN I FIRST spoke to the Society more than forty years ago, the simple fact that I had used diving equipment to excavate a Late Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Turkey2 was enough to justify the talk as part of a symposium titled, like this one, "Archaeology: New Techniques and Methods." Now, however, the use of scuba equipment to reach underwater sites is as routine as the use of motor vehicles to reach terrestrial sites.3 Between 1984 and 1994, for example, our Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University conducted 22,500 dives to depths between 145 and 200 feet4 in order to excavate another Late Bronze Age wreck off the Turkish coast.5 Thus, a paper about diving equipment, suction pipes, and lifting balloons at this symposium would be no more appropriate than a paper about a new model of pickup truck. Of course there have been improvements in diving equipment since my first underwater excavation, in 1960, which was partly funded and later published by this society.6 Underwater gauges that enable the diver to see the amount of air left in a tank, and inflatable buoyancy compensators, make diving safer, as does the air-filled plastic dome we place on every site as a refuge for any diver with equipment failure.7 In order to avoid decompression sickness, or the bends, we now routinely decompress on pure oxygen, using special decompression tables designed specifically for our work.8 None of this, however, revolutionized our field. Yet other recent technical advances truly have. I should emphasize that I refer only to technical advances for scuba-diving archaeologists. Oceanographer Willard Bascom, after studying Lloyd's of London records, could write, "Statistics for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries indicate that approximately 40 percent of all wooden sailing ships ended their careers by running onto reefs, rocks, or beaches made of rock, sand, or coral."9 The same surely held true in antiquity, which means that nearly half of the ships launched in antiquity sank because they struck land. Thus there is sufficient archaeology to be done in relatively shallow coastal water that does not demand the expense of locating and excavating wrecks of similar types and dates far deeper than divers are able to work. Archaeologists could find and excavate numerous Phoenician wrecks less than 200 feet deep for the cost of excavating with robotic tools just one such wreck 1,000 or more feet deep farther offshore, thereby learning more of the past. Nevertheless, I eagerly await the results of work planned by Robert Ballard, Lawrence Stager, and their colleagues on two such very deep Phoenician wrecks.10 What technical advances have been most needed by diving archaeologists over the past four decades? Mainly we strove to increase the amount of work accomplished on a site during a campaign, for our excavators are limited by physiological constraints to only two dives a day of twenty minutes each when working at, say, 145 feet. We once increased those minutes to hours at a time by using saturation diving on a wreck nearly 200 feet deep off the Italian island of Lipari, but we could afford it only because an Italian firm provided the ship, mixed breathing gases, both underwater and surface chambers, a diving bell, a small submersible, and professional divers as part of an exercise to train those divers to work in deep oil fields around the world.11 This was not a practical solution since most of our excavators are normally graduate students who have studied the history and theory of wooden ship construction, and can identify each tiny fragment of wood they uncover. I would not send such students to great depths on mixed gases (although on a Byzantine wreck about 100 feet deep even our students learned to use a special air mixture called nitrox, in which the level of nitrogen, which causes a narcotic effect under pressure, is reduced to less than its normal 80 percent).12 A flexible one-atmosphere diving suit being developed by Phil Nuytten of Nuytco Research Ltd. …


Background: Sever's disease, also known as calcaneal apophysitis, is thought to be an inflammation of the apophysis of the heel, which is open in childhood. This condition has been commented on and looked at in a retrospective manner but has not been examined systematically. We assembled the most commonly cited theoretical causative models identified from the literature and tested them to determine whether any were risk factors. Methods: Children with Sever's disease were compared with a similarly aged nonsymptomatic population to determine whether identifiable risk factors exist for the onset of Sever's disease. Areas raised in the literature and, hence, compared were biomechanical foot malalignment, as measured by Root et al–type foot measurements and the Foot Posture Index; ankle joint dorsiflexion, measured with a modified apparatus; body mass index; and total activity and types of sport played. Results: Statistically significant but small odds ratios were found in forefoot to rearfoot determination and left ankle joint dorsiflexion. Conclusions: This study suggests that there is no evidence to support that weight and activity levels are risk factors for Sever's disease. The statistically significant but clinically negligible odds ratio (0.93) on the left side for decreased ankle joint dorsiflexion and statistically significant and clinically stronger odds ratio bilaterally for forefoot to rearfoot malalignment suggest that biomechanical malalignment is an area for further investigation. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 101(2): 133-145, 2011)


Localized surface plasmons (LSPs), which are collective charge oscillation confined by metallic nanoparticles, gained much interest in the field of optoelectronics due to its ability to confine light down to nanoscale without a diffraction limit. As light-matter interaction in nanoscale is becoming more important due to the demand in scaling down the optoelectronic devices, my thesis describes the work on manipulation of such light-matter interaction enabled by LSPs. First, periodically patterned two-dimensional arrays of bowties were investigated to study the localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonances via reflection measurements and numerical simulations. Due to the grating created by arrays of bowties, a new, lattice-coupled LSP (latticeLSP) mode emerged. Comparing the calculated E-field enhancement of the bowtie arrays to the reflection spectra showed that the lattice-LSP mode positions are closely related to the dips in the reflectance spectra. After the study of bowtie arrays, we showed photoluminescence (PL) from bulk, planar silicon coupled with metal bowtie nanocavities, which is an indirect bandgap semiconductor with very low emission efficiency. This was due to the E-field concentrated inside the tips of the metal bowtie achieved by LSPR, leading to increased radiative decay rate. The approach of bowtie-coupled emitter was also applied to monolayer MoS2, a transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor which transforms to a direct bandgap semiconductor in monolayer. Silver bowtie array coupled with monolayer of MoS2 showed a high enhancement in emission (Raman and PL) due to surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF) from weak-coupling of MoS2 excitons and bowtie's LSPR. By tailoring the design of bowtie arrays, we controlled the location of surface plasmon resonances which, coupled with MoS2 excitons, led to spectral modification of PL spectra. Furthermore, at low temperature, we achieved stronger coupling between the two systems in some designs of the bowtie array and observed Fano resonances in reflection measurements. The approach was extended to photocurrent studies in MoS2. Utilizing the helicity of monolayer MoS2 is suggested as future work to investigate the circular photocurrent in MoS2 induced by selective linear polarizations. Lastly, by fabricating nanoribbon arrays of fluorographene, evolution of localized surface plasmon mode of graphene in near-infrared wavelength range was studied via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The initial result showed possibility of tunable graphene IR plasmon resonance depending on the array design due to the localized surface plasmon mode created by the grating of alternating fluoro-graphene and graphene nanoribbons, confining E-field to excite the plasmon modes in IR range. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Materials Science & Engineering First Advisor Ritesh Agarwal This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1932


Mutations of the APC gene cause familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) in humans and multiple intestinal neoplasia (Min) in laboratory mouse strains. A dominant modifying gene (Mom1), which partially suppresses the min phenotype, has been mapped to mouse chromosome 4. This region is syntenic with human chromosome 1p35-p36. The phospholipase A2 (Pla2s) locus is an excellent candidate for Mom1 and the equivalent human locus PLA2G2A is found on chromosome 1p35. It does not necessarily follow, however, than any modifier of mouse polyposis also influences human disease. In order to test whether a locus on 1p modifies FAP, subjects from 28 FAP families have been typed at microsatellite loci on this chromosome arm. The severity of their duodenal polyposis has also been assessed by endoscopy. Pedigree (lod score) linkage analysis found no evidence of a simple, dominant modifying gene, comparable with the action of Mom1 in inbred mouse strains. Given the more complex genetic and environmental interactions likely to exist in outbred human populations, it is probably more appropriate to use tests which do not specify a mode of inheritance. Using these methods of analysis, the data suggest that a locus on chromosome 1p35-p36 may influence the severity of duodenal FAP.


