Introduction: Improved clinical genetic testing platforms for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) have increased detection of pathogenic lesions and of variants of unknown significance (VUS). We assessed the association of mutation type and number with severity and outcomes in pediatric HCM. Methods: All pediatric patients at our institution who were mutation-positive for HCM genes on clinical panel or mutation-specific testing between 2000-14 were included. Patients with pathogenic variants or VUS were further analyzed. Primary outcomes included freedom from major adverse cardiac events (MACE), and severity of LV hypertrophy (LVH) during follow-up. Severe LVH was defined as a septal thickness z-score > +5. Freedom from events between different genotype groups was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method and Log-Rank test using STATA v12 (STATACorp, TX). Results: Pathogenic variants or VUS were identified in 79 patients; 50 were male, 62 were familial and 41 were phenotype-negative at presentation. Mutation frequency was highest in MYBPC3 (n=42), and MYH7 (n=30), with 7 patients harboring mutations in other known HCM genes. Thirty four MACE occurred in 27 patients (9 myectomies, 20 ICDs, 3 cardiac arrests, 1 transplant, 1 death). Patients carrying mutations in MYH7 had lower freedom from MACE (HR = 2.42, p= 0.028, fig. 1) and earlier onset of severe LV hypertrophy (HR = 2.11, p=0.025). Ten patients harbored >1 lesion in one or more HCM genes (3 Pathogenic, 7 VUS). Patients with compound mutations had lower freedom from MACE compared to those with a single mutation (HR 2.54, p=0.034), which was due to lower freedom from ICD insertion (HR 4.34, p=0.001). Conclusions: Mutations in MYH7 and occurrence of multiple mutations in one/more HCM genes was associated with higher risk of severe septal hypertrophy and MACE during follow-up in pediatric HCM patients. This suggests that secondary mutations or VUS in HCM genes may inform prognosis even in those with a known pathogenic mutation.


Abstract The blowdown of feedwater (FW) line breaks (FWLBs) has been successfully analyzed by using the Appendix K version of RELAP5-3D. To adequately simulate a feedwater blowdown event, one must consider the main steam system, the turbine system, the moisture separator reheaters (MSRs), the main condenser, and the condensate and FW system as all are involved in the modeling scope. The essential components of the simulation scope include the steam header, the high- and low-pressure turbines, the MSR, the FW pump (FWP) turbines, the main condenser, the condensate and booster pumps, the FW heaters of six stages, the steam extraction of seven stages, and the turbine-driven FWPs. All of the components are connected by associated piping as designed. Regarding the FW blowdown analysis, blowdown mass and energy are the two most important parameters to be calculated. Several essential phenomena are involved in this FW blowdown event, which include critical flow at the break and the internal venturi, flashing of FW near the break, runout and coastdown of the FWPs, steam extraction to FW heaters and FWP turbines, flashing of saturated water initially stored inside the FW heater shell sides and MSR drain tanks, energy release from saturated water and system metal, and cold water transportation from the main condenser to the break. All the essential processes involved during FWLB can be well simulated by the advanced Appendix K version of RELAP5-3D. The blowdown analysis calculated by RELAP5-3D/K for the FWLB was contracted to provide a solid basis for the final safety analysis report containment design analysis for the Lungmen advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) plant. The successful application of RELAP5 for the entire balance-of-plant simulation and associated FW blowdown analysis indicates that the advanced RELAP5 can extend its traditional reactor safety analysis to the entire power conversion system simulation and analysis.


Abstract If arid sagebrush ecosystems lack resilience to disturbances or resistance to annual invasives, then alternative successional states dominated by annual invasives, especially cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), are likely after fuel treatments. We identified six Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young) locations (152–381 mm precipitation) that we believed had sufficient resilience and resistance for recovery. We examined impacts of woody fuel reduction (fire, mowing, the herbicide tebuthiuron, and untreated controls, all with and without the herbicide imazapic) on short-term dominance of plant groups and on important land health parameters with the use of analysis of variance (ANOVA). Fire and mowing reduced woody biomass at least 85% for 3 yr, but herbaceous fuels were reduced only by fire (72%) and only in the first year. Herbaceous fuels produced at least 36% more biomass with mowing than untreated areas during posttreatment years. Imazapic only reduced herbaceous biomass after fires (34%). Tebuthiuron never affected herbaceous biomass. Perennial tall grass cover was reduced by 59% relative to untreated controls in the first year after fire, but it recovered by the second year. Cover of all remaining herbaceous groups was not changed by woody fuel treatments. Only imazapic reduced significantly herbaceous cover. Cheatgrass cover was reduced at least 63% with imazapic for 3 yr. Imazapic reduced annual forb cover by at least 45%, and unexpectedly, perennial grass cover by 49% (combination of tall grasses and Sandberg bluegrass [Poa secunda J. Presl.]). Fire reduced density of Sandberg bluegrass between 40% and 58%, decreased lichen and moss cover between 69% and 80%, and consequently increased bare ground between 21% and 34% and proportion of gaps among perennial plants > 2 m (at least 28% during the 3 yr). Fire, mowing, and imazapic may be effective in reducing fuels for 3 yr, but each has potentially undesirable consequences on plant communities.


Abstract The epidemiology of infection by Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax was investigated among Javanese migrants to an endemic region of Papua, Indonesia. A cohort of 243 migrants from Java was followed for malaria in a new settlement village in the endemic Armopa area of north-eastern Papua, beginning on the day each migrant arrived in the village. The subjects were monitored during home visits (three/week) and by the twice-monthly production of bloodsmears that were checked for malarial parasites. At the end of 33 months, 159 (65%) of the subjects remained under follow-up. The prevalence of parasitaemia in the village declined from 16% among those already living there when the study began in August 1996, to 5% when the study finished in June 1999. Over this period, 596 infections by P. falciparum and 723 by P. vivax occurred in the cohort, 22 and 27 of the subjects each experiencing at least six infections by P. falciparum and P. vivax, respectively. The incidence of malarial infection was higher during the first and second years post-migration (3.2 and 2.7 infections/person-year) than during the third (1.2 infections/person-year). Although the geometric mean parasite counts for P. falciparum increased over time (1209, 1478, and 1830 parasites/μl in the first, second and third years, respectively), the corresponding values for P. vivax (497, 535 and 490 parasites/μl) showed no such trend. Only one of the nine subjects who developed severe malaria (requiring intravenous quinine therapy) was a child, giving an odds ratio for a case of severe malaria being in an adult of 6.1 (P=0.08).


This paper describes a system for selecting excerpts from unedited video and presenting the excerpts in a short summary video for efficiently understanding the video contents. Color and motion features are used to divide the video into segments where the color distribution and camera motion are similar. Segments with and without camera motion are clustered separately to identify redundant video. Audio features are used to identify clapboard appearances for exclusion. Representative segments from each cluster are selected for presentation. To increase the original material contained within the summary and reduce the time required to view the summary, selected segments are played back at a higher rate based on the amount of detected camera motion in the segment. Pitch-preserving audio processing is used to better capture the sense of the original audio. Metadata about each segment is overlayed on the summary to help the viewer understand the context of the summary segments in the original video.


The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) 2019 Certification Affairs Committee was charged with writing a white paper to provide a road map for developing initial and ongoing credentialing and privileging processes for clinical pharmacists. After extensively reviewing the literature, the committee prepared a framework to support organizations in implementing credentialing and privileging programs. This document contains definitions, principles, and a suggested process for credentialing; organizational costs of credentialing and privileging; and barriers associated with the process. Finally, resources are provided to help the reader establish a credentialing and privileging process.


The parametric relationships of achromatized transmissive and reflective diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are explored for a number of configuration classes as a function of diffraction order, focal ratio, wavelength, and field angle. The necessity for blazing high-diffraction-order DOEs is elucidated. The ray image sizes are presented in dimensionless imaging space and thus are applicable to any size of optical system. Several aplanatic configurations are evaluated.


The symmetry of an optical waveguide determines its modal degeneracies. A fiber with rotational symmetry of order higher than 2 has modes that either are nondegenerate and support the complete fiber symmetry or are twofold degenerate pairs of lower symmetry. The latter case applies to the fundamental modes of perfect microstructured optical fibers, guaranteeing that such fibers are not birefringent. We explore two numerical methods and demonstrate their agreement with these symmetry constraints.


Three models have been proposed to explain retroviral recombination. Data support the minus strand exchange model which proposes that since the retroviral virion contains two essentially identical RNA molecules, an extended single-stranded DNA molecule is left tailing behind. This single-stranded DNA tail is free to form a hybrid duplex with another RNA molecule. This second RNA molecule will replace the original RNA as the template for continued synthesis. However, a few puzzles, such as negative interference, need to be resolved. To do so, a modified model is proposed that a recombination occurs only when the other strand RNA molecule also binds a reverse transcriptase which replaces the original one and continues the minus strand DNA synthesis using the other strand RNA as the template.


