It is now up to the professionals in the field of technology education to embrace, implement, and promote the standards that can insure a bright future for our field of study. After years of work, the technological standards described in Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (STL) are now ready for implementation. Through cooperation between the International Technology Education Association, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation, technology education now has the guidance that has always been missing on a national level. These standards do several things for the field of technology education. They provide identity, recognition, organization, and direction. For the past several years, these components have been missing from our field, but now these standards have the ability to change the current conditions and influence a paradigm shift for our future if we embrace and promote them. Technology education has been plagued with an identity crisis over the past decade. As many schools and states moved from the old methods and content of shop and forged ahead with the "new" technologies, our field of study became even more varied, complex, and nondescript to those outside the field, both within and outside of education. Several name changes, many contemporary with each other but conflicting, only added to the confusion. During this time, no national standards existed to clear the confusion about who we were or what we did or even what good we were to the future of our students. Most states did not even have state standards for what was generally an elective course area. Each year or two our name changed, as did the course names, sometimes without any content change. In some districts, an even more disturbing situation occurred, no change at all. The 1980s and 90s were a time of necessary growth, change, pain, and confusion. It is now time to move beyond that and reclaim our identity and our position of relevance to all students. Standards for Technological Literacy is our best vehicle for achieving this goal. By instituting its standards all across the country, in all states and in all districts, our identity crisis will end and the importance of technological literacy to the future of our students and this country will once again become apparent to all. In the area of education, many wonderful, exciting, and worthwhile events take place on a daily basis. Most go unrecognized. Recognition for accomplishments, productivity, and worth are vital to growth, and even existence in today's world. Technology education has not received, as a whole, the recognition it deserves in many areas of the country. The International Technology Education Association is the only national voice our profession possesses. While ITEA is a great organization and resource for technology education, there has been no overriding device to bind our collective skills, our knowledge base, or our profession together. Standards for Technological Literacy changes that situation. With years of work leading to the most scrutinized set of educational standards ever produced in any discipline, the STL standards have been presented to Congress and the President, along with all state education departments. Those who did not know we existed a few short months ago are now impressed with the completeness, order, and usefulness of the Standards for Technological Literacy document. …


Introduction: Foreword: Valentin Fuster Preface: Luther T. Clark 1. Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes: An Epidemiologic Luther T. Clark 2. Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Disease in Diabetes Samy I. McFarlane, Yohannes Gebreegzioabher, Chard Bubb and Amgad N. Makaryus 3. Diabetes as a Coronary Risk Equivalent Luther T. Clark, Paramdeep Baweja, and Uzodinma R. Dim 4. Management of Acute Coronary Syndromes in Diabetic Patients Jonathan D. Marmur and Cristina Mitre 5. Sudden Cardiac Death in the Diabetic Patient John Kassotis and Spyros Kokolis 6. Syncope in the Diabetic Patient John Kassotis 7. Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Judith E. Mitchell 8. Treatment of Dyslipidemia of Type 2 Diabetes Clinton Brown and John LaRosa 9. Hypertension, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Michael Weber 10. Fitness and Exercise Rehabilitation for the Heart Disease Patient with Diabetes Mellitus Roseann Chesler 11. The Assessment and Reduction of Cardiac Risk in Diabetics in Noncardiac Surgery Jason Lazar 12. Cardiac Surgery in Patients with Diabetes Robert Lowery, MD 13. Chronic Kidney Disease and Cardiorenal Complications Nagarathna Manjappa, Amir Hayat, and Moro O. Salifu 14. The Metabolic Syndrome Luther T. Clark and Suzette Graham-Hill 15. Cardiovascular Disease and Hyperglycemia Mary Ann Banerji 16. Cardiovascular Imaging in Diabetics Jason Lazar and Louis Salciccioli 17. Hemostatic Abnormalities in Diabetes: Hematology for the Cardiologist Manish Lakhani, Spyros Kokolis, Erdal Cavusoglu, Gerald Soff and Jonathan D. Marmur 18. Diabetes, Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and CVD in Women Judie LaRosa and John LaRosa 19. Diabetes, Sleep Disorders, and Cardiovascular Disease Girardin Jean-Louis, Ferdinand Zizi, Luther T. Clark and John Kassotis 20. Health Disparities and Cardiovascular Disease Luther T. Clark, Rugh C. Browne, Ronald Kokolis, Marilyn White and Susan Morales 21. Long-term Management of CVD and Diabetes: A Best-Practices Approach Luther T. Clark, Karen Scott-Collins, Reba Williams 22. Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Diabetes: Emerging Trends Luther T. Clark, MD


This thesis is concerned with assessing the impact of the UK temporary employment industry in assisting agency workers since the year 2000, and incorporates four research questions: (1) To what extent have temporary employment agencies provided employment opportunities to vulnerable groups since the year 2000? (2) How are individuals psychologically affected by working as temporary agency workers, and what are the implications? (3) Individual agency workers often interact with several different groups including temporary employment agencies, third party employers, permanent workers and trade unions. Are there tensions that exist between these groups, and how do they manifest themselves? (4) Recent legislative development has occurred with the adoption of the Agency Workers Directive. What are the implications for individual agency workers and temporary employment agencies?
In order to investigate these questions, the study"s research design incorporated semi-structured interviews and ethnographic analyses of diary extracts. The interviewees consisted of twenty-five participants, including agency workers, their permanent counterparts, recruitment consultants, and representatives from third party employers. I also recorded my experiences as an agency worker during several assignments, and the ethnographic analysis of these diary extracts represented a second source of findings. The approach of the thesis challenged the traditional quantitative method that has been prevalent throughout previous psychologically-orientated studies into agency working.
Results highlighted the importance of motive, as it was found to influence how agency workers viewed their ensuing employment. Permanent workers" perception of their company"s motive for utilising agency staff was also highlighted as significant to their resulting reaction to their organisation"s recruitment practices. The method of using agency workers to protect pre-existing staff from redundancy was indicated, and permanent workers will often this employment practice favourably. The lack of obligation inherent in the contract increases the vulnerability of agency workers, and may cause reduced levels of job security and organisational commitment within the individual. The assumption that agency working is short term and cyclical can also lead to isolation from the workforce, as permanent workers may consider agency staff as non-committal, dispensable, and un-invested in the organisation.
Several findings relating to the relationships which form between the main parties also emerged. A lack of contact between the recruitment consultant and the individual worker represented a potential obstacle, whereas the priority that temporary employment agencies placed upon fulfilling the needs of their client companies was also identified. The agency employment industry argues that it provides individuals with opportunities for permanent transition into the third party employer, but limited autonomy, short-term assignments, and the simplistic nature of tasks represented significant barriers to achieving this goal. The thesis concluded that the recently-adopted Agency Workers Directive would result in a reduction of open-ended employment arrangements, and that tenure would typically be established prior to each assignment. Recommendations for future research included a post-adoption analysis of the impact of the Agency Workers Directive, and an increased focus upon permanent worker reaction and perception regarding their company"s utilisation of agency staff.


Abstract:A collection of texts printed in early seventeenth-century Naples exemplifies the intersection between economic history and the history of thought. A slowly worsening monetary situation led authorities, unsure of what they could and should do, to solicit diagnostics and cures. The unfolding debate is challenging to analyze: participants viewed events through the lenses of their background, training, and interest. Merchant experts competed with university graduates and technical officials. These texts offer us a rich but contradictory set of observations and interpretations in what constitutes an early attempt at applied economic analysis and policy advice.


BACKGROUND: Results of 2 trials of postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) challenged established practice patterns; 1 was not associated with changes in HT use, whereas the other was associated with substantial decline. Differential coverage by lay newspapers may have contributed to the differential impact.OBJECTIVE: To examine newspaper coverage of HT before and after the publication of the Heart and Estrogen Replacement Study (HERS) in August 1998, and the main findings of the estrogen plus progestin therapy arm of the Women's Health Initiative (EPT-WHI) in July 2002.DESIGN: Longitudinal review of newspaper articles, 1998 to 2003 (n=663).SETTING: Twenty local and 6 regional/national newspapers.MEASUREMENTS: Number and content of articles about HT.RESULTS: The average number of articles about HT published during the month of the publication of the EPT-WHI was at least 8-fold greater than the number of articles published on the topic during any prior period. While the majority of articles in all periods presented information about the potential benefits of HT, information about harms became more common than information about benefits during the 2 months before the publication of the EPT-WHI, when the trial participants were notified of the early termination of the study. The presentation of specific health harms was more common after the publication of the EPT-WHI than after the publication of HERS. Few articles in any period used visual aids.CONCLUSIONS: The publication of the EPT-WHI was associated with a change in both the volume and content of newspaper coverage about HT.


Las Vegas is known the world over as an oasis of entertainment in the Nevada desert, but to more than a million people of exceptionally varied origins, it is also home. Yet this city is rarely mentioned in studies of ethnicity or immigration, and the rich diversity of its population is largely invisible to Las Vegans and visitors alike. Such ignorance can be partly explained by the effects of the city's rapid growth. Las Vegas largely lacks traditional ethnic neighborhoods, and the restaurants and markets that cater to its diverse population groups are mostly hidden away in anonymous strip malls. Nonetheless, a remarkable variety of nationalities and ethnic groups has been drawn here since the city's beginnings in 1905, and today Las Vegas's vital service industry, entrepreneurial opportunities, reasonable cost of living, and appeal as a retirement center attract many more. Recent world events and international currents of immigration have only enhanced this diversity. In The Peoples of Las Vegas, seventeen scholars profile thirteen of the ethnic groups that make up their city's population. The book's introduction provides a historical and demographic context for the kaleidoscope of ethnicity that helps define Las Vegas today and analyzes the economic and social conditions that make Las Vegas so attractive to recent immigrants. The individual contributors--most of whom are members of the groups they write about, and who come from a broad array of disciplines--discuss the motivations and processes of their group's migration to Las Vegas, economic pursuits, institutions and other means of preserving and transmitting their culture, involvement with the broader community, ties with their homelands, and recent demographic trends affecting each group. This collection of essays provides a provocative look into the vibrant ethnic life that lies just beneath the glittering surface of one of America's most unusual cities.


