Objectives
This study aimed to demonstrate feasibility of a novel method for measuring resilience in dietary diversity (DD) and body mass index (BMI) of rural women of reproductive age (WRA) in Nepal and Bangladesh. Resilience is defined as the population's ability to recover from adverse shocks, measured relative to statistical mean reversion.

Methods
We used regionally representative surveys from Nepal (n = 2187) and Bangladesh (n = 1715) collected annually in Nepal (four panels, 2013-2016) and every 6 months in Bangladesh (3 panels, 2016-2017), for BMI (kg/m2) and DD using 10 food groups (7-day qualitative diet recall, Nepal) and 6 food groups (24-hour diet recall, Bangladesh). We estimated where i is the woman, y is the outcome of interest, and z is a vector of controls. ∆yi, t+j denotes change in y between t + j-1 and t + j. Declinedi, t+ 1 equals 1 if the change between t and t + 1 is negative, zero otherwise. β2 measures the degree of reversal in decline controlling for mean reversion (β1) and other differences (age, age2, age cube, and socioeconomic status). β2 = 0 is our benchmark of mean reversion around the trend, i.e., recoveries after decline are not significantly different from declines after recovery.

Results
Our technique revealed significant (P < 0.01) resilience of DD in Nepal (Figure 1, Panel A). Among 1682 women in the Terai region, 47% (n = 784) experienced an initial decline in DD, and 61% of that initial decline was recovered. Mean reversion removed only 25% of the initial change among those who gained. We found no significant resilience in Bangladesh (Figure 1, Panel B) or for BMI in either country.

Conclusions
The resilience of DD in Nepal could reflect food aid responses to the 2015 earthquake or other interventions, while lack of resilience in BMI could reflect time lags, measurement errors or limits on the speed and timing of weight change. Lack of resilience of DD in Bangladesh could reflect shorter time intervals. Future work will apply this method to test for differences in resilience associated with exposure to programmatic interventions.

Funding Sources
Support provided by Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Supporting Tables Images and/or Graphs


We address the problem of inferring users' interests from microblogging sites such as Twitter, based on their utterances and interactions in the social network. Inferring user interests is important for systems such as search and recommendation engines to provide information that is more attuned to the likes of its users. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic generative model of user utterances that encapsulates both user and network information. This model captures the complex interactions between varied interests of the users, his level of activeness in the network, and the information propagation from the neighbors. As exact probabilistic inference in this model is intractable, we propose an online variational inference algorithm that also takes into account evolving social graph, user and his neighbors? interests. We prove the optimality of the online inference with respect to an equivalent batch update. We present experimental results performed on the actual Twitter users, validating our approach. We also present extensive results showing inadequacy of using Mechanical Turk platform for large scale validation.


A rapid and reproducible reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the estimation of midazolam in its pure from as well as in parenteral dosage forms. Chromatography was carried out on an ODS column using a mixture of acetonitrile, methanol and water (40 : 20 : 40 v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Naphthalene was used as an internal standard and the detection was done at 254 nm. The retention time of the drug was found to be 7.84 min. The method produced linear responses in the concentration range of 0.1 to 16 µg/mL of midazolam. The method was found to be reproducible for analysis of the drug in injections.


China's nuclear arsenal has long been an enigma. It is a small force, based almost exclusively on land-based ballistic missiles, maintained at a low level of alert and married to a no-first-use doctrine – all choices that would seem to invite attack in a crisis. Chinese leaders, when they have spoken about nuclear weapons, have articulated ideas that sound odd to the Western ear. Mao Zedong's oft-quoted remark that 'nuclear weapons are a paper tiger' seems to be bluster or madness. China's nuclear forces are now too important to remain a mystery. Yet Westerners continue to disagree about basic factual information concerning one of the world's most important nuclear-weapons states. This Adelphi book documents and explains the evolution of China's nuclear forces in terms of historical, bureaucratic and ideological factors. There is a strategic logic at work, but that logic is mediated through politics, bureaucracy and ideology. The simplest explanation is that Chinese leaders, taken as a whole, have tended to place relatively little emphasis on the sort of technical details that dominated US discussions regarding deterrence. Such profound differences in thinking about nuclear weapons could lead to catastrophic misunderstanding in the event of a military crisis between Beijing and Washington.


Of all the systems used to select judges in the United States, appointment systems are the most widely used. (1) An appointment system is one in which the state's governor, with or without the input of a nominating commission, chooses candidates to fill initial and interim vacancies on a court. (2) Today, a majority of the states use appointment systems to select their supreme court judges. (3) There are many important differences in the institutional arrangements and procedures that these appointment systems use, however, and no research has been done to see if these differences affect the outcome of cases. This Article presents the results of a study conducted to see whether state supreme courts selected in states with dissimilar appointment systems differ in the way they decide criminal appeals. Comparing the criminal decisions of courts selected with different appointment systems may also suggest something about how different appointment systems impact judicial independence. I. APPOINTMENT: THE FALL AND RISE OF A JUDICIAL SELECTION SYSTEM As of 1846, appointment was second the most common way of selecting justices of the states' highest courts. (4) Of the twenty-nine states that entered the union prior to that date, fourteen used appointment systems to select supreme court justices. (5) Over the course of the nineteenth century, however, the proportion of states that used appointment systems for their highest courts dropped sharply as many new states entered the union with different selection systems (typically partisan elections) and as states already in the union switched to different selection methods. (6) The change away from appointment toward partisan election of justices was, among other things, prompted by the belief that elected judges would exercise their duties more independently than judges who owed their appointments to the governor or to the legislature. (7) The change was also spurred by the belief that elections would prevent the judiciary from being filled with judges who owed their appointments to political connections rather than to personal qualifications. (8) Defenders of judicial selection systems that combined appointment and life tenure retorted that elections would undermine judicial independence by subjecting judges to the will of the people and to manipulation by political party leaders; but these arguments did not prevent the adoption of judicial elections in most states during the period. (9) By 1909, thirty-five of the forty-six states in the union used partisan elections to select supreme court justices. Partisan elections, which some viewed as a means of assuring judicial independence from the other branches of government, came under renewed criticism for being detrimental to judicial independence. Critics claimed that elected judges were indebted to the political parties upon whom the judges depended for electoral support and that party leaders could use their patronage powers to influence the judiciary. (10) Critics also pointed out that elected judges frequently heard cases involving attorneys and litigants who had contributed to their campaigns, which further undermined public confidence in the courts' independence. (11) Interest in appointment as a judicial selection method enjoyed a revival during the 1910s in response to the previously-mentioned problems. (12) Prominent proponents of a return to appointment during this period included Roscoe Pound, John Wigmore, and Albert Kales. (13) Furthermore, the effort to encourage judicial selection reform provided one of the driving forces behind the creation of the American Judicature Society in 1913. (14) In 1914, Kales proposed an appointment plan eventually known as merit selection, which many reformers of the era supported. (15) Kales's idea sparked the revival of interest in appointment as a judicial selection system. Although various states considered several versions of Kales's proposal throughout the 1930s, Missouri was the first state to adopt a merit selection plan in 1940. …


The twenty-first century has seen many developments in judgments recognition law in both the United States and the European Union, while at the same time experiencing significant obstacles to further improvement of the law. This article describes two problems of perception that have prevented a complete understanding of the law of judgments recognition on a global basis, particularly from a U.S. perspective. The first is a proximity of place problem that has resulted in a failure to understand that, unlike the United States, many countries allow their own courts to hear cases based on a broad set of bases of jurisdiction, while recognizing judgments from other countries only if they are based on a much narrower set of bases of jurisdiction. This gap between direct and indirect bases of jurisdiction results in a level of discrimination against foreign judgments that does not exist in the United States and some other countries, and makes a harmonized global approach to judgments recognition difficult. The second is a proximity of time problem that has resulted in a failure to remember the full context of Justice Gray's historic analysis in Hilton v. Guyot, the seminal case in U.S. judgments recognition law. This article seeks to explain the consequences of both problems, and then comments on how a clearer understanding of these two problems of proximity may aid in making further progress in judgments recognition law.


This paper presents a closed-loop control scheme for the three-level three-phase neutral-point-clamped dc-ac converter using the optimized nearest three virtual-space-vector pulsewidth modulation, which is a modulation that produces low output-voltage distortion with a significant reduction of the dc-link capacitance. A new specific loop modifying the modulating waveforms is proposed to rapidly control possible perturbations in the neutral-point voltage balance. An online estimation of the load displacement angle and load linear/nonlinear nature is introduced at no extra cost. The remaining part of the control is analogous to the control for a two-level converter with an appropriate interfacing to the selected modulation. The closed-loop control is designed for the case of a renewable-energy source connected to the ac mains, and its performance is analyzed through simulation and experiments.


We present a monochromatic sub-terahertz signal generation technique using an optical comb signal, arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs), and a uni-traveling carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) for spectroscopic applications. This scheme offers random or continuous frequency tuning in the range between 100 GHz and up to 1 THz. In addition, since a RF synthesizer is employed as a reference signal source of the photonic frequency multiplier, frequency locking with external instruments and reliable operation are offered. Highly coherent optical comb signal for the photonic frequency multiplication provides a narrow linewidth and very low phase noise in the generated sub-terahertz signal. For 125 GHz, the phase noise is approximately -92 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 10 kHz. This is larger than that of the 25-GHz RF source by about 13 dB and agrees well with the theory regarding phase noise multiplications due to frequency multiplication. For generating monochromatic signals, unwanted spurious signals are suppressed in the optical domain over a wide range with two AWGs, and the suppression ratio is expected to be better than 46 dBc. Utilizing the implemented sub-terahertz signal generator with a J-band UTC-PD module, absorption lines of N2O were measured in the frequency range between 240 and 360 GHz and compared with theoretical calculations.


