Kosrae, the Federated States of Micronesia, is a high volcanic island surrounded by a fringing reef. Along the north coast mangroves occupy the western part and sand beaches occur on the central and eastern sections. The development of erosion problems along the north coast can be traced to unforeseen ecological changes and coastal system adjustments resulting from sand extraction and reclamation projects. For the fill needed to build roads on the east coast and an airfield on the northwest coast, borrow pits, islets and an artificial channel were excavated on the reef flat.  These excavations have caused severe erosion along the north coast. The shoreline has retreated 7 to 15 m, and reef flat, mangrove and beach sediments have become coarser. These shoreline changes have been caused by ecological changes that reduced the sand supply and by trapping of longshore sediment within the borrow pits and artificial channel. Continued removal of channel sediments southwestward into Okat Bay is caused by currents in the channel, which are not controlled by tide but by waves arriving at the channel entrance, forcing water forward the southwest under most conditions. Future stability of the shoreline along the north coast can be improved by filling the borrow pits on the reef flat  building a dike between the east corner of the airfield and the mangrove, and filling part of the artificial channel north of the dike.


The CO2 adsorption uptake and enthalpies with MIL-96(Al) were assessed in the presence of up to 40% relative humidity via both experiment and simulation. Interestingly at 10% relative humidity, the water equilibrated in the pores of this MOF proffers a significant increase in affinity for CO2 at 0.2 bar, which is associated with a limited decrease in capacity. This study suggests that at medium RH, water and CO2 are able to adsorb in different regions of the structure. Indeed, such behaviour is explained by the preferential adsorption of H2O in cavities containing more hydrophilic groups including Al(1)–H2Oterminal, Al(3′)–OHterminal and Al(3)–H2Oterminal while CO2 adsorbs in the remaining, less hydrophilic cavities containing μ2-OH groups. This highlights the interest of using materials with this variety in pore chemistry as one way forward for CO2 capture in the presence of contaminants such as water.


Homelessness, Health Care and Welfare Provision is the first known publication in which service providers examine the particular difficulties encountered by homeless people in gaining access to healthcare, both in Britain and the US. Specific chapters examine the complex issue of mental health and homelessness, responses to single homeless people with drink-related problems and the particular problems experienced by young single homeless people and homeless women. _


This article considers the software problems of reuse, interoperability and evolution in the context of Ambient Intelligence. A novel approach is introduced: the Environment, Application, Adaptation (EAA) is streamlined for Ambient Intelligence and is evolved from state of the art methods used in software engineering and architecture. In the proposed approach, applications are written by using some abstract functionalities. All environment capabilities are exposed as individual services. Bridging the gap between capabilities of the environment and functionalities required by the applications is done by an adaptation layer that can be dynamically enriched and controlled by the end user. With an implementation and some examples, the approach is shown to favor development of reusable services and to enable unmodified applications to use originally unknown services.


Effective diode-pumped continuous wave (CW) tunable laser action of a new alloyed crystal Yb:LYSO is demonstrated. The alloyed LYSO crystal possesses the desirable physical and laser performance of La2SiO5 (LSO), as well as the favorable growth properties and costs of Y2SiO5 (YSO) in the same time. With a 5 at.-% Yb:LYSO sample, the output power of 2.84 W at 1085 nm and an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 54.5% are achieved. Its laser wavelength can be tuned over a broad range of 81 nm, from 1030 to 1111 nm.


We demonstrate nanoscale resolved infrared imaging of single nanoparticles employing near-field coupling in the nanoscopic gap between the metal tip of a scattering-type near-field optical microscope and the substrate supporting the particles. Experimental and theoretical evidence is provided that highly reflecting or polariton-resonant substrates strongly enhance the near-field optical particle contrast. Using Si substrates we succeeded in detecting Au particles as small as 8 nm (<lambda/1000) at midinfrared wavelengths of about lambda=10 microm. Our results open the door to infrared spectroscopy of individual nanoparticles, nanocrystals, or macromolecules.


A need to improve the present lever operated knapsack (LOK) sprayer specifications by referring to its users' specific wants and needs or voices of customers (VOC) was proposed. Quality function deployment (QFD) was adopted to systematically determine the priority items through the construction of the Phase I matrix house of quality (HOQ). Based on customer importance rating (IR) and complaints, the priority VOC related to ergonomics, performance, safety, and economy aspects of the LOK sprayer were determined. The VOC were comfortable tank, stable, less pumping, comfortable strap, light in weight, durable strap, durable trigger, durable washer/rubber seals, durable tank, selection of nozzle, and no leaking. Through the analysis of
HOQ, the priority technical requirements of the LOK sprayers were finally derived based on their high relationship with the priority VOC. The prioritized technical requirements were overall weight, leakage limit, level of body contour, height, width, depth, setting' price, tank material, lance length, strap width, length, softness level, easy to adjust, pumping frequency, setting pressure, trigger material and nozzle compatibility. The nature and degree of change to some technical requirements as caused by changes in some others could be systematically identified through a co-relationship matrix. Through these
priority technical requirements which highly correspond to the VOC of the LOK sprayers, the manufacturer will have a guideline to focus on specification improvement of the LOK sprayers in the search to systematically meet the users'
requirements. Finally, these improvements are able to increase the users' satisfaction towards manufactured LOK sprayers as the prioritized technical requirements are associated with items of their concern.