The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the Western states responded to the Polish crisis (1980-83), both severally and collectively, with particular reference to their capacity for coordinated action. The thesis concentrates on the interaction between the major Western states (France, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States) inside the broader Western institutional framework (looking in particular at NATO, the European Community, European Political Cooperation and CoCom). It assesses the impact and relative importance of the various Western institutional networks and of longer term conflicting Western aims in Poland for the success and failure of coordination. It also analyses the relevance of wider transatlantic disputes over detente for coordination. It is argued that the domestic Polish crisis gradually spilled over into East-West and West-West relations, ultimately triggering one of the most serious crises in the history of the Western alliance. The thesis is different from that of other studies of international crises in that most such studies concentrate on relations between governments who identify each other as "enemies", whereas the main concern here is with relations within one "enemy camp". Highlighting the political and economic, as well as security dimensions to the crisis, the thesis also shows that the Western states were faced with a more complex problem than a classic foreign policy crisis. Finally, the complexity of the issues raised as a result of the Polish crisis meant that the Western states were faced not only with the problem of reconciling different and sometimes conflicting national objectives, but also with the need to reconcile contradictory economic, political and security concerns cutting across national borders. Against this backdrop the thesis argues that the problem of coordination is more complex than what is implied by the neo-realist and neo-liberal institutionalist perspectives, and that the success and failure of coordination rests with the individual states, navigating within the constraints of domestic politics, alliance politics and international [in this case East-West] relations.


Multimodal sentiment analysis is a core research area that studies speaker sentiment expressed from the language, visual, and acoustic modalities. The central challenge in multimodal learning involves inferring joint representations that can process and relate information from these modalities. However, existing work learns joint representations by requiring all modalities as input and as a result, the learned representations may be sensitive to noisy or missing modalities at test time. With the recent success of sequence to sequence (Seq2Seq) models in machine translation, there is an opportunity to explore new ways of learning joint representations that may not require all input modalities at test time. In this paper, we propose a method to learn robust joint representations by translating between modalities. Our method is based on the key insight that translation from a source to a target modality provides a method of learning joint representations using only the source modality as input. We augment modality translations with a cycle consistency loss to ensure that our joint representations retain maximal information from all modalities. Once our translation model is trained with paired multimodal data, we only need data from the source modality at test time for final sentiment prediction. This ensures that our model remains robust from perturbations or missing information in the other modalities. We train our model with a coupled translationprediction objective and it achieves new state-of-the-art results on multimodal sentiment analysis datasets: CMU-MOSI, ICTMMMO, and YouTube. Additional experiments show that our model learns increasingly discriminative joint representations with more input modalities while maintaining robustness to missing or perturbed modalities.


The persistence of marriage, like its dissolution, is the result of many factors. Research on the variables that contribute to persistence in marriage focuses on commitment, a term that is frequently used to describe individuals and relationships, yet one that is rarely defined and even less often researched. This article takes a small step toward filling that gap. The research reported here is an attempt to study commitment in marriage, especially as it is structured by various forms of dependency. Commitment is presumed to be influenced by dependency (among other things). The married woman without gainful employment or marketable skills is believed to be more constrained in her options than an employed wife. Indeed, much of the increase in divorce since the late 1960s may be the consequence of women's entry into the paid labor force (see Cherlin, 1992, and Greenstein, 1990, for reviews of these arguments). Employed women have alternatives to abusive or loveless marriages that unemployed women do not. Yet not all unloved or abused wives divorce their husbands. Research has shown that repeatedly battered wives, for example, will often remain with their husbands because of dependencies that constrain them--economic dependency in particular (Steinmetz, 1987). This research does not attempt to explain why abused wives remain with their abusive husbands. Nor does it attempt to explain divorce. Rather, the comments made about these topics are offered to illustrate conventional uses of the concept of commitment and to make the point that commitment and persistence are separable phenomena. Even were it possible to develop a full theory of why some marriages do not last, we would still lack a theory of commitment because the behavior of persistence is different from the concept of commitment, despite their obvious relationship. COMMITMENT Commitment is typically invoked to explain why people engage in a consistent line of activity--a point made by Becker over 30 years ago (Becker, 1960). With respect to marriage, for example, we might explain the persistence of unions by reference to the commitment of spouses to their marriage or to one another. As noted above, however, the behavior (staying married) is not the same thing as commitment. Becker suggested that two elements characterize commitment as a source of consistency. First, an individual does something that creates an interest in his or her following a consistent line of action. That is, some interest that was initially unrelated to a particular line of action is now linked to it because of something the person has done. Second, the individual becomes aware that his or her continued action has implications for the originally extraneous interest(s). When a person marries, for example, this action creates, for him or her, a stake in the continuation of the union. If it fails, then there will be consequences that would not have occurred without the marriage. Thus, the marriage created an interest that had not previously existed. For the married person, this may be the love, security, or tangible property elements that are part of intimate relationships. Many such interests are created by the marriage and are threatened by its termination. Domestic relations law recognizes the stake that partners have in their marriage in the legal principle of consortium. Spouses rely on one another for such things as domestic labor, sexual intimacy, and fidelity. Over time, many spouses will invest massive amounts of time and energy in their relationships, while foregoing alternative relationships, in an effort to keep these spousal benefits flowing. Indeed, for many, if not most, spouses, protecting the marital relationship is as important as protecting any other major personal interest, be it health, sanity, or integrity....Historically, the law has recognized and protected this unique interest through its concept of consortium. Such elements as domestic duties, interaction, affectional intimacy, love, and sexual intercourse are among the factors typically recognized under the law, and when their infringement is deemed an offense according to statute or court decision, monetary damages can be exacted. …


AIM AND OBJECTIVE
The aim was to explore empowerment within the patient-staff encounter as experienced by out-patients with chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND
Empowerment has an important role to play in the patient-staff relationship in the case of patients with a chronic disease. When it comes to patients with chronic kidney disease, there has been little research on empowerment, for which reason interviewing such patients about their experiences of empowerment will provide useful knowledge within the context of out-patient care.

DESIGN
A qualitative interview study was chosen to gain an understanding of empowerment from the patient perspective.

METHOD
The study was carried out at an out-patient clinic in Sweden and involved 20 patients with chronic kidney disease. The interviews were subjected to latent content analysis.

RESULTS
Five of the seven sub-themes emerging from the analysis represented empowerment: Accessibility according to need, Confirming encounter, Trust in the competence of the healthcare staff, Participation in decision-making, Learning enables better self-management. The other two represented non-empowerment: Meeting with nonchalance, Lack of dialogue and influence. From the seven sub-themes, one comprehensive theme was generated: Creation of trust and learning through encounter.

CONCLUSION
The main finding regarding the central role of the creation of trust and learning through the patient-staff encounter underlines the importance of understanding empowerment from the patient's perspective.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Nursing and other healthcare staff need knowledge and understanding of the meaning of empowerment from the patients' perspective to meet their needs in out-patient care.


According to the current cosmological cold dark matter paradigm, the Galactic halo could have been the result of the assemblage of smaller structures. Here we explore the hypothesis that the classical and ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way have been the building blocks of the Galactic halo by comparing their [$\alpha$/Fe] and [Ba/Fe] versus [Fe/H] patterns with the ones observed in Galactic halo stars. The $\alpha$ elements deviate substantially from the observed abundances in the Galactic halo stars for [Fe/H] values larger than -2 dex, while they overlap for lower metallicities. On the other hand, for the [Ba/Fe] ratio the discrepancy is extended at all [Fe/H] values, suggesting that the majority of stars in the halo are likely to have been formed in situ. Therefore, we suggest that [Ba/Fe] ratios are a better diagnostic than [$\alpha$/Fe] ratios. Moreover, for the first time we consider the effects of an enriched infall of gas with the same chemical abundances as the matter ejected and/or stripped from dwarf satellites of the Milky Way on the chemical evolution of the Galactic halo. We find that the resulting chemical abundances of the halo stars depend on the assumed infall time scale, and the presence of a threshold in the gas for star formation. In particular, in models with an infall timescale for the halo around 0.8 Gyr coupled with a threshold in the surface gas density for the star formation (4 $\mathrm{M}_{\odot}\,\mathrm{pc}^{-2}$), and the enriched infall from dwarf spheroidal satellites, the first halo stars formed show [Fe/H]$>$-2.4 dex. In this case, to explain [$\alpha$/Fe] data for stars with [Fe/H]$<$-2.4 dex we need stars formed in dSph systems.