Aims Beta-cell dysfunction is an early event in the natural history of type 2 diabetes. However, its progression is variable and potentially influenced by several clinical factors. We report the baseline data of the BetaDecline study, an Italian prospective multicenter study on clinical predictors of beta-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods Clinical, lifestyle, and laboratory data, including circulating levels of inflammatory markers and non-esterified fatty acids, were collected in 507 type 2 diabetic outpatients on stable treatment with oral hypoglycemic drugs or diet for more than 1 year. Beta-cell dysfunction was evaluated by calculating the proinsulin/insulin ratio (P/I). Results At baseline, the subjects in the upper PI/I ratio quartile were more likely to be men and receiving secretagogue drugs; they also showed a borderline longer diabetes duration (P = 0.06) and higher serum levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose, and triglycerides. An inverse trend across all PI/I quartiles was noted for BMI and serum levels of total cholesterol (T-C), LDL-C, HDL-C and C reactive protein (CRP), and with homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-B) and HOMA of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) values (P<0.05 for all). At multivariate analysis, the risk of having a P/I ratio in the upper quartile was higher in the subjects on secretagogue drugs (odds ratio [OR] 4.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.6–6.9) and in the males (OR 1.8; 95% CI, 1.1–2.9). Conclusions In the BetaDecline study population, baseline higher PI/I values, a marker of beta-cell dysfunction, were more frequent in men and in patients on secretagogues drugs. Follow-up of this cohort will allow the identification of clinical predictors of beta-cell failure in type 2 diabetic outpatients.


OBJECTIVESame-level recurrent lumbar disc herniation complicates outcomes after primary discectomy in a subset of patients. The health care costs associated with the management of this complication are currently unknown. We set out to identify the incidence and health care cost of same-level recurrent disc herniation after single-level lumbar discectomy at our institution. METHODSWe retrospectively reviewed 156 consecutive patients undergoing primary single-level lumbar discectomy at one institution. The incidence of symptomatic same-level recurrent disc herniation either responding to conservative therapy or requiring revision discectomy was assessed. Institutional billing and accounting records were reviewed to determine the billing costs of all diagnostic and therapeutic measures used for patients experiencing recurrent disc herniation. RESULTSTwelve months after surgery, 141 patients were available for follow-up. Of these patients, 124 (88%) were symptom free or had minimal symptoms not affecting their daily activity. Radiographically proven symptomatic same-level recurrent disc herniation developed in 17 patients (12%) a median of 8 months after primary discectomy. Eleven patients (7%) required revision surgery, whereas 6 (3.9%) responded to conservative therapy alone. Diagnosis and management of recurrent disc herniation were associated with a mean cost of $26 593 per patient, and the mean cost was markedly less for patients responding to conservative treatment ($2315) compared with those requiring revision surgery ($39 836) (P < 0.001). Of 141 primary lumbar discectomies performed at our institution with the patients followed for 1 year, the total cost associated with the management of subsequent recurrent disc herniation was $452 083 ($289 797 per 100 primary discectomies). CONCLUSIONIn our experience, recurrent lumbar disc herniation occurred in more than 10% of patients and was associated with substantial health care costs. Development of novel techniques to prevent recurrent lumbar disc herniation is warranted to decrease the health care costs and morbidity associated with this complication. Prolonged conservative management should be attempted when possible to reduce the health care costs of this complication.


Modern mobile bootloaders play an important role in both the function and the security of the device. They help ensure the Chain of Trust (CoT), where each stage of the boot process verifies the integrity and origin of the following stage before executing it. This process, in theory, should be immune even to attackers gaining full control over the operating system, and should prevent persistent compromise of a device's CoT. However, not only do these bootloaders necessarily need to take untrusted input from an attacker in control of the OS in the process of performing their function, but also many of their verification steps can be disabled ("unlocked") to allow for development and user customization. Applying traditional analyses on bootloaders is problematic, as hardware dependencies hinder dynamic analysis, and the size, complexity, and opacity of the code involved preclude the usage of many previous techniques. In this paper, we explore vulnerabilities in both the design and implementation of mobile bootloaders. We examine bootloaders from four popular manufacturers, and discuss the standards and design principles that they strive to achieve. We then propose BOOTSTOMP, a multi-tag taint analysis resulting from a novel combination of static analyses and dynamic symbolic execution, designed to locate problematic areas where input from an attacker in control of the OS can compromise the bootloader's execution, or its security features. Using our tool, we find six previously-unknown vulnerabilities (of which five have been confirmed by the respective vendors), as well as rediscover one that had been previouslyreported. Some of these vulnerabilities would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code as part of the bootloader (thus compromising the entire chain of trust), or to perform permanent denial-of-service attacks. Our tool also identified two bootloader vulnerabilities that can be leveraged by an attacker with root privileges on the OS to unlock the device and break the CoT. We conclude by proposing simple mitigation steps that can be implemented by manufacturers to safeguard the bootloader and OS from all of the discovered attacks, using alreadydeployed hardware features.


The following remarks suggest that the election system for choosing Washington judges is not, in any significant degree, an election system at all. Most Washington judges do not get on the bench by election and elections are rarely used to evaluate sitting judges. Through the quiet adoption of certain practices and customs, citizen voice through elections rarely plays a role. If elections are a good way to select and retain judges—an issue not debated here—important changes in our practices are essential if we are to take elections seriously.


Background: Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex. Recent research reports show that DHEA has various beneficial effects including neuro protective effects and that the decline in its production with aging may contribute to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration, and thus cognitive decline.Aim: To assess the cognitive functions and estimate the levels of DHEA in subjects of the same age group. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional comparative study of sixty healthy male participants between 60 to 70 years of age was done. They did not have other medical disorders likely to affect cognitive function. Their performance in the principal domains of cognition, i.e. memory, attention and concentration, verbal fluency, language and visuospatial functioning was observed. Serum levels of DHEA were estimated for all the participants by ELISA method. Results: A significant positive correlation was observed between DHEA level and three domains of cognition viz., visuospatial skills (r = 0.95), verbal fluency (r = 0.49) and short term memory (r = 0.28). No association was found with other domains of cognition. Conclusion: Subjects with low levels of serum DHEA among the same age group showed a significant decline in visuospatial skills, short term memory and verbal fluency.