Objective Well-developed collaterals provide survival benefit in patients with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Therefore, in this study we sought to determine which clinical variables are associated with arteriogenesis. Design Clinical and laboratory variables were collected before percutaneous coronary intervention. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine which variables are associated with the collateral flow index (CFI). Patients Data from 295 chronic total occlusion (CTO) patients (Bern, Switzerland, Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Jena, Germany) were pooled. In earlier studies, patients had varying degrees of stenosis. Therefore, different stages of development of the collaterals were used. In our study, a unique group of patients with CTO was analysed. Interventions Instead of angiography used earlier, we used a more accurate method to determine CFI using intracoronary pressure measurements. CFI was calculated from the occlusive pressure distal of the coronary lesion, the aortic pressure and central venous pressure. Results The mean CFI was 0.39±0.14. After multivariate analysis, β blockers, hypertension and angina pectoris duration were positively associated with CFI (B: correlation coefficient β=0.07, SE=0.03, p=0.02, B=0.040, SE=0.02, p=0.042 and B=0.001, SE=0.000, p=0.02). Furthermore also after multivariate analysis, high serum leucocytes, prior myocardial infarction and high diastolic blood pressure were negatively associated with CFI (B=−0.01, SE=0.005, p=0.03, B=−0.04, SE=0.02, p=0.03 and B=−0.002, SE=0.001, p=0.011). Conclusions In this unique cohort, high serum leucocytes and high diastolic blood pressure are associated with poorly developed collaterals. Interestingly, the use of β blockers is associated with well-developed collaterals, shedding new light on the potential action mode of this drug in patients with CAD.


We report on an exploratory study consisting of brief case studies in selected disciplines, examining what motivates researchers to work (or want to work) in an open manner with regard to their data, results and protocols, and whether advantages are delivered by working in this way. We review the policy background to open science, and literature on the benefits attributed to open data, considering how these relate to curation and to questions of who participates in science. The case studies investigate the perceived benefits to researchers, research institutions and funding bodies of utilising open scientific methods, the disincentives and barriers, and the degree to which there is evidence to support these perceptions. Six case study groups were selected in astronomy, bioinformatics, chemistry, epidemiology, language technology and neuroimaging. The studies identify relevant examples and issues through qualitative analysis of interview transcripts. We provide a typology of degrees of open working across the research lifecycle, and conclude that better support for open working, through guidelines to assist research groups in identifying the value and costs of working more openly, and further research to assess the risks, incentives and shifts in responsibility entailed by opening up the research process are needed.


In this project relational and Lotus Notes database technology are evaluated with regard to their suitability in providing computer-based support in plant breeding in general and specifically in the production of doubled haploids. The two developed databases are compared based on a set of requirements produced together with the DH-group which is the main users of the databases. The results indicate that both Lotus Notes and the relational databases are able to fulfil all needs documented in this project, although both systems have their limitations. An often expressed opinion is that it is difficult to combine biology and databases. The experience gained in this project however suggests that it does not need to be the case in instances where data is not as complicated as often discussed. Observations made during this project indicate that data warehousing with integrated data mining and OLAP tools are surprisingly similar to how the DH-group at Svalof Weibull works and could be a suitable solution for the production of doubled haploids.


. . .

![Figure][1]

The spectacular orange-colored blossoms on the cover of this week's issue of Science are not what they appear to be. Turn to page 530, and you will find that the image is, in fact, a depiction of the network of voids in the cosmic web; each void can be tens of millions of light-years across. The eye-catching rendering is one of the winning entries in the 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

Science and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) have cosponsored this annual challenge for the past 9 years. The aim is to promote cutting-edge efforts to visualize scientific data, principles, and ideas—skills that are critical for communication among scientists and between scientists and the general public, especially students. Rapid technological change is opening new vistas in visualizing data: This year's winners include a cross-section of an eye in which different cell types are each colored a unique shade, an interactive game in which players try to mimic nature's amazing capacity for folding proteins, and a video that assembles a cell's jumble of components into an ordered assortment.

We received 212 entries from 33 countries. (U.S. entries came from 24 states and territories.) A committee of staff members from Science and NSF screened the entries and, in a new departure this year, those selected as finalists were posted on NSF's Web site, and visitors were invited to vote for their top choice in each category. A total of 3200 votes came in; entries that received the most votes were named the "People's Choice." Independently, an outside panel of experts in scientific visualization reviewed the finalists and selected the winners. The winning entries are featured on the following pages, in an online slideshow at , and at [www.nsf.gov/news/scivis][2]. Some entries were put together by large teams, not all of whose members could be listed in print; the online presentations provide more details. Tarri Joyner and Zachariah Miller of NSF organized this year's challenge. Daniel Strain of Science 's News staff wrote the text that accompanies the images in this special section.

We encourage you to submit applications for next year's challenge, details of which will be available on NSF's Web site, and to join us in celebrating this year's winners.