In order to create successful cybersecurity professionals, it is important to engage students in a way that bridges the gap from the academic to the real world. In this paper, we present three examples used within teaching at Southampton University: The use of real-world scenarios presented through virtual environments, the creation of a cryptography learning platform and the fostering of student communities to support learning through social networking. We explore the ways in which practical hands-on experience based on industry can better support the development skills. We examine how real-life techniques can be combined with gamification and personalised learning to engender positive engagement. We consider how real-world scenarios within the educational institution can be utilised to further learning within in a safe but relevant context, being mutually beneficial to the students and institution. Finally, we consider the role of fostering a strong cybersecurity student community, using social networking, student societies and extra-curricular activities.


Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) antiviral drug resistance is a major consequence of therapy failure and compromises future therapeutic options. Nelfinavir and lopinavir/ritonavir‐based therapies have been widely used in the treatment of HIV‐infected patients, in combination with reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The aim of this observational study was the identification and characterization of mutations or combinations of mutations associated with resistance to nelfinavir and lopinavir/ritonavir in treated patients. Nucleotide sequences of 1,515 subtype B HIV‐1 isolates from 1,313 persons with different treatment histories (including naïve and treated patients) were collected in 31 Spanish hospitals over the years 2002–2005. Chi‐square contingency tests were performed to detect mutations associated with failure to protease inhibitor‐based therapies, and correlated mutations were identified using statistical methods. Virological failure to nelfinavir was associated with two different mutational pathways. D30N and N88D appeared mostly in patients without previous exposure to protease inhibitors, while K20T was identified as a secondary resistance mutation in those patients. On the other hand, L90M together with L10I, I54V, A71V, G73S, and V82A were selected in protease inhibitor‐experienced patients. A series of correlated mutations including L10I, M46I, I54V, A71V, G73S, and L90M appeared as a common cluster of amino acid substitutions, associated with failure to lopinavir/ritonavir‐based treatments. Despite the relatively high genetic barrier of some protease inhibitors, a relatively small cluster of mutations, previously selected under drug pressure, can seriously compromise the efficiency of nelfinavir‐ and lopinavir/ritonavir‐based therapies. J. Med. Virol. 79:1617–1628, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


We present the notion of PROG-KDM security for public-key encryption schemes. This security notion captures both KDM security and revealing of secret keys (key corruptions) in a single definition. This is achieved by requiring the existence of a simulator that can program ciphertexts when a secret key is revealed, i.e., the simulator can delay the decision what plaintext is contained in what ciphertext to the moment where the ciphertext is opened. The definition is formulated in the random oracle model. We show that PROG-KDM security can be achieved by showing that a natural and practical construction in the ideal cipher model is PROG-KDM secure (hybrid encryption using authenticated CBC encryption).


In a modern 3D IC, electrical connections between vertically stacked dies are made using through silicon vias. Through silicon vias are subject to undesirable early-life effects such as protrusion as well as void formation and growth. These effects result in opens, resistive opens, and stress induced carrier mobility reduction, and consequently circuit failures. Operating the ICs under extreme temperature cycling can effectively accelerate such early-life failures and make them detectable at the manufacturing test process. An integrated temperature-cycling acceleration and test technique is introduced in this paper that integrates a temperature-cycling acceleration procedure with pre-, mid-, and post-bond tests for 3D ICs. Moreover, it reduces the need for costly temperature chamber based temperature-cycling acceleration procedures. All these result in a reduction in the overall test costs. The proposed method is a schedule-based solution that creates the required temperature cycling effect along with performing the tests. Experimental results demonstrate its efficiency.


This paper reviews several aspects of thermal and mechanical properties of cookware appliance. Numerical results of temperature distribution (TD), heat retaining, thermal stress and body deformation are summarized. Finite Element Method, ANSYS program, is employed. We described different thermal and mechanical results of Al/Cr-Ni, Al/SSt, Al/Ti, Cu/Cr-Ni, Cu/SSt, Cu/Ti, gray cast iron (GCI), carbon steel (CSt), iron. The laminated plate provides improved thermal and chemical properties in comparison with single layer. From this analysis the result suggests that Cu/SSt bi-metal structure provides the best application as cookware.


Eating a bit of inactivated poliovirus as a child generates a population of memory immune cells that can inactivate poliovirus that you are exposed to as an adult, even if there has been no exposure in the intervening years. What keeps these cells alive? Ku et al. show that these memory cells are sustained by a delicate balance among several cytokines. Interleukin 15 (IL-15) and IL-7 keep the cells dividing slowly; IL-2 acts as a brake on this process to keep cell division under control. Ku, C.C., Murakami, M., Sakamoto, A., Kappler, J., and Marrack, P. (2000) Control of homeostasis of CD8+ memory T cells by opposing cytokines. Science 288: 675-678. [Abstract] [Full Text]


We consider the problem of obtaining population-based inference in the presence of missing data and outliers in the context of estimating obesity prevalence and body-mass index (BMI) measures from the Healthy For Life Study. Identifying multiple outliers in a multivariate setting is problematic because of problems such as masking, in which groups of outliers inflate the covariance matrix in a fashion that prevents their identification when included, and swamping, in which outliers skew covariances in a fashion that make non-outling observations appear to be outliers. We develop a latent class model that assumes each observation belongs to one of $K$ unobserved latent classes, which each latent class having a distinct covariance matrix. We consider the latent class covariance matrix with the largest determinant to form an "outlier class." By separating the covariance matrix for the outliers from the covariance matricies for the remainder of the data, we avoid the problems of masking and swamping. By further utilizing a multiple imputation approach, we simultaneously 1) conduct inference after removing cases the appear to be outliers; 2) promulgate uncertainty in the outlier status through the model inference; and 3) account for the sample design in the population inference. We also construct the imputation model in a fashion that accounts for the sample design. Multiple Imputation in the Presence of Outliers Michael R. Elliott 1


A real-time coding system with lookahead consists of a memoryless source, a memoryless channel, an encoder, which encodes the source symbols sequentially with knowledge of future source symbols up to a fixed finite lookahead d , with or without feedback of the past channel output symbols and a decoder, which sequentially constructs the source symbols using the channel output. The objective is to minimize the expected per-symbol distortion. For a fixed finite lookahead d ≥ 1, we invoke the theory of controlled Markov chains to obtain an average cost optimality equation (ACOE), the solution of which, denoted by D(d), is the minimum expected per-symbol distortion. With increasing d, D(d) bridges the gap between causal encoding, d=0, where symbol-by-symbol encoding-decoding is optimal and the infinite lookahead case, d=∞, where Shannon Theoretic arguments show that separation is optimal. We extend the analysis to a system with finite-state decoders, with or without noise-free feedback. For a Bernoulli source and binary symmetric channel, under Hamming loss, we compute the optimal distortion for various source and channel parameters, and thus obtain computable bounds on D(d). We also identify regions of source and channel parameters where symbol-by-symbol encoding-decoding is suboptimal. Finally, we demonstrate the wide applicability of our approach by applying it in additional coding scenarios, such as the case where the sequential decoder can take cost-constrained actions affecting the quality or availability of side information about the source.


Purpose: The study sought to look at Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) practices in the Kenyan banking sector and the effect it had on performance. Balance Scorecard was used to measure performance as it considers both financial and non-financial aspects. Design/methodology/approach: The study took the form of a descriptive survey design with a target population of 14 commercial banks operating in Kenya. Primary data was collected from structured questionnaires and secondary data was collected from the banks past financial records. Findings: Thestudy revealed that Connectivity and Help desk support were the most outsourced IT functions in the commercial banks. The study also revealed the two main drivers for ITO were strategic focus and cost reduction. The main challenge the commercial banks faced during the ITO process was lack of a proper cost benefit analysis and loss of control. The study further revealed that ITO has a positive and significant effect on financial performance, learning and growth, customer satisfaction and internal processes. Research limitations/implications: This study uses three financial firm-level performance measures ROA, ROE, NIM. The study also didn't t explore if different types of IT outsourcing categories have different influence on banks' performance. Originality/value: The findings of the study will provide insight for managers in banking industries when confronted with the decision of whether or not to outsource IT services in their banks. The study will also be of importance to researchers and future scholars as it will act as a source of reference besides suggesting areas for further studies that future scholars can research further.


Multinational Corporations (MNCs) based in the United States have been the target of companies and individuals who have infringed on the property rights of these MNCs. This unauthorized use of patents, trademarks, copyrights, logos, brands and in some cases facsimile products has economic and non-economic consequences. This paper examines the present efforts of MNCs and the new provisions in the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) that address the unlawful commercial act of product counterfeiting and infringement on intellectual property rights. INTRODUCTION The attractiveness of international market opportunities has enticed United States based multinational corporations (MNCs) to aggressively expand globally. One of the consequences of this international growth has been the unprecedented counterfeiting of products and infringement on the intellectual property rights of these United States based MNCs (Harvey & Ronkainen, 1985; Harvey 1988; Griffin, 1992). It has been estimated that United States based companies, who pioneer new technologies and have high brand awareness, lose an estimated $61 billion because of patent and copyright infringement (Samuel, 1993). Counterfeiting is a problem that has been recognized as a potential threat to fair competition for over a century in the United States. Recently, more attention has been paid to the intangible dimensions of products/services due to the value ascribed to them by customers. "Intellectual property" is a general term that describes inventions, identifying characteristics, or technological dimensions of a product that differentiate it from other products being sold in the marketplace. Patents, trademarks and copyrights are all intellectual property (Hill, 1985). The improper use of intellectual property is considered to be unfair competition in the United States. Laws have been established to provide protection against such things as replicating trade packaging, using similar corporate or product identification, misappropriating trade secrets, as well as counterfeiting products to be sold as originals. The issue , therefore, becomes what are the rules and regulations relative to intellectual property rights in the international marketplace? This article examines some of the legal dimensions of intellectual property rights in the domestic and global market (see Figure One), including unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral arrangements to highlight potential gaps in protection of intellectual property. The article also explores proactive measures that can be taken by MNCs to reduce their risk of unauthorized use of their intellectual property. REASONS FOR THE RAPID GROWTH OF INTERNATIONAL COUNTERFEITING Product counterfeiting and infringing on intellectual property rights have been increasing since the end of World War II, but the most rapid growth has occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. By better understanding the reasons behind accelerated counterfeiting and infringement of intellectual rights worldwide, one can begin to appreciate the amount and kind of planning needed to combat the problem. The world has recently experienced a communication explosion. Immediate correspondence is commonplace; satellite communication can beam information around the world. As a result, some advertising, once directed at a national market, is now receivedby a global audience. A tremendous amount of product information and publicity reaches the world community; with only a few exceptions, the bulk of it is for highly visible branded products. These promotions, coupled with the prestige associated with products produced in the United States, have resulted in a greater demand for these products. Wide product distribution and intense branding strategies also increase the visibility and desirability of United States' produced goods (Harvey, 1988). This increased demand is fueled by shortages of products in many foreign countries. …