Abstract We report here for the first time that fully and partially NH4-exchanged natrolites can be prepared in hydrated states using the solution exchange method with potassium-natrolite. The structural models of the as-prepared hydrated phases and their dehydrated forms at elevated temperature were refined in space group Fdd2 using in situ synchrotron X‑ray powder diffraction data and Rietveld methods. The unit-cell volumes of the hydrated NH4-exchanged natrolites at ambient conditions, (NH4)16(2) Al16Si24O80·14.1(9)H2O and (NH4)5.1(1)K10.9(1)Al16Si24O80·15.7(3)H2O, are found to be larger than that the original sodium-natrolite by ca. 15.6% and 12.8%, respectively. Upon temperature increase, the fully NH4-exchanged natrolite undergoes dehydration at ca. 150 °C with ca. 16.4% contraction in the unit-cell volume. The dehydrated phase of the fully NH4-exchanged natrolite exhibits marginal volume expansion up to 425 °C and then becomes amorphized during temperature decrease and exposure to atmospheric condition. In the case of the partially NH4-exchanged natrolite, the dehydration starts from ca. 175 °C with ~15.1% volume contraction and leads to a partial phase separation to show a phase related to the dehydrated K-natrolite. The degree of the phase separation decreases with temperature increase up to 475 °C, concomitant to the gradual volume contraction occurring in the partially NH4-exchanged natrolite in the dehydrared state. Upon temperature decrease and exposure to atmospheric condition, only the dehydrated K-natrolite is recovered as a crystalline phase from the partially NH4-exchanged natrolite. In the hydrated model of the fully NH4-exchanged natrolite, the ammonium cations and water molecules are statistically distributed along the elliptical channels, similar to the disordered pattern observed in natrolites exchanged with larger alkali metal cations such as the K-, Rb-, and Cs-forms. The dehydrated model of the fully NH4-exchanged natrolite at 400 °C is essentially same as the one reported previously from the sample prepared by direct melt exchange method using sodium-natrolite. Both the hydrated and dehydrated structures of the partially NH4- exchanged natrolite at RT and at 400 °C, respectively, are characterized by having two separate sites for the ammonium and potassium cations. Comparing the structural models of the monovalent cation forms studied so far, we find that the rotation angle of the natrolite chain is inversely proportional to the cation radius both in the hydrated and dehydrated phases. The distribution pattern of the nonframework species along the natrolite channel also seems to be related to the non-framework cation radius and hence to the chain rotation angle.


Pre-existing fractures significantly influence the geomechanical response of the rock mass at the reservoir scale. For geomechanical applications, these natural fractures need to be considered in the mechanical response of the system. Distinct Element Methods (DEM) are often used to explicitly model the mechanics of Naturally Fractured Rock (NFR); however, they are often too computationally prohibitive for reservoir-scale problems. A DEM upscaling framework is presented that facilitates estimating a representative parameter set for continuum constitutive models that capture the salient feature of Naturally Fractured Rock (NFR) behaviour. Up-scaling is achieved by matching homogenized DEM stress-strain curves from multiple load paths to those of continuum constitutive models using a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm followed by a Damped Least-Squares (DLS) algorithm. The effectiveness of the framework is demonstrated by up-scaling a DEM model of a NFR to a DruckerPrager damage-plasticity model; the up-scaled model is shown to capture well the effect of confinement on the the yielding and sliding of natural fractures in the rock mass. The goal of this thesis is to present a framework to facilitate effective simulation of finescale behaviour in full-scale NFR systems while significantly reducing the computational demands associated with modelling these systems with DEM. As such, four main research objectives have been identified and achieved: 1) Develop and implement stress and strain homogenization algorithms for DEM models with deformable blocks, 2) present a methodology to parameterize complex nonlinear continuum constitutive models, 3) develop and implement an automated modular software framework for up-scaling DEM simulations, and 4) demonstrate that the performance of the up-scaled continuum models are accurate and significantly more computationally efficient. The up-scaling methodology is verified through a case study on a naturally fractured granite slope in which the top surface is loaded until failure. The up-scaled continuum model is shown to compare quite well to Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) in a slope stability analysis and requires two orders of magnitude less computational effort.


Cells engineered to detect a cancer-associated marker produce a protein that sensitizes them to an anticancer drug. Cellular control mechanisms might offer opportunities to build genetic devices capable of sensing aberrant cells and activate a regulatory signal that directs the cell to alter its biological state. Culler et al. (see the Perspective by Liu and Arkin) present a proof of principle for a synthetic gene network in which cells were engineered to make an RNA-based device that detected molecules associated with disease states such as inflammation and cancer. Detection then triggered expression of a gene that made the cells more sensitive to a drug causing cell death. S. J. Culler, K. G. Hoff, C. D. Smolke, Reprogramming cellular behavior with RNA controllers responsive to endogenous proteins. Science 330, 1251–1255 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] C. C. Liu, A. P. Arkin, The case for RNA. Science 330, 1185–1186 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Deaf people face serious difficulties to access information. The fact is that they communicate naturally through sign languages, whereas, to most of them, the spoken languages are considered only a second language. When designed, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) rarely take into account the barriers that deaf people face. It is common that application developers do not hire sign languages interpreters to provide an accessible version of their app/site to deaf people. Currently, there are tools for automatic translation from sign languages to spoken languages, but, unfortunately, they are not available to third parties. To reduce these problems, it would be interesting if any automatic translation tool/service could be publicly available. This is the main goal of this work: use a preconceived machine translation from Portuguese Language to Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS) (named VLIBRAS) and provide Deaf Accessibility as a Service (DAaaS) publicly. The idea is to abstract inherent problems in the translation process between the Portuguese Language and LIBRAS by providing a service that performs the automatic translation of multimedia content to LIBRAS. VLIBRAS was primarily deployed as a centralized system, and this conventional architecture has some disadvantages when compared to distributed architectures. In this paper we propose two distributed architectures in order to provide a scalable service and achieve fault tolerance. For conception and availability of this service, it will be used the cloud computing paradigm to incorporate the following additional benefits: transparency, high availability, and efficient use of resources.


The paper presents a club theoretic model of a city. In the model welfare in a city depends on its size because of positive and negative externalities (or agglomeration economies and diseconomies) generated by close proximity of people and economic activities. Technological externalities appear in people's utility functions and pecuniary externalities are due to shortcomings of the price mechanism. Both types of externalities are internalised in the city and act as centripetal and centrifugal forces that explain migration and thus the formation and development of the city. The issue of optimal city size is studied and it is found that the individually originated formation mechanism of the city may lead to non-optimal solutions.


Floods have broad impacts on nature, society, and the economy. The frequency and intensity of flood events are generally believed to increase with the anticipated changes in temperature and precipitation. Trend analyses are important tools to quantify these changes, but often, they provide inconclusive results, partly because of the limited data availability. One way to overcome this limitation is to pool data from different gauging stations. However, pooling data from different stations may lead to misleading results. For example, using pooled flood data Allamano et al. (2009a) found a considerable increase of flooding risks for Switzerland. Here we demonstrate that the previous finding of increased flooding risks was an artifact of the pooling of stations and the fact that the longer time series came from larger catchments, which tend to have lower values for specific peak flows than smaller catchments. Our results demonstrate the risk of obtaining incorrect statistical conclusions when statistical analyses and data selection are not considered with due care.


Background Tourette syndrome (TS) has been described as peaking in adolescence with subsequent regression. We report patients who were diagnosed with TS during childhood who experienced a latent period (significant reduction in or absence of tics) followed by tic re-emergence in adulthood. Methods We performed a retrospective chart review of outpatients over age 21 seen at the Yale neurology clinic between January 2012 and July 2016 who were diagnosed with childhood-onset tics, and who experienced a latent period of greater than 1 year followed by an exacerbation. Results Sixteen patients were identified. The mean latent period was 16 years. Ten patients (62.5%) identified an exacerbation trigger, most commonly changes in substance use (five patients). Seven patients (43.8%) reported worsening of tics since childhood. Six patients (37.5%) had received pharmacological intervention for tics as children, and 15 patients (93.8%) as adults. Six of 15 patients (40.0%) had an effective response from those pharmacological intervention(s). Discussion Our study demonstrates that the decline in symptoms as patients age may represent temporary improvement. The latent period lasted years in our patients, different from the more rapid waxing and waning in children. A change in substance use was an important trigger. Requests for pharmacological intervention were not necessarily correlated with worsening tic severity.


A rare case of an acute open dorsal perilunate dislocation of the left wrist was encountered in a 42 year old male with the exposure of the lunate volarly. It was associated with ulnar artery injury and complete ulnar nerve palsy. It was treated by open reduction and internal fixation through dorsal and volar approaches after a thorough debridement. That was complicated with a forearm compartment syndrome which was treated by a fasciotomy. To my knowledge, this is the first reported case of a perilunate dislocation associated with ulnar artery and nerve injury.