 [1]: pending:yes
 [2]: http://www.nsf.gov/news/scivis


For 28 years the Court held that an officer's search incident to arrest powers automatically extended to the entire passenger compartment of a vehicle. In 2009, however, the Arizona v. Gant decision held that officers do not get to search a vehicle incident to arrest unless they satisfy (1) the Chimel v. California Court's requirement that the suspect has access to weapons or evanescent evidence therein or (2) the United States v. Rabinowitz Court's requirement that the officer reasonably believe evidence of the crime of arrest will be found therein. While many scholars read Gant as a triumph for civil liberties, I see it as a failure to fully address racial profiling. Racial profiling lives on in the post-Gant era because the Court failed to prohibit pretextual searches. Cops may leave suspects near a car in order to satisfy Gant's first prong. More importantly, they will often be able to characterize the crime of arrest as suggesting there could be evidence in the car. For instance, if a distracted driver turns without signaling, what is to stop an officer from claiming she suspected the crime of Driving Under the Influence and was searching for beer cans? Nothing in the Gant decision.The Gant Court fails to address pretext because it takes a post-racial approach to racial profiling. That is, it acts as if race never matters by trying to address a problem of racism through a broader category of analysis. In Gant, that means ignoring former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's warning in her Atwater v. City of Lago Vista dissent that the search incident to arrest rule is used for racial profiling. The Gant Court thus remedies only the general problem of officers searching for weapons after they have eliminated any safety concerns, but not the specific problem of racial profiling through searches incident to arrest.Prior to Gant, scholar Donald Dripps identified an "Iron Triangle" of cases that made search incident to arrest doctrine inimical to civil liberties; I extend that metaphor and argue the problem of racial profiling stems from a "Mindless Square" of cases. Dripps points to the combination of New York v. Belton's presumption that a car may be searched, Whren v. United States's bar on considering officer motivations, and Atwater's approval of arrests for de minimis crimes. I point out that these cases draw on the earlier United States v. Robinson case's refusal to consider whether the officer actually had the state of mind that Chimel says justifies the search incident to arrest rule. Together, Robinson, Belton, Whren, and Atwater remove the officer's mind from analysis of search incident to arrest doctrine.In order to address post-Gant racial profiling, we must address the mindlessness of present doctrine. That means reinvigorating Chimel by excising the Rabinowitz prong from Gant. It also means explicitly asking whether it is overall reasonable to allow a search incident to arrest when considering whether it was a pretext for racial profiling.


Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) reduce mortality in patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy at high risk of ventricular arrhythmias (VA). However, the current indication for ICD prescription needs improvement. Telomere length and telomerase activity in leukocytes have been shown to correlate with biological aging and pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Their role in arrhythmias, however, is unknown. I examined telomere biology in ischaemic cardiomyopathy patients and established its association with VA. This study stemmed from the primary hypothesis that telomere shortening at the time of the index event (myocardial infarction), results in poor myocardial repair process and predisposes patients to greater arrhythmic tendency. Hence there would be a correlation between leukocyte telomere length, load-of-short telomeres and telomerase activity with VA occurrence in these patients. I also investigated the effect of genetic variation on telomerase activity and VA. From a basic science perspective, different mechanisms of telomere shortening were studied by using a novel method for measuring critically short telomeres. 90 ischaemic cardiomyopathy patients with primary prevention ICDs were recruited. 35 had received appropriate therapy from the ICD for potentially-fatal VA while the remaining 55 patients had not. No significant differences in baseline demographic data were seen between the two groups. There was no significant difference in the age and sex adjusted mean telomere length analysed by qPCR between the groups (p=0.66). In contrast, the loadof-short telomeres assessed by Universal-STELA method and telomerase activity by TRAP assay were both higher in patients who had appropriate ICD therapy and were significantly associated with incidence of ICD therapy 3 (p=0.02, p= 0.02). Genetic variation in telomerase activity was observed with a significant correlation between telomerase and VA in C/C genotype only. These data collectively suggest that telomere biology is a promising area of exploration for further research in risk stratification for ICD prescription.


The Fxr gene family is composed of three members, FMR1, FXR1 and FXR2. The FMR1 gene is involved in the fragile X syndrome, whereas for the other two members, no human disorder has been identified yet. An appropriate animal model to study in vivo gene function is essential to unravel the cellular function of the gene products FMRP, FXR1P and FXR2P, respectively. In Xenopus tropicalis both Fmr1 and Fxr1 were identified; however, unexpectedly Fxr2 was not. Here we describe the characterization of both Fmrp and Fxr1p in Xenopus tropicalis. Fmrp is expressed ubiquitously throughout the embryo during embryonic development, whereas Fxr1p shows a more tissue-specific expression particularly during late embryonic development. In adult frogs both proteins are highly expressed in most neurons of the central nervous system and in all spermatogenic cells in the testis. In addition, Fxr1p is also highly expressed in striated muscle tissue. Western blotting experiments revealed only one prominent isoform for both proteins using different tissue homogenates from adult frogs. Thus, for in vivo gene function studies, this relative simple animal model may serve as a highly advantageous and complementary model.