In January 1929, before 20,000 spectators, Norwich City of the Third Division South went down 0-5 in the third round of the FA Cup to an amateur side composed of ex-public school boys who disdained professional tactics in favour of instinct and teamwork. Within a decade, the Corinthians, the club that for forty years had supplied the entire English national side, had all but ceased to exist. The world was changing. By the time of the last 'Gentleman vs. Players' cricket match in 1962 a whole era in English sport had come to an end. But the passing of amateur sportsmen - footballers, cricketers, golfers, tennis players - had implications beyond the playing field. A century ago 'amateur' was a compliment to someone who played a game simply for love of it. A hundred years later it is a byword for cack-handed incompetence. In this brilliant study of the patterns of sporting and cultural life, D J Taylor examines the process that led to professionalism's triumph and the long rearguard action fought by sportsmen - and literature - on amateurism's behalf. "On the Corinthian Spirit" has many heroes - from 'Charlie Bam', the legendary Corinthian defender, who once played a game with a broken leg, to the boys' school story hero Strickland of the Sixth, Old Etonian cricket-lover George Orwell and the 14th Norwich Cub Scout XI of the early 1970s. Drawing on his own experiences of 'amateurism', D J Taylor describes a changing moral universe with profound consequences both for sport and the world beyond it.


It is widely documented that the intake of a micronutrient-dense food can be a challenge in environments where populations do not have sufficient purchasing power, full access to affordable nutritious foods, nutrition knowledge, or access to safe water, healthcare and hygienic living conditions. Micronutrient deficiencies during the critical 1000-day period have negative consequences for the cognitive and physical development of children, as well as longer-lasting effects on productivity and economic potential during adulthood. Accurate data on nutrition and health is largely lacking in many countries, which compromises the targeting of nutrition interventions to those in need. To overcome the problems of targeting the interventions, countries rely on the sketchy data that is available at the national level and lean also on international information systems. One of the efforts to stimulate greater investments and attention from policy- and decision-makers to eliminate micronutrient deficiencies in high-burden countries is the Hidden Hunger Index (HHI) launched in 2013 by Sight and Life, and recently updated to provide net changes from 1995-2011. The HHI and maps capture the magnitude of micronutrient deficiencies in countries and their contribution to the disease burden and social and economic development. These analyses are also critical for informing and tracking the impact of policy and programmatic efforts to reduce micronutrient deficiencies, and to advance the global and national nutrition agenda. Finally, our work highlights the lack of data available to measure and track micronutrient status. There is an urgent need to invest in (micronutrient) nutrition data collection to develop comprehensive information systems.


Most known interactions between herbal extracts and drugs involve the inhibition of drug-metabolizing enzymes, but little is yet known about the possible role of transporters in these interactions. In this study, we have examined the effects of herbal extracts used in dietary supplements on the function of organic anion-transporting polypeptide B (OATP-B; OATP2B1), which is expressed on human intestinal epithelial cells and is considered to be involved in the intestinal absorption of various drugs. Specifically, the effects of 15 herbal extracts on uptake of estrone-3-sulfate, a typical OATP-B substrate, by human embryonic kidney 293 cells stably expressing OATP-B were evaluated. At concentration levels considered likely to be attainable in the human intestine, extracts of bilberry, echinacea, green tea, banaba, grape seed, ginkgo, and soybean potently inhibited estrone-3-sulfate uptake by 75.5, 55.5, 82.1, 61.1, 64.5, 85.4, and 66.8%, respectively (P < 0.01). The inhibitory effect of ginkgo leaf extract was concentration-dependent (IC50 = 11.2 ± 3.3 μg/ml) and reversible. Moreover, flavonol glycosides and catechins significantly inhibited the function of OATP-B, suggesting that the inhibitory effects of the herbal extracts on OATP-B may be primarily attributable to flavonoids. The extracts of mulberry, black cohosh, and Siberian ginseng moderately (but significantly) inhibited estrone-3-sulfate uptake by 39.1, 47.2, and 49.2%, respectively (P < 0.05). Extracts of barley, Job's tears, rutin, rafuma, and passionflower were ineffective. These results suggest that coadministration of some dietary supplements may decrease the absorption of orally administered substrates of OATP-B.


Humans are social animals. They realize their dreams and ambitions in relation to other humans, within a context of symphonic diversity. They feel good or bad, mainly in relation to other people. And by doing it, we – the sensual humans – feel with the others, we feel for the others. I believe that the role of Design is to offer tools and ways to learn to deal in a creative, constructive way, how to be together, how to weave these relationships among people, how to play with and transform towards the resistance and the ambiguity that the environment and the people within this environment create, in their constant dynamism. By leveraging on people's skills, and therefore on their sensitivity, and their urge of transformation, Design can concur in creating and consolidating practices, able to elicit ethical behaviors, building new foundations of social health. Design can elicit health by Making: less noise and more deeds, for a new craftsmanship.


Numerous studies show large differences between economically advantaged and disadvantaged parents in the quality and quantity of their engagement in young children's development. This "parenting gap" may account for a substantial portion of the gap in children's early cognitive skills. However, researchers know little about whether the socioeconomic gap in parenting has increased over time. The present study investigates this question, focusing on income- and education-based gaps in parents' engagement in cognitively stimulating activities with preschool-aged children. We draw on data from four national studies conducted over 25 years. We found a decrease in income-based gaps in children's book ownership and library attendance but increasing income-based gaps for several other parent behaviors, including reading and telling stories to children and teaching children letters, words, and numbers. Income-based gaps in children's participation in out-of-home cultural activities also increased. Results for education-based gaps were similar. These gaps largely arose from top-income families pulling away from their middle- and low-income counterparts.


A supramolecular structure based on N,N′-bis(4-pyridylmethyl)-naphthalene diimide exhibits reversible phase transitions in a single-crystal-to-single-crystal process. Such temperature induced SC–SC transformations are driven by intermolecular π–π interactions and hydrogen bond interaction. Interestingly, the dynamic supramolecular structure shows selective adsorption and fluorescence water sensing.


Several cooperation enforcement schemes based on rewarding mechanisms such as electronic cash or online credits have lately been proposed to prevent selfish behavior in ad-hoc networks. However, these schemes suffer from the lack of fairness guarantees or the reliance on costly mechanisms such as tamper- proof hardware or the requirement for trusted third parties (TTPs) that are not suitable for ad-hoc networks. In this paper, we present a new cooperation-enforcement scheme that is perfectly suitable for ad-hoc delay-tolerant networks. The protocol is based on a simple technique called hot- potato forwarding whereby in order to receive a packet, potential recipients must first deliver an advance reward to the sender prior to the transmission of the packet. Thanks to this technique cooperation among nodes becomes mandatory and poisoning attacks and cheating actions are inherently prevented. The second contribution in our scheme is an optimistic fair exchange protocol that solves the fairness problem that is inherent to peer rewarding schemes. The protocol achieves total fairness with the help of a TTP and is optimistic in that the TTP is only involved in case of conflict between peer nodes. Correct execution of the protocol does not require any access to the TTP, so fairness is achieved without any impact on well-behaving nodes. The fairness of the protocol is validated through the exhaustive analysis of all possible protocol traces.


An industrial softwood kraft lignin was treated by different laccase-mediator systems (LMS) followed by comprehensive structural analysis. Analysis revealed that demethylation was a common reaction for all the LMS combinations investigated. After reaction, methanol was always released into the solutions. A reduction in the methoxyl content of the lignins was observed in the obtained products. The treatment reduced the quantities of different types of phenolic aromatic rings, with G units being the most attacked structures. Decarboxylation was also detected in two of the LMS, namely L1-TEMPO andL2-HBT. The highest demethylation rate came from the L1-ABTS combination and the most severe overall structural modification. Lignin polymerisation was observed for all treatments, with the L1-ABTS combination demonstrating the highest Mp, Ma and Mw values. An increased polydispersity was also observed for all the treatments, with the highest increase in polydispersity found for the L1-ABTS treatment. In addition, lignin depolymerisation took place. It has been concluded that the most efficient demethylation was achieved by N51002-ABTS.