Today, multi-core processors are used in all computing aspects, including embedded systems such as mobile devices. In order for software programs to benefit from the transition to multi-core processors, the programs need to be concurrent.
Recent research shows that programs developed using the message-passing model can scale better than programs developed using the shared-memory model. However, the message-passing model is not widely adopted, partly, because of the lack of debugging tools. Debugging message-passing programs is very intricate due to their inherent nondeterministic behavior; even with the same input, a program may behave differently when executed multiple times. Bugs in message-passing programs are elusive; they are hard to detect and are hard to reproduce when they appear.
The primary goal of this research is to alleviate the burden of debugging message- passing based concurrent programs. In particular, we enhance traditional testing by using trace-based symbolic predictive analysis to detect much more errors that couldn't be detected before, and we propose efficient techniques for deterministically replaying an execution in case of failure.
In testing enhancement, we apply a novel predictive analysis technique in which a program execution model and a set of safety properties are encoded as a quantifier-free first-order logic formula, whose satisfiability determines if there exists an execution in which at least one safety property is violated. Also, we have developed DR-MCAPI, the first tool to introduce the deterministic replay capability to message-passing programs for multicore systems. During a recording phase, an unobstructed execution of an input program is monitored to produce a trace. In case of failure, the stored trace is used to enforce an execution that is logically equivalent to the one observed in the recording phase. We have successfully applied our techniques on multicore programs developed using the new MCAPI specification and Web Services described using the BPEL language.


BACKGROUND
International evidence has shown the complex interaction between depression and chronic physical diseases. Depression in scenarios involving multiple comorbidities has not received enough attention in Chile.

AIM
To characterize the depressed people who consult at Primary Health Care Centers (PHCCs), taking into account the presence of chronic physical or psychiatric comorbidity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A secondary analysis of databases used in a clinical trial. Two hundred fifty six adults seeking professional help were recruited in four PHCCs located in the Metropolitan Region. These people had a major depressive episode, identified with a structured psychiatric interview (MINI), and gave their informed consent to participate. Socio-demographic information was collected, depressive symptomatology was measured with the patient health questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), psychiatric morbidity was assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), and chronic physical diseases were self-reported by the patients. Descriptive analyses of all the variables were conducted.

RESULTS
Seventy percent of patients had a history of depression, with a median of two prior depressive episodes. Depressive symptoms were mostly considered as moderate to severe and severe and 31% of the patients had high suicide risk. Seventy eight percent displayed a physical or psychiatric comorbidity. Of these patients, 29% only had a chronic physical comorbidity, while 46% suffered from an additional psychiatric disorder.

CONCLUSIONS
Depressed individuals who seek help at PHCCs constitute an especially complex population that must be treated taking into account multiple comorbidities.


Millimeter-scale shock tubes with precision-machined submillimeter features have been developed for hydrodynamic instability experiments conducted on the Nova laser facility. We will describe two specific designs: a silica aerogel tracer disk and an aluminum-doped epoxy tracer strip, both embedded in the shock-tube target. These unique features facilitate radiographic imaging of key phenomena of interest. We describe in detail the construction and characterization of the miniature targets, including the fabrication and emplacement of the radiographic tracers. A sample of the experimental data is presented. 3 refs., 4 figs.


Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by members states of the United Nations in September 2015. One of the major principles of the SDGs is "Leave No One Behind".  As such SDG monitoring requires data from all population groups, particularly the most vulnerable and most unreachable. This poses a challenge to governments in terms of collecting data from such groups to monitor status of SDGs. There are a number of challenges to collecting data from such populations, particularly in low income countries. One such challenge is lack of a framework to assess data gaps. Using SDG Goal 3 as a Case Study, this paper proposes a framework which governments, policy makers, academicians, students and development agencies can use to assess data gaps. The framework requires identifying attributes related to Enabling Environment-Supply-Demand-Quality for specific human development programme areas (examples in SDG Goal 3 are maternal health, child health, immunization, health systems strengthening, and others). With the principle of leave no one behind, each attribute is disaggregated as much as is possible in relation to drivers of inequity such as geography, religion, disability, ethnicity, wealth and education levels among others. Apart from a number of papers that have articulated lack of data for SDG monitoring, this is the first time that a framework for systematically identifying data gaps has been established.

 Key words: Dat gaps, SDGs.


An appropriate level of physical activity (PA) is beneficial for health and weight management. This study examines the relationship of habitual PA and activity energy expenditure (AEE) in a typical week with gender and body composition parameters. Data of habitual PA of 72 healthy adults were collected with the heart rate and motion sensor (Actiheart). Total and segmental body fat was measured with bioelectrical impedance analyser. Men were more active in total and on working days and had shorter light and longer moderate and vigorous PA on working days than females (p<0.05). Females had less inactive and sitting time on days off. Inactive and sitting time in working days for both genders correlated positively with visceral fat rating, body and leg fat % (p<0.05). In male's duration of working days' moderate PA correlated inversely, but light PA positively with these parameters (p<0.05). Males with more vigorous PA in working day and AEE in days off had lower body fat % (p<0.05). A distinctive PA pattern on working days and days off indicates a gender-related differences. Decrease of time of inactivity and light PA and increase of duration of moderate and vigorous PA was associated with lower body and segmental fat amount.


The importance of the aviation industry's socio-economic impact, domestically and globally, cannot be denied. In light of this and, as aviation continues to evolve as an academic field of study, post-secondary institutions with aviation specific curriculum have grown,in number and prominence. As a direct consequence of academic growth, the necessity to publish follows as a concomitant requirement. Through the diligence of those researchers actively conducting aviation related research a common theoretical and conceptual base for aviation specific research has been established. The void that once existed for aviation research has been filled, predominantly by three aviation specific journals and a number of other journals of prominence that accept aviation research for publication. In a 1995 article entitled Publishing Aviation Research: An Interdisci~linarv Review of Scholarly Journals, Truitt and Kaps, using a specialized computer research criterion, and key informant interviews identified a list of 2 1 aviation specific and related publication outlets available for publishing. This research procedure and methodology received additional validity when the University Aviation Association codified the findings into a UAA publication entitled, Directow of Scholarlv Journals Which Publish Non-Engineering Aviation Research. Replication of that study and by expanding the field of search mechanisms, the authors set out to determine the present field for aviation publications, both scholarly and non-scholarly. Twenty-nine academically peer reviewed journals are included in this update. The results validate the previous study, and identify and define, through tabular exhibits, contact points, addresses and email and/or web site locations of previously sited locations and those emerging subsequent to the UAA listing. In addition, this current effort adds new perspectives on the reasons for publishing and who might be encouraged to publish in what type of journal.


Anyone can learn the ins and outs of eBay with this new book from Atlantic Publishing Company. They have spent a year putting together this exciting new book for all those who want to join the ranks of selling on eBay. eBay has changed the way products and services are purchased all over the world. Daily over 1.5 million online customers and providers log on to bid and sell virtually anything that can be bought or purchased. In 2006, eBay sellers are estimated to post $22 billion in sales. There are businesses earning $1 million a year selling products on eBay today. It is estimated that more than half a million people make full-time incomes just with their eBay business. eBay also allows you to run a business that requires no advertising costs. eBay is a level playing field it doesn t matter how old you are, what nationality or income level, whether you own a business now or not, what your background is, or where you are located. Start making money on eBay today! The book starts with a complete overview of how eBay works. Then you are guided through the whole process of creating the auction and auction strategies, photography, writing copy, text and formatting, managing auctions, shipping, collecting payments, registering, About Me page, sources for merchandise, multiple sales, programming tricks, PayPal, accounting, creating marketing, merchandising, managing e-mail lists, advertising plans, taxes and sales tax, best time to list items and for how long, sniping programs, international customers, opening a storefront, electronic commerce, buy-it now pricing, keywords, Google marketing, and eBay secrets; everything you will ever need to get started making money on eBay!