The medically important spiders of southern Africa can be divided into neurotoxic and cytotoxic groups. The neurotoxic spiders belong to the genus Latrodectus (button or widow spiders) and the cytotoxic spiders are represented chiefly by the genera Cheiracanthium (sac spiders) and Loxosceles (violin or recluse spiders). The baboon spiders (family: Theraphosidae) and the wandering or rain spiders (genus Palystes) can inflict painful bites which may be susceptible to infection.


The paper is devoted to the concept of narrative in social psychology. The problem of lack of unity in the understanding and application of this concept in the research methods is discussed. The goal is to systemize the approaches to narrative from the perspective of the identity research. Narrative is a concept that is beginning to be widely used in the study of personality, self-perception, communication, and the study of various social practices; that is why it is necessary to determine which properties of narrative can be applied to the study of identity. The paper performs a review of four most common approaches to the narrative: narrative as a particular mode of thought (J. Bruner), narrative as a metatheoretical paradigm (T. Sarbin), narrative as a life story, narrative as one of discourse genres. The features of the narrative in each approach, as well as the main problems of research are analized. Two criteria of the narrative are discussed: specific temporal structure and transformation criterion. The following features of the concept of narrative in psychology are focused upon: discursive understanding of narrative, the importance of incorporating interactional and cultural contexts within the study of narrative, functional approach to the definition of the narrative. We discuss the potential of the narrative as a psychological construct in the study of identity and define two promising approaches to the narrative: the analysis of separate life events (e.g. turning points and complex actions) and the analysis of narration as a discursive practice and an interactional process which is sensitive to local context and to wider social practices.


This dictionary was produced in response to the rapidly increasing amount of quasi-industrial jargon in the field of information technology, compounded by the fact that these somewhat esoteric terms are often further reduced to acronyms and abbreviations that are seldom explained. Even when they are defined, individual interpretations continue to diverge. Until now the codes have been reproduced in separate (language) publications: there is no universal listing in alphabetical order that covers the English, French, Spanish and German languages. This dictionary sets out the English, French, Spanish and German alternatives as a single, merge-sorted whole. Today, most of the codes have passed into the public domain, simply because they exist in most of the telecommunications systems installed throughout the developed (and developing) world and are largely known to most of those who work in that particular area. However, foreign variants often defy even the most astute observer. This dictionary seeks to clarify this bewildering situation as much as possible. The 26,000 definitions set out here, drawn from some 16,000 individual cybernyms, cover computing, electronics, telecommunications (including intelligent networks and mobile telephony), together with satellite technology and Internet/Web terminology. Annex I lists some of the innumerable file types found in the filing systems of computers using powerful desktop managers and Annex II lists the abbreviations of country names found in universal resource locators (URL). "Elsevier's Dictionary of Cybernyms" is a useful tool for translators, students, universities and computer enthusiasts.


The raison d'etre for the nascent low-profit limited liability company (L3C) is to stimulate collaboration ("sectorization") among government, private and charitable sectors in order to redirect for-profit capital models into the nonprofit sector. The hope is that the L3C will not only generate additional resources for charitable purposes, but also fundamentally transform business culture by signaling a more efficient way to "do good while doing well." The L3C has been criticized for targeting only private foundation program related investments, a capital pipeline already exhausted by existing profit entity models. When compared to the existing nonprofit joint venture, the L3C emerges as a less efficient arbitrage model for stimulating profit sector investment in charitable enterprises. A comparative analysis yields instructive lessons regarding deficiencies in federal tax regulation of program related investments and joint ventures. In both cases, the federal tax rules utilize a differing "control test" to assure the exempt entity directs assets toward its charitable mission and away from private benefit to profit sector participants. This Article provides the first comprehensive comparative theory that the existing nonprofit-profit joint venture model is a more efficient solution to assuring compliance with the charitable mission when blending market returns to market capital investors. This theoretical framework exposes why L3C statutory operating procedures unnecessarily cripple profit efforts, undermine its effectiveness, and present policy dilemmas less prevalent in joint ventures where the nonprofit must exercise control over the business entity rather than simply an investment in the entity. As a result, program related investments should be scaled back and limited to determining only whether an investment jeopardizes a foundation's exempt mission where the scale of the investment has a self-limiting role.


Linear algebraic primitives are at the core of many modern algorithms in engineering, science, and machine learning. Hence, accelerating these primitives with novel computing hardware would have tremendous economic impact. Quantum computing has been proposed for this purpose, although the resource requirements are far beyond current technological capabilities, so this approach remains long-term in timescale. Here we consider an alternative physics-based computing paradigm based on classical thermodynamics, to provide a near-term approach to accelerating linear algebra. At first sight, thermodynamics and linear algebra seem to be unrelated fields. In this work, we connect solving linear algebra problems to sampling from the thermodynamic equilibrium distribution of a system of coupled harmonic oscillators. We present simple thermodynamic algorithms for (1) solving linear systems of equations, (2) computing matrix inverses, (3) computing matrix determinants, and (4) solving Lyapunov equations. Under reasonable assumptions, we rigorously establish asymptotic speedups for our algorithms, relative to digital methods, that scale linearly in matrix dimension. Our algorithms exploit thermodynamic principles like ergodicity, entropy, and equilibration, highlighting the deep connection between these two seemingly distinct fields, and opening up algebraic applications for thermodynamic computing hardware.


Estimating structural inheritance in orogens is critical to understanding the manner in which plate convergence is accommodated. The Pyrenean belt, which developed in Late Cretaceous to Paleogene times, was affected by Cretaceous rifting and Variscan orogeny. Here we combine a structural and petrological study of the Axial Zone in the Central Pyrenees to discuss structural inheritance. Low-grade Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks were affected by a Variscan transpressional event that produced successively: (1) regional-scale folds; (2) isoclinal folding, steep pervasive cleavage and vertical stretching, synchronous with peak metamorphism; (3) strain localization into ductile reverse shear zones. The persistence of a relatively flat envelope for the Paleozoic sedimentary pile and Variscan isograds, and the absence of Alpine crustal-scale faults in the core of the Axial Zone, suggests that the Axial Zone constitutes a large Variscan structural unit preserved during Pyrenean orogeny. This configuration seems to be inherited from Cretaceous rifting, which led to the individualization of a large continental block (future Axial Zone) against a hyper-extended domain along the North Pyrenean Fault zone. This study places the currently prevailing model of Pyrenean belt deformation in a new perspective and has important implications for crustal evolution and inheritance in mountain belts more generally. Supplementary materials: Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous materials data and a figure illustrating peak-fitting of the Raman spectrum of carbonaceous material and Raman spectra from the various samples of the Pallaresa cross-section are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3906247


Many invasive species cause ecological or economic damage, and the fraction of introduced species that become invasive is an important determinant of the overall costs caused by invaders. According to the widely quoted tens rule, about 10% of all introduced species establish themselves and about 10% of these established species become invasive. Global taxonomic differences in the fraction of species becoming invasive have not been described. In a global analysis of mammal and bird introductions, I show that both mammals and birds have a much higher invasion success than predicted by the tens rule, and that mammals have a significantly higher success than birds. Averaged across islands and continents, 79% of mammals and 50% of birds introduced have established themselves and 63% of mammals and 34% of birds established have become invasive. My analysis also does not support the hypothesis that islands are more susceptible to invaders than continents, as I did not find a significant relationship between invasion success and the size of the island or continent to which the species were introduced. The data set used in this study has a number of limitations, e.g. information on propagule pressure was not available at this global scale, so understanding the mechanisms behind the observed patterns has to be postponed to future studies.


We present a practical partial evaluation scheme for multi-paradigm declarative languages combining features from functional, logic, and concurrent programming. In contrast to previous approaches, we consider an intermediate representation for programs into which source programs can be automatically translated. The use of this simplied representation, together with the appropriate control issues, make our partial evaluation scheme practically applicable to modern multi-paradigm declarative languages like Curry. An implementation of a partial evaluator for Curry programs has been undertaken. The partial evaluator allows the specialization of programs containing higher-order functions, calls to external functions, concurrent constraints, etc. Our partial evaluation tool is integrated in the PAKCS programming environment for the language Curry as a source-to-source transformation on intermediate programs. The partial evaluator is written in Curry itself. To the best of our knowledge, this is the rst purely declarative partial evaluator for a multi-paradigm functional logic language.