Signalling activities are tightly regulated to control cellular responses. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) at the cell membrane and extracellular matrix regulate ligand availability and interaction with a range of key receptors. SULF1 and SULF2 enzymes modify HSPG sulfation by removing 6-O sulfates to regulate cell signalling but are considered functionally identical. Our in vitro mRNA and protein analyses of two diverse human endothelial cell lines, however, highlight their markedly distinct regulatory roles of maintaining specific HSPG sulfation patterns through feedback regulation of HS 6-O transferase (HS6ST) activities and highly divergent roles in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) cell signalling activities. Unlike Sulf2, Sulf1 over-expression in dermal microvascular HMec1 cells promotes TGFβ and VEGF cell signalling by simultaneously upregulating HS6ST1 activity. In contrast, Sulf1 over-expression in venous ea926 cells has the opposite effect as it attenuates both TGFβ and VEGF signalling while Sulf2 over-expression maintains the control phenotype. Exposure of these cells to VEGF-A, TGFβ1, and their inhibitors further highlights their endothelial cell type-specific responses and integral growth factor interactions to regulate cell signalling and selective feedback regulation of HSPG sulfation that additionally exploits alternative Sulf2 RNA-splicing to regulate net VEGF-A and TGFβ cell signalling activities.


Polycomb Group Proteins (PcG) are a conserved class of transcriptional repressors
in animals and plants, controlling the expression of hundreds of genes. Specifically,
they repress gene expression by histone H3 trimethylation at lysine 27 (H3K27me3)
via the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). In Arabidopsis thaliana CURLY LEAF
(CLF), a PRC2 methyltransferase, is partially redundant with the closely related protein
SWINGER (SWN). The phenotype of clf null mutant plants is less severe than the
phenotype of clf/swn double mutants. Plants that are mutated in swn exhibit no obvious
phenotype. The large degree of sequence conservation of both CLF and SWN
throughout the plant kingdom, suggests that they have distinct and conserved functions
in plant development.
I set out to identify the individual target genes of CLF and SWN and to uncover their
functions. To this end, I used chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing
to create genome-wide H3K27me3 profiles of wild type, clf and swn seedlings.
The three genotypes share many H3K27me3 target regions but they exhibit partially
distinct methylation profiles. In clf null mutants, H3K27me3 is significantly reduced at
643 genes, indicating that at these genes CLF is the major catalytic component of PRC2.
A part of the CLF dependent genes is significantly physically clustered along chromosomes
and surprisingly, 60% of CLF dependent genes contain a conserved AAACCCTA
or telo box which has been previously reported to enhance transcription. Unexpectedly,
reduction of H3K27me3 in clf mutant plants does not correlate frequently
with an increase of gene expression. The swn mutation can either have the same effect,
oppose or contribute to the effect of clf on the expression of these genes. Moreover, in
swn null mutants, H3K27me3 seems to be slightly increased in 294 genes compared to
wild-type. These results suggest that the interplay between CLF and SWN might be
important to establish wild-type-like H3K27me3 and expression levels. Finally, in swn,
expression of some CLF dependent genes changes dramatically, although H3K27me3
is unaffected. This indicates that SWN might have an H3K27me3 independent function.
In short, these results demonstrate that CLF and SWN have partially distinct effects
on the Arabidopsis thaliana H3K27me3 pattern and that their function is linked to the
underlying genetic code. SWN might control expression in a H3K27me3 independent
pathway and the interplay between CLF and SWN is presumably important to maintain
establish wild-type-like H3K27me3 and expression levels.


Approximation formulas are derived for small spherical aerosols (r < λ) by using the series expansion of the exact solution (Mie theory). The first three terms of the series are given for real, complex, and infinite indices of refraction. The new formulas allow for computing the scattering and absorption coefficients for small aerosols more simply and faster than the Mie formulas. The error of our approximation formulas is determined, and it is found that the useful size range is extended by about a factor 2.


The joint-stock banks that established after the liberalizing legislation of 1826 were periodically criticized during the nineteenth century for their low-quality and rapidly deteriorating shareholder constituencies. The quality of a bank's shareholding con stituency was of paramount importance because of unlimited shareholder liability. Using archival records, this article examines the quality of bank shareholder con stituencies over the nineteenth century. The main finding is that shareholder con stituencies did not deteriorate in quality until the introduction of limited liability. The non-deterioration of constituencies is attributed to bank deeds which locked in the aggregate quality of shareholder constituencies by empowering directors to vet all share transfers.


We compare four parametric reflectance models that are well-known in computer graphics: the Phong, Ward, Lafortune, and He-Torrance models. We compare the models with physical measurements on five representative sample surfaces. The surfaces span the domain of isotropic, homogeneous surfaces ranging from smooth to rough and including metal and dielectric surfaces. Since no one model was a clear winner in all cases, we draw conclusions about which of the models are best to represent various surfaces. We explain the differences in terms of the basic scattering phenomena involved. [This report was submitted for publication at the 2004 Eurographics Symposium on Rendering.]


Within interdisciplinary risk research strategies for managing risk and uncertainty based on cognitive rationality are seen as more effective than non-rational strategies, such as hope, belief or avoidance. However this dichotomy between rational and irrational strategies neglects a whole range of everyday approaches to risk that are neither completely rational nor irrational as they may involve the use of prior knowledge and experience. These in between strategies include the use of emotion, trust and intuition to make decisions and they can be seen as complementing and overcoming some of the limitations of instrumental and calculative forms of risk and uncertainty management and therefore in combination they facilitate more effective control over the future. In late modern societies individuals' decision-making has become increasingly important and problematic because the rising complexity and volatility of decisionmaking situations. Individuals have to make important or 'fateful' decisions in an almost reflex-like manner, without enough time or knowledge available. Such decision-making requires increased trust, for example in the experts with appropriate knowledge and skills. The important aspect of trust is less its implicit or unconscious aspect but the underlying experience based knowledge. Similar to intuition trust refers to tacit knowledge and pre-conscious awareness of reality. Intuition seems close to the kind of embodied (or even innate) knowledge high risk takers use. Trust and intuition both involve feelings and emotion. Positive affect is associated with trust while intuition can be expressed in emotional terms, e.g. when individuals use the sense that 'it feels right to me' as a basis for action. While experts may prescribe cognitiverational strategies as the most effective response to risk, if they do not acknowledge and recognise the importance and capacity of non-rational and in-between approaches then it is likely that individuals will disregard expert advice or absorb and transform it within their own experiences about and responses to risk. The potential benefits of strategies combining different elements and approaches will be lost.


What drives low pay in Europe? Who and what sectors are affected? Which workers work very long or very short hours and miss out on training opportunities? In this study, produced by the University of Amsterdam/AIAS, these are some of the questions posed for thirteen industries in nine EU member states. The study ranks the industries according to problems on working time, pay, training, bargaining coverage, and stress and discusses how these problems affect different groups of workers including men and women, younger and older workers and workers with higher and lower levels of education.


We hear how firms have to become lean, eliminate non-value added activities and strive to maximise asset utilisation, but there are inevitably firms with excess capacity that need relevant information to manage the cost of the under utilisation of resources. In this paper we question whether cost system designers have been taking appropriate account of the capacity issue, and ask whether the costing systems employed are sufficiently adaptable for fluctuating levels of capacity utilisation. We note that the capacity issue has received diminishing attention in the literature since the 1960s, and identify the dangers of not identifying the cost of spare capacity. We demonstrate how improper cost system design or usage can draw the firm into the death spiral. This danger not only exists when moving into a recession but also when recovering and resuming growth. We describe two cases that demonstrate potential pitfalls and alternative approaches to the capacity issue. The manufacturing case is an SME with a traditional costing system that was hindering management's pricing and product mix decisions. Fortunately the death spiral was avoided as it was recognised that significant spare capacity was distorting costs and prices when the firm continued to base overhead absorption on budgeted production volumes. The service case relates to a large financial services company that implemented a complex activity based costing system and gained a much greater understanding of resource consumption and capacity utilisation, and hence established more effective cost control in their back office operations.


This section summarizes trainee evaluations for the Safety Training Section course, Supervisors' Orientation to Occupational Safety in DOE,'' (S-101) which was conducted August 5 to 8, 1991 at Hanford, in Richland, Washington. This report summarizes the quantitative course evaluations that trainees provided upon completion of the course. Appendix A provides a transcript of the trainees' written comments. Numeric course ratings were generally positive and show that the course material and instruction were very effective. Written comments supported the positive numeric ratings. The course content and knowledge gained by the trainees exceeded most of the students' expectations of the course. Results from the final examination showed that students gained significant knowledge from the course.


We formulate and study computationally the fluctuating compressible Navier-Stokes equations for reactive multi-species fluid mixtures. We contrast two different expressions for the covariance of the stochastic chemical production rate in the Langevin formulation of stochastic chemistry, and compare both of them to predictions of the chemical master equation for homogeneous well-mixed systems close to and far from thermodynamic equilibrium. We develop a numerical scheme for inhomogeneous reactive flows, based on our previous methods for non-reactive mixtures [Balakrishnan , Phys. Rev. E 89, 013017 (2014)]. We study the suppression of non-equilibrium long-ranged correlations of concentration fluctuations by chemical reactions, as well as the enhancement of pattern formation by spontaneous fluctuations. Good agreement with available theory demonstrates that the formulation is robust and a useful tool in the study of fluctuations in reactive multi-species fluids. At the same time, several problems with Langevin formulations of stochastic chemistry are identified, suggesting that future work should examine combining Langevin and master equation descriptions of hydrodynamic and chemical fluctuations.