N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is a disinfection byproduct (DBP) of health concern with high precursor concentrations in wastewater effluents. Wastewater-derived NDMA precursor sorption was evaluated with both batch and column tests using a range of activated carbon (AC) types and operational conditions. NDMA and other DBP (trihalomethane, haloacetic acid, and haloacetonitrile) precursor removal, assessed using formation potential (FP) conditions, was evaluated relative to organic matter (OM) characteristics. In batch tests, lignite- and wood-based powdered ACs (PACs) achieved significantly better removal than bituminous- and coconut-based PACs. At a 5 mg L−1 dose, lignite- and wood-based PAC removed >95% of NDMA FP, while bituminous- and coconut-based PACs removed 67% and 53%, respectively. Mesoporous ACs performed better than microporous ACs. Proportional diffusivity designed rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs) with the lignite-based GAC effectively removed NDMA precursors at both 10- and 20 minute empty-bed contact times, at levels significantly better than bulk OM and the other DBP precursors. NDMA precursors exhibited linear mass-balance behavior during column runs with wastewater blends. Overall, NDMA precursors adsorbed independently from other DBP precursors and standard OM measures (e.g., TOC, UVA) in batch and column tests, showing similarities to micropollutant adsorption. Fluorescence spectroscopy OM indicators, however, showed similar adsorption behavior as NDMA precursors in column tests. Correlations using overall fluorescence intensity were developed that may be used as predictive tools for wastewater-derived NDMA precursor removal. A model based on the RSSCT results effectively predicted NDMA precursor adsorption of pilot-scale results for the same wastewater effluent and three other external data sets.


To understand Russian history without understanding serfdom--the peasant-lord relationship that shaped Russia for centuries--is impossible. Still, before Jerome Blum, no scholar had tackled the subject in depth. Monumental in scope and pathbreaking in its analysis, Lord and Peasant in Russia garnered immediate attention upon its publication in 1961, a year that also marked the one hundredth anniversary of the emancipation of the Russian serfs. As one reviewer remarked, "No better book on the subject exists; it is indispensable to the serious student of Russia." On a scale befitting Russia--a sixth of the earth's land mass--Blum's book explored in almost seven hundred pages the legal and social evolution of its predominantly agricultural population, the types of peasant status, and the multifaceted nature of the master-peasant relationship. More important, Blum was the first to articulate the necessity of placing serfs front and center in the study of Russian history. As a reviewer for the Economist wrote, "Mr. Blum has written not just a monograph on landlords and peasants in Russia but a history of Russia from a particular point of view. There is no denying that the history of a country where ...a bare 13 percent of the population was urban can with impunity be written in terms of landlords and peasants." In 1962, it was awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association; it remains a cornerstone of Russian historiography.


This article analyses the narratives of impact-driven transition research in the field of sustainability studies. It reconstructs patterns of narrations at a discourse level. Departing from the understanding that narrating is a fundamental mode of communication and education, this contribution is ultimately driven by the commitment to understand how narrativity can be improved in order to reach more effective rhetoric for sustainability research. The article starts by describing the dilemma sustainability researchers might find themselves in regarding their position vis-a-vis society and politics. This dilemma seems to shape the narratives researchers use for describing their work. After conceptualizing narratives on a structural level, findings from a comprehensive qualitative interview study are presented and discussed. We find that sustainability researchers can be clustered in five different types, depending on their affinity or distance to real-world sustainability processes, their propensity to either incremental reforms or transformative change and the relationship between environmental and social concerns in the context of the sustainability concept. Furthermore, we find that critical-constructive transformative research encounters challenges when narrating about its position vis-a-vis society and policy-making in the process of formulating goals and working towards them. We identified a tension between leaning stronger either towards independent, critical goal formulation or towards an engagement with actual political processes. Maintaining the ability to change roles between the process-involved and the process-observing sustainability researcher might be a promising way out for those dedicated to workings towards sustainability transitions.


The comet assay was used to examine radiation workers who deal with radioisotopes such as iodine-125, iodine-131 and technetium-99m. In this study, lymphocytes from test and control donors were exposed to γ-radiation at 0, 1, 2, 4 and 6 Gy. A significant difference (P < 0.05) between the test and the control group in the level of initial damage was observed immediately after exposure. In addition, the level of the residual damage of samples from the test group after 24 hours was slightly higher than the control group. The subsequent measurement of the ratio of residual/initial breaks, representing the fraction of remained DNA break, demonstrated a lower value in the test group. These results indicated an enhanced DNA repair in the test group that led to the decline in residual/initial ratio. However, the high initial damage might be due to the presence of fragile sites in the genome of the test group.


In this study the relationship between attention, embodiment, and consciousness is posited as the central question. Specifically, what are the current assumptions of these connections in popular ADHD literature, and how might a different conceptual model of attention more fully represent attention and its connections to learning as intended in lived experience? This question will be explored non-empirically through a synthesis of popular ADHD literature, a philosophical exploration of how attention relates to consciousness, and a phenomenological queering of attentional models to more fully represent an embodied understanding of attention with respect to race class and gender. As a central conclusion, popular ADHD literature tacitly assumes a misunderstanding of the relationship between the mind and the body in relation to attention and consciousness. This holds problems for a fully dynamic understanding of attention and its implications for pedagogy. A reoriented multidimensional approach to attention that reflects a more subtle understanding of the embodied subject more accurately represents attention and its connections to consciousness as understood in lived experience.


Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) are vascular malformations in the brain and spinal cord. The familial form of cerebral cavernous malformation (FCCM) is uncommon. This autosomal dominant pathology mostly presents with seizures and focal neurological symptoms. Many persons affected by FCCM remain asymptomatic. However, acute hemorrhages may appear over time. MRI demonstrates multiple focal regions of susceptibility induced signal loss, well seen on gradient-echo sequences (GRE) or even better on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI). The presence of a single CCM – especially in young persons – without history of FCCM does not exclude this diagnosis. Some clinicians also advise an MRI of the spinal cord at the time of diagnosis to serve as a baseline and a control MRI of the brain every one to two years. MRI is certainly indicated in individuals with obvious new neurologic symptoms. Symptomatic siblings should also undergo an MRI of the brain to determine presence, size, and location of the lesions. Even in asymptomatic siblings, a screening MRI may be considered, as there may be an increased risk of hemorrhage, spontaneous or due to the use of certain medications; the knowledge of the presence and the type of these lesions are important. Surgical removal of a CCM may be justified to prevent a life-threatening hemorrhage. Control MRI may reveal the postoperative outcome.


The Rockalliadae, a new family of Cytheracean Ostracoda, is erected based on Rockallia Whatley, Frame & Whittaker, 1978 and an undescribed genus from the Tertiary of Argentinian Patagonia. Rockallia, hitherto monotypic, is augmented by the description herein of five new species: R. eocenica, R. vscripta and R. inceptiocelata from the Eocene, Neogene and Quaternary of the S.W. Pacific respectively and R. woutersi and R. sp. from the Oligocene and Miocene of N.W. Europe. The older species seem to have lived in relatively shallow water while the younger species are exclusively bathyal and abyssal. The genus is rediagnosed and its origins, evolutionary development and dispersal are discussed.


RAYMOND F. MIKESELL [*] The Bretton Woods institutions have been subjected to a variety of criticisms in recent years and have been faced with severe problems in carrying out their objectives. The International Monetary Fund (IME) and the World Bank have not performed in accordance with the original intentions of their founders. As shown in this article, this is in large measure because the world economic environment has been quite different from that envisaged by the participants in the Bretton Woods conference. Many of the original intended functions for these institutions are no longer relevant. This article examines the current problems facing the IME and World Bank, with special attention to how they are related to the original intentions. For example, in recent years, a major problem has been the financial crises of member countries that have liberalized their economies in line with trends toward globalization. These crises have resulted in demands on the IMF and World Bank for financial assistance for purposes other than those for which their assistance was originally designed. Other problems of the two institutions include providing assistance to the world's poorest countries that have made virtually no development progress in recent years, and assisting the former communist countries in transition to market economies. The author gives his personal views on how these and other problems of the IMF and World Bank should be dealt with. (JEL F31, F33) I. INTRODUCTION The policies and functions of the Bretton Woods institutions--the International Monetary Fund (IME) and the World Bank--have in recent decades differed substantially from the intentions of the participants in the Bretton Woods conference of July 1944. The IMF was an agreement to stabilize currencies and avoid restrictive exchange practices. It provided short-term liquidity to members with current account deficits, conditioned on their taking measures to restore balance of payments equilibrium. The World Bank was intended to make loans and guarantees for post--World War II reconstruction and for economic development. Although there was agreement at Bretton Woods on these general functions, there was disagreement on a number of issues, particularly those relating to policies and activities of the IMF. The intentions of the conference participants were not fully or clearly reflected in the Articles of Agreements or charters of the two institutions drafted at the 1944 conference. The provisions of the IMF charte r were a compromise between U.S. and British positions set forth in an agreement negotiated prior to Bretton Woods. Some of the provisions of the IMF charter were interpreted differently by the representatives of the two countries, and there was far from full agreement among the delegates of the forty-four countries participating in the conference on the text of the IMF charter (Mikesell, 1994). The conference was dominated by the Americans and British, and although many alternative provisions of the charters were debated, the basic provisions that had been agreed to by the Americans and British prior to the conference were adopted by unanimous vote. For these reasons, the intentions of the participants regarding some of the important policies of the two institutions were far from uniform. However, changes in the world economy over the past half century have made many of the differences in intentions irrelevant. For example, the World Bank was intended to play a major role in postwar reconstruction, but this function was taken over by the Marshall Plan. Likewise, the role of the IMF for promoting convertibility of the currencies of the major countries was supplanted by the European Payments Union under the management of the Bank for International Settlements, which resulted in the interconvertibility of European currencies but not their convertibility into dollars. As a consequence, the IMF and Worl d Bank made few loans to developed countries, and both institutions mainly provide financial assistance and advice to developing countries. …


The structural pattern set by late Precambrian rifting and fragmentation of the North American continent is apparent in both sedimentary and tectonic trends in western Utah and eastern Nevada. The late Precambrian cratonic margin (Cordilleran hingeline) displays several prominent structural features, such as the Wasatch and Ancient Ephraim faults, Fillmore arch and northeast-trending lineaments, which were repeatedly reactivated as structural uplifts, ramps, strike-slip faults, and extensional detachments. The renewed activity affected, among others, the geometry of the late Paleozoic Ancestral Rocky Mountain uplifts and basins, the extent of the Jurassic Arapien basin, the sedimentary pattern of the Cretaceous foreland basin, the geometry of the Sevier orogenic belt, and the extent and type of Basin-and-Range extensional tectonics. The rifted cratonic margin has thus remained a major influence on regional structures long after rifting has ceased.