Background : Urinary Tract Infections(UTI) is a general understanding to describe invasion of microorganism in urinary tract. The severity of any functional disability, nature of underlying illnesses, anatomic or physiologic abnormalities of the genitourinary (GU) tract, and use of indwelling bladder catheters determine the types of organisms and chronicity of bacteriuria.
Purpose : To analyze factors which associated with Urinary Tract Infections in geriatric patients.
Methods : Observational retrospective study conducted by reviewing medical record on 2004 of geriatric patients in Dr.Kariadi Hospital. Independent variables consist of sex, catheterization, initial antibiotics, DM and urine stasis. Dependent variable is geriatric patients who are diagnose as UTIs patients based on urine culture result. Statistic analysis is conducted with descriptive analysis and logistic regression using SPSS 13.00 for windows.
Results : Sex and catheterization (p<0.05) associated as the risk factors of UTIs in geriatric patient. Intial antibiotics, diabetes mellitus and urine stasis (p≥0.05) were not significant as risk factor of UTIs in geriatric patients. The pattern of microorganism was as follows, Eschericia coli(46.9%), Enterobacter aerogenes(27.1%), Staphylococcus epidermidis(10.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa(9.4%), yeast cell(3.1%), Staphylococcus aureus(2.1%) and Candida sp(1.0%). E.coli still be the most prevalent microorganism. Staphylococcus epidermidis should be considered as contamination. The sensitivity test shown that E.coli had antibiotic sensitivity to meropenem(100%), vancomycin(100%) and cefepim(92.9%).
Conclusion : Sex and catheterization associated with UTIs in geriatric patients. Initial antibiotics, DM and urine stasis do not associated with UTIs in geriatric patients.
Keywords : Urinary Tract Infections, geriatric patients.


The web is playing a central role in distance education. The word "usability" is usually synonymous with functionality of the system for the user. Also, usability of a website is defined as something that can be used by a specific group of people to carry out specific objectives in an effective way, with efficiency and satisfaction. There are some useful usability evaluation instruments of websites in other languages. The aim of this study was to develop a Persian instrument to evaluate usability in distance education websites. This study was a methodology research design. According to review literature, the main structure of evaluation instrument for usability designed. It was consisted of forty-eight items divided in 8 domains. Each domain was composed of closed multiple choice questions in which an ordinal scale with three values is used (always, sometimes and never) that measures the opinion of the evaluator about the frequency of visiting each item selected in the website. After that, we used face validity method. It refers to what instrument appears superficially to measure. At the final step, we omputed a formal content validity index (CVI) across the experts' ratings of each item's relevance. The content validity index was measured by set of ten experts, who evaluated each item individually. According to CVI, the final version of instrument was composed of 40 questions divided into 8 domains: Navigation, Functionality, Feedback, Control, Language, Consistency, Error prevention and correction, and Visual clarity.CVI score for each phrase was more than 0.75. According to our findings, this instrument has enough validity to apply in evaluation usability of educational websites of Persian distance education websites. However, instrument reliability can be measured in further study.


For neoclassical economists, Homo economicus, or economic human, represents the ideal employee: an energetic worker bee that is a rational yet competitive decision-maker. Alternatively, one could view the concept as a cold and selfish workaholic endlessly seeking the accumulation of money and advancement—a chilling representation of capitalism. Or perhaps, as Peter Fleming argues, Homo economicus does not actually exist at all. In The Death of Homo Economicus , Fleming presents this controversial claim with the same fierce logic and perception that launched his Guardian column into popularity. Fleming argues that as an invented model of a human being, Homo economicus is, in reality, a tool used by economists and capitalists to manage our social world through the state, business, and even family. As workers, we are barraged with constant reminders that we should always strive toward this ideal persona. It's implied—and sometimes directly stated—that if we don't then we are failures. Ironically, the people most often encouraged to emulate this model are those most predisposed to fail due to their socioeconomic circumstances: the poor, the unemployed, students, and prisoners. Fleming illuminates why a peculiar proactive negativity now marks everyday life in capitalist societies, and he explores how this warped, unattainable model for workers would cause chaos if enacted to the letter. Timely and revelatory, The Death of Homo Economicus offers a sharp, scathing critique of who we are supposed to be in the workplace and beyond.


Online pranking videos are common online and popular among middleschool students, teens and young adults. When we examined 200 YouTube examples of the Scary Maze Game prank, we explored the relationship between perpetrator, victim and witness, finding that while American children under age 12 were commonly featured as victims in Scary Maze Game prank videos, only rarely were German children represented as victims. U.S. videos also lingered on the pain of prank victims, even looping the emotional response of the victim to create an instant replay effect and using post-production techniques, including editing, music and title credits. As an expression of the schadenfreude that people experience when both enacting and viewing bad pranks, online pranking is a dimension of the dark side of participatory culture.


Printed Electronics Applications for Publications Abel Marquez Graphic Communication Department, December 2014 Advisor: Kevin Cooper The purpose of this research was to demonstrate that the printing industry can potentially benefit from the incorporation of printed electronics into the publications and packaging fields. Taking advantage of this technology would attract more consumers, especially younger generations who are immersed in the digital world and feel more engaged with products that offer user interactivity. Experts in the field were interviewed to get information and feedback about the project. Also, a survey was conducted. Cal Poly students, from different areas and departments were included to see if they would be interested in subscribing or buying a magazine that incorporates printed electronics and then, determine if this project is possible considering the budget, plan, resources, information available, and the level of acceptance based on the survey results. The analysis of the results indicated that the printing industry can potentially benefit by the incorporation of printed electronics in the publications and packaging fields. This project would involve more people who specialize in different majors rather than Graphic Communication like Physics, Business, Editorial, etc. Also, many students expressed that they would be willing to purchase or subscribe to a magazine that incorporates printed electronics if the content is relevant to them and the cost is not expensive.


Spallation source dedicated for neutron scattering experiments, as well as multi-purpose facilities serving several applications call for pulsed mode operation of a high intensity proton linac. There is general agreement on the superconducting technology for the high-energy part, which offers some advantages, like higher gradient capabilities or operational costs reduction, as compared to room-temperatures accelerating structures. This mode of operation however could spoil the energy stability of the proton beam and needs thus to be carefully studied. First, transient beam-loading effects, arising from the large beam phase slippage along a multi-cell cavity and associated with the finite RF energy propagation, can induce significant energy modulation with a too small cell-to-cell coupling or a too large number of cells. Second, due to beam phase slippage effects along the linac, energy spread exhibits a larger sensitivity to cavity fields fluctuations than relativistic particles. A computer code, initially developed for electron beams has been extended to proton beams. It solves the 6xN coupled differential equations, needed to describe cavity fields and beam-cavity interactions of a high-energy linac composed of N cavities. Simulation examples on a typical pulsed accelerator are given with various error sources, like Lorentz forces or microphonics detuning, beam injection energy offsets, intensity jitters ...


Abstract : An architectural style is a description of component types and their topology. It also includes a description of the pattern of data and control interaction among the components and an informal description of the benefits and drawbacks of using that style. Architectural styles are important engineering artifacts because they define classes of designs along with their associated known properties. They offer experience based evidence of how each class has been used historically, along with qualitative reasoning to explain why each class has its specific properties. Attribute Based Architectural Styles (ABASs) build on architectural styles to provide a foundation for more precise reasoning about architectural design by explicitly associating a reasoning framework (whether qualitative or quantitative) with an architectural style. These reasoning frameworks are based on quality attribute specific models, which exist in the various quality attribute communities (such as the performance and reliability communities). Architectural styles, and hence ABASs, are powerful because they provide a designer with the concentrated wisdom of many preceding designers faced with similar problems. In this report we exemplify the use of ABASs in both design and analysis. We argue that ABASs provide the groundwork to create an engineering discipline of architectural design; to make design a predictable process rather than an ad hoc one.


Since the maturation of the mobile network and a pervasive immersion into social media, the concept of community has been irrevocably dislocated from traditional geographical interactions. Establishing what adequately characterises born or predominately digital groupings is being investigated and discussed in academic, public and civic arenas. Both the positive and negative positions have been voiced. Our "always on, always-connected" status (Antonelli 2008) has created a close and some would argue dependent psychological relationship with our technologies (Charles 2011). If we consider that these technologies have significantly changed our practical reality, a reality where human experience and technical artifact have, for many, become inseparable, and that we now live within a "life mix" (Turkle 2012) or pressured "cycle of responsiveness" (Perlow 2008) then traditional concepts of how community is enacted using (deleterious or not) technologies merits review. This paper will look specifically at the heavy-user Flash developer/designer community and employ Social Identity Theory (SIT) (Turner & Tajfel 1979) as a means to interrogate how far technology has bypassed or developed established SIT concepts such as community, categorisation and identity.


This book is a systematical introduction to the development of simulation models and the implementation and evaluation of simulation experiments with Plant Simulation. "Manufacturing Simulation with Plant Simulation and SimTalk" is aimed at all users of Plant Simulation looking for an easy entry into the program. A particular focus is on the introduction into the simulation flow language SimTalk and its use in various areas of the simulation. In over 100 examples the author shows, how the modules for simulation models combined, and how to deal with SimTalk complex control and analysis tasks. The contents of the book ranges from the description of the basic functions of the material flow components to demanding topics such as the realization of a database connection using the ODBC interface or the exchange of data with Microsoft Excel on DDE.