Employing representative data from the U.S. Survey of Consumer Payment Choice, we disprove the hypothesis that cryptocurrency investors are motivated by distrust in fiat currencies or regulated finance. Compared with the general population, investors show no differences in their level of security concerns with either cash or commercial banking services. We find that cryptocurrency investors tend to be educated, young and digital natives. In recent years, a gap in ownership of cryptocurrencies across genders has emerged. We examine how investor characteristics vary across cryptocurrencies and show that owners of cryptocurrencies increasingly tend to hold their investment for longer periods.


Abstract Many tropical forest tree species have broad geographic ranges, and fossil records indicate that population disjunctions in some species were established millions of years ago. Here we relate biogeographic history to patterns of population differentiation, mutational and demographic processes in the widespread rainforest tree Symphonia globulifera using ribosomal (ITS) and chloroplast DNA sequences and nuclear microsatellite (nSSR) loci. Fossil records document sweepstakes dispersal origins of Neotropical S. globulifera populations from Africa during the Miocene. Despite historical long-distance gene flow, nSSR differentiation across 13 populations from Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador (east and west of Andes) and French Guiana was pronounced (FST = 0.14, RST = 0.39, P < 0.001) and allele-size mutations contributed significantly (RST > FST) to the divergences between cis- and trans-Andean populations. Both DNA sequence and nSSR data reflect contrasting demographic histories in lower Mesoamerica and Amazonia. Amazon populations show weak phylogeographic structure and deviation from drift–mutation equilibrium indicating recent population expansion. In Mesoamerica, genetic drift was strong and contributed to marked differentiation among populations. The genetic structure of S. globulifera contains fingerprints of drift-dispersal processes and phylogeographic footprints of geological uplifts and sweepstakes dispersal.


The Siberian Altai mountains have been intermittently occupied by both Neandertals and Denisovans, two extinct hominin groups1,2. While they diverged at least 390,000 years ago3,4, later contacts lead to gene flow from Neandertals into Denisovans5,6. Using a new population genetic method that is capable of inferring signatures of admixture from highly degraded genetic data, I show that this gene flow was much more widespread than previously thought. While the two earliest Denisovans both have substantial and recent Neandertal ancestry, I find signatures of admixture in all archaic genomes from the Altai, demonstrating that gene flow also occurred from Denisovans into Neandertals. This suggests that a contact zone between Neandertals and Denisovan populations persisted in the Altai region throughout much of the Middle Paleolithic. In contrast, Western Eurasian Neandertals have little to no Denisovan ancestry. As I find no evidence of natural selection against gene flow, this suggests that neutral demographic processes and geographic isolation were likely major drivers of human differentiation.


When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine, and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking. The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar's Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times.


Background and Aims Root architecture development determines the sites in soil where roots provide input of carbon and take up water and solutes. However, root architecture is difficult to determine experimentally when grown in opaque soil. Thus, root architectural models have been widely used and been further developed into functional-structural models that simulate the fate of water and solutes in the soil-root system. We present a root architectural model, CRootBox, as a flexible framework to model architecture and its interactions with static and dynamic soil environments. Methods CRootBox is a C++ -based root architecture model with Python binding, so that CRootBox can be included via a shared library into any Python code. Output formats include VTP, DGF, RSML and CSV. We further created a database of published root architectural parameters. The capabilities of CRootBox for the unconfined growth of single root systems, as well as the different parameter sets, are highlighted into a freely available web application. Key results We demonstrate the use of CRootBox for 5 different cases (1) free growth of individual root systems (2) growth of root systems in containers as a way to mimic experimental setups, (3), field scale simulation, (4) root growth as affected by heterogeneous, static soil conditions, and (5) coupling CRootBox with Soil Physics with Python code to dynamically compute water flow in soil, root water uptake, and water flow inside roots. Conclusions In conclusion, we present a fast and flexible functional-structural root model which is based on state-of-the-art computational science methods. Its aim is to facilitate modelling of root responses to environmental conditions as well as the impact of root on soil. In the future, we plan to extend this approach to the aboveground part of the plant.


PS is widely produced in the modern world, but it is robust against biodegradation. A few studies reported the biodegradation of PS, but most of them merely observed its weight loss; fewer were able to find its chemical modifications, which are rather direct evidence of biodegradation, by using limited organisms. Therefore, it is required to find an effective way to decompose PS using various kinds of organisms. Herein, we discovered a new PS-degrading insect species and bacterial strain, and we found that the genus that includes the PS-degrading bacterial strain occurs in significant amounts in the larval gut flora, and the proportion of this genus increased as the larvae were fed Styrofoam. Our research offers a wider selection of PS-degrading insects and the possibility of using a certain mixture of bacteria that resemble the gut flora of a PS-degrading insect to biodegrade PS, and thus could contribute to solving the global plastic crisis. ABSTRACT Polystyrene (PS), which accounts for a significant fraction of plastic wastes, is difficult to biodegrade due to its unique molecular structure. Therefore, biodegradation and chemical modification of PS are limited. In this study, we report PS biodegradation by the larvae of the darkling beetle Plesiophthalmus davidis (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). In 14 days, P. davidis ingested 34.27 ± 4.04 mg of Styrofoam (PS foam) per larva and survived by feeding only on Styrofoam. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed that the ingested Styrofoam was oxidized. Gel permeation chromatography analysis indicated the decrease in average molecular weight of the residual PS in the frass compared with the feed Styrofoam. When the extracted gut flora was cultured for 20 days with PS films, biofilm and cavities were observed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies revealed that C-O bonding was introduced into the biodegraded PS film. Serratia sp. strain WSW (KCTC 82146), which was isolated from the gut flora, also formed a biofilm and cavities on the PS film in 20 days, but its degradation was less prominent than the gut flora. XPS confirmed that C-O and C=O bonds were introduced into the biodegraded PS film by Serratia sp. WSW. Microbial community analysis revealed that Serratia was in the gut flora in significant amounts and increased sixfold when the larvae were fed Styrofoam for 2 weeks. This suggests that P. davidis larvae and its gut bacteria could be used to chemically modify and rapidly degrade PS. IMPORTANCE PS is widely produced in the modern world, but it is robust against biodegradation. A few studies reported the biodegradation of PS, but most of them merely observed its weight loss; fewer were able to find its chemical modifications, which are rather direct evidence of biodegradation, by using limited organisms. Therefore, it is required to find an effective way to decompose PS using various kinds of organisms. Herein, we discovered a new PS-degrading insect species and bacterial strain, and we found that the genus that includes the PS-degrading bacterial strain occurs in significant amounts in the larval gut flora, and the proportion of this genus increased as the larvae were fed Styrofoam. Our research offers a wider selection of PS-degrading insects and the possibility of using a certain mixture of bacteria that resemble the gut flora of a PS-degrading insect to biodegrade PS, and thus could contribute to solving the global plastic crisis.


We tested the main and interactive effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), nitrogen (N), and light availability on leaf photosynthesis, and plant growth and survival in understory seedlings grown in an N‐limited northern hardwood forest. For two growing seasons, we exposed six species of tree seedlings (Betula papyrifera, Populus tremuloides, Acer saccharum, Fagus grandifolia, Pinus strobus, and Prunus serotina) to a factorial combination of atmospheric CO2 (ambient, and elevated CO2 at 658 μmol CO2 mol−1) and N deposition (ambient and ambient +30 kg N ha−1 yr−1) in open‐top chambers placed in an understory light gradient. Elevated CO2 exposure significantly increased apparent quantum efficiency of electron transport by 41% (P<0.0001), light‐limited photosynthesis by 47% (P<0.0001), and light‐saturated photosynthesis by 60% (P<0.003) compared with seedlings grown in ambient [CO2]. Experimental N deposition significantly increased light‐limited photosynthesis as light availability increased (P<0.037). Species differed in the magnitude of light‐saturated photosynthetic response to elevated N and light treatments (P<0.016). Elevated CO2 exposure and high N availability did not affect seedling growth; however, growth increased slightly with light availability (R2=0.26, P<0.0001). Experimental N deposition significantly increased average survival of all species by 48% (P<0.012). However, seedling survival was greatest (85%) under conditions of both high [CO2] and N deposition (P<0.009). Path analysis determined that the greatest predictor for seedling survival in the understory was total biomass (R2=0.39, P<0.001), and that carboxylation capacity (Vcmax) was a better predictor for seedling growth and survival than maximum photosynthetic rate (Amax). Our results suggest that increasing [CO2] and N deposition from fossil fuel combustion could alter understory tree species recruitment dynamics through changes in seedling survival, and this has the potential to alter future forest species composition.


The microbial communities thriving at the root-soil interface have the potential to improve plant growth and sustainable crop production. Yet, how agricultural practices, such as the application of either mineral or organic nitrogen fertilisers, impact on the composition and functions of these communities remains to be fully elucidated. By deploying a two-pronged 16S rRNA gene sequencing and predictive metagenomics approach we demonstrated that the bacterial microbiota of field-grown tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants is the product of a selective process that progressively differentiates between rhizosphere and root microhabitats. This process initiates as early as plants are in a nursery stage and it is then more marked at late developmental stages, in particular at harvest. This selection acts on both the bacterial relative abundances and phylogenetic assignments, with a bias for the enrichment of members of the phylum Actinobacteria in the root compartment. Digestate-based and mineral-based nitrogen fertilisers trigger a distinct bacterial enrichment in both rhizosphere and root microhabitats. This compositional diversification mirrors a predicted functional diversification of the root-inhabiting communities, manifested predominantly by the differential enrichment of genes associated to ABC transporters and the two-component system. Together, our data suggest that the microbiota thriving at the tomato root-soil interface is modulated by and in responses to the type of nitrogen fertiliser applied to the field.