Background: Depression affects as many as one in five people in their lifetime and often runs a recurrent lifetime course. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an effective psychosocial approach that aims to help people at risk of depressive relapse to learn skills to stay well. However, there is an 'implementation cliff': access to those who could benefit from MBCT is variable and little is known about why that is the case, and how to promote sustainable implementation. As such, this study fills a gap in the literature about the implementation of MBCT. Objectives: To describe the existing provision of MBCT in the UK NHS, develop an understanding of the perceived costs and benefits of MBCT implementation, and explore the barriers and critical success factors for enhanced accessibility. We aimed to synthesise the evidence from multiple data sources to create an explanatory framework of the how and why of implementation, and to co-develop an implementation resource with key stakeholders. Design: A two-phase qualitative, exploratory and explanatory study, which was conceptually underpinned by the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework. Setting: UK NHS services. Methods: Phase 1 involved interviews with participants from 40 areas across the UK about the current provision of MBCT. Phase 2 involved 10 case studies purposively sampled with differing degrees of MBCT provision, and from each UK country. Case study methods included interviews with key stakeholders, including commissioners, managers, MBCT practitioners and teachers, and service users. Observations were conducted and key documents were also collected. Data were analysed using a modified approach to framework analysis. Emerging findings were verified through stakeholder discussions and workshops. Results: Phase 1: access to and the format of MBCT provision across the NHS remains variable. NHS services have typically adapted MBCT to their context and its integration into care pathways was also highly variable even within the same trust or health board. Participants' accounts revealed stories of implementation journeys that were driven by committed individuals that were sometimes met by management commitment. Phase 2: a number of explanations emerged that explained successful implementation. Critically, facilitation was the central role of the MBCT implementers, who were self-designated individuals who 'championed' implementation, created networks and over time mobilised top-down organisational support. Our explanatory framework mapped out a prototypical implementation journey, often over many years. This involved implementers working through grassroots initiatives and over time mobilising top-down organisational support, and a continual fitting of evidence, with the MBCT intervention, contextual factors and the training/supervision of MBCT teachers. Key pivot points in the journey provided windows of challenge or opportunity. Limitations: The findings are largely based on informants' accounts and, therefore, are at risk of the bias of self-reporting. Conclusions: Although access to MBCT across the UK is improving, it remains very patchy. This study provides an explanatory framework that helps us understand what facilitates and supports sustainable MBCT implementation. Future work: The framework and stakeholder workshops are being used to develop online implementation guidance. Item Type: Articles Status: Published Refereed: Yes Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mercer, Professor Stewart Authors: Rycroft-Malone, J., Gradinger, F., Griffiths, H. O., Crane, R., Gibson, A., Mercer, S., Anderson, R., and Kuyken, W. College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > Institute of Health and Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU Enlighten: Publications In this section and implementation in the UK NHS services of an effective depression relapse prevention programme: learning from mindfulness-based cognitive therapy through a


The study reports the experimental determination of just noticeable differences in color as dependent upon wavelength at 10-mμ steps from 510 to 630 mμ. The method of constant-stimulus differences was used to produce limens in terms of measures both of central tendency and of dispersion of judgments. The data have been analyzed to determine the different functional relationships between various colors and wavelengths. Peak sensitivity was found in the yellow region of the spectrum. The results were discussed in terms of methodological differences between the present and earlier studies and were applied to psychologically unique colors.


Many species are threatened by extinction, yet few factors have been identified to explain this risk across the plant Tree of Life (ToL). Lineages that are evolutionarily younger or occurring within rapidly diversifying clades may have elevated extinction risk because they occupy smaller geographic ranges and adaptive zones as compared with older lineages that have tolerated longer periods of environmental change. Here we find that faster diversifying plant genera had more species at risk of extinction. Evolutionary age had no effect in the 297 genera that we sampled, potentially because of sampling older genera, on average, from across the ToL. Repeating our analyses in two well-sampled and large groups, we found that extinction risk decreased with evolutionary age in conifer species but not palms. Small sample sizes limited our power to detect effects of lineage diversification in these groups. Our results suggest that contrasting modes of speciation may explain differing patterns of extinction risk across the broader ToL and have consequences for biodiversity conservation.


Porous mixed metal oxide (MMO) hollow spheres present high specific surface areas, abundant electrochemically active sites, and outstanding electrochemical properties, showing potential applications in energy storage. A hydro/solvothermal process, followed by a calcination process, can be a viable method for producing uniform porous metal oxide hollow spheres. Unfortunately, this method usually involves harsh synthetic conditions such as high temperature and intricate processing. Herein, we report a general and facile "ion adsorption-annealing" approach for the fabrication of uniform porous MMO hollow spheres. The size and shell thickness of the as-obtained hollow spheres can be adjusted by the carbohydrate sphere templates and the solution concentration. Electrochemical measurements of the MMO hollow spheres demonstrate excellent supercapacitive properties, which may be due to the small size, ultrathin shells, and fine porous structure.


1. A new flavin prosthetic group has been isolated in pure form from the electron-transferring flavoprotein of Peptostreptococcus elsdenni. Its structure has been established as the FAD derivative of 7-methyl-8-hydroxyisoalloxazine: (see article). Proof of this structure has been obtained by chemical syntehsis of 7-methyl-8-hydroxyisoalloxazine models, and by stepwise degradation of the native compound to 7-methy-8-hydroxyalloxazine. The orange chromophore is characterized by a strong absorption band with a maximum at 472 nm (xi = 41 000 M-1 CM-1) and a pK at 4.8 due to the ionisation of the C(8)-OH group. 2. The properties of a series of functionally substituted derivatives of 8-hydroxy flavins and lumichromes have been investigated to provide a basis for interpreting the effects of pH on the spectroscopic properties of the 8-hydroxy derivatives of FAD and FMN. 3. The 8-hydroxy derivative of FAD is bound by apo-D-amino acid oxidase; the complex shows no catalytic activity. The 8-hydroxy derivative of FMN is bound by apoflavodoxin to give a complex which has catalytic activity similar to that of native flavodoxin. The complex is reversibly reduced by dithionite, first to a relatively stable semiquinone and further to the dihydroflavin form.


Open Source Development Labs (OSDLTM) have developed three freely available realworld database workloads to characterize the performance of the Linux kernel. These customizable workloads are modeled after the Transaction Processing Performance Council's industry standard W, C, and H benchmarks, and are intended for kernel developers with or without database management experience. The Scalable Test Platform can be used by those who do not feel they have the resources to run a large scale database workload to collect system statistics and kernel profile data. This paper describes the kind of real world activities simulated by each workload and how they stress the Linux kernel.


Due to the high demand for this publication, Lost Opportunities: The Reality of Latinos in the U.S. Criminal Justice System is sold out. At this time, only downloadable PDF copies are available online. This report examines the available data on the status of Latinos in the criminal justice system. It o ers an extensive look at how the U.S. criminal justice system works, the factors underlying the overrepresentation of Latinos in the system, and the speci c problems associated with the prosecution and treatment of individuals with substance abuse dependency issues. The discussion also provides an analysis and recommendations for replacing the downward spiral of incarceration and recidivism with smart solutions leading to positive outcomes for Latinos and community safety. URI http://publications.nclr.org/handle/123456789/1213 Collections Documents Lost opportunities: The reality of Latinos in the US criminal justice system Publications  


Multiple dynamics produce the ecological present. For the past 30 years or more, in the southern Atacama salt pan (Salar) in northern Chile, extractive industries have been accumulating minerals and water in exhaustive quantities, taking ever more than may be regenerated. However, the exhaustion of the Salar de Atacama involves a more complex set of symptoms than demonstrable environmental depletion. Fragmented scientific knowledge of the salt pan due to the privatization of water and under-regulation of mining provides a partial explanation for this complexity. In this article, we discuss these political conditions of environmental knowledge and, using a range of methodologies, we show that the scale of resource extraction threatens social and environmental harm and exhaustion may manifest in unexpected ways. We used remote sensing data to elaborate maps that reflect environmental change (1985-2017), relative to the intensification of extractive activity for copper and lithium salts in the area. Using these data, we undertook ethnographic and participatory mapping work to discuss with people from the Peine Indigenous community how they have experienced ecological change related to mineral and water extraction in the southern Salar. A review of the historical and archaeological material helps us to show the depth of Indigenous people's relationships to and knowledge of the salt pan and surrounds, and how social memory may be ecological. Combining the different results of our research, we argue that ecological exhaustion emerges from social, environmental and political conditions driven by both tangible and uncertain impacts of industrial extraction. Revealing these conditions of exhaustion raises key questions about the complexity of the effects of extraction. Keywords : Indigenous peoples; Salar de Atacama; participatory mapping; mining; water rights


This paper studies the dynamics of an industry that is subject to exclusive geographical licensing. I develop a model of license ownership that predicts the evolution of profit-maximizing entry and acquisition decisions by firms over time, starting from an initial allocation of licenses. The entry and acquisition process is modeled as a one-sided coalition-formation game as in Farrell and Scotchmer (1988), where acquisition payoffs depend on economies of scale and agglomeration (economies of density). I estimate the model for the cable television industry in Canada using a panel that I have constructed from 1990 to 1996. The dataset builds up from the national regulator's license ownership decision files, and contains license-level information on acquisition decisions, subscribership, and subscription profits. The model is estimated in two steps. I first estimate firms' license-level profit functions, and then estimate the parameters of the fixed, merger and entry cost functions by Simulated Maximum Likelihood. Through counterfactual simulations, I use the estimated model to quantify the extent to which economies of scale and density drive acquisition behaviour, and to evaluate how merger activity reacts to a partial deregulation that occurs in 1994. Counterfactual experiments are also used to evaluate policies that stimulate entry or reduce acquisitions in the early years of the sample. The main finding is that these policies can lead to more productive dominant firms in the long-run as the industry consolidates.


Recently, it has been shown that the ionosphere is capable of showing images of seismic fault shortly after an earthquake. This gives rise to the idea of retrieval of seismic information from ionospheric observations. As the first step toward such inversion, here we study distinctive features of ionospheric response to shallow earthquakes, both submarine and inland, of moment magnitudes Mw7.2–9.1. Using GPS measurements of the ionospheric total electron content, we show that: (1) the amplitude of coseismic total electron content variations in the near‐field is larger after more powerful earthquakes, and (2) stronger earthquakes (M > 7.9) are in general characterized by a longer negative phase in coseismic perturbations.