The integration of unconventional renewable energy sources on the electrical grid poses challenges to the electrical engineer. This chapter focuses on the transient modeling of electrical machines. These models can be used for the design of genera‐ tor control, the definition of the protection strategies, stability studies, and the eval‐ uation of the electrical; mechanical; and thermal constraints on the machine. This chapter presents three modeling techniques: the standard d-q equivalent model, the coupled-circuit model, and the finite element model (FEM). The consideration of magnetic saturation for the different models is presented. The responses of the dif‐ ferent models during three-phase, two-phase, and one-phase sudden short circuit are compared.


Peter Carruthers has argued that the present popular concern with animal rights is a sign of moral decadence. I argue against this conclusion by focusing on how Carruthers handles the notorious argument from marginal cases. I first explain what the argument from marginal cases is and how a theory can run foul of that argument. I then show that Carruthers must face this argument since he concludes that the marginal cases have, while animals lack, direct moral status. I then introduce a two-tiered moral theory as a way of accommodating the concept of direct moral status within Carruthers's framework. Although the concept of direct moral status that results from such a two-tiered theory has important differences from the standard conception, it does justify Carruthers's claim that the marginal cases have direct moral status. However, I argue that animals will likewise have direct moral status with this new conception, thus demonstrating that, even given Carruthers's theory, a concern for the rights of animals is no more a sign of moral decadence than a concern for the rights of the marginal cases is.


This volume collects for the first time all of Charles Dickens' extant plans and notes for his novels. Dickens wrote his novels in segments during the course of serial publication. Beginning with "Dombey and Son," the sixth novel, he wrote out plans for each segment as he went along, sketching future developments, querying himself about options, noting motifs, establishing recurrent images, working out chronologies, experimenting with names, and, in general, reminding himself of what he had done and what he should do next. Some notes survive from before "Dombey" and those for a few novels after that are incomplete or abbreviated, but for the most part the plan from "Dombey" on are full and complete. Each sheet of these notes is reproduced here in actual-size photographic facsimile and is transcribed on the facing page in typographic facsimile, a format that preserves Dickens' holographic nuances and at the same time allows for the instant decipherment of his often difficult hand. Included are his plans for "The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, "and "Edwin Drood." The volume also contains thirty-three full-page illustrations and a full-color frontispiece. Harry Stone, an internationally recognized Dickens scholar, provides the reader with a full account of Dickens' methods of planning and working. In a comprehensive introduction and extensive notes, he uses Dickens' written plans to illuminate the thought and technique of the novels. He examines creative concerns, such as Dickens' process of naming and visualization, and technical matters, such as his use of various pen nibs, ink colors, and papers. By making fully available and comprehensible Dickens' own cache of in-process plans, possibilities, and alternatives for shaping his novels, "Dickens' Working Notes" offers unparalleled insights into the novelist's art and into the nature of the creative imagination."


Antioxidants are currently used as efficient excipients that delay or inhibit the oxidation process of molecules. Excipients are often associated with adverse reactions. Stability studies can guide the search for solutions that minimize or delay the processes of degradation. The ability to predict oxidation reactions in different drugs is important. Methods: This study was conducted to assess the rational use of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), sodium metabisulfite (SMB), propyl gallate (PG) and cysteine (CYS) in tablet formulations of simvastatin and ketoconazole. These antioxidants were evaluated according to stability parameters and the relationship between efficiency of the antioxidant and chemical structure of the drugs. Results were compared with DPPH tests and computational simulations. BHT was most efficient regarding simvastatin stability, and the most effective BHT concentrations for maintaining stability were 0.5 and 0.1%. In relation to ketoconazole, SMB was most efficient for maintaining content and dissolution profile. The evaluation by DPPH showed that the largest percentage of absorbance reduction was observed for PG, while SMB proved most efficient and had lower consumption of DPPH. The same pattern was observed, albeit with lower efficiency, for the other lipophilic antioxidants such as BHT and BHA. The results of the molecular modeling study demonstrated that electronic properties obtained were correlated with antioxidant activity in solution, being useful for the rational development of liquid pharmaceutical formulations but not for solid oral formulations. This study demonstrated the importance of considering stability parameters and molecular modeling to elucidate the chemical phenomena involved in antioxidant activity, being useful for the rational use of antioxidants in the development of pharmaceutical formulations.


This paper studies the political and social impacts of increased education by utilizing a randomized girls' merit scholarship programme in Kenya that raised test scores and secondary schooling. Consistent with the view that education empowers the disadvantaged to challenge authority, we find that the programme reduced the acceptance of domestic violence and political authority. Young women in programme schools also increased their objective political knowledge. We find that this rejection of the status quo did not translate into greater perceived political efficacy, community participation or voting intentions. Instead, there is suggestive evidence that the perceived legitimacy of political violence increased.


In this paper, we consider the joint overbooking and capacity control problem over a single flight leg with multiple fare classes. The objective is to maximize the net expected revenue, which is given by the difference between the expected revenue from the accepted requests and the expected penalty cost from the denied reservations. We study a class of open loop policies that accept the requests for each fare class with a fixed acceptance probability. In this case, the challenge becomes finding a set of acceptance probabilities that maximize the net expected revenue. We derive a simple expression that can be used to compute the optimal acceptance probabilities, despite the problem of finding the optimal acceptance probabilities being a high dimensional optimization problem. We show that the optimal acceptance probabilities randomize the acceptance decisions for at most one fare class, indicating that the randomized nature of our open loop policies is not a huge practical concern. We bound the performance loss of our open loop policies when compared with the optimal policy. Computational experiments demonstrate that open loop policies perform remarkably well, providing net expected revenues within two percent of the optimal on average.


The present study was undertaken to measure the attitude of the students towards teacher training programmes through Distance Education offered by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad, Pakistan. To achieve the said end, the descriptive method of research was considered appropriate. The population of the study consisted of the B. Ed. Students of AIOU. Three hundred students from the Sahiwal region were selected as sample for the study. Questionnaire was used as a Research tool to gather the relevant data. Data was analysed in terms of percentage and mean score. It was found that majority of the students appreciated the overall input of the programme though a few eyebrows were raised concerning the assessment of the assignments.


An overlay material was deposited by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique onto a single-mode optical fiber containing a long-period grating. The long-period grating exhibits characteristic attenuation bands in its transmission spectrum whose central wavelengths were observed to depend on the optical thickness of the overlay material, even for materials that have a refractive index higher than that of silica.