ABSTRACT Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), which are resistant to most or all known antibiotics, constitute a global threat to public health. Transposable elements are often associated with antibiotic resistance determinants, suggesting a role in the emergence of resistance. One insertion sequence, IS26, is frequently associated with resistance determinants, but its role remains unclear. We have analyzed the genomic contexts of 70 IS26 copies in several clinical and surveillance CPE isolates from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. We used target site duplications and their patterns as guides and found that a large fraction of plasmid reorganizations result from IS26 replicative transpositions, including replicon fusions, DNA inversions, and deletions. Replicative transposition could also be inferred for transposon Tn4401, which harbors the carbapenemase blaKPC gene. Thus, replicative transposition is important in the ongoing reorganization of plasmids carrying multidrug-resistant determinants, an observation that carries substantial clinical and epidemiological implications for understanding how such extreme drug resistance phenotypes evolve. IMPORTANCE Although IS26 is frequently reported to reside in resistance plasmids of clinical isolates, the characteristic hallmark of transposition, target site duplication (TSD), is generally not observed, raising questions about the mode of transposition for IS26. The previous observation of cointegrate formation during transposition implies that IS26 transposes via a replicative mechanism. The other possible outcome of replicative transposition is DNA inversion or deletion, when transposition occurs intramolecularly, and this would also generate a specific TSD pattern that might also serve as supporting evidence for the transposition mechanism. The numerous examples we present here demonstrate that replicative transposition, used by many mobile elements (including IS26 and Tn4401), is prevalent in the plasmids of clinical isolates and results in significant plasmid reorganization. This study also provides a method to trace the evolution of resistance plasmids based on TSD patterns. Although IS26 is frequently reported to reside in resistance plasmids of clinical isolates, the characteristic hallmark of transposition, target site duplication (TSD), is generally not observed, raising questions about the mode of transposition for IS26. The previous observation of cointegrate formation during transposition implies that IS26 transposes via a replicative mechanism. The other possible outcome of replicative transposition is DNA inversion or deletion, when transposition occurs intramolecularly, and this would also generate a specific TSD pattern that might also serve as supporting evidence for the transposition mechanism. The numerous examples we present here demonstrate that replicative transposition, used by many mobile elements (including IS26 and Tn4401), is prevalent in the plasmids of clinical isolates and results in significant plasmid reorganization. This study also provides a method to trace the evolution of resistance plasmids based on TSD patterns.


Background: This study explores the concept of professionalism from the vantage point of a cohort of students as well as professionally qualified and practising occupational therapists. With the changes health care delivery is experiencing nationally as well as internationally, there is an urgent need to identify students and qualified professionals' expectations of what influences the development thereof, as well as elicit perceptions of attributes which contribute to professionalism. Methods: The study is primarily a descriptive study with a specific focus on a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research designs, using interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology. Data were gathered from 56 final-year and 55 professionally registered occupational therapists, who participated in a pen-and-paper questionnaire consisting of three sections. Results: The results of this study indicated a clear differentiation between the influence of both the formal and hidden curricula and that clinical competence, client-centred practice and professional standards contributed mostly to professional behaviour. Conclusion: This study brings to light the experiences of students and professional practitioners to what they expect would influence the professional conduct. The findings are open to theoretical generalizability and raise issues that may be used by academic staff in the preparation of students to become more professional, as well of future Continuous Professional Development training. Key words: Professionalism; Clinical competence; Client-Centred practice; Professional standards


Cities currently covering only a very small portion ( < 3 %) of the world's land surface directly release to the atmosphere about 44 % of global energy-related CO2, but they are associated with 71–76 % of CO2 emissions from global final energy use. Although many cities have set voluntary climate plans, their CO2 emissions are not evaluated by the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) procedures that play a key role for market- or policy-based mitigation actions. Here we analyze the potential of a monitoring tool that could support the development of such procedures at the city scale. It is based on an atmospheric inversion method that exploits inventory data and continuous atmospheric CO2 concentration measurements from a network of stations within and around cities to estimate city CO2 emissions. This monitoring tool is configured for the quantification of the total and sectoral CO2 emissions in the Paris metropolitan area (∼ 12 million inhabitants and 11.4 TgC emitted in 2010) during the month of January 2011. Its performances are evaluated in terms of uncertainty reduction based on observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs). They are analyzed as a function of the number of sampling sites (measuring at 25 m a.g.l.) and as a function of the network design. The instruments presently used to measure CO2 concentrations at research stations are expensive (typically ∼ EUR 50 k per sensor), which has limited the few current pilot city networks to around 10 sites. Larger theoretical networks are studied here to assess the potential benefit of hypothetical operational lower-cost sensors. The setup of our inversion system is based on a number of diagnostics and assumptions from previous city-scale inversion experiences with real data. We find that, given our assumptions underlying the configuration of the OSSEs, with 10 stations only the uncertainty for the total city CO2 emission during 1 month is significantly reduced by the inversion by ∼ 42 %. It can be further reduced by extending the network, e.g., from 10 to 70 stations, which is promising for MRV applications in the Paris metropolitan area. With 70 stations, the uncertainties in the inverted emissions are reduced significantly over those obtained using 10 stations: by 32 % for commercial and residential buildings, by 33 % for road transport, by 18 % for the production of energy by power plants, and by 31 % for total emissions. These results indicate that such a high number of stations would be likely required for the monitoring of sectoral emissions in Paris using this observation–model framework. They demonstrate some high potential that atmospheric inversions can contribute to the monitoring and/or the verification of city CO2 emissions (baseline) and CO2 emission reductions (commitments) and the advantage that could be brought by the current developments of lower-cost medium precision (LCMP) sensors.


In this thesis relativistic energy-consistent pseudopotentials (PPs) for f-elements have been adjusted. The PP approach restricts the explicit calculations to the chemically relevant valence electron system and implicitly includes relativistic effects by means of a simple parameterization. Thus, it is a commonly used approximation to study molecules containing f-elements, where the large number of electrons and the significant relativistic effects are the main obstacles. Even difficulties due to open shells can be avoided, if these are included in the core, as it is the case for f-in-core PPs. However, if the f shell is not treated explicitly, one PP for each oxidation state has to be adjusted. This thesis completes the already existing quasirelativistic f-in-core PPs, i.e. 5f-in-core PPs for di- (Pu-No), tetra- (Th-Cf), penta- (Pa-Am), and hexavalent (U-Am) actinides and 4f-in-core PPs for tetravalent (Ce-Nd, Tb, Dy) lanthanides are presented. Corresponding molecular basis sets of polarized valence double- to quadruple-zeta quality have been derived. Smaller basis sets suitable for crystal calculations form subsets of these basis sets. Furthermore, core-polarization potentials for di-, tri-, and tetravalent actinides have been adjusted to account for the neglect of static and dynamic core-polarization. Atomic test calculations on actinide ionization potentials as well as molecular test calculations on actinide and lanthanide fluorides using the Hartree-Fock and coupled cluster method show satisfactory agreement with calculations using f-in-valence PPs and experimental data, respectively, except for plutonium difluoride and neptunium, plutonium, and americium hexafluoride. While for plutonium difluoride the large deviations are due to the fact that for plutonium the divalent oxidation state is not stable, in the hexavalent case the 5f-in-core approximation seems to reach its limitations except for uranium. Moreover, the 5f-in-core PPs are successfully applied to actinocenes, actinyl ions, and uranyl(VI) complexes. Thus, the f-in-core PPs should be an efficient computational tool for those compounds, where the f orbitals do not participate significantly in chemical bonding. In addition to the quasirelativistic f-in-core PPs, the recently adjusted 5f-in-valence uranium PP including scalar-relativistic effects as well as spin-orbit coupling have been tested by calculating the fine-structure splittings of U5+ and U4+. These test calculations gave reliable results and thus confirm earlier benchmark calculations on uranium monohydride.


A novel micromanipulation technique is proposed for aligning fine particles on micrometer-scale spatial patterns and for moving the particles continuously along the formed patterns. This technique is based on the repetitive scanning of a focused trapping laser beam. The velocity of the particle flow can be controlled by scan speed and laser power. The origin of the driving force is considered theoretically and experimentally.


The Coase theorem suggests that under certain conditions, the distribution of player talent should be similar before and after free agency. Previous attempts to test the theory's applicability to major league baseball were either examinations of win-loss distributions or comparisons of player movements before and after free agency. These approaches have significant drawbacks. Did the same teams sport winning records over an extended period before and after free agency? Franchise relocations and implementation of a draft of amateur players should have also affected player movement patterns and distributions of win-loss records. American League teams had changes in their win-loss records that do not fully correspond to the theory's predictions, raising questions of what transaction costs might have impeded transferring players. Teams in smaller towns tended to lose talent to teams in larger cities; the flow of talent was roughly similar between periods.


Understanding the environmental factors that regulate fish recruitment is essential for effective management of fisheries. Generally, first-year survival, and therefore recruitment, is inherently less consistent in systems with high intraand interannual variability. Irrigation reservoirs display sporadic patterns of annual drawdown, which can pose a substantial challenge to recruitment of fishes. We developed species-specific models using an 18-year data set compiled from state and federal agencies to investigate variables that regulate the recruitment of walleye (Sander vitreus) and white bass (Morone chrysops) in irrigation reservoirs in southwest Nebraska, USA. The candidate model set for walleye included only abiotic variables (water-level elevation, minimum daily air temperature during winter prior to hatching, annual precipitation, spring warming rate and May reservoir discharge), and the candidate model set for white bass included primarily biotic variables (catch per unit effort (CPUE) of black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus), CPUE of age-0 walleye, CPUE of bluegill (Lepomis 37 macrochirus) and CPUE of age-3 and older white bass), each of which had a greater relative importance than the single abiotic variable (minimum daily air temperature during winter after hatching). Our findings improve the understanding of the recruitment of fishes in irrigation reservoirs and the relative roles of abiotic and biotic factors.