ABSTRACT This article compares the financing of political parties and candidates in two Southeast Asian countries. In Malaysia, some political finance regulations exist only on paper, and political financing is for the most part not restrained at all. In contrast, the financing of candidates and parties has always been tightly circumscribed in Singapore. These different strategies, "laissez-faire" versus "strict control," are the consequence of various factors. In Malaysia, the New Economic Policy has effected a close, often economically unproductive linkage between the state, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, and business. The rise of businesspeople has resulted in the commercialization of competition within (the United Malays National Organisation. Additionally, increasing competition between the ruling coalition and the opposition has resulted in growing expenditures for electioneering in the form of advertisements and electoral patronage. The laissez-faire style of regulation has been compounded by the difficult-to-control practices in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), where vote buying, electoral patronage based on the largesse of oligarchs, and obvious nonobservance of the rules have been typical. In contrast to Malaysia as a whole, the costs for parties and candidates are still relatively low in Singapore. As a cadre party, the PAP (People's Action Party) is relatively autonomous from private business interests, and intraparty competition is not commercialized; the developmentalist state is highly productive, and the ties between the state, the PAP, and business are not characterized by cronyism. Moreover, electioneering is not very commercialized because the opposition is still relatively weak.


In this article the decentralization process and decentralization method are reviewed. Decentralization is the process of redistributing or dispersing functions, powers, people or things away from a central location or authority. While centralization, especially in the governmental sphere, is widely studied and practiced, there is no common definition or understanding of decentralization. The meaning of decentralization may vary in part because of the different ways in which it is applied. In this article the concepts of decentralization are researched. Decentralization in any area is a response to the problems of centralized systems. Decentralization in government, the topic most studied, has been viewed as a solution to problems such as economic decline, government inability to fund services and the general decline in performance of overloaded services, the demands of minorities for a greater say in local governance, the general weakening legitimacy of the public sector, and global and international pressure on countries with inefficient, undemocratic, overly centralized systems. The authors also research the issues of personal federalism and the subsidiarity principle.


This research demonstrates a solution for the DICE 2007 integrated assessment model in the continuous domain through the use of a Runge-Kutta sampling technique for solving differential transcendental equations. The use of a savings ratio helper constraint was not required. It is shown that the introduction of a savings ratio constraint leads to a 12% underestimation of maximum atmospheric temperature rise. In addition, evidence of a savings ratio within economic data was unable to be confirmed using the equivalent proxy of an investment ratio and model selection techniques for mixed Gaussian probabilistic graphical models. However, evidence of a dilute intertemporal relationship between investment and an increase in production was detected. The results of this research support the use of Runge-Kutta sampling differential transcendental solvers with Chebyshev function outputs for continuous solutions in integrated assessment models without the requirement for helper constraints.


One consequence of demographic change is a longer average remaining lifetime after retirement. Many people, however, remain able and willing to continue work after reaching the statutory retirement age. Given the predicted shortage of skilled workers in the future, post-retirement activities have the potential to con- tribute to both organisations and society. This article elaborates the prerequisites for productivity in retirement age and the changed nature of retirement at present. It also quantifi es the extent to which activities are continued at retirement age. Paid employment still occurs beyond the applicable retirement age, whereby with in- creasing age, self-employed persons and assistant family members make up the lion's share of the statistics. An empirical study shows the concrete situation of ac- tive retirees and the prerequisites for post-retirement activities. At the explorative level, individual experiences of the transition into retirement, the reasons for and the framework of post-retirement activities, motivational factors in job design, and physical and intellectual demands before and after retirement are characterised. The qualitative data indicate that retirement entails changes towards more fl exible structures in everyday life. Decisive reasons for taking up post-retirement activities are the desire to help, pass on knowledge or remain active; personal development and contact with others; and gaining appreciation and recognition. Flexible job de- sign and freedom to make decisions constitute major elements in shaping post- retirement working activities. Offering autonomy, skill variety, and task signifi cance is important for the design of post-retirement activities. The paper closes with iden- tifying relevant research fi elds and the concrete need to take action at individual, organisational, and societal levels. All in all, the transition from working life to retire- ment should be made fl exible enough to do greater justice to the realities of life.


Purpose

Understanding risk is more than just modeling risk; it requires an understanding of the development and social processes that underlie and drive the generation of disaster risk. Here, in addition to a review of more technical factors, this paper aims to discuss a variety of institutional, social and political considerations that must be managed for the results of a risk assessment to influence actions that lead to reductions in natural hazard risk.

Design/methodology/approach

The technical approaches and the institutional, social and political considerations covered in this paper are based on a wide range of experiences gleaned from case studies that touch on a variety of activities related to assessing the risks and impacts of natural hazards, and from the activities of the World Bank's Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.

Findings

Risk information provides a critical foundation for managing disaster risk across a wide range of sectors. Appropriate communication of robust risk information at the right time can raise awareness and trigger action to reduce risk. Communicating this information in a way that triggers action requires an understanding of the developments and social processes that underlie and drive the generation of risk, as well as of the wider Disaster Risk Management (DRM) decision-making context.

Practical implications

Prior to the initiation of a quantitative risk assessment one should clearly define why an assessment is needed and wanted, the information gaps that currently prevent effective DRM actions and the end-users of the risk information. This requires developing trust through communication among the scientists and engineers performing the risk assessment and the decision-makers, authorities, communities and other intended users of the information developed through the assessment.

Originality/value

This paper summarizes the technical components of a risk assessment as well as the institutional, social and political considerations that should be considered to maximize the probability of successfully reducing the risk defined by a risk assessment.


The main aims of this research were to evaluate the use and efficacy of analgesics in the management of chronic pain in the community and to investigate the role of the pharmacist in optimising health outcomes relating to chronic pain by assessing the effect of pharmacist intervention on pain control and activities of life. Cluster samples of patients with chronic non-malignant pain living at home were identified from 3 medical practices in 2 Scottish Health Board areas, using diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and repeat prescription of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other analgesics as selection criteria. Structured interviews determined patients' use of prescription and non-prescription therapies for pain relief, attitude to medication and perceived side effects. Outcomes measured were pain relief, influence of pain on activities using a quality of life (QOL) scale and side effects experienced. Pain relief was assessed using the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and horizontal visual analogue scales (VAS). Poor outcomes were defined as at least one of the following: poor pain control (VAS average pain greater than 75), total QOL score greater than 35, signs or symptoms of an adverse drug reaction, deliberate therapy change by patient due to lack of awareness of rationale of therapy or patient dissatisfaction. Patients with poor outcomes were given information or advice, referred to their GP and interviewed after 4 to 6 weeks to determine any changes in outcomes. A total of 109 patients were identified of whom 96 agreed to participate; 42 had RA, 22 had osteoarthritis (OA), 25 had both OA and RA and 7 had low back pain. Seventy-one patients were prescribed NSAIDs, 15 disease-modifiying agents (DMARDs) , 49 combination analgesics and 27 paracetamol. The majority of OA patients prescribed NSAIDs had no inflammation. Use of other therapies for pain e.g. anticonvulsants, hypnotics and herbal products was significantly higher in RA patients. Documentation of biochemical and haematological parameters in GP records was very limited. Twenty-eight patients had poor outcomes requiring GP referral, but also had significantly higher expectations of pain relief, higher pain and QOL scores compared to the 68 patients with satisfactory outcomes. Suggestions for changing therapy in 24 of the 28 patients were discussed with the GP, the other 4 requiring surgery. Although the pharmacist's recommendations were accepted and acted on in 22 of the 24 patients, 7 were unwilling and 3 were too ill to be re-interviewed during the study period. The pharmacist's recommendations were implemented in 12 of the 14 patients who had a follow-up interview. Pain scores and QOL scores improved in 9 and 8 patients respectively after pharmacist intervention. Twenty-four and 38 patients respectively with satisfactory outcomes required advice to improve concordance and to minimise the risk of side effects. Sixty-four patients reported side effects, 5 of whom required GP referral. Although there was a need for referral advice and information, the small number of patients followed up did not allow estimation of the outcome measures' sensitivity to pharmacist intervention, thus the second aim was not fully achieved. Potential pharmacist role(s) within a primary care chronic pain team were identified using questionnaires sent to a random selection of GPs, community pharmacists and physiotherapists. Most pharmacists wanted to provide more analgesic advice, a finding supported by most GPs and physiotherapists. This study has demonstrated both a need for pharmacist input into chronic pain management and evidence that such input would be welcomed.


The value of integrated data relies upon common data points having an accessible, consistent interpretation; to achieve this at scale requires appropriate informatics support. This paper explains how a model-driven approach to software engineering and data management, in which software artefacts are generated automatically from data models, and models are used as metadata, can achieve this. It introduces a simple data modelling language, consistent with standard object modelling notations, together with a set of tools for model creation,maintenance, and deployment. It reports upon the application of this approach in the provision of informatics support for two large-scale clinical research initiatives.