The first chapter provides a succinct biography of this extraodinary man, describing how Erickson overcame numerous adversities in early life, and how these events shaped his development as a highly innovative thinker. Commentaries on Milton Erickson, M.D. examines the practical and theoretical aspects of Erickson's methods, including his therapeutic posture, expectation of change, emphasis on the positive, acknowledgement of more than one solution to a problem, blocking of symptomatic behavior, change in relation to the therapist, use of anectodes, and willingness to "let go" of patients. A Review of Ordeal Therapy focuses on a controversial therapeutic technique successfully used by Erickson. Haley cautions the reader, however, of the care with which this powerful technique should be exercised. A fascinating dialogue between Jay Haley and John Weakland,


ABSTRACT This longitudinal study explored how consumers justify their alcohol consumption by compartmentalising or integrating their various drinking identities (i.e. description of one's drinking behaviours and extent to which these are part of person's overall identity). Thirty-one participants were interviewed twice. The findings revealed that identities are continuously altered/created according to context and social interactions. Consumers' movement between social fields generated different perceptions of what constitutes 'healthy' drinking, leading to displays of different identities. After interviewees compared their alcohol consumption perceptions with results from an online 14-day alcohol tracker, some consumers reported a 'newly perceived' drinking identity and displayed integration tendencies. Others denied their consumption results and continued to exhibit compartmentalised identities, justified by various social selves, roles and responsibilities. Social marketing and policy recommendations are discussed.


Governmental regulations on natural gas transmission pipelines mandate that operators provide a baseline integrity assessments for their pipeline irrespective of the fact, whether these pipelines can be inspected from the inside by in-line inspection tools or not. In implementing their Integrity Management Programs and working towards the prescribed deadlines, operators are often confronted with challenging pipeline segments that are difficult to inspect with existing technology. A common challenge are installations or pipeline segments, with substantial changes in the internal bore. Due to the inability of many currently available ILI tools to meet these challenging inspection requirements, some pipelines are still deemed unpiggable. Engineering and implementing the modifications necessary to make a pipeline piggable are often costprohibitive, since time-consuming and cumbersome integrity assessment methods have to be used to meet the regulatory requirements. In view of these technological difficulties and the prescribed time constraints, it is imperative that inspection solutions are found that are both economical and time-sensitive. The paper discuss the development of a multidiameter inspection system utilizing magnetic flux leakage technology. The inspection tool can operate in pipelines with a change in diameter in the range of 32" to 42". Also an overview will be given about the design requirements for a multidiameter inspection tool fleet ranging from 10" to 48". Developing such a complex tool requires rigorous testing. Accordingly, comprehensive tool testing took place at the ROSEN production site where a pipe was set up specifically to simulate the diameter changes and bends of the pipelines which were supposed to be inspected. 6 Pipeline Technology Conference 2011


Using ultrasonic shear wave speed (SWS) estimates has become popular to noninvasively evaluate liver fibrosis, but significant inter-system variability in liver SWS measurements can preclude meaningful comparison of measurements performed with different systems. The RSNA Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance (QIBA) ultrasound SWS committee has been developing elastic and viscoelastic (VE) phantoms to evaluate system dependencies of SWS estimates. The objective of this study is to compare SWS measurements between commercially-available systems using phantoms that have viscoelastic properties similar to those observed in normal and fibrotic liver. CIRS, Inc. fabricated three phantoms using a proprietary oil-water emulsion infused in a Zerdine® hydrogel that were matched in viscoelastic behavior to healthy and fibrotic human liver data. Phantoms were measured at academic, clinical, government and vendor sites using different systems with curvilinear arrays at multiple focal depths (3.0, 4.5 & 7.0 cm). The results of this study show that current-generation ultrasound SWS measurement systems are able to differentiate viscoelastic materials that span healthy to fibrotic liver. The deepest focal depth (7.0 cm) yielded the greatest inter-system variability for each phantom (maximum of 17.7%) as evaluated by IQR. Inter-system variability was consistent across all 3 phantoms and was not a function of stiffness. Median SWS estimates for the greatest outlier system for each phantom/focal depth combination ranged from 12.7-17.6%. Future efforts will include performing more robust statistical analyses of these data, comparing these phantom data trends with viscoelastic digital phantom data, providing vendors with study site data to refine their systems to have more consistent measurements, and integrating these data into the QIBA ultrasound shear wave speed measurement profile.


Objective First, to define the best single-step suprathreshold screening test for superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS); second, to obtain further insight into the relative sensitivity of vestibular afferents to sound vibration in the presence of a superior canal dehiscence. Study Design Prospective study. Setting Tertiary referral center. Patients Eleven patients with surgically confirmed SCDS (mean, 50 yr; range, 32–66 yr) and 11 age-matched, healthy subjects (right ear only) with no hearing or vestibular deficits (mean, 50 yr; range, 33–66 yr). Intervention All subjects completed ocular and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (o- and cVEMP) testing in response to air conduction (click and 500 Hz tone burst) and midline bone conduction (reflex hammer and Mini-shaker) stimulation. Main Outcome Measures OVEMP n10 amplitude and cVEMP corrected peak-to-peak amplitude. Results OVEMP n10 amplitudes were significantly higher in SCDS when compared with healthy controls in response to all stimuli with the exception of reflex hammer. Likewise, cVEMP-corrected peak-to-peak amplitudes were significantly higher in SCDS when compared with healthy controls for air conduction stimulation (click and 500 Hz toneburst). However, there were no significant differences between groups for midline taps (reflex hammer or mini-shaker). Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated that oVEMPs in response to air conduction stimulation provided the best separation between SCDS and healthy controls. Conclusion OVEMPs in response to air conduction stimulation (click and 500 Hz toneburst) provide the best separation between SCDS and healthy controls and are therefore the best single-step screening test for SCDS.


In "Breaking the Waves," Bess McNeill talks to God, using her own voice. In this essay, I discuss how Bess' God produces two contradictory tendencies. First, God produces a sense of fate for Bess, an uncontrollable destiny to which she must submit. Second, God is a means by which she upends that same sense of fate. The metaphor of breaking, in the film's title, suggests Bess is at once broken by God (she is subject to what she sees as God's unavoidable power) but that sense of fatedness is itself broken by the way that Bess channels—or invents--God's voice, offering a radical political alternative.


The popularity of adventure activities in leisure and tourism is escalating, yet little is known about how personality and perceived constraints can prevent consumption of such activities. The aim of this study was to test a model of the mediating role of psychological constraints in explaining the relationship between personality and interest in adventure activity participation. Based on a questionnaire survey of 1324 respondents, a quantitative analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM) was carried out. The results show that personality does influence psychological constraints, which in turn have a significant negative effect on adventure activity participation. Increased knowledge about the constraints to adventure activity participation can contribute to realizing the full development potential that lies in adventure consumption in leisure and tourism. Implications of the research can prove valuable in both leisure and tourism marketing and management.