The article describes the results of researching a corporate factor to enhance management efficiency in the contemporary context. Because of a research based on open sources, a necessity to enhance the role of corporate culture in management systems has been substantiated, main factors are determining the growth of significance and efficiency of socio-cultural and moral-and-ethical tools in management have been disclosed.The characteristics of a management system are necessitated both by the laws and the consistent patterns of the economy and management, the level of development of the system, as well as by historical and geographical factors, national and cultural peculiarities, industry-specific features, and by the personal properties and the potential of the organizations' managers.The functions that corporate culture implements suggest a broad range of tasks addressed today with its help by the organizations, and, moreover, accentuate the importance of such a social institute. Setting up a strong positive corporate culture aligned with the development strategy is a prerequisite for an effective management, the sustainability and the competitiveness of the organizations in the present-day conditions.


ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers" perception(s) of the relevance
of performance indicators for school improvement and development in Namibia. The
study employed a case study involving two school principals, two heads of
department (HODs) and five teachers. Interviews were used to collect the data. The
study found that almost all teachers acknowledge the importance of the PIs and
believe that they succeed in improving the provision of quality education if they are
properly implemented. The study also found that both school principals experience
many challenges with the implementation of these PIs. The analysis was framed by
interpretive theory as the study is exploratory. Performance indicators (PIs) have
become the yardstick by which internal and external school evaluators can assess
whole school performance.
The focus of this case study was on Grade 10 school performance in the Katima
Mulilo rural circuit and an urban secondary school in the Caprivi education region of
Namibia. Grade 10 is one of the school levels in which low academic performance
has been found to be common in the Caprivi region. The study included a literature
review of studies on performance indicators in different parts of the world.%%%%AFRIKAANSE OPSOMING: No Afrikaans abstract available


Multilayered thiol-ene network films with two and three different components were fabricated by spin coating and photopolymerization. The distinctive glass transition temperatures of each layer component were observed at corresponding glass transition regions of each bulk sample. Sub-Tg aging of 10-, 21-, and 32-layered thiol-ene films was investigated in terms of enthalpy relaxation. Enthalpy relaxation of each layer component occurred independently and presented the characteristic time and temperature dependency. Overlapped unsymmetrical bell-shaped enthalpy relaxation distribution having peak maximum at Tg-10°C of each layer component was observed, resulting in broad distribution of enthalpy relaxation over wide temperature range. In addition, enthalpy relaxation of each layer component in the multilayered thiol-ene films was significantly accelerated comparing to that of bulk thiol-ene samples. Dynamic mechanical thermal properties of multilayered thiol-ene films also showed two and three separated glass transition temperature. However, for 32-layered thiol-ene film consisting of three different layer components, glass transition and damping region are overlapped and the width is extended more than 100°C. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013


Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been increasingly used to support the decision making in manufacturing organizations however they lack the ability to fully support the capture and sharing of specific domain knowledge across multiple domains. The ability of ICT based systems to share knowledge is impeded by the semantic conflicts arising from loosely defined meanings and intents of the participating concepts. This research work exploits the concept of formal ontologies to rigorously define the semantics of domain concepts to support knowledge sharing within the assembly domain.
In this thesis, a novel research framework has been proposed in the form of a assembly reference ontology which can provide a common semantic base to support knowledge sharing across the assembly design and assembly process planning domains. The framework consists of a set of key reference concepts identified to represent the assembly domain related knowledge. These concepts have been specialized from the most generic level to the most specialized level and have been formally defined to support the capture and sharing of assembly knowledge. The proposed framework also supports the creation of application specific ontologies by providing them with a common semantic base.
The research concept has been experimentally investigated by using a selected set of assembly reference concepts which have been used to formally represent and relate assembly design and assembly process planning knowledge. The results of the experiments verify that the implemented ontology facilitates the system to understand the semantics of concepts and supports knowledge sharing across the assembly design and assembly process planning domains. The experimental results also show that the proposed framework can also support the development of a range of application specific ontologies.


Abstract Lysosomal dysfunction lies at the centre of the cellular mechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease although the precise underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We investigated the role of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) on lysosome biology and the autophagy pathway in primary neurons expressing the human LRRK2-G2019S or LRKK2-R1441C mutant or the human wild-type (hWT-LRRK2) genomic locus. The expression of LRRK2-G2019S or hWT-LRRK2 inhibited autophagosome production, whereas LRRK2-R1441C induced a decrease in autophagosome/lysosome fusion and increased lysosomal pH. In vivo data from the cortex and substantia nigra pars compacta of aged LRRK2 transgenic animals revealed alterations in autophagosome puncta number reflecting those phenotypes seen in vitro. Using the two selective and potent LRRK2 kinase inhibitors, MLi-2 and PF-06447475, we demonstrated that the LRRK2-R1441C-mediated decrease in autolysosome maturation is not dependent on LRRK2 kinase activity. We showed that hWT-LRRK2 and LRRK2-G2019S bind to the a1 subunit of vATPase, which is abolished by the LRRK2-R1441C mutation, leading to a decrease in a1 protein and cellular mislocalization. Modulation of lysosomal zinc increased vATPase a1 protein levels and rescued the LRRK2-R1441C-mediated cellular phenotypes. Our work defines a novel interaction between the LRRK2 protein and the vATPase a1 subunit and demonstrates a mode of action by which drugs may rescue lysosomal dysfunction. These results demonstrate the importance of LRRK2 in lysosomal biology, as well as the critical role of the lysosome in PD.


Many factors influence speech yielding different renditions of a given sentence. Generative models, such as variational autoencoders (VAEs), capture this variability and allow multiple renditions of the same sentence via sampling. The degree of prosodic variability depends heavily on the prior that is used when sampling. In this paper, we propose a novel method to compute an informative prior for the VAE latent space of a neural text-to-speech (TTS) system. By doing so, we aim to sample with more prosodic variability, while gaining controllability over the latent space's structure. By using as prior the posterior distribution of a secondary VAE, which we condition on a speaker vector, we can sample from the primary VAE taking explicitly the conditioning into account and resulting in samples from a specific region of the latent space for each condition (i.e. speaker). A formal preference test demonstrates significant preference of the proposed approach over standard Conditional VAE. We also provide visualisations of the latent space where well-separated condition-specific clusters appear, as well as ablation studies to better understand the behaviour of the system.


The South African Revenue Service has been exploring the possibility of implementing a form of taxation on gambling winnings since the Minister of Finance's Budget Speech in 2010. On a superficial level it seems a logical mechanism for broadening the tax base – a case of increasing the tax collected from those who can afford the luxury of gambling. There are, however, a number of unintended consequences that government does not seem to have considered. As a result, this article uses a detailed content analysis of the prior academic and professional tax literature to explore possible weaknesses/flaws of a tax on gambling winnings in South Africa. These include the administrative burden of such a tax, certain economic consequences of allowing gambling losses as a tax deduction and the possible social consequences thereof. These findings mean that the article provides a meaningful contribution by critically assessing the proposed tax with the aim of informing policy development and future quantitative studies on a tax on gambling winnings.


This article examines the ways virtual environment software is explicitly designed with particular visions of identity, communication, and community in mind. This social context of software is considered with a particular focus on the ways various forms of embodiment are encoded in systems. Rather than simply framing software as a primarily technical product, this article analyzes the way software engineers and designers shape architectures and systems as conduits for social values and norms. Considerations of responsibility, identity, legitimacy, and sociability emerge as central factors in design practice.


We study the impacts of the introduction of formal childcare services to 28 Inuit communities in Canada's North. We use geographical variation in the timing of the introduction of childcare services in the late 1990s and early 2000s to estimate the impact of increased access to childcare. We combine the 1996, 2001, and 2006 long-form census files with data on the opening dates of childcare centres and the number of childcare spaces in each of the 28 communities over time. We find evidence of impacts on female labour force participation driven by multi-adult households in Quebec. Point estimates also suggest possible improvements in high school graduation rates and increased participation of men in childcare. We do not find evidence that formal childcare decreases the ability of children to speak Inuktitut. We suggest plausible explanations for these findings and avenues for future research.


Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unparallel hazards to mental health globally. Many countries around the world have introduced quarantine measures. Quarantine has changed not only the plans of most people, but also their way of life. The greatest impact of quarantine is experienced by COVID positive patients who are isolated in a hospital. The aim of the study: to explore psychological well-being of COVID positive patients during quarantine in a private hospital. Materials and Methods: In this study, 100 patients who were COVID positive were requested to fill the Quality of Life Questionnaire. A pre-validated questionnaire was used to assess the depression score amongst COVID positive patients. The analysis of the answers and respondent opinions was conducted using the Pearson method, which produced statistically relevant results. Results: The studied aspects of mental health patients: sleep, appetite, crying spells; happiness and hope for the future; ability to concentrate and focus and getting disturbed easily by trivia; support received from family and friends; overall outlook of life and ability to stay happy in solitude. As a result, qualitative indicators of the patients' mental health during quarantine in a private hospital were obtained. Conclusions: The data obtained showed that patients managed to stay happy and eat well but they talked less, had disturbed sleep and did not look forward towards a hopeful future. Some were able to shake away the blues with family, friends on Online Media but some got depressed and got crying spells and thought that their life was a failure. The study concluded that patients on quarantine were often depressed. Many patients might benefit if psychological counselling and support are employed during quarantine measures.