Birds and humans have coexisted for thousands of i years but not always harmoniously. In this article, I will address how human behavior has affected bird populations both
intentionally and unintentionally. As you know, humans eat birds, but did you know that we also use bird feathers for fashion and furniture? We have even trained birds to hunt rabbits and catch fish.
Today, federal and state laws in the United States prohibit the killing of birds for their feathers, and similar legislation regulates the hunting of game birds. But despite these efforts, the relationship between birds and humans is strained, particularly in the case of cormorants. Students can learn a great deal by studying this controversial bird, including how human behavior affects the environment.


We have investigated the Imbert-Fedorov (IF) shift, commonly known as the Spin Hall effect of light, due to monolayer graphene on SiO2/Si. We have numerically calculated the transverse IF shifts using the transfer matrix method and determined which incident wavelength gives the maximum shift. We have calculated physical shifts of up to 1.6μm when using 45o linearly polarized and 543-nm wavelength incident light. This study presents the potential of the Spin Hall effect of light as a tool for characterization of graphene and other 2D materials.


The Seventh International Conference on the Genetics of Streptococci, Lactococci, and Enterococci, sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology, was held 18 to 21 June 2006, overlooking the sea in Saint Malo, Bretagne, France. The conference began in 1981 as the Streptococcal Genetics meeting, at a time when the genera Enterococcus and Lactococcus were still classified as Streptococcus spp. Through the years, this meeting has served as a quadrennial platform to showcase cutting-edge advances in the dissection of the underlying genetics of growth control, metabolism, extrachromosomal elements, substrate utilization, competence development, antibiotic resistance, and virulence of this fascinating group of organisms. The penultimate meeting, held in 2002, focused heavily on then-recent advances made through bacterial and phage genome-sequencing projects. The meeting in Saint Malo highlighted the remarkable progress over the last 4 years in the areas of functional and comparative genomics that was spawned by the large-scale sequencing projects completed early this century. Some of these advances are summarized in this review of the oral sessions of the programs, and additional reports published in this issue of the Journal of Bacteriology provide a more detailed glimpse of the tremendous insights gained through genetic analysis of this unique group of eubacteria.


textabstractThe thesis deals with innovation and entrepreneurship in China. Despite an institutional environment characterized by high levels of uncertainty, innovation thrives even in the technology-based sectors. The research asks for explanations how innovative capabilities are developed in such an adverse institutional environment. For analyzing the institutional environment the research relies on comparative institutional approaches while approaches from the capabilities and resource-based theories, innovation management and China studies are used for explaining the behaviour of firms. The thesis is based on 2 years of extensive field research in cooperation with 45 Chinese entrepreneurs and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. The findings suggest that Chinese entrepreneurs develop particular innovative capabilities in response to particular technical, market and institutional opportunities and constraints. One of the key insights is that innovation, in a broad understanding, can take place in an environment with institutional uncertainty and limited formal protection of intellectual property rights. On the one hand, institutional uncertainty creates both restrictions and incentives for innovation, and, on the other hand, firms are able to develop specific innovative capabilities that manage sectoral constraints while fighting off institutional constraints.


This work shows the modification of microcrystalline cellulose by the selective oxidation of primary hydroxyl groups to carboxylate groups by a 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical (TEMPO)-mediated system and its application as a heterogeneous ligand by ionic exchange with catalytic metals ions such as palladium, nickel and copper. Afterwards is described the application of the synthesized material as catalyst in coupling reactions such as Suzuki-Miyaura coupling and C−O bond formation reaction in different conditions, which are of great importance for the synthesis of drugs, natural products and new materials such as dendrimers, liquid crystals and polymers with magnetic and optical properties. The carboxyl cellulose matrix shows to have superior catalytic results as a ligand for all coupling reactions. Can be also highlighted the affinity of the carboxyl cellulose ligand in polar solvents such as water and alcohols and its application in mild conditions.


A growing number of cities and municipalities in Sweden begin to work with city models in 3D. For the most part the models are used for visualizations of ongoing planning processes, but also for the analysis of noise, shadow studies and environmental disaster simulations.Gothenburg continues to develop the use of 3D maps in municipal operations and is demanding a way to create building elements (walls), which generates in 3D buildings, from roof constructions that are mapped from the primary map. A method has been investigated in the present study. The results are then presented as a 3D model of buildings, along with a terrain map that will facilitate the localization of the area. The created 3D buildings are then compared with roof-data from the primary map to see how well they harmonize with each other. Then also the handling and storage of three-dimensional data with the information model CityGML is investigated. A specification of the requirements and characteristics that the customer, the City Planning in Gothenburg, looks are essential for building modeling in 3D has also been established.The final result shows of 4% increase in the plane of 3D buildings compared to primary map. The increase would be slightly greater if the comparison is made on the volume instead. The results also revealed that the increase in plan is something that has occurred during the creation of the roof constructions, which was something that I couldn't have affected during the work. The results also show that the CityGML is an appropriate information model for storage and handling of 3D. Gothenburg still have insufficient knowledge of CityGML, which is also one of the reasons why the information model hasn't been implemented in the municipality work with 3D models.