Abstract. The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is widely used in the photogrammetric surveys both of structures and of small areas. Geomatics focuses the attention on the metric quality of the final products of the survey, creating several 3D modelling applications from UAS images. As widely known, the quality of results derives from the quality of images acquisition phase, which needs an a priori estimation of the expected precisions. The planning phase is typically managed using dedicated tools, adapted from the traditional aerial-photogrammetric flight plan. But UAS flight has features completely different from the traditional one. Hence, the use of UAS for photogrammetric applications today requires a growth in knowledge in planning. The basic idea of this research is to provide a drone photogrammetric flight planning tools considering the required metric precisions, given a priori the classical parameters of a photogrammetric planning: flight altitude, overlaps and geometric parameters of the camera. The created "office suite" allows a realistic planning of a photogrammetric survey, starting from an approximate knowledge of the Digital Surface Model (DSM), and the effective attitude parameters, changing along the route. The planning products are the overlapping of the images, the Ground Sample Distance (GSD) and the precision on each pixel taking into account the real geometry. The different tested procedures, the obtained results and the solution proposed for the a priori estimates of the precisions in the particular case of UAS surveys are here reported.


This study examines the eWOM effect, more specifically: how customer reviews effects consumers. The study is based on a modified version of the Regulatory Focus Theory which describes consumer behavior using consumer consumption goals. The purpose of this study was to examine how positive and negative customer review's influence consumers when analyzing products that are equally characterized by two consumption goals: promotion and prevention goals. The authors combined quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (focus groups) research methods with the sample selection for both research methods being based on students of Sodertorns University. Results indicate that negative customer reviews have a stronger influence on consumers than positive customer reviews when analyzing products that are equally characterized by the promotion goals and prevention goals. The results contradict the authors hypothesis which predicted an equally strong influence from positive and negative customer reviews.


This thesis addresses the some of the new issues for older New Zealand primary school students' information literacy acquisition. These issues have arisen as the result of the advent of computer-mediated interactive non-linear hypertexts, a new text type as opposed to traditional linear texts. The thesis maintains that the branching, expansive nature of hypertexts, coupled with socially constructed, strategic student learning, transforms the nature of learning itself, and creates a new synergistic learning environment and new conceptions of "literacy". This potential for transformation is seen by the researcher as an ideal opportunity for teachers to design and implement new approaches to information literacy activity, and the process of this thesis puts this opportunity into action. The research, then, seeks to clearly identify implications for teaching and learning of hypertext in relation to information literacy acquisition, through analysis and reflection of the experiences of the researcher in a classroom of year five and six students. An ecological constructivist research perspective was selected as the philosophical, theoretical and methodological foundation of the research. This perspective clearly aligned with the research design and process. The research was designed as an ethnographic case study which was based on a model of analysis of the class "collective zone of proximal development" over three phases of development and observation. The collection, analysis and "triangulation" of the eclectic range of data obtained from the ethnographic case study informed the analysis of conditions for successful "dynamic hypertextual literacy". This analysis in tum informed the construction of the findings, implications, and recommendations of the thesis. Results from the study confirmed that hypertext does indeed require specialised strategies for accessing, processing and authoring. In addition, given the complexities of information hypertexts such as the Internet, socially-mediated settings which also allow opportunites for teacher guidance are critical to effective deep learning and construction of knowledge when these texts are used. Further, the thesis suggests that the success or otherwise of "dynamic hypertextual literacy" is in the hands of teachers and the research embodies practical applications as well as outlining theoretical possibilities.


In the mid-1930s, criticisms of modern women's habits, clothing, and hairstyles exploded in the Burmese popular press, showing that "modern fashion" made a man no less virtuous and patriotic but rendered a woman immoral and unpatriotic. This article examines the nature of these criticisms and their motivations, and reveals that the controversy over the dress and comportment of modern women was a complex and multifaceted phenomenon sustained by irreducibly plural interests. It argues that neither the appeal for traditionalism and national sufficiency in the face of multiple modern and colonial temptations, nor the changing tides of Burmese nationalist movements sufficiently explain the preoccupation with modern women's fashion, and suggests that the discourse on modern women needs to be analyzed as stemming from a profound unsettling of existing notions of masculinity and femininity, and its effect on relations between the sexes.


Forests account for about one-third of the total land area of the world (FAO 2010). Throughout human history, forests have been essential for human well-being and currently contribute to the livelihoods of an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide (World Bank 2004). Forest resources are especially important for the poor, contributing directly to the livelihoods of 90% of those living with less than USD 1/day. Forests contribute to livelihoods by providing subsistence goods and income from the sale of forest products, inputs to agriculture, and income from employment. In addition to tangible wood and non-wood forests products, forest ecosystems provide a range of services at local, regional, and global levels, including flood control, air filtration, soil stabilisation, and climate regulation. Forests also provide habitat for about two-thirds of the world's known terrestrial species. The world's forests store a large amount of carbon and it has been estimated that they account for a large proportion of the world's land-based carbon uptake (Pan et al. 2011).


Non-governmental organizations (ngo) and fisherfolk organizations already use human rights principles and legislation to campaign for the social, economic and cultural rights of fishing people. Yet, despite the widespread adoption of human rights principles by ngos and United Nations agencies over the last 20 years and the human rights-basis of the influential fao Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, progress with application of this approach in fisheries has lagged behind other sectors until recently. It has been overshadowed by concerns to clarify and limit fishing access and use rights to prevent ecological collapse and address economic inefficiencies. Recent attention to gender equity, child labour, fair trade and rights to decent work in the fishery sector point, however, to rising attention to human rights-based approaches. Human rights approaches fit well with wider development agendas, utilize existing legal and policy frameworks, improve accountability of donors and states to their citizens, and can have positive impacts on fisherfolk's ability and motivation to participate in fisheries management for sustainability. They do not always require expensive and protracted legal process to implement and many have proven successful in fostering social and economic development both in fisheries and other sectors. Mindful of the risk of depoliticizing people's struggles for rights and co-opting the rights agenda to support business-as-usual, international agencies, aid donors and states can support responsible fisheries more effectively if they adopt a more explicit human rights approach in their development programming and governance frameworks.