Herein, CO oxidation on Ni-doped graphene (Ni-Gr) is investigated by first-principle calculations. The strong binding energy (−7.57 eV) of the Ni atom at a single vacancy in graphene and high energy barrier (3.41 eV) for Ni atom mobility in graphene suggest that graphene is stable even after Ni doping, which avoids the problem of metal clustering. The stronger binding interaction between Ni-Gr and O2 than that between Ni-Gr and CO can prevent CO poisoning to Ni-Gr. To explore the catalytic effect of CO oxidation on Ni-Gr, both the Eley–Rideal (ER) and Langmuir–Hinshelwood (LH) mechanisms are investigated. The overall energy barrier at 0 K for the LH and ER mechanisms is 0.63 and 0.77 eV, respectively. At 298.15 K, the overall energy barrier for the LH mechanism decreases to 0.58 eV, whereas that for the ER mechanism increases to 0.88 eV, which implies that CO oxidation on Ni-Gr prefers to proceed via the LH mechanism kinetically. Our results show that the studied system, Ni-Gr, has chemical stability against metal clustering and CO poisoning, and it is a promising catalyst for CO oxidation at mild temperatures. This study provides a good theoretical guideline for the development of Ni-Gr based CO oxidation catalysts.


We live in an age in which high-performance computing is transforming the way we do science. Previously intractable problems are now becoming accessible by means of increasingly realistic numerical simulations. One of the most enduring and most challenging of these problems is turbulence. Yet, despite these advances, the extreme parameter regimes encountered in astrophysics and space physics (as in atmospheric and oceanic physics) still preclude direct numerical simulation. Numerical models must take a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach, explicitly computing only a fraction of the active dynamical scales. The success of such an approach hinges on how well the model can represent the subgrid-scales (SGS) that are not explicitly resolved. In addition to the parameter regime, astrophysical and heliophysical applications must also face an equally daunting challenge: magnetism. The presence of magnetic fields in a turbulent, electrically conducting fluid flow can dramatically alter the coupling between large and small scales, with potentially profound implications for LES/SGS modeling. In this review article, we summarize the state of the art in LES modeling of turbulent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows. After discussing the nature of MHD turbulence and the small-scale processes that give rise to energy dissipation, plasma heating, and magnetic reconnection, we consider how these processes may best be captured within an LES/SGS framework. We then consider several specific applications in astrophysics and heliophysics, assessing triumphs, challenges, and future directions.


The aim of this communication is to present some subjects of reflection on the methodology used to put in place a research protocol to study language learners' interactions within synthetic worlds. Bell (2008: 3) defines a virtual or synthetic world as "a synchronous, persistent network of people, represented as avatars, facilitated by networked computers ". The main interest for language learning is that synthetic worlds provide similar social interactions as in the real world. This is of a particular interest for distance learning. On-line interactions as part of language learning have already been well explored in research (De Wever et al., 2006 ; Mangenot, 2007 ; Jeanneau & Ollivier, 2009, etc.). Synthetic worlds, as Second Life, are more and more used in education fields such as design, marketing, economy... The important presence of universities as well as the numerous training courses taking place "inworld" are proofs of this interest. However, if studies on practice in education do exist (Molka-Danielson & Deutschmann, 2009 ; Wankel & Kingsley, 2009, etc.), research is still emerging and a need is felt (Peachey et al, 2010). This is particularily true for the field of language learning which is only just beggining to be explored in a research perspective. Our communication will seek to explore different aspects of research in language learning within synthetic worlds. It will be based on a European project, ARCHI21 , in which CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) formations mix architecture and language learning. In the context studied, multicultural groups of learners work on collaborative building tasks in Second Life. We will particularly develop the following points: - Data collection and analysis - Researcher's positioning - Ethical aspects Concerning data collection, problems can emerge as we deal with multimodal interactions. Indeed, a user can communicate simultaneously with several tools (chat, gestures, voice...). Chat logs can be automatically saved but, because of the 3D environment, it is difficult to record and exploit data concerning visual interaction, either between avatars or with objects (Moschini, 2010). If recording represents a delicate aspect, the presence and point of view of the researcher "inworld" are also parameters that need to be taken into account. Recording is often made from the point of view of the researcher's avatar. This avatar is visually present and needs to be close to what is being observed / recorded but at the same time, this presence should not disturb the interactions. Second Life enables the separation between the avatar's body and the look with the camera tool. This is something that needs to be explored as it may renew the position of the researcher in the research. Ethical aspects have to be dealt in a slightly different way given the issue of avatars' identity (Banakou, 2010, Macintyre, 2008, etc.). Do we study avatars' or people's interactions? What about anonymity? The methodological framework we are putting forward leans upon existing research on interactions in language learning while integrating the synthetic worlds' specificities and issues.


TRIANGLE is a multicentre trial investigating whether the addition of a novel intervention for patients and carers (ECHOMANTRA) to treatment as usual (TAU) improves outcomes for people with anorexia nervosa (AN). ECHOMANTRA is based on the cognitive interpersonal model of AN and includes assessments, workbooks, videos, online groups and joint Skype sessions for patients and carers. People receiving intensive hospital treatment (N = 380) will be randomised to TAU or TAU plus ECHOMANTRA. Participants will be assessed over an 18-month period following randomisation. The primary outcome is patient psychological well-being at 12 months postrandomisation. Secondary outcomes include (i) patient's weight, eating disorder symptoms, motivation to change, quality of life and number of days in hospital at 12 months postrandomisation and (ii) carer's psychological well-being, burden and skills at 12 months (some outcomes will be assessed at 18 months postrandomisation). The results from this trial will establish the effectiveness of ECHOMANTRA.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
ISRCTN registry ISRCTN14644379, 08/12/2016. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.


Membership of the European Union has contributed to the economic prosperity of the United Kingdom.
Uncertainty about the outcome of the referendum has already started to weaken growth in the United
Kingdom. A UK exit (Brexit) would be a major negative shock to the UK economy, with economic fallout in
the rest of the OECD, particularly other European countries. In some respects, Brexit would be akin to a
tax on GDP, imposing a persistent and rising cost on the economy that would not be incurred if the UK
remained in the EU. The shock would be transmitted through several channels that would change
depending on the time horizon. In the near term, the UK economy would be hit by tighter financial
conditions and weaker confidence and, after formal exit from the European Union, higher trade barriers
and an early impact of restrictions on labour mobility. By 2020, GDP would be over 3% smaller than
otherwise (with continued EU membership), equivalent to a cost per household of GBP 2200 (in today's
prices). In the longer term, structural impacts would take hold through the channels of capital, immigration
and lower technical progress. In particular, labour productivity would be held back by a drop in foreign
direct investment and a smaller pool of skills. The extent of foregone GDP would increase over time. By
2030, in a central scenario GDP would be over 5% lower than otherwise – with the cost of Brexit
equivalent to GBP 3200 per household (in today's prices). The effects would be larger in a more
pessimistic scenario and remain negative even in the optimistic scenario. Brexit would also hold back GDP
in other European economies, particularly in the near term resulting from heightened uncertainty would
create about the future of Europe. In contrast, continued UK membership in the European Union and
further reforms of the Single Market would enhance living standards on both sides of the Channel.


The sources and fluxes of sediment to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from north‐eastern Australian rivers have been the subject of much concern and study, with the large catchments of the Burdekin and Fitzroy Rivers thought to be the key sources at present. Here, the utility of newly developed magnetic 'fingerprinting' methods for identifying sediment provenance, both onshore and offshore, and in association with individual large flood events, is investigated. Within the Burdekin catchment, sediments are mobilized from different subcatchments by runoff generated by intense, localized rainfall events. Magnetic measurements were made on untreated and acid‐treated samples of river channel sediments within the Burdekin River subcatchments and from the estuarine and inner shelf depocentres of Burdekin River sediments. The acid treatment removes all discrete magnetic particles and coatings, and leaves magnetic inclusions (protected within host silicate grains) as the basis of the measured magnetic signature of a sample. The magnetic properties of the acid‐treated samples display statistically distinct sediment provenance groupings. Sand samples from the Upper Burdekin River appear magnetically distinct from samples from tributaries of the Burdekin (e.g. Hann Creek, Fanning River) and also from nearby coastal rivers, including the Haughton. Suspended sand samples from a Burdekin flood event in 2000 appear to have a different source compared with those from floods in 1998 and 1999. Comparisons of the terrestrial, acid‐treated sand fractions with the same, acid‐treated, sand‐size fractions from transects taken offshore suggest that the surface sediments in Upstart Bay and Bowling Green Bay have different sources. Some of these sources are as yet unidentified but may represent the unsampled, lower‐discharge south‐western Burdekin subcatchments, and/or along‐shore drift of sand from the south, perhaps even from the Fitzroy River, over millennial timescales of cyclone pumping. The magnetic inclusion method precludes any obfuscation or confounding of sediment source, which might arise from hydraulic sorting and/or post‐depositional magnetic diagenesis or authigenesis.