We present a new similarity measure tailored to posts in an online forum. Our measure takes into account all the available information about user interest and interaction — the content of posts, the threads in the forum, and the author of the posts. We use this post similarity to build a similarity between users, based on principal coordinate analysis. This allows easy visualization of the user activity as well. Similarity between users has numerous applications, such as clustering or classification. We show that including the author of a post in the post similarity has a smoothing effect on principal coordinate projections. We demonstrate our method on real data drawn from an internal corporate forum, and compare our results to those given by a standard document classification method. We conclude our method gives a more detailed picture of both the local and global network structure.


Anthelmintic resistance in parasitic nematodes of small ruminants is widespread and, in some parts of the world, threatens the sustainability of sheep production. The mechanisms whereby parasitic nematodes become resistant to anthelmintics, particularly ivermectin, remain to be determined. The majority of studies to date have investigated target site mutations; relatively little attention has been paid to the role of gene expression changes. The present study focused on Teladorsagia circumcincta; the predominant parasitic gastrointestinal nematode species in the UK and the predominant resistant species. The role of changes in gene expression were investigated in an ivermectin-susceptible isolate (CVL) and a multidrug resistant isolate (MOTRI), utilising a range of molecular biological techniques.

 In the first experiment, a panel of novel putative ivermectin resistance genes were identified from T. circumcincta, comprising 11 partial P-glycoprotein (Pgp) and 3 partial Cytochrome P450 (CYP) sequences. Both Pgps and CYPs have been implicated in the handling and metabolism of xenobiotics in other biological systems, but have not been investigated in T. circumcincta to date. Initial results, using semi-quantitative PCR identified changes in expression of this panel of genes between the CVL and MOTRI isolates.

 Constitutive differences in expression of the Pgps and CYPs between CVL and MOTRI were determined using the ΔΔCt TaqMan® real-time PCR method. A statistically significant increase in expression was observed for TeciPgp-9 NBD2 across all life-cycle stages but most notably in eggs (55-fold increase). A statistically significant reduction in expression of TeciPgp-2 NBD2 was observed in all but the adult stages of MOTRI compared to CVL. Analysis of a 208 base pair sequence of TeciPgp-9 NBD2 identified high levels of polymorphism, with at least four non-coding SNPs evident in the MOTRI isolate. These results merit further investigation.

 Inducible changes in the expression of the Pgps and CYPs were investigated in MOTRI before and after ivermectin treatment, using real-time PCR. Statistically significant fold changes in expression in most of the genes occurred in at least one life-cycle stage. Inducible expression of TeciPgp-2 NBD2 and TeciPgp-9 NBD2 was investigated further by comparing adult MOTRI parasites with those recovered three days after in vivo ivermectin exposure, and by exposing pools of MOTRI xL3 to ivermectin in the larval migration inhibition test. The survivors of ivermectin exposure exhibited a statistically significant reduced 13.68-fold expression of TeciPgp-2 NBD2 compared to MOTRI. Similarly, the MOTRI xL3 able to migrate in the presence of ivermectin in the LMIT had a 1.88-fold reduction in TeciPgp-2 NBD2 expression compared to MOTRI xL3 unexposed to ivermectin. These results indicate that inducible changes in TeciPgp-2 NBD2 and TeciPgp-9 NBD2 expression can occur, but the experimental design is critical to being able to identify the changes.

 In a more global approach, the transcriptomic response of MOTRI adults to in vitro ivermectin exposure was investigated using Roche 454 sequencing, generating 98,685 novel EST sequences, providing an important resource for a genome resource-poor organism. Objective bioinformatic analysis of the two datasets revealed statistically significant differences in the mean expression levels of the KEGG orthologous groups for 'translation', 'amino acid metabolism' 'carbohydrate metabolism' and 'xenobiotic degradation and metabolism'. On combining the two datasets, and through application of a novel statistical method, 16 clusters of ESTs were identified as containing statistically significant differences in the mean proportion of exposed reads compared to unexposed reads under the conservative model, whilst a further 355 clusters were found to have statistically significant differences under the liberal model.

 One-way suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH) was used to identify genes exhibiting increased expression in MOTRI adults compared to CVL adults. 28 contiguous sequences were identified from the SSH experiment; 6 contiguous sequences were selected for validation; 5 of these results were confirmed using semi-quantitative PCR. Each contig was BLAST searched against the Roche 454 dataset; contig SSH14 aligned most closely to one of the statistically significant clusters in the conservative model, SSHs 5, 6, 10 and 23 aligned most closely to statistically significant clusters in the liberal model. This suggests that changes in expression in these sequences occur both constitutively, between CVL and MOTRI isolates, and inducibly, following ivermectin exposure.

 This work has shown that changes in gene expression, particularly the constitutively reduced expression in TeciPgp-2 NBD2 and the constitutively increased expression in TeciPgp-9 NBD2 (coupled with the presence of SNPs) could play a role in allowing multidrug resistant T. circumcincta to survive ivermectin exposure. Roche 454 sequencing and SSH approaches identified gene expression changes associated with in vitro ivermectin exposure and ivermectin resistance. These could form the basis of a novel panel of candidate resistance genes whose altered expression profiles may allow multidrug resistant T. circumcincta to survive ivermectin exposure by some, as yet identified, mechanism. Finally, we have also shown that a multidrug T. circumcincta isolate is affected by ivermectin exposure and that changes in gene expression could have a role to play in the ivermectin resistance phenotype in T. circumcincta. The genetic changes underpinning these changes in gene expression remain to be elucidated, and need to be investigated in other isolates. These changes could form the basis of an ivermectin resistance molecular marker, to monitor the spread of resistance, and to evaluate management practices aimed at delaying its spread.


The purpose of this study sought to examine the overall performance of Tesco PLC with specific risk factors and macroeconomic factor on profitability performance. The data obtained from annual report of Tesco PLC starting from 2011-2015. The measurement of liquidity ratio and operating ratio used to see the overall performance of Tesco PLC in 5 years which allegedly beyond benchmark. The additional measurement is the asset size, this variable has a negative and no significant relationship with liquidity risk. To see the relationship of risks factors to the profitability, this paper is utilizing liquidity ratio and operating ratio. Data was analyzed by utilizing regression and bivariate correlation. The regression analysis and bivariate correlation shows only one factor of profitability is significant to operating ratio which is ROA with the highest impact to the profitability. However, the liquidity and GDP is not significant to profitability with low impact to the profitability. Keyword : factor, profitability, Tesco PLC, liquidity ratio, regression, correlation


Baroness Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya Benckendorff Budberg hailed from the Russian aristocracy and lived in the lap of luxury--until the Bolshevik Revolution forced her to live by her wits. Thereafter her existence was a story of connivance and stratagem, a succession of unlikely twists and turns. Intimately involved in the mysterious Lockhart affair, a conspiracy which almost brought down the fledgling Soviet state, mistress to Maxim Gorky and then to H.G. Wells, Moura was a woman of enormous energy, intelligence, and charm whose deepest passion was undoubtedly the mythologization of her own life. Recognized as one of the great masters of Russian twentieth-century fiction, Nina Berberova here proves again that she is the unsurpassed chronicler of the lives of Soviet emigres. In Moura Budberg, a woman who shrouded the facts of her life in fiction, Berberova finds the ideal material from which to craft a triumph of literary portraiture, a book as engaging and as full of life and incident as any one of her celebrated novels.


Sixteen measures of legal protections for public market investors, including the Anti-Director Rights Index, the Anti-Self- Dealing Index, and legal origins, are all unrelated to ownership concentration in a large and representative sample of firms from 32 countries. Furthermore, when laws were strengthened in a variety of countries, ownership either stayed the same or became more concentrated. The two theories behind the proposed negative relation of law and ownership concentration are inconsistent with each other and inconsistent with established empirical regularities. In sum, both the evidence and the theory are at odds with the influential proposition that large shareholdings are a response to weak legal protections for public market investors.


The growing trend within the judicial, treatment, and advocacy communities toward specialized courts for military veterans raises important questions about the effectiveness of such courts in rehabilitating veterans. Both principally and practically, veterans courts observers may take opposing positions regarding the appropriateness and effectiveness of placing veterans in a specialized, treatment-based court program simply because of their military service. This chapter explores these challenging issues in two parts. First, we undertake a discussion of first principle concerns related to veterans courts by reviewing research studies examining the link between veterans and criminal misconduct. The return of 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has re-ignited the still unsettled controversy over whether veterans suffering from combat trauma are more likely than their non-veteran counterparts to commit criminal misconduct after returning home. While firm conclusions may be difficult (and unpopular) to draw, the issue warrants attention in any serious discussion about the merits and best practices of veterans court programs. Second, we present early findings from an assessment we conducted of the practices, procedures, and participant populations of certain veterans courts operating as of March 2011. Of the 53 courts invited to participate, 14 provided a response by completing either an online or paper survey. Of these, seven submitted sample policies and procedures, participant contracts, plea agreements, and mentor guidelines for our review. Drawing on these courts' common practices and procedures, we identify key operational components courts should consider in implementing veterans court programs. We also conclude that veterans court outcomes, at least at present, appear at least as favorable as those of other specialized treatment courts.


Applied ontologies have been used more and more frequently to enhance systems engineering. In this paper, we argue that adopting principles of ontological realism can increase the benefits that ontologies have already been shown to provide to the systems engineering process. Moreover, adopting Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), an ISO standard for top-level ontologies from which more domain specific ontologies are constructed, can lead to benefits in four distinct areas of systems engineering: (1) interoperability, (2) standardization, (3) testing, and (4) data exploitation. Reaping these benefits in a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) context requires utilizing an ontology's vocabulary when modeling systems and entities within those systems. If the chosen ontology abides by the principles of ontological realism, a semantic standard capable of uniting distinct domains, using BFO as a hub, can be leveraged to promote greater interoperability among systems. As interoperability and standardization increase, so does the ability to collect data during the testing and implementation of systems. These data can then be reasoned over by computational reasoners using the logical axioms within the ontology. This, in turn, generates new data that would have been impossible or too inefficient to generate without the aid of computational reasoners.