The main subject of this PhD thesis is the fabrication and investigation the electrochemical behavior of anode catalysts appropriate for medium- temperature proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (WE) operating in the range 100 oC through 200 oC. These catalysts were based on metal oxides, primarily IrO2 and its mixtures with some other oxides, and investigated as oxygen evolution electrocatalysts. A central research challenge in this project has been to understand the interaction between the anode catalyst and the solid polymer membrane electrolyte, and clarification of temperature effects.Phosphoric acid is known as a suitable dopant to provide proton conductivity in membranes for high temperature for PEM fuel cells (FC) and WE. However, phosphates adsorb strongly on the catalyst, ultimately leading to its deactivation. Typical membrane for PEMFC and WE is Nafion, but is not mechanically stable at temperatures above ca. 100 oC. However, Nafion can be stabilized by addition of zirconium phosphate. Such membranes would be an alternative to the phosphate-based membranes provided that the zirconium phosphate does not have adverse effects on the catalytic activity of for example IrO2. On the basis of these considerations, we showed in this work that that zirconium hydrogen phosphate does not adsorb on or otherwise adversely affect the catalyst in terms of catalytic activity. In addition we even found some indications that the composite electrodes with zirconium hydrogen phosphate and Nafion can improve the utilization of iridium oxide.To reduce the costs of expensive noble oxides (IrO2 and RuO2) and improve stability and activation of these catalysts novel electrocatalysts were synthesized and characterized for application in high-temperature PEM WE. We therefore also investigated composite oxides of iridium and niobium, of iridium and cerium, and of iridium, ruthenium and cerium.The novel oxides are characterized using microscopic, XRD, XPS, and electrochemical techniques. The iridium-niobium and iridium-cerium oxides were synthesized by hydrolysis method and the solid solution oxides did not form.Niobium oxide exhibits a pronounced effect as a catalyst additive for IrO2 catalysts. In terms of catalytic activity addition of up to 30 mol% Nb2O5 to IrO2 are acceptable, and the activity of the catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still appreciable compared to iridium oxide at 80 oC in PEM WE.The electrochemical properties of the oxides showed that the addition of Nb2O5 to IrO2 particles had a highly beneficial effect at higher temperature (80 oC). Thus lower amounts of IrO2 can be used without appreciable loss of electrocatalytic activity, and with possibly improved anodic stability.The addition of cerium oxide did not show significant performance improvements. However, addition of 10 mol% CeO2 to IrO2 is acceptable, and the activity of the catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still appreciable compared to iridium oxide at 80 oC in PEM WE.Finally, the selection of substituted catalysts was tested at 150 oC in PEM WE with high-temperature membranes doped with phosphoric acid. The cross section of the MEA before and after the experiment shows that there is a good contact between the elctrocatalyst and the membrane. However, the thickness of the catalysts layer and that of the membrane after the experiments was reduced, indicating some loss of catalyst during operation. This was confirmed by an associated decrease in catalyst charge after the catalyst had been exposed to high potentials. Degradation of membrane as well as catalyst is observed. 10 mol% niobium oxide in iridium oxide showed higher electrocatalytic activity than the intrinsic IrO2 under these conditions.


Vehicle positioning with global navigation satellite system in urban environments has three challenges: signal attenuation, multipath and dynamic. In this study, the direct position tracking loop (DPTL) is proposed. Different from non-linear navigation domain vector tracking loops, DPTL is a linear scheme derived from the linearised model of baseband signal. Thus, the computational cost of DPTL is not too expensive. Different from pseudorange-based vector tracking loops (PB-VTLs) taking pseudorange residuals as intermediate variables to synthesise user position residuals, DPTL directly discriminates user position residuals in the domain of user position and receiver clock bias. Thus, DPTL takes full advantage of geometric relationships between the receiver and satellites to improve positioning accuracy. Moreover, for the purpose of improving positioning accuracy and maintaining sufficiently wide dynamic range at the same time, DPTL incorporates the vehicle movement characteristic in urban environments to configure early–late distance spacings of the discriminator and process noise power spectral densities of Kalman filter separately for each component of user position and receiver clock bias. Performance analysis and simulation confirm the tracking and positioning performance of DPTL is better than that of the PB-VTL in both dynamic weak signal and multipath environments.


Autogenic dynamics and self-organization in sedimentary systems are increasingly viewed as significant and important processes that drive erosion, sediment transport, and sediment accumulation across the Earth's surface. These internal dynamics can dramatically modulate the formation of the stratigraphic record, form biologically constructed depositional packages, affect ecological patterning in time and space, and impact aspects of geochemical sedimentation and diagenesis. The notion that autogenic processes are local phenomena of short duration and distance is now recognized as false. Understanding autogenic dynamics in sedimentary systems is thus essential for deciphering the morphodynamics of moderns sedimentary systems, accurately reconstructing Earth history, and predicting the spatial and temporal distribution of sedimentary and paleobiologic features in the stratigraphic record. The thirteen papers in this volume present exciting new ideas and research related to autogenic dynamics and self-organization in sedimentology, stratigraphy, ecology, paleobiology, sedimentary geochemistry, and diagenesis. Five papers summarize the current state of thinking about autogenic processes and products in fluvial-deltaic, eolian, and carbonate depositional systems, and in paleobiologic and geochemical contexts. A second group of papers provide perspectives derived from numerical modeling and laboratory experiments. The final section consists of field studies that explore autogenic processes and autogenically modulated stratigraphy in five case studies covering modern and ancient fluvial, deltaic, and shelf settings. This SP should stimulate further research as to how self-organization might promote a better understanding of the sedimentary record.


Processing speed between Matlab and C++ was compared by examining launch windows and handling large amounts of data found in pork chop plots. A compilation of code was generated in Matlab to produce the plots and an identical file was created in C++ that was then compiled and run in Matlab to plot the data. This file is known as a MEX-file. This report outlines some of the basics when working with MEX-files and the problems that face users. For Lambert's solver, multi revolution cases were considered and some pork chop plots of single revolution trajectories were plotted. Three different date grids were plotted with different dimensions to determine the difference in processing speed of the two languages.


This study examines the narratives of 15 mothers who each have (or had) a child who is
medically, educationally and socio-culturally constituted as having a disability. This
research interrogates the mothers' narratives to consider motherhood from the
discursive multiple position/ings of the society in which they live. The central research
questions are: What are the lived experiences of these women who have a child who
does not fit the dominant socio-cultural expectation of a 'normal' child? What subject
positions are available for these women? How do they position themselves and how are
they positioned in multiple discursive sites such as medicine and education?
By drawing on multiple methodological frames, the study explores the lived experiences
and meanings as these mothers (re)construct the discourse of motherhood. Qualitative
methods were used to design the research and gather data. Poststructural and feminist
perspectives are added to provide additional methods of data analysis. Poststructuralist
theorisings are considered new to the field of disability studies and hence provide an
opportunity to re-examine subjectivity, power/knowledge and agency in fresh ways, as
various mothers in this study reject, (re)construct and even rupture dominant nondisabled
assumptions not only of disability, but also of motherhood.
The women's narratives transverse multiple discursive sites but particular attention is
paid to medical and educational discourses and the complex interplay of relations of
power constituted with/in these sites. The outcome of analysis suggests many women
with a child with a disability actively take up the subject position of 'good mother' in
keeping with the dominant discourse and ideology of motherhood available in Western
society and (re)construct their lives as 'normal', while simultaneously encountering
societal and attitudinal barriers which continue to marginalise their child named with a
disability and by association, their families. Professionals can do much to dismantle
barriers encountered by these mothers and work collaboratively to ensure inclusive life
experiences are available. This thesis adds to the body of literature in disability studies
by adding new forms of analysis of the interaction between the lived experiences of
mothers and society, serving to challenge Western socio-cultural ways of 'knowing'
about the intersection of motherhood and disability.