OBJECTIVES: To determine if there is an increased risk of admission to hospital for various diseases among vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) workers. METHODS: 2224 workers with occupational exposure to VCM were identified for occurrence of disease based on a search of hospital computer files on labour insurance. These data were compared with those of workers manufacturing optical equipment and motorcycles from 1 January 1985 to 31 March 1994. Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were used as reference diseases, and the age adjusted morbidity odds ratio (MOR) was calculated. RESULTS: A significantly increased risk of admission to hospital among VCM workers due to primary liver cancer (MOR 4.5-6.5), cirrhosis of the liver (MOR 1.7-2.1), and other chronic diseases (MOR 1.5-2.0) was found. There were eight cases of primary liver cancer, all with heavy previous exposure to VCM. Another four cases of hepatoma in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) workers were found in the death registry. Ten out of 11 cases of hepatoma, with detailed medical information, were carriers of hepatitis B virus. The average latent period (20 years) was not different from other studies. Alternative agents of primary liver cancer were largely ruled out, suggesting that the combination of hepatitis B and VCM may lead to primary liver cancer. CONCLUSION: There is an increased risk of primary liver cancer in workers exposed to VCM, although the incomplete coverage of the Labor Insurance Bureau data warrants cautious interpretation of the results. Further study exploring the synergistic effects of VCM and hepatitis B is also indicated.


ABSTRACT The academic practitioner divide and strategies to close that gap have been important lines of inquiry in the fields of public administration and public affairs. This study contributes to that significant body of work by reporting results from two surveys of faculty in NASPAA accredited programs and of practitioners affiliated with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). These surveys tapped into the perceptions of both groups of respondents about five categories of strategies (e.g., knowledge sharing, technological strategies) aimed at reducing the divide. The overarching objective of this research is to examine if respondent status as faculty or practitioner had an impact on their perception of these strategies. Results from a multivariate analysis of variance indicate that both faculty and practitioners accord significantly different levels of importance to three of the five categories. Open-ended responses yielded additional insights. Implications of this research and its findings for public affairs education are discussed.


In-situ reflectivity measurements of the growth surface during deposition in a Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy system are presented. The GaN growth rate increases linearly with the HCl flow and increases monotonically with the ammonia flow. Following the replacement of the carrier gas nitrogen by hydrogen, the growth rate initially increases, passes through a maximum at a H-2 concentration of 0.15 and then decreases.


The first major paradigm shift in electricity generation, delivery, and control is emerging in the developed world, notably Europe, North America, and Japan. This shift will move electricity supply away from the highly centralised universal service quality model with which we are familiar today towards a more dispersed system with heterogeneous qualities of service. One element of dispersed control is the clustering of sources and sinks into semiautonomous µgrids (microgrids). Research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RD3) of µgrids are advancing rapidly on at least three continents, and significant demonstrations are currently in progress. This paradigm shift will result in more electricity generation close to end-uses, often involving combined heat and power application for building heating and cooling, increased local integration of renewables, and the possible provision of heterogeneous qualities of electrical service to match the requirements of various end-uses. In Europe, µgrid RD3 is entering its third major round under the 7 th European Commission Framework Programme; in the U.S., one specific µgrid concept is undergoing rigorous laboratory testing, and in Japan, where the most activity exists, four major publicly sponsored and two privately sponsored demonstrations are in progress. This evolution poses new challenges to the way buildings are designed, built, and operated. Traditional building energy supply systems will become much more complex in at least three ways: 1. one cannot simply assume gas arrives at the gas meter, electricity at its meter, and the two systems are virtually independent of one another; rather, energy conversion, heat recovery and use, and renewable energy harvesting may all be taking place simultaneously within the building energy system; 2. the structure of energy flows in the building must accommodate multiple energy processes in a manner that permits high overall efficiency; and 3. multiple qualities of electricity may be supplied to various building functions.


Investors globally prefer dividend-paying stocks over nondividend-paying stocks more in declining than in advancing markets, even accounting for firm-level growth opportunities, size and risk effects. Dividend-paying stocks outperform nondividend-paying stocks, from 0.63% (China) to 3.79% (Canada) more per month in declining than in advancing markets. In declining markets, dividend-paying firms outperform by more than any underperformance in advancing markets. The results are robust across dividend taxation regimes, legal environments, emerging and developed markets, periods prior to and after the 2008 global financial crisis, the exclusion of the dividend declaration month and in respect to segmented or integrated international capital markets.


When Rhodobacter sphaeroides was resuspended in sodium phosphate buffer directly after growth on complete medium there was an almost complete loss of motility. The addition of 1 mM sodium phosphate to R. sphaeroides suspended in Hepes buffer also caused an immediate reduction in the mean swimming speed of 35%; an effect that was maintained for more than 60 min. This loss of motility was prevented by the inclusion of succinate in the resuspension medium. Addition of phosphate in the absence of succinate also increased the membrane potential by up to 35% and decreased the rate of respiration by 25%. These effects were reversed in the presence of succinate, phosphate addition decreased the membrane potential by up to 7% and increased the rate of respiration by 23%. These data show that the effect of phosphate buffer on R. sphaeroides is highly complex and its inhibition of motility is probably an indirect effect. The use of phosphate buffer in many physiological experiments may have unexpected side effects.


Over the past few years, the traditional separation between automated theorem provers and computer algebra systems has slowly been eroded as both sides venture into foreign territory. But despite recent progress, theorem provers still have difficulties with basic arithmetic while computer algebra syste mi nherently produce "untrusted" results that are not easily verified. We were able to combine successfully two such systems ‐ NUPRL and MATHEMATICA ‐t o build the Automated Complexity Analysis (ACA) system for analyzing the computational complexity of higher-order functional programs. The ACA system automatically computes and proves correct an upper bound on the worst-case time complexity of a functional program synthesized by the NUPRL system. In this extended abstract, we briefly introduce our framework fo rr easoning informally about the computational complexity of higher-orde rf unctional programs and outline our approach to automation. We conclude with a description of employing MATHEMATICA within the trusted NUPRL environment


The random assignment problem asks for the minimum-cost perfect matching in the complete n × n bipartite graph Knn with i.i.d. edge weights, say uniform on [0, 1]. In a remarkable work by Aldous [Aldous, D. 2001. The ζ(2) limit in the random assignment problem. RSA18 381--418], the optimal cost was shown to converge to ζ(2) as n → ∞, as conjectured by Mezard and Parisi [Mezard, M., G. Parisi. 1987. On the solution of the random link matching problem. J. Phys.48 1451--1459] through the so-called cavity method. The latter also suggested a nonrigorous decentralized strategy for finding the optimum, which turned out to be an instance of the belief propagation (BP) heuristic discussed by Pearl [Pearl, J. 1988. Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of Plausible Inference. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco]. In this paper we use the objective method to analyze the performance of BP as the size of the underlying graph becomes large. Specifically, we establish that the dynamic of BP on Knn converges in distribution as n → ∞ to an appropriately defined dynamic on the Poisson weighted infinite tree, and we then prove correlation decay for this limiting dynamic. As a consequence, we obtain that BP finds an asymptotically correct assignment in O(n2) time only. This contrasts with both the worst-case upper bound for convergence of BP derived by Bayati et al. [Bayati, M., D. Shah, M. Sharma. 2008. Max-product for maximum weight matching: Convergence, correctness, and LP duality. IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory54(3) 1241--1251.] and the best-known computational cost of Θ(n3) achieved by Edmonds and Karp's algorithm [Edmonds, J., R. Karp. 1972. Theoretical improvements in algorithmic efficiency for network flow problems. J. ACM19 248--264].


© IWA Publishing 2018. The performance of model-based leak detection and localization techniques heavily depends on the configuration of a limited number of sensors. This paper presents a sensor placement optimization strategy that guarantees sufficient diagnosability while satisfying the budget constraint. Based on the theory of compressed sensing, the leak localization problem could be transformed into acquiring the sparse leak-induced demands from the available measurements, and the average mutual coherence is devised as a diagnosability criterion for evaluating whether the measurements contain enough information for identifying the potential leaks. The optimal sensor placement problem is then reformulated as a {0, 1} quadratic knapsack problem, seeking an optimal sensor placement scheme by minimizing the average mutual coherence to maximize the degree of diagnosability. To effectively handle the complicated real-life water distribution networks, a validated binary version of artificial bee colony algorithm enhanced by genetic operators, including crossover and swap, is introduced to solve the binary knapsack problem. The proposed strategy is illustrated and validated through a real-life water distribution network with synthetically generated field data.


Introduction: There are ongoing concerns regarding metal wear debris following the use of metal-on-metal (MonM) bearings for hip surface and total arthroplasty. A Type IV Hypersensitivity reaction to MonM articulations has previously been identified (aseptic lymphocyte dominated vasculitis associated lesion, ALVAL) but little is known of its incidence, diagnosis or management. Persisting groin pain in MonM patients may be undiagnosed ALVAL. At our single centre we have reviewed and compared three types of MonM articulations to examine the incidence of ALVAL and to identify trends. Methods: The resurfacing group comprised 250 patients with the ASR prosthesis. In the resurfacing hybrid total hip replacement (THR) group there were 86 patients implanted with an ASR head on a stem. The final group comprised of 625 patients with a MonM THR using a 36mm Pinnacle head. Both the S-ROM and the Corail stems were used in the THR groups. Patients with persisting and activity-restricting groin pain had tests for infection. Patients were counselled and revision was offered if ALVAL was suspected from the clinical picture, blood results and the aspiration result. Specimens for microbiological and histological analysis were taken at the time of revision. Results: We found 5 cases of histologically proven ALVAL in the absence of infection in 961 patients. The incidence was: 1.2% in the resurfacing group, 2.3% of Resurfacing Hybrid THR group and 0 in the 36 mm THR group. All 5 cases were in female patients. Only 1 case had any radiological abnormality. One patient was initially revised from a resurfacing to a 36mm MonM THR without clinical success. All patients have now been revised to ceramic-on-ceramic bearings with improvements in outcome. Discussion: ALVAL may be under-diagnosed. The 5 patients we describe showed good clinical recovery following their primary procedure. However, activity levels decreased and pain increased at 6–12 months post-op. All described non-specific systemic symptoms. On examination, a painful straight leg raise was a characteristic finding. This may result from the significant effusion found around the hip at each revision. Fluid aspirated from these hips was of a characteristic colour (green grey) and viscosity. The failure of the revision of a resurfacing to a smaller MonM bearing highlights the problem of sensitisation to the metal debris. Any subsequent revision to a MonM bearing is unlikely to improve clinical outcome. This finding is consistent with previous reports in the literature. Our results suggest the incidence of ALVAL may be higher that previously thought. We suggest all patients with significant groin pain should have inflammatory markers tests and a hip aspiration performed. In the absence of infection, revision to an alternative bearing surface may be indicated.