Since 1921, the Zionist movement, the Hashemites, and Palestinian nationalists have been vying for regional control. In this book, Asher Susser analyzes the evolution of the one- and two-state options and explores why a two-state solution has failed to materialize. He provides an in-depth analysis of Jordan's positions and presents an updated discussion of the two-state imperative through the initiatives of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Susser argues that Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians have cohesive collective identities that violently collide with each other. Because of these entrenched differences, a single-state solution cannot be achieved.


This essay challenges the easy (because partially true) assumption that there is nothing new under the sun in death penalty discourse. Rather, debates about capital punishment have been as much discontinuous as continuous over the past century. Some arguments that were made in the past have been entirely discredited or even forgotten today, while our current debates contain arguments that would be utterly foreign to denizens of earlier decades, despite the fact that they cared deeply about the issue of capital punishment in their own times. This essay describes two "lost" arguments from the past in favor of retention of capital punishment: the contention that capital punishment was a necessary antidote to extrajudicial lynchings and the defense of capital punishment as part of a larger program of eugenics endorsed by many progressive leaders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The essay also explores two "new" abolitionist arguments from the present: the fiscal argument about the greater cost of capital punishment even in comparison to life imprisonment and the concerns raised about the suffering of those awaiting execution for lengthy periods (the so-called "Death Row Phenomenon"). Death penalty discourse has not been as static as is often assumed, and the debates of each era provide a window onto both the nature of the actual practice of the death penalty in different times and the broader social contexts in which that practice has operated.


Most of the traditional business performances measures are based on productivity and process criteria, which mainly focus on method of investment appraisal such as payback method, return on investment (ROI), cost-benefits analysis (CBA), net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR). However, the measurement scales of business performance are not limited to those measures. One element that has strong correlation to the business performances is 'organisational culture'. Many studies proved that one of the significant criteria for achieving desired business objectives is the right organisational culture within workplace. Basically, the measurement of organisational culture is reflecting on two distinct elements: organisational culture and business objectives. In broader perspective, an organisation is considered effective if it meets its business objectives. This paper aims to present and discuss the preliminary culture model to indicate the culture performance within organisational. The model has been developed through literature review, expert opinion and experience which is anticipated of being able to potentially measure the culture capability of organisations across industries to "successfully achieve business objectives". The model is composed of six progressive stages of maturity that an organisation can achieve its culture performance. For each maturity stage, the model describes a set of characteristics that must be in place for the company to achieve each stage. The validity of the proposed model will be tested by a few case studies. The idea is to provide managers with a qualitative measurement tools to enable them to identify where culture improvements are required within their organisations and to indicate their readiness for achieving business objectives.


BACKGROUND
Evaluating the effects of decreasing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels requires large randomized trials. In preparation for such a trial, we assessed the biochemical efficacy, safety, and tolerability of adding ezetimibe, 10 mg/d, to simvastatin, 20 mg/d, as initial therapy for such patients.

METHODS
Two hundred three patients (152 predialysis patients with creatinine levels > or = 1.7 mg/dL [> or = 150 micromol/L], 18 patients on peritoneal dialysis therapy, and 33 patients on hemodialysis therapy) were randomly assigned to the administration of simvastatin, 20 mg/d, plus ezetimibe, 10 mg/d; or simvastatin, 20 mg, plus placebo ezetimibe daily.

RESULTS
After 6 months, allocation to simvastatin monotherapy was associated with a 31-mg/dL (0.8-mmol/L) decrease in nonfasting LDL cholesterol levels compared with baseline. Allocation to simvastatin plus ezetimibe produced an additional 18-mg/dL (0.47-mmol/L) decrease in LDL cholesterol level, representing an incremental 21% reduction over that achieved with simvastatin monotherapy (P < 0.0001). There were no statistically significant effects of the addition of ezetimibe to simvastatin on triglyceride or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Ezetimibe was not associated with an excess risk of abnormal liver function test results or of elevated creatine kinase levels and did not impair absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. There were no serious adverse events caused by study treatment.

CONCLUSION
This 6-month study shows that the addition of ezetimibe to simvastatin, 20 mg/d, as initial therapy for patients with chronic kidney disease was well tolerated and produced an additional 21% decrease in LDL cholesterol levels. The clinical efficacy and safety of combination therapy in this population are now being assessed in a large randomized trial.


This paper presents photovoltaic system as a stand-alone electric power plant in the renewable energy development. To maximize these stand-alone generators, it is necessary to design photovoltaic modeling to produce energy and maximum power. The problems that exist in the design of PV systems are PV configuration, battery size, and the maximum power system. Therefore, this research will be proposed modeling Matlab/Simulink based PV system. The contribution of this research can provide various characteristics of the photovoltaic system with a capacity of 100 Wp. This modeling is designed using Matlab/Simulink software. The data generated from this simulation will provide a good reference for designing the stand-alone generators in the future.


The success of social robotics is directly linked to their ability of interacting with people. Humans possess verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and, therefore, both are essential for social robots to get a natural human–robot interaction. This work focuses on the first of them since the majority of social robots implement an interaction system endowed with verbal capacities. In order to do this implementation, we must equip social robots with an artificial voice system. In robotics, a Text to Speech (TTS) system is the most common speech synthesizer technique. The performance of a speech synthesizer is mainly evaluated by its similarity to the human voice in relation to its intelligibility and expressiveness. In this paper, we present a comparative study of eight off-the-shelf TTS systems used in social robots. In order to carry out the study, 125 participants evaluated the performance of the following TTS systems: Google, Microsoft, Ivona, Loquendo, Espeak, Pico, AT&T, and Nuance. The evaluation was performed after observing videos where a social robot communicates verbally using one TTS system. The participants completed a questionnaire to rate each TTS system in relation to four features: intelligibility, expressiveness, artificiality, and suitability. In this study, four research questions were posed to determine whether it is possible to present a ranking of TTS systems in relation to each evaluated feature, or, on the contrary, there are no significant differences between them. Our study shows that participants found differences between the TTS systems evaluated in terms of intelligibility, expressiveness, and artificiality. The experiments also indicated that there was a relationship between the physical appearance of the robots (embodiment) and the suitability of TTS systems.


The jurisdictional approach (JA) to REDD+ and low emissions development has gained considerable currency in recent years. As understood here, JA refers to a government-led, comprehensive approach to forest and land use across one or more legally defined territories. Multiple efforts directed at building jurisdictional approaches have been underway across the tropics for more than a decade, proceeding mainly at the level of states and provinces. Although these programs exhibit considerable diversity and varying levels of maturity, several important lessons have emerged from experiences to date. These include the importance of broad, multi-stakeholder processes; the need for a complementary set of cross-sectoral policies and programs grounded in a realistic assessment of implementation capacity within the government and among key partners; and the critical role of political commitment and leadership.


In this paper we make a detailed analysis of conservation principles in the context of a family of fourth-order gravitational theories generated via a quadratic Lagrangian. In particular, we focus on the associated notion of energy and start a program related to its study. We also exhibit examples of solutions which provide intuitions about this notion of energy which allows us to interpret it, and introduce several study cases where its analysis seems tractable. Finally, positive energy theorems are presented in restricted situations.


This study examines 103 Victim Impact Panel attendees and 75 comparison group respondents who had been convicted of drunk driving offenses. A pre- and post-test measure developed by the author was administered to both groups to determine offender attitudes about drinking and driving. Results indicate a lower recidivism rate in VIP participants as opposed to comparison group subjects and those receiving other sanctions as cited in the literature. 2-Way ANOVA and paired T-test analysis revealed significant changes in attitudes regarding the VIP attendees intention to continue drinking and driving, the consideration of consequences and whether or not DUI/DWI should be considered a crime and recidivism. These results did not hold true for the comparison group. There were no demonstrated significant differences in attitudes toward the fairness of DUI/DWI laws, the accidental nature of drunk driving offenses or the advisability of DWI education as an alternative sanction in either group.


Homozygous alpha+ thalassaemia (alpha-/alpha-) ameliorates some of the clinical manifestations of homozygous sickle cell (SS) disease but its effect on retinal complications remains unknown. This has been assessed by visual examination and fluorescein angiography in 39 subjects with SS disease and homozygous alpha+ thalassaemia and in 39 age/sex matched controls with SS disease but with a normal alpha globin genotype (alpha alpha/alpha alpha). The results indicate that homozygous alpha+ thalassaemia reduces the extent of peripheral retinal vessel closure but has no apparent effect on the frequency of proliferative sickle retinopathy.


The reduction of regulatory restrictiveness in services sectors in Korea using recent free trade agreements in effect and its impact on FDI inflows are investigated. The research outcomes provide three main findings as follows. First, FDI inflows of Korea closely follow the trend of global FDI flows. FDI inflows to Korea from developed economies have appeared dominant; FDI inflows from the U.S., Japan and European economies account for the major share. The increase of FDI inflows from China is significant. Moreover, the FDI inflow shares of capital-intensive industries such as electronic, chemical, and machinery in manufacturing and financial, distribution, and business in services are also large. The fact that FDI inflows in services have become two times larger than those in manufacturing since early 2000's is noteworthy. In the meantime, while FDI flows in forms of M&A in most developed economies, M&As as a form of FDI are still less prevalent in Korea. Second, Korea's services trade restrictiveness indices provided by the OECD are updated and recalculated reflecting the FTAs recently put in force. Further liberalization through recent FTAs in force is identified in legal, accounting and telecommunications services. Third, the impact of services liberalization on FDI inflows in Korea is analyzed. As suggested in theoretical predictions, further services liberalization through FTAs plays a positive role in FDI inflows in Korea. Such outcomes are derived not only in services sectors but in manufacturing sectors as well.