We introduce Performance Trees (PTs), a novel representation formalism for the specification of model-based performance queries. Traditionally, stochastic logics have been the prevalent means of performance requirement expression; however, in practice, their use amongst system designers is limited on account of their inherent complexity and restricted expressive power. PTs are a more accessible alternative, in which performance queries are represented by hierarchical tree structures. This allows for the convenient visual composition of complex performance questions, and enables not only the verification of stochastic requirements, but also the direct extraction of performance measures. In addition, PTs offer a superset of the expressiveness of Continuous Stochastic Logic (CSL) since all CSL formulae can be translated into PT form. Performance Trees can be used to represent passage time, transient, steady-state and higher order queries of varying levels of sophistication. While they are conceptually independent of the underlying stochastic modelling formalism, in many cases the tree operators we use are already backed up by good algorithmic and tool support for both stochastic verification and performance measure extraction. We do not therefore perceive major barriers to the integration of PTs into existing stochastic model checking tools. Indeed, we illustrate how semi-Markov passage time computation algorithms, based on numerical Laplace transform inversion, can be directly applied to the resolution of a case study PT query.


Pavement edge failure has been encountered on many New Zealand state highways due to the lack of lateral support and the encroachment of heavy axle loads onto the edge of pavement. The main objective of this research work is to investigate the different factors affecting this type of distress. A three-dimensional finite elements model was designed to simulate different loading and shoulder conditions. A half fractional factorial experimental design was made to study five factors, namely, shoulder width, shoulder stiffness, axle load, tire pressure and pavement thickness. Each factor was studied at two levels to simulate extremely low and high conditions. Before carrying out the experimental analysis, a careful examination of the finite elements model was made to ensure accurate predictions. The multilayer elastic solution was carried out using Circly and Everstress software. The results of the multilayer and finite elements analyses were compared to actual measurements of vertical strains using the Transit New Zealand accelerated test track facility (CAPTIF). None of the models provided a perfect match between the measured and predicted vertical strains. The multilayer linear elastic solution and the three dimensional finite elements solutions were reasonably close. The order of importance of the different factors relies on the type of response and the location of that response. The shoulder stiffness was the most important factor affecting the maximum deflection under the outer wheel followed by the axle load, pavement thickness then shoulder width. For the compressive strain at the top of the subgrade and the maximum deflection between dual, the order of importance of factors was different. The shoulder stiffness, width and thickness played a significant role in distributing the stresses and strains on the top of the subgrade thus controlling the edge failure.


Abstract. The geodetic mass balances of six Austrian glaciers over 19 periods between 1953 and 2006 are compared to the direct mass balances over the same periods. For two glaciers, Hintereisferner and Kesselwandferner, case studies showing possible reasons for discrepancies between the geodetic and the direct mass balance are presented. The mean annual geodetic mass balance for all periods is −0.5 m w.e. a−1, the mean annual direct mass balance −0.4 m w.e. a−1. The mean cumulative difference is −0.6 m w.e., the minimum −7.3 m w.e., and the maximum 5.6 m w.e. The accuracy of geodetic mass balance may depend on the accuracy of the DEMs, which ranges from 2 m w.e. for photogrammetric data to 0.02 m w.e. for airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data. Basal melt, seasonal snow cover, and density changes of the surface layer also contribute up to 0.7 m w.e. to the difference between the two methods over the investigated period of 10 yr. On Hintereisferner, the fraction of area covered by snow or firn has been changing within 1953–2006. The accumulation area is not identical with the firn area, and both are not coincident with areas of volume gain. Longer periods between the acquisition of the DEMs do not necessarily result in a higher accuracy of the geodetic mass balance. Trends in the difference between the direct and the geodetic data vary from glacier to glacier and can differ systematically for specific glaciers under specific types of climate forcing. Ultimately, geodetic and direct mass balance data are complementary, and great care must be taken when attempting to combine them.


Cardiogenic shock (CS) remains the leading cause of mortality in patients hospitalised with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).1 Recent guidelines supporting a strategy of early revascularisation (ERV) have led to some improvements in the outcomes of this patient subset.2 ,3 However, despite significant improvements in treatment, the mortality rate associated with CS in the context of AMI remains high, especially in those patients who present to hospital late or have delayed coronary reperfusion. This article aims to review the available data relating to this important condition, and provide guidelines for current best practice in the management of CS.

### Definition

CS is a condition characterised by inadequate tissue perfusion, usually in the setting of AMI. There have been many definitions applied to the diagnosis of CS, but the most uniformly accepted clinical definition of CS is decreased cardiac output and evidence of tissue hypoxia in the presence of adequate intravascular volume. Haemodynamic criteria are also important in the diagnosis of CS. The most important are sustained hypotension (systolic blood pressure (BP) 18 mm Hg.w1

### Incidence

There are inconsistencies in the reported incidence of CS. These inconsistencies may be largely related to the varying definitions that have been adopted to describe this clinical entity. Additionally, the true incidence of CS complicating AMI may be underestimated since a proportion of patients will die before arrival at hospital. Given these limitations, the historically reported incidence of CS complicating AMI is between 5–8%.w2 w3 There is contemporary evidence that the rate of CS complicating ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has seen a small decrease in incidence,4 which in part may be due to the more rapid diagnosis and better hospital based treatment …


Objective:To determine whether surgical volume influences the cause of operative failures after parathyroidectomy for hyperparathyroidism. Summary and Background Data:The surgical success rate for hyperparathyroidism from high-volume centers exceeds 95%, but some patients have unsuccessful parathyroidectomies. Although operative failure can be due to hyperfunctioning parathyroid glands in ectopic locations, less experienced surgeons may be more likely to miss an abnormal parathyroid in normal anatomic locations, which we describe as "preventable operative failure." Methods:We used 2 prospective databases containing over 2000 consecutive patients who underwent parathyroidectomy. We identified 159 patients with persistent/recurrent hyperparathyroidism subsequently cured with additional surgery. The initially failed operations were classified as being performed at high- (>50 cases/yr) or low-volume (<50 cases/yr) hospitals. Hospital volume was obtained from a Wisconsin state database of 89 hospitals, which reported 6336 parathyroid operations during the same decade. Results:Patients who initially failed their operation performed at the high- or low-volume centers were similar with regard to age, laboratory values, gender, and parathyroid weights. Despite a higher incidence of multigland disease (which increases the likelihood of operative failure) in the high-volume group, patients in the low-volume group were more likely to have a missed parathyroid gland in a normal anatomic location (89% vs. 13%, P < 0.0001), and thus a higher proportion of preventable operative failures. Conclusions:Surgical volume influences the failure pattern after parathyroidectomy for hyperparathyroidism. Preventable operative failures are more common in low-volume centers.


Cellular Oncology publishes scientific contributions from various biomedical and clinical disciplines involved in basic and translational cancer research on the cell and tissue level, technical and bioinformatics developments in this area, and clinical applications. This includes a variety of fields like genome technology, micro-arrays and other highthroughput techniques, genomic instability, SNP, DNA methylation, signaling pathways, DNA organization, (sub)microscopic imaging, proteomics, bioinformatics, functional effects of genomics, drug design and development, molecular diagnostics and targeted cancer therapies, genotype-phenotype interactions.  A major goal is to translate the latest developments in these fields from the research laboratory into routine patient management. To this end Cellular Oncology forms a platform of scientific information exchange between molecular biologists and geneticists, technical developers, pathologists, (medical) oncologists and other clinicians involved in the management of cancer patients.  In vitro studies are preferentially supported by validations in tumor tissue with clinicopathological associations.