One of the main causes of congestion on freeways are lane closures due to short-term construction works or accidents. To avoid congestion due to these events, this study aims at analyzing traffic flow at such bottlenecks. The focus was to determine the effect of different traffic guidance measures on the capacity and take a closer look at the driven speeds and the traffic volumes on each lane.
For the execution of this study, traffic data of the section control system on the German freeway A99 between interchange Munich-North and interchange Munich-South from 2012 and data of all lane closures in that period were available. Due to the amount of data, the field of this study was limited to closures of one out of three lanes. For those situations, it turned out that the capacity ranged between 2800 and 3000veh/h in case of closures of the right lane and between 3100 and 3300veh/h in case of closures of the left lane. Thus, the capacity is 10% lower for closures of the right lane. Furthermore, larger speed differences were determined in case of closures of the right lane than of the left lane. This may be caused by the high percentage of heavy vehicles on the right lane. Heavy vehicles changing from the right to the middle lane apparently affect the traffic flow more than cars changing from the left to the middle lane.


Background: Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) followed by whole-breast irradiation (WBI) are the standard of care for treating early-stage breast cancer. The efficacy of accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) has recently been investigated as an alternative to WBI. Although we previously reported that multicatheter brachytherapy in APBI is feasible in Japanese patients, long-term data of several APBI techniques have not yet been obtained. Here we estimated the long-term efficacy of multicatheter brachytherapy in Japanese patients with breast cancer to validate its use an individualized case–control (ICC) analysis. Method: From October 2008 to March 2013, a total of 184 consequent patients with 188 tumors underwent BCS followed by multicatheter brachytherapy. A total of 120 consecutive patients (mean age, 55.1 years) with 122 tumors (pN0) who had at least 1 year of follow-up were enrolled in this analysis. Before lumpectomy, the insertion of applicators and delivery doses were simulated by computed tomography. After confirming the free margins and negative sentinel node metastases by frozen section analysis, the applicators were inserted. APBI therapy was initiated on the same day of surgery on the basis of the dose distribution analysis, at 32 Gy in 8 fractions over 5–6 days with a 2-cm tumor margin coverage. Regarding our prospective follow-up policy in this observational study, all patients had a predefined schedule including clinical examination every 3–4 months and mammography and breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) every 12 months. We performed ICC analysis to estimate the number of patients with ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR). The 10-year risk of IBTR for each patient when undergoing with WBI was calculated using the web-based decision-making tool IBTR! and was adjusted during the real-time follow-up period using data obtained from an overview by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group. Results: The median follow-up period was 3.1 years (range, 1.1–4.4 years). Most tumors (92.6%) were ?2 cm in diameter, and 89.4% were estrogen receptor-positive. Hormone therapy was administered in 86.7% and adjuvant chemotherapy in 20.0% patients. If all patients received WBI after BCS, we estimated IBTR in this group to be 1.1–2.8. Although 1 IBTR was observed, no tumor bed recurrence was recorded. Conclusions: Although this study involved only a small number of patients and short follow-up period, only 1 IBTR case was recorded, which was within the estimated range of local recurrence. Multicatheter brachytherapy using this technique may offer the same rates of local control as WBI in Japanese patients.


Introduction Serum calcification propensity is emerging as an independent predictor for cardiovascular outcomes in high-risk populations. Calcification propensity can be monitored by the maturation time of calciprotein particles in serum (T50 test). A low T50 value is an independent determinant of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in various populations. Aim was to investigate the T50 and its relationship to type 2 diabetes mellitus. Research design and methods Using nephelometry, serum T50 was cross-sectionally measured in 932 stable patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (55% male) with a median age of 66 (62–75) years, diabetes duration of 6.5 (3.0–10.2) years and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of 49 (44–54) mmol/mol. Results Serum T50 was normally distributed with a mean value of 261±66 min. In linear regression, serum T50 was lower in women and current smokers. A lower T50 value was found in patients with a higher HbA1c or higher systolic blood pressure, insulin users and patients with a longer history of diabetes. The association with HbA1c was independent of other determinants in multivariable analysis. There was no association between T50 and previous macrovascular events or the presence of microvascular disease. Conclusions Serum calcification propensity is independently associated with glycemic control, suggesting that a lower HbA1c may be associated with better cardiovascular outcomes. Retrospective analysis could not establish an association between a history of macrovascular events and T50, and prospective studies will have to be performed to address this hypothesis. Trial registration number NCT01570140.


Mutation screening of the major autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease gene (PKD1) has been complicated by the large transcript size (> 14 kb) and by reiteration of the genomic area encoding 75% of the protein on the same chromosome (the HG loci). The sequence similarity between the PKD1 and HG regions has precluded specific analysis of the duplicated region of PKD1, and consequently all previously described mutations map to the unique 3' region of PKD1. We have now developed a novel anchored reverse-transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) approach to specifically amplify duplicated regions of PKD1, employing one primer situated within the single-copy region and one within the reiterated area. This strategy has been incorporated in a mutation screen of 100 patients for more than half of the PKD1 exons (exons 22-46; 37% of the coding region), including 11 (exons 22-32) within the duplicated gene region, by use of the protein-truncation test (PTT). Sixty of these patients also were screened for missense changes, by use of the nonisotopic RNase cleavage assay (NIRCA), in exons 23-36. Eleven mutations have been identified, six within the duplicated region, and these consist of three stop mutations, three frameshifting deletions of a single nucleotide, two splicing defects, and three possible missense changes. Each mutation was detected in just one family (although one has been described elsewhere); no mutation hot spot was identified. The nature and distribution of mutations, plus the lack of a clear phenotype/genotype correlation, suggest that they may inactivate the molecule. RT-PCR/PTT proved to be a rapid and efficient method to detect PKD1 mutations (differentiating pathogenic changes from polymorphisms), and we recommend this procedure as a firstpass mutation screen in this disorder.


The topography that entertains the unconscious includes inhabitants and the forms of their passage through spaces. A landscape of vessels, a place that both "holds and moves". This is an e-motional field, where the topographic relationships of component parts are not stable and fixed; rather, they can be mis-placed, dis-placed, or even re-placed. The type of topography foregrounded here is a projected landscape of the unconscious. A field through which all our experiential memories are mediated – a 'field of being'. This article explores how architectural space registers in such a field.
The narrative is assembled as a montage of verbal and visual constructs and routing in the form of mental frames. This includes a graphic exploration of cognitive processes and their visual representation, a structural mapping of mental space through frames and folds of memory, as well as the tectonic field in which the psychoanalytic encounter between narrator and narrative takes place on a drawing.


The action of thyroid hormone (TH) on cell growth, differentiation and survival during development may be of therapeutic relevance. The present study investigated the potential effects of long-term TH treatment on cardiomyocytes and on glioma tumour cell lines. This study employed neonatal cardiomyocytes, 1321N1 cell line, an astrocytoma grade II, and U87MG, a glioblastoma grade IV. Cells were exposed for 2 and 4 days in culture medium deprived of T3 (non-treated cells) and in a medium containing either 1 nM T3 (at near physiological range) or 500 nM T3 (supraphysiological). From the initial study on cardiomyocytes, the results show that phenylephryne (PE) can induce cell growth and this effect was mediated by T3. For the glioma cell lines the results show that T3 at 1 nM can promote cell re-differentiation in both cell lines. However, T3 had a preferential effect on suppressing cell proliferation only in the high grade glioma cell line. Thus, in 1321N1 cell line, T3 increased cell proliferation (2 days) which declined thereafter (4 days) without having any effect on cell survival. In U87MG cell line, T3 resulted in marked suppression of cell proliferation without increasing cell injury. At the molecular level, a 2.9 fold increase in the expression of TRα1 receptor was observed in U87MG cells as compared to 1321N1, p<0.05. TRβ1 receptor was undetectable in both cell lines. These changes corresponded to a distinct pattern of growth signalling activation induced by T3 treatment. The results also show that T3 had no significant effect on ERK activation in both cell lines, but significantly (p<0.05) increased phospho-Akt levels in 1321N1 cell line. At higher dose, T3 also induced cell differentiation in both cell lines and suppressed proliferation while increased cell injury in U87MG cells. It can be concluded from these results that T3 can re-differentiate glioma tumour cells. However, the effect of T3 on cell proliferation appears to be dependent on the type of tumour cell line with aggressive tumours to be more sensitive to thyroid hormone treatment. TRα1 receptor may, at least in part, be implicated in this response.