Phenobarbital (PB) promotes liver tumorigenesis in rodents, in part through activation of the constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) and the consequent changes in hepatic gene expression and increases in hepatocyte proliferation. A typical effect of CAR activation by PB is a marked induction of Cyp2b10 expression in the liver; the latter has been suspected to be vital for PB-induced hepatocellular proliferation. This hypothesis was tested here by using a Cyp2a(4/5)bgs-null (null) mouse model in which all Cyp2b genes are deleted. Adult male and female wild-type (WT) and null mice were treated intraperitoneally with PB at 50 mg/kg once daily for 5 successive days and tested on day 6. The liver-to-body weight ratio, an indicator of liver hypertrophy, was increased by 47% in male WT mice, but by only 22% in male Cyp2a(4/5)bgs-null mice, by the PB treatment. The fractions of bromodeoxyuridine-positive hepatocyte nuclei, assessed as a measure of the rate of hepatocyte proliferation, were also significantly lower in PB-treated male null mice compared with PB-treated male WT mice. However, whereas few proliferating hepatocytes were detected in saline-treated mice, many proliferating hepatocytes were still detected in PB-treated male null mice. In contrast, female WT mice were much less sensitive than male WT mice to PB-induced hepatocyte proliferation, and PB-treated female WT and PB-treated female null mice did not show significant difference in rates of hepatocyte proliferation. These results indicate that CYP2B induction plays a significant, but partial, role in PB-induced hepatocyte proliferation in male mice.


Background: Atrial electromechanical delay (AEMD) is the time interval between the beginning of P wave on surface electrocardiography and starting of the late diastolic wave on tissue Doppler imaging. We investigated the prolongation of AEMD, echocardiographic changes, and correlation of these findings with neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Materials and Methods: The study consisted of 105 (49 females and 56 males; mean age: 65.1 ± 9) patients with COPD exacerbation and 104 (21 females and 83 males; mean age: 64.8 ± 9.6) stable COPD outpatients. Demographics, body mass index, pulmonary function tests, and transthoracic echocardiography of the patients were evaluated. Echocardiography was performed in the first 6 h for stable COPD outpatients and in the first 24 h for COPD exacerbation patients. Diameters of right ventricle (RV), left ventricle (LV) and left atrium, aortic root diameters, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), Emax, Amax, Emax/Amax, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), Ea, Aa, Ea/Aa, Emax/Ea, and tricuspid regurgitation velocity (TRV) were evaluated. AEMD measurements were obtained from lateral/tricuspid, lateral/mitral, and septal annulus from apical four-chamber views with tissue Doppler imaging and corrected for heart rate. Complete blood count including NLR was also assessed. Results: The mean age of patients in exacerbation period (65.1 ± 9) was higher than the stable group (64.8 ± 9.6). RV basal and mid diameters (P < 0.001), Amax (P < 0.001), Ea tricuspid (P = 0.040), Aa tricuspid (P < 0.001), TRV, and systolic pulmonary artery pressure (P < 0.001) were higher; TAPSE and tricuspid Emax/Amax (P < 0.001) were significantly lower in patients with COPD exacerbation. LV end-diastolic diameter (P = 0.002) and LVEF (P = 0.005), Emax/Amax mitral (P < 0.001), Ea/Aa mitral (P < 0.001), and Ea/Aa septal (P < 0.001) were significantly lower; Amax mitral (P = 0.002), Aa mitral (P < 0.001), Aa septal (P < 0.001), and systolic motion mitral (P = 0.011) were significantly higher in patients with exacerbation. AEMD lateral/tricuspid (P < 0.001), lateral/mitral (P < 0.001), and septal (P < 0.001) were significantly higher in patients with COPD exacerbation. Neutrophil and lymphocyte count (P < 0.001) and NLR (P = 0.003) were significantly higher in the acute group. A weak correlation of NLR with LV end-diastolic diameter (P = 0.003; r = 0.357), Emax/Ea mitral (P = 0.019; r = 0.285), Emax tricuspid (P = 0.045; r = −0.244), and systolic motion septal (P = 0.003; r = 0.352) was detected in patients with stable COPD. Conclusion: In COPD exacerbation patients, prolongation of AEMD intervals was determined. Acute period of COPD may trigger atrial dysrhythmias including atrial fibrillation and flutter, multifocal atrial tachycardia, premature beats, and both systolic and diastolic dysfunctions frequently.


By convention, critical readership of literary materials obliges the reader to place more values on the humans than the non-humans, which, very often, is factorial of the human. This restriction to liberal objectivity has subjected readership to the crucible of humanism – a barrier to evolving understandings of readership, which might enrich discourse in other disciplines such as Chemistry. The bearing of the current research, 'thing theory', views all disciplines as organic whole recommending dynamism of imagination to critical conservatives often not enamored by the vagaries of literary fruition. With new life breathed into objects such as kola in such a statement as "He who brings cola brings life" critically explored with insinuating effects in the literary text under study, readers' scientific imagination is expanded to benefit from the emerging interdisciplinary fields of theory as an adventure of discovery into the very heart of Chemistry to exhume life principles and truths buried in physical matter. The aim of this study is to enrich interdisciplinary discourse with a burning curiosity to explore new meanings and untapped energies buried in medical plants and natural products represented in literary works.


This paper studies the consequences of certain widespread policies for the quality and sustainability of growth. These policies cause economic inefficiency, environmental destruction and increased poverty. The paper develops a political economy model to show why the existence of such policies is not likely to be the fruit of errors or miscalculations by policy-makers. A key characteristic that distinguishes this analysis from other political economy analyses is that it allows for an essential asymmetry in the political lobby, with the wealthy having the ability to influence governments through bribes and political contributions while the poor are unable to do so. The key consequence of this is that the policy setting tends to perpetuate or even worsen an initial level of concentration of wealth. Policies are biased in favor of those who can afford to lobby and pay bribes, thus generally preventing policies that improve the initial wealth distribution. At the same time these resulting policies are likely to be detrimental for growth in the long run. We illustrate some of these ideas with a formal general equilibrium model of an agrarian economy with emerging capitalist sectors, where the allocation of land between peasants and capitalists takes place via a political equilibrium instead of via market mechanisms. We show that the resulting land allocation not only reduces the income of peasants but is also inefficient and contributes to environmental degradation of the land left with the peasants. At the same time the model shows that in the early stages of capitalist accumulation wages are likely to fall while peasants' income continues to decline throughout all stages of capital accumulation.


First-in-human neuroepigenetic PET imaging with [11C]Martinostat reveals conserved region-specific expression of class I HDACs in the healthy brain. Brain epigenetics revealed Certain enzymes called histone deacetylases, or HDACs, are part of the epigenetic machinery that regulates gene transcription. In neurological disorders, HDACs change expression in regions throughout the brain, but their dynamic contribution to human disease development over time is unknown. Wey et al. therefore developed and applied an HDAC imaging probe, called Martinostat, to visualize HDAC expression in the living brain. Martinostat was previously tested in rodents and nonhuman primates, and here, it is used for the first time in humans. The authors saw surprisingly conserved regions of HDAC expression in the healthy brain, suggesting tightly regulated epigenetic processes. In human stem cell–derived neural progenitor cells, Martinostat engaged the subset HDACs that regulate downstream genes important for neuroplasticity, memory, and neurodegeneration, supporting its use in monitoring and understanding brain pathologies like Alzheimer's disease. Epigenetic dysfunction is implicated in many neurological and psychiatric diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. Consequently, histone deacetylases (HDACs) are being aggressively pursued as therapeutic targets. However, a fundamental knowledge gap exists regarding the expression and distribution of HDACs in healthy individuals for comparison to disease states. Here, we report the first-in-human evaluation of neuroepigenetic regulation in vivo. Using positron emission tomography with [11C]Martinostat, an imaging probe selective for class I HDACs (isoforms 1, 2, and 3), we found that HDAC expression is higher in cortical gray matter than in white matter, with conserved regional distribution patterns within and between healthy individuals. Among gray matter regions, HDAC expression was lowest in the hippocampus and amygdala. Through biochemical profiling of postmortem human brain tissue, we confirmed that [11C]Martinostat selectively binds HDAC isoforms 1, 2, and 3, the HDAC subtypes most implicated in regulating neuroplasticity and cognitive function. In human stem cell–derived neural progenitor cells, pharmacologic-level doses of Martinostat induced changes in genes closely associated with synaptic plasticity, including BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and SYP (synaptophysin), as well as genes implicated in neurodegeneration, including GRN (progranulin), at the transcript level, in concert with increased acetylation at both histone H3 lysine 9 and histone H4 lysine 12. This study quantifies HDAC expression in the living human brain and provides the foundation for gaining unprecedented in vivo epigenetic information in health and disease.


The yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system is the most widely applied methodology for systematic protein–protein interaction (PPI) screening and the generation of comprehensive interaction networks. We developed a novel Y2H interaction screening procedure using DNA microarrays for high-throughput quantitative PPI detection. Applying a global pooling and selection scheme to a large collection of human open reading frames, proof-of-principle Y2H interaction screens were performed for the human neurodegenerative disease proteins huntingtin and ataxin-1. Using systematic controls for unspecific Y2H results and quantitative benchmarking, we identified and scored a large number of known and novel partner proteins for both huntingtin and ataxin-1. Moreover, we show that this parallelized screening procedure and the global inspection of Y2H interaction data are uniquely suited to define specific PPI patterns and their alteration by disease-causing mutations in huntingtin and ataxin-1. This approach takes advantage of the specificity and flexibility of DNA microarrays and of the existence of solid-related statistical methods for the analysis of DNA microarray data, and allows a quantitative approach toward interaction screens in human and in model organisms.


This paper explores the macroeconomics of fiscal austerity. A binding budget deficit cap makes the economy more volatile by turning the government budget into an automatic destabilizer. Public debt helps maintain aggregate demand (AD) in the presence of a lower price level because a lower price level increases the real value of public interest payments and also has a positive wealth effect. That makes public debt significantly different from private debt. If the economy is subject to a binding deficit cap public debt may no longer stabilize output. This is because increased real interest payments may be matched by spending cuts, giving rise to a negative balanced budget multiplier.


This dissertation describes a framework for interactively animating characters such as humans and animals based on dynamic elastic simulation. Using dynamic simulation, the secondary motion of the character's soft tissue is computed automatically, and the shape of the character reflects environmental influences not anticipated by the animator. To endow an elastic body with animation-friendly control mechanisms we unify dynamic elastic simulation, skeleton-driven deformation, and shape interpolation. We model a character as an elastic body simulated using the finite element method. For computational efficiency, we embed the object in a coarse subdivision volume. Subdivision provides topological flexibility, smooth deformations, and hierarchical structure for adaptive simulation. Skeletal control is made efficient by aligning the subdivision control lattice with the skeleton. In order to make the computation of elastic dynamics efficient enough for interactive applications, we introduce a new method of linearizing the nonlinear equations of elasticity dependent on the pose of the character. Our framework also provides a mechanism to control the shape of the character physical dynamics, it cannot simply be dictated as in traditional computer animation. Instead, we introduce forces to control the shape. Force-based shape control guides the shape of the character but is combined with other forces acting on the system and integrated into the dynamics. The result is a system that produces interactive animations with automatic secondary flesh dynamics, and at the same time gives the animator a large degree of control over the pose and shape of the character.


Abstract. Sea-salt aerosol mass, optical depth, and number concentration over the global oceans have significant implications for aerosol direct and indirect climate effects. We model sea-salt aerosol in a coupled climate and sectional microphysical model, CAM/CARMA, with aerosol dynamics including sea-salt emission, gravitational sedimentation, dry deposition, wet scavenging, and hygroscopic growth. We aim to find an integrated sea-salt source function parameterization in the global climate model to simultaneously represent mass, optical depth, and number concentration. Each of these quantities is sensitive to a different part of the aerosol size distribution, which requires a size resolved microphysical model to treat properly. The CMS source function introduced in this research, based upon several earlier source functions, reproduces measurements of mass, optical depth and number concentration as well as the size distribution better than other source function choices we tried. However, as we note, it is also important to properly set the removal rate of the particles. The source function and removal rate are coupled in producing observed abundances. We find that sea salt mass and optical depth peak in the winter, when winds are highest. However, surprisingly, particle numbers and CCN concentrations peak in summer when rainfall is lowest. The quadratic dependence of sea-salt optical depth on wind speed, observed by some, is well represented in the model. We also find good agreement with the wind speed dependency of the number concentration at the measurement location and the regional scale. The work is the basis for further investigation of the effects of sea-salt aerosol on climate and atmospheric chemistry.


This article focuses on the field of narrative therapy which emerged in the 1990s (i.e. Angus and McLeod, 2004; Denborough, 2010; Monk et al 1996; Morgan, 2000; White, 2000) and investigates the use of futures discourse within it. Narrative therapy in psychology focuses on helping individuals to move away from unhelpful and distressing storytelling and towards new stories that shape their identities and relationships in line with the possibilities of desired presents and futures. The article therefore analyses the explicit and implicit use of futures discourse in narrative therapy, and investigates connections between narrative therapy and futures studies. It concludes by suggesting the strengthening of these connections by proposing futures studies practitioners further learn from narrative therapists and vice versa.


The present paper reports synthesized nano-sized ZnO thin films for use as front window electrodes in PV applications, and their behavior after different sol aging times (1 h, 24 h, 3 days and 21 days) for undoped and 1% B amount doping. The highly nanocrystalline ZnO thin films were synthesized by the sol–gel method and B was used as a guest material to examine its role in structural, optical, electrical and morphological properties in this process. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that all the prepared films exhibited the ZnO hexagonal wurtzite structure with preferential orientation along the (0 0 2) crystal plane. Analyses of X-ray diffraction patterns demonstrated that the sol aging can improve the degree of preferred crystal orientation along the c-axis, and it did not change the crystal growth orientation. Average crystallite sizes of the undoped and B doped ZnO films were increased from 16 to 31 nm and from 19 nm to 32 nm with increasing sol aging from 1 h to 21 days. Moreover, AFM results showed that the RMS values increased from 5 nm to 12 nm as an indication of a good film formation on the surface. The minimum value of resistivity was found to be 7.24 × 10−3 Ω m with B and a high optical transmittance of ∼98% in the visible region was observed. The films produced at optimum conditions are suitable for optical and electrical applications owing to their low resistivity, high optical transmittance, optimum band gap, good crystallization and surface formation.


Stigma has been identified as a major barrier to help-seeking, treatment and recovery from gambling problems. However, little research has attempted to examine in any depth the causes, characteristics and consequences of stigma in relation to people experiencing gambling problems. The effects of stigma on people experiencing gambling problems, although not directly examined, are apparent through low rates of problem disclosure and treatment-seeking. In this paper, we aim to inform research into stigma associated with problem gambling by highlighting gaps in existing research and by providing direction for future research. The contribution of this paper is that for the first time stigma and problem gambling are drawn together and reviewed using broad constructs and literature from a range of seminal and new sources to present a synthesis of new and important information on stigma. In regard to problem gambling, the dimensions of stigma, except for origin, have yet to be investigated, as well as the processes of stigma creation, the characteristics of public and felt stigma, and coping strategies used to manage stigma. The practical implications of this review are summarized in a framework provided to inform future research into stigma related to problem gambling.


Rangelands are large natural landscapes that can include grasslands, shrublands, savannahs and woodlands. They are greatly influenced by, and often dependent on, the action of herbivores. In the majority of rangelands the dominant herbivores are found in domestic herds that are managed by mobile pastoralists. Most pastoralists manage their rangelands communally, benefitting from the greater flexibility and seasonal resource access that common property regimes can offer. As this book shows, this creates a major challenge for governance and institutions. This work improves our understanding of the importance of governance, how it can be strengthened and the principles that underpin good governance, in order to prevent degradation of rangelands and ensure their sustainability. It describes the nature of governance at different levels: community governance, state governance, international governance, and the unique features of rangelands that demand collective action (issues of scale, ecological disequilibrium and seasonality). A series of country case studies is presented, drawn from a wide spectrum of examples from Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe and North America. These provide contrasting lessons which are summarised to promote improved governance of rangelands and pastoralist livelihoods.


1. Hormone-mediated maternal effects and developmental plasticity are important sources of phenotypic variation, with potential consequences for trait evolution. Yet our understanding of the importance of maternal hormones for offspring fitness in natural populations is very limited, particularly in non-avian species.

2. We experimentally elevated yolk testosterone by injection of a physiological dose into eggs of the lizard Ctenophorus fordi Storr, to investigate its roles in offspring development, growth and survival.

3. Yolk testosterone did not influence incubation period, basic hatchling morphology or survival under natural conditions. However, there was evidence for increased growth in hatchlings from testosterone-treated eggs, suggesting that maternal hormones have potential fitness consequences in natural populations.

4. The positive effect of prenatal testosterone exposure on postnatal growth could represent a taxonomically widespread developmental mechanism that has evolved into an adaptive maternal effect in some taxa, but remains deleterious or selectively neutral in others.

5. A broader taxonomic perspective should increase our understanding of the role of physiological constraints in the evolution of endocrine maternal effects.


Habitat destruction due to human land-use activities is well recognized as a central threat to biodiversity. However, there is still debate about the relative influence of its two components, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, mostly because few studies have been able to disentangle their respective effects. We studied mechanisms by which habitat destruction might influence the prevalence of vector-transmitted haemosporidian blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus infecting the Lesser Antillean bullfinch Loxigilla noctis on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Starting from a large set of environmental descriptors (including metrics reflecting habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and landscape heterogeneity; as well as other variables not linked to habitat destruction, such as climatic conditions), we used PLS regression analyses to determine which variables were driving parasite prevalence on the islands. Our results showed that variables related to forest destruction were much more influential than other factors for all parasites analyzed on both islands. Remarkably, the effects documented were almost exclusively due to forest fragmentation, as opposed to habitat loss. This positive effect of forest fragmentation on blood parasite prevalence is proposed to happen through its effects on insect vectors and/or host biology. Increased understanding of the role of habitat fragmentation as a driver of parasitic diseases can help limiting the risk of emergence and proliferation of wildlife pathogenic outbreaks and zoonosis through informed landscape planning.