The articles presented in this special edition of Image & Text may be likened to a fugue of contrapuntal voices expressed in textual modes and threaded around Jacques Derrida's (2009 [1978]) theoretical maxim of "pointure". The notion of "pointure" arises from Derrida's essay, "Restitutions de la verite en pointure" ("Restitutions of the truth in pointing") in which he explores the discursive theme of the "inside" and "outside" of a text. Derrida (2009:301) uses the metaphor of "pointure" as it pertains to the registration hole made by the small iron blade used in printmaking to fix the page to be printed onto the tympan, and the opening and connecting (threading) function of the stitch present in shoemaking and glovemaking (Derrida cited in Payne 1993:228). The etymology of the term "fugue" can be traced to the Latin word "fuga" ("to chase"), indicated in the fugue musical form of one voice "chasing" another (Amati-Camperi 2009). If one were to consider the fugue as a polyphonic vocal form of expression in which voices "chase one another" through contrapuntal disambiguation (Smith 1996), its pointured equivalent might be the needlepoint (embroidered) tapestry, in which two-dimensional form is rendered through contrapuntal-type stitching and interweaving of coloured threads. Derived from the Latin "punctus contra punctum" (Smith 1996), meaning "point against point", the term "contrapuntal" would, in the case of the tapestry and fugue, refer to the interrelationship between the voices or stitches. While each individual voice or stitch is independent of the others, when combined, they become interdependent, reading with and against one another to form a polyphonic synthesis. Extending the similes of the fugue and tapestry to this collection of articles, this themed edition could be seen as representing a range of autonomous, yet (inter)textual voices (thoughts) that "pierce", "puncture", and "penetrate" the concept of "pointure", and are "stitched together", "threaded through", "cast onto", "spun around", "interlaced with", and "woven into" pointure as a central thematic.


Phylogenetic studies based on molecular and morphological data pointed out that Caesalpinia L. s.l. is polyphyletic and the genus has been split in ten genera. In order to adjust the taxonomy of Brazilian taxa formerly classified in Caesalpinia , six new combinations are proposed here: Libidibia ferrea var. leiostachya (Benth.) L.P.Queiroz, Poincianella marginata (Tul.) L.P.Queiroz, P. pluviosa var. cabraliana (G.P.Lewis) L.P.Queiroz, P. pluviosa var. paraensis (Ducke) L.P.Queiroz, P. pluviosa var. peltophoroides (Benth.) L.P.Queiroz, and P. pyramidalis var. diversifolia (Benth.) L.P.Queiroz.


The online coupling of size-exclusion chromatography and NMR is used to characterize block copolymers consisting of polyisoprene (PI) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) regarding their distributions of molar mass (MMD) and chemical composition (CCD). Using the CCD, and are calculated on the basis of PI and PMMA homopolymer calibrations. The microstructure distribution of PMMA and the distribution of isomeric units of PI in dependence of molar mass is also demonstrated. Furthermore, a simulation analysis is presented for a bimodal eluting sample. It allows for full separation, quantification and molar mass determination of the coeluting co- and homopolymer fractions. The quantification of the fractions is verified by liquid chromatography at critical conditions.


Abstract. The Amazon basin is a vast continental area in which atmospheric composition is relatively unaffected by anthropogenic aerosol particles. Understanding the properties of the natural biogenic aerosol particles over the Amazon rainforest is key to understanding their influence on regional and global climate. While there have been a number of studies during the wet season, and of biomass burning particles in the dry season, there has been relatively little work on the transition period – the start of the dry season in the absence of biomass burning. As part of the Brazil–UK Network for Investigation of Amazonian Atmospheric Composition and Impacts on Climate (BUNIAACIC) project, aerosol measurements, focussing on unpolluted biogenic air masses, were conducted at a remote rainforest site in the central Amazon during the transition from wet to dry season in July 2013. This period marks the start of the dry season but before significant biomass burning occurs in the region. Median particle number concentrations were 266 cm−3, with size distributions dominated by an accumulation mode of 130–150 nm. During periods of low particle counts, a smaller Aitken mode could also be seen around 80 nm. While the concentrations were similar in magnitude to those seen during the wet season, the size distributions suggest an enhancement in the accumulation mode compared to the wet season, but not yet to the extent seen later in the dry season, when significant biomass burning takes place. Submicron nonrefractory aerosol composition, as measured by an aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM), was dominated by organic material (around 81 %). Aerosol hygroscopicity was probed using measurements from a hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyser (HTDMA), and a quasi-monodisperse cloud condensation nuclei counter (CCNc). The hygroscopicity parameter, κ, was found to be low, ranging from 0.12 for Aitken-mode particles to 0.18 for accumulation-mode particles. This was consistent with previous studies in the region, but lower than similar measurements conducted in Borneo, where κ ranged 0.17–0.37. A wide issue bioaerosol sensor (WIBS-3M) was deployed at ground level to probe the coarse mode, detecting primary biological aerosol by fluorescence (fluorescent biological aerosol particles, or FBAPs). The mean FBAP number concentration was 400 ± 242 L−1; however, this ranged from around 200 L−1 during the day to as much as 1200 L−1 at night. FBAPs dominated the coarse-mode particles, comprising between 55 and 75 % of particles during the day to more than 90 % at night. Non-FBAPs did not show a strong diurnal pattern. Comparison with previous FBAP measurements above canopy at the same location suggests there is a strong vertical gradient in FBAP concentrations through the canopy. Cluster analysis of the data suggests that FBAPs were dominated (around 70 %) by fungal spores. Further, long-term measurements will be required in order to fully examine the seasonal variability and distribution of primary biological aerosol particles through the canopy. This is the first time that such a suite of measurements has been deployed at this site to investigate the chemical composition and properties of the biogenic contributions to Amazonian aerosol during the transition period from the wet to the dry season, and thus provides a unique comparison to the aerosol properties observed during the wet season in previous similar campaigns. This was also the first deployment of a WIBS in the Amazon rainforest to study coarse-mode particles, particularly primary biological aerosol particles, which are likely to play an important role as ice nuclei in the region.


Extract of Tinospora cordifolia has been shown to inhibit the lipid peroxidation and superoxide and hydroxyl radicals in vitro. Concentration needed for 50% inhibition was 6 mg and 12.5 mg/ml, respectively. The extract was also found to reduce the toxic side effects of cyclophosphamide administration (25 mg/kg b.wt, 10 days) in mice hematological system by the free radical formation as seen from total white blood cell count, bone marrow cellularity and alpha-esterase positive cells. Moreover, administration of the extract partially reduced the elevated lipid peroxides in serum and liver as well as alkaline phosphatase and glutamine pyruvate transaminase. This indicates the use of Tinospora extract in reducing the chemotoxicity induced by free radical forming chemicals.


I can't escape it. I can't forget it. And I can't begin again. Bill Maitland, a middle aged lawyer, struggles to avoid the harsh truths of his life. As those closest to him draw away, he puts himself on trial to fight for his sanity. John Osborne's poignant, witty and compelling portrait of loss, betrayal and defeat releases the author's characteristic display of soaring rhetorical venom to powerful effect. First performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1964, Inadmissible Evidence received a major revival at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in October 2011. "This is a work of stunning and intemperate power, a great bellow of rage and pain...there is a self-lacerating honesty about his writing that few other playwrights have come close to matching." (Daily Telegraph).


A hurricane initiation mechanism, believed to
be new, is proposed for the eastern tropical North Atlantic Ocean. It starts
with an outbreak of warm dry air from the Sahara Desert moving out over a
fairly large region of ocean just west of the big bulge of Africa. Critical to
the hypothesis is the experimental fact that heat diffuses significantly slower
in air than water vapor does. In summer and early fall the desert air of the
outbreak is warmer than the ocean surface it first encounters. Thus this air
layer is cooled from below, which is initially stabilizing. However, water
vapor diffuses up into the dry air faster than the air's heat diffuses down to
the sea surface, all over the generating region simultaneously. Consequently, a
horizontally large layer of air somewhat above the sea surface becomes buoyant
(less dense) and rises up as a unit, and the pressure of this layer decreases
by the perfect gas law. Then the water vapor in the ascending air condenses
around dust particles brought in from the desert, releasing heat and producing
an additional upward acceleration of the already ascending air. Atmospheric
pressure lowers further in accordance with Bernoulli's law: where the
(vertical) speed is greatest, the pressure is least. Measurements are suggested
to validate the hypothesis if they do not already exist.


Nitrosation of guanine in DNA by nitrogen oxides such as nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous acid leads to formation of xanthine (Xan) and oxanine (Oxa), potentially cytotoxic and mutagenic lesions. In the present study, we have examined the repair capacity of DNA N-glycosylases from Escherichia coli for Xan and Oxa. The nicking assay with the defined substrates containing Xan and Oxa revealed that AlkA [in combination with endonuclease (Endo) IV] and Endo VIII recognized Xan in the tested enzymes. The activity (V(max)/K(m)) of AlkA for Xan was 5-fold lower than that for 7-methylguanine, and that of Endo VIII was 50-fold lower than that for thymine glycol. The activity of AlkA and Endo VIII for Xan was further substantiated by the release of [(3)H]Xan from the substrate. The treatment of E.coli with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine increased the Xan-excising activity in the cell extract from alkA(+) but not alkA(-) strains. The alkA and nei (the Endo VIII gene) double mutant, but not the single mutants, exhibited increased sensitivity to nitrous acid relative to the wild type strain. AlkA and Endo VIII also exhibited excision activity for Oxa, but the activity was much lower than that for Xan.