Data are now accumulating which clearly demonstrate that the stress state plays a strong role in the development of void and dislocation microstructure in metals during neutron irradiation. In these experiments the application of a tensile biaxial stress state at constant fluence and temperature has been found to lead to a progressively decreasing metal density with increasing stress. The effect of stress on the concurrent development of voids, Frank interstitial loops, and dislocation networks has been studied with transmission electron microscopy. The results of these experiments clearly show that the densities of both Frank loops and voids are enhanced by a tensile stress field, with the relevant operating variable being the hydrostatic stress. More importantly it appears that any anisotropy in the stress field is reflected in a corresponding anisotropy that develops in the number of Frank loops that form on the various (111) planes. The loop density that develops on each plane exhibits a clear and direct dependence on the resolved normal stress component at each plane. Although the data from these experiments have been interpreted previously to support the existence of stress-assisted nucleation mechanisms for both loops and voids, further analysis has shown both of these explanations to be deficient in one or more respects, and both models have been replaced. Whereas a previous analysis of these data invoked as the dominant process an effect of stress on the rate of thermal re-emission of vacancies by voids, this process has been found to be too slow at the temperature at which the experiments were conducted to account for the magnitude of the observed perturbation. The current model employs as the dominant process the effect of stress on changing the capture efficiency of voids for interstitials. The stress-assisted nucleation model for Frank loops has been replaced with a stress-assisted growth model arising from the stress-induced preferential absorption (SIPA) mechanism of irradiation creep. Several previously unresolved problems arising from the earlier interpretation of the data set have been reconciled with the new model. The current analysis of this data field yields two additional significant results that were not part of the original experimental objectives. For the first time the existence of the proposed SIPA mechanism of irradiation creep has been validated by a convincing microstructural record of its existence. The initially perplexing but consistent anisotropy of planar loop populations in the absence of externally applied stresses has also revealed the existence and magnitude of internal stresses generated in polycrystalline materials during irradiation.


Cybersecurity testing of automotive systems has become a practical necessity, with the wide adoption of advanced driving assistance functions and vehicular communications. These functionalities require the integration of information and communication technologies that not only allow for a plethora of on-the-fly configuration abilities, but also provide a huge surface for attacks. Theses circumstances have also been recognized by standardization and regulation bodies, making the need for not only proper cybersecurity engineering but also proving the effectiveness of security measures by verification and validation through testing also a formal necessity. In order to keep pace with the rapidly growing demand of neutral-party security testing of vehicular systems, novel approaches are needed. This paper therefore presents a methodology to create and execute cybersecurity test cases on the fly in a black box setting by using pattern matching-based binary analysis and translation mechanisms to formal attack descriptions as well as model-checking techniques. The approach is intended to generate meaningful attack vectors on a system with next-to-zero a priori knowledge.


Abstract: In recent years, research on tropical forest conservation has increasingly focused on traditional management systems as a means of achieving a balance between conservation and development. Styrax paralleloneurum, a forest‐canopy tree species that produces benzoin, an aromatic resin, is cultivated in such a system. This study is an attempt to determine the impact of benzoin garden management on forest structure, species composition, and diversity. Forty‐five gardens were chosen for study in two Northern Sumatra villages, where data on management practices and ecological structure were gathered. Ecological information was also collected from abandoned benzoin gardens and primary forest areas for purposes of comparison. Although benzoin management requires that competing vegetation be thinned, these activities are not intensive, allowing species that coppice to remain in the garden and thereby reducing the effects of competitive exclusion mechanisms on species composition. Tree species diversity in abandoned gardens was similar to that in primary forest, but endemic species and species characteristic of mature habitats were less common. Traditional benzoin garden management represents only a low‐intensity disturbance and maintains an ecological structure that allows effective accumulation of forest species over the long term.


As the gap between the need for organ transplants and the supply of organs has increasingly widened, many scholars have urged the adoption of presumed consent to organ donation. Under a presumed consent regime, the state would assume that a person agreed to organ donation after death unless the person (or a family member) had lodged an objection to posthumous organ donation. Such an assumption would reverse existing law - currently, it is generally the case that organ donation requires actual consent from the donor or a family member of the donor. For some forty years in a little-known experiment, the United States tried presumed consent on a limited basis. In many states, when dead persons came under the custody of coroners or medical examiners, those officials could authorize cornea donation - or even organ donation - in the absence of a known objection to the donation by the decedent or a family member. However, in 2006, the Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act recommended against presumed consent, and most states have followed the lead of the Revised Act. This article reviews the history of presumed consent in the United States and concludes that presumed consent failed because it could not overcome the major reason why people do not become organ donors after death - the refusal of family members to give consent to donation. To the extent that presumed consent allowed family members to overcome the presumption and withhold consent, it did not address the reasons why family members say no. To the extent that professionals tried to preserve the presumption by bypassing families, they validated fears that doctors will be too quick to take organs from dead persons who would not have wanted their organs removed. The United States' history with presumed consent indicates that other proposed reforms will be needed to address the shortage of organs for transplantation.


This paper presents a pulse doubling technique in a 12-pulse ac-dc converter which supplies direct torque controlled motor drives (DTCIMDs) in order to have better power quality conditions at the point of common coupling. The proposed technique increases the number of rectification pulses without significant changes in the installations and yields in harmonic reduction in both ac and dc sides. The 12-pulse rectified output voltage is accomplished via two paralleled six-pulse acdc converters each of them consisting of three-phase diode bridge rectifiers. An autotransformer is designed to supply the rectifiers. The design procedure of magnetics is in a way such that makes it suitable for retrofit applications where a six-pulse diode bridge rectifier is being utilized. Independent operation of paralleled diode-bridge rectifiers, i.e. dc-ripple re-injection methodology, requires a Zero Sequence Blocking Transformer (ZSBT). Finally, a tapped interphase reactor is connected at the output of ZSBT to double the pulse numbers of output voltage up to 24 pulses. The aforementioned structure improves power quality criteria at ac mains and makes them consistent with the IEEE-519 standard requirements for varying loads. Furthermore, near unity power factor is obtained for a wide range of DTCIMD operation. A comparison is made between 6-pulse, 12-pulse, and proposed converters from view point of power quality indices. Results show that input current total harmonic distortion (THD) is less than 5% for the proposed topology at various loads.