We have studied properties of the coating using grinded scraps of hard metal by the high velocity flame spray method. It was possible to make scraps thermal spray powders which was reduced at 1073K, and graphite was added so that the total content become 6mass%, and then presintered at 1473K in hydrogen. The coating using the scraps was similar to the coating using commercial powders in the microstructure and hardness of the coating. But the wear rate of the coating using the scraps was three times larger than the coating using commercial powders. This is considered to mainly result from the increase of the roughness of coating surface due to ununiformity of the particle size of the scraps.


Steadily the study of visual culture has moved into the mainstream of U. S. historiography. More and more scholars have realized that the pictures they long used to illustrate their books and lectures possess a history of their own, as material objects and as ways of seeing. Decades ago Michel Foucault and an assortment of linguistic "turners" alerted historians to textuality—the constant play of language-forms within structures of power and consciousness—and now we see that cultural discourses comprise the visual as much as the verbal. Images and words intertwine as people refashion their rituals and conventions. Two recent studies of celebrated ex-slaves and abolitionists Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass--Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby's Enduring Truths and John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd, and Celeste-Marie Bernier's Picturing Frederick Douglass--show how far we have come in granting the pictorial its proper place alongside the spoken, the written, and the read. Among the most charismatic wordsmiths of their day, Truth and Douglass excelled as orators and authors (the illiterate Truth dictated her published Narrative of 1850 to reformer Olive Gilbert). They knew that distributing their likenesses would promote the cause of liberty. And they learned that politicizing their appearance did more than contribute to the battle for freedom. It gave them experience in living as free people in a modern commercial world. While some militant abolitionists followed Thoreau in affirming the old republican dichotomy between commerce and virtue, Douglass and Truth in effect celebrated the virtue of commerce.


Peer-to-Patent Australia will initially run as a 12 month pilot project designed to test whether an open community of reviewers can effectively locate prior art that might not otherwise be located by the patent office during a typical examination. Patent applications will be made available for peer review for a period of 6 months and there will follow a 6 month period of joint qualitative and quantitative assessment of the pilot project by IP Australia and QUT.

The objective of Peer-to-Patent Australia is to improve the patent examination process and the quality of issued patents by utilising the knowledge and skills of experts in the broader community. It is a way of linking the scientific and technical expertise of anyone with an Internet connection with the expertise of a patent examiner.

That community participation consists of members of the public reviewing patent applications and contributing relevant prior art references and comments within a web-based forum. The aim is to bring to light prior art, particularly non-patent prior art, that might otherwise not be identified by patent examiners. The better the prior art resources a patent examiner has at his or her disposal, the more likely a patent application will be assessed properly in terms of novelty and inventive step.

The role of Peer-to-Patent Australia in this regard is to act as both a facilitator of discussion and a collector of prior art submissions. Peer-to-Patent Australia collects relevant prior art references on behalf of the reviewing community and forwards that prior art to IP Australia. Section 27 of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) allows for the Commissioner of Patents to receive submissions of prior art by third parties relevant to the novelty and inventiveness of a particular patent application.


In an effort to improve surveillance capacity for the exotic red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, a lateral flow immunoassay (LFA) was recently evaluated by Biosecurity Queensland staff in Australia. The purpose of the research was to assess the ability of the fire ant LFA to discriminate S. invicta from ants found in Australia and to conduct the first field evaluation of the test. In addition to S. invicta, 36 species of ants, collected mainly from Queensland, were evaluated by the LFA, including species from the Dolichoderinae (n = 7), Formicinae (n = 13), Myrmeciinae (n = 1), Myrmicinae (n = 11), Ponerinae (n = 3) and Pseudomyrmicinae (n = 1) subfamilies. The fire ant LFA test correctly identified S. invicta in every instance. No cross reactivity was observed in the other ant species. Field tests by staff previously unfamiliar with the test resulted in suggestions for improving ant collection and manipulation. The fire ant LFA appears to be suitable for use in Australia for rapid confirmation of potential new detections of S. invicta.


Abstract. The phase estimation of cross-track multibaseline synthetic aperture interferometric data is usually thought to be very efficiently achieved using the maximum likelihood (ML) method. The suitability of this method is investigated here as applied to airborne single pass multibaseline data. Experimental interferometric data acquired with a Ka-band sensor were processed using (a) a ML method that fuses the complex data from all receivers and (b) a coarse-to-fine method that only uses the intermediate baselines to unwrap the phase values from the longest baseline. The phase noise was analyzed for both methods: in most cases, a small improvement was found when the ML method was used.


Automatic layout of tables is useful in word processing applications and is required in on-line applications because of the need to tailor the layout to the viewport width, choice of font and dynamic content. However, if the table contains text, minimizing the height of the table for a fixed maximum width is a difficult combinatorial optimization problem. We present three different approaches to finding the minimum height layout based on standard approaches for combinatorial optimization. All are guaranteed to find the optimal solution. The first is an A*-based approach that uses an admissible heuristic based on the area of the cell content. The second and third are constraint programming (CP) approaches using the same CP model. The second approach uses traditional CP search, while the third approach uses a hybrid CP/SAT approach, lazy clause generation, that uses learning to reduce the search required. We provide a detailed empirical evaluation of the three approaches and also compare them with two mixed integer programming (MIP) encodings due to Bilauca and Healy.


The Thirteenth Edition of the Harbrace is the result of an exhaustive market research effort to make a great handbook even better. Over 300 faculty members participated in reviews, surveys, focus groups, and telephone interviews. The result is the first significant revision to the Harbrace in its history. While remaining a grammar-first handbook, the Thirteenth Edition reflects a complete reorganization of chapters, new examples from contemporary writers, and a writing style that is more descriptive than prescriptive. The new Harbrace is easier to use and more accessible to students than ever.


Empirical results from long-horizon regression tests have been influential in the finance literature. Yet, it has come to be understood that traditional long-horizon tests may be unreliable in finite samples when regressors are persistent and when the horizon is long relative to sample size. Recent research has provided valid alternative inference procedures in long-horizon regression in the case for which the regressor follows a near-unit root autoregressive process. However, in small samples, such processes may sometimes be difficult to distinguish with confidence from other persistent data generating processes, such as those displaying long-memory or structural breaks. In this paper, we demonstrate a simple means by which existing nonparametric sign and signed rank tests may be applied to provide exact inference in long-horizon predictive tests, without requiring any modeling assumptions on the regressor. Employing this robust approach, we find evidence of stock return predictability at moderate horizons using short-term interest rates, but little evidence of either short or long-run predictability using dividend-price ratios.


Anticorruption in History is a timely and urgent book: corruption is widely seen today as a major problem we face as a global society, undermining trust in government and financial institutions, economic efficiency, the principle of equality before the law and human wellbeing in general. Corruption, in short, is a major hurdle on the "path to Denmark" a feted blueprint for stable and successful statebuilding. The resonance of this view explains why efforts to promote anticorruption policies have proliferated in recent years. But while the subject of corruption and anticorruption has captured the attention of politicians, scholars, NGOs and the global media, scant attention has been paid to the link between corruption and the change of anticorruption policies over time and place, with the attendant diversity in how to define, identify and address corruption. Economists, political scientists and policy-makers in particular have been generally content with tracing the differences between low-corruption and high-corruption countries in the present and enshrining them in all manner of rankings and indices. The long-term trends—social, political, economic, cultural—potentially undergirding the position of various countries plays a very small role. Such a historical approach could help explain major moments of change in the past as well as reasons for the success and failure of specific anticorruption policies and their relation to a country's image (of itself or as construed from outside) as being more or less corrupt. It is precisely this scholarly lacuna that the present volume intends to begin to fill. The book addresses a wide range of historical contexts: Ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval Eurasia, Italy, France, Great Britain and Portugal as well as studies on anticorruption in the Early Modern and Modern era in Romania, the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the former German Democratic Republic.


The study reported herein is aimed at the greenness assessment of 267 derivatisation agents that are frequently applied in analytical chemistry and related disciplines. Multicriteria decision analysis allowed obtaining three rankings of derivatisation agents applied in liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and chiral analysis. The criteria of assessment included the safety information obtained from material safety data sheets and physicochemical and environmental parameters predicted with relevant models. As for some of the agents predicted data were not available, these agents were assessed with a smaller number of criteria, within the ranking of low confidence. The results of the study will help to apply greener derivatisation agents, wherever the green chemistry principle of avoiding derivatisation cannot be fulfilled.


In this article I examine the relationship of intention and foresight in the English law of murder, through close examination of five key cases: Smith, Hyam, Nedrick, Moloney, Hancock, and Woollin. I argue that these cases waver between, and sometimes attempt to combine, two distinct perspectives: 1) The Identity View, which holds that a defendant who foresees (to a specified degree of probability) that his action will cause death or serious bodily harm can be said by definition to intend such a result; and 2) The Inference View, which recognizes that intention is conceptually distinct from foresight, but contends that a jury may infer a defendant's intention to cause death or serious bodily harm from the fact that he or she foresaw such a result would occur from the action in question. I then argue that neither approach is conceptually sound or practically useful. The Identity View is unsound because no degree of foresight can be defined as intention, and the Inference View is unsound because no degree of foresight, by itself, can be the basis of a reliable inference of intention. Furthermore, it is not easier to determine a particular defendant's foresight than his or her intent. English law, therefore, should acknowledge that acting with the purpose to cause death or seriously bodily harm and acting with a sufficient degree of foresight that one's action will cause death or seriously bodily harm are two distinct ways of satisfying the mens rea requirement for murder.