Abstract. In spite of geophysics being used increasingly, it is often unclear how and when the integration of geophysical data and models can best improve the construction and predictive capability of groundwater models. This paper uses a newly developed HYdrogeophysical TEst-Bench (HYTEB) that is a collection of geological, groundwater and geophysical modeling and inversion software to demonstrate alternative uses of electromagnetic (EM) data for groundwater modeling in a hydrogeological environment consisting of various types of glacial deposits with typical hydraulic conductivities and electrical resistivities covering impermeable bedrock with low resistivity (clay). The synthetic 3-D reference system is designed so that there is a perfect relationship between hydraulic conductivity and electrical resistivity. For this system it is investigated to what extent groundwater model calibration and, often more importantly, model predictions can be improved by including in the calibration process electrical resistivity estimates obtained from TEM data. In all calibration cases, the hydraulic conductivity field is highly parameterized and the estimation is stabilized by (in most cases) geophysics-based regularization. For the studied system and inversion approaches it is found that resistivities estimated by sequential hydrogeophysical inversion (SHI) or joint hydrogeophysical inversion (JHI) should be used with caution as estimators of hydraulic conductivity or as regularization means for subsequent hydrological inversion. The limited groundwater model improvement obtained by using the geophysical data probably mainly arises from the way these data are used here: the alternative inversion approaches propagate geophysical estimation errors into the hydrologic model parameters. It was expected that JHI would compensate for this, but the hydrologic data were apparently insufficient to secure such compensation. With respect to reducing model prediction error, it depends on the type of prediction whether it has value to include geophysics in a joint or sequential hydrogeophysical model calibration. It is found that all calibrated models are good predictors of hydraulic head. When the stress situation is changed from that of the hydrologic calibration data, then all models make biased predictions of head change. All calibrated models turn out to be very poor predictors of the pumping well's recharge area and groundwater age. The reason for this is that distributed recharge is parameterized as depending on estimated hydraulic conductivity of the upper model layer, which tends to be underestimated. Another important insight from our analysis is thus that either recharge should be parameterized and estimated in a different way, or other types of data should be added to better constrain the recharge estimates.


1. Abstract The multi-step synthesis of a boronic acid-based oligosaccharide receptor is described. T he proposed molecule was synthesized with the aim of developing a sensor that could be tuned to bind specific oligosaccharides on the cell surface. T his receptor consisted of a meso -substituted tetraphenylporphyrin scaffold. 5,15-bis(4-cyanophenyl)-10,20-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) porphyrin was first coordinated to a zinc ion. Polyethylene glycol chains were then added to the phenols of the porphyrin with hopes of increasing water solubility. The alcohol groups of the PEG chains were then protected from base by dihydropyran, and reduction of the cyano groups with LiAlH 4 followed. Subsequent refluxing in acid resulted in the removal of the alcohol-protecting groups and the zinc as well as the oxidation of any reduced porphyrin. T he reductive amination of formylphenylboronic acid by the porphyrin resulted in the incorporation of two boronic acid functional groups. Upon purification, this porphyrin will be used in saccharide binding experiments to test the specific porphyrin-sugar interactions. These interactions will possibly be studied through the use of affinity chromatography, utilizing a solid phase such as Sephadex. This study may also ultimately provide a method for purification of the boronic acid porphyrin, which has not yet been easily conducted using conventional column chromatography.


We predict estuaries to be hotspots of hybridisation between migratory marine and estuary-restricted species, although hybridisation rates may vary in space and time, reflecting the dynamic nature of estuaries and potentially widespread but erratic dispersal of marine taxa. Within estuaries, genotype frequencies may reflect past hybridisation events, with genetically intermediate and backcrossed individuals contributing to persistent hybrid swarms. In southeastern Australia, hybridisation has occurred between estuarine black bream Acanthopagrus butcheri and marine yel- lowfin bream A. australis, but it is unclear whether this reflects a contemporary process. We recently found that, within lakes and lagoons at the southern range limit of A. australis, hybrids were abun- dant and A. butcheri extremely rare, and surprisingly, we detected hybrids within a small sample of fish from the Gippsland Lakes, an estuary 250 km further south. In the present study, we compare the genotypic composition of the contemporary Gippsland Lakes population of Acanthopagrus spp. with the historical composition revealed by analysis of museum specimens. The genetic makeup of sam- ples varied little over time, with ancestral A. butcheri virtually absent, and most introgressed individ- uals matching expectation for later-generation hybrids or A. butcheri backcrosses, suggesting that the lakes have supported persistent hybrid swarms. At each sampling time, the samples were genet- ically diverse, as measured by mean number of alleles per locus, which ranged from 8.2 to 9.2, and expected heterozygosity (He), which ranged from 0.66 to 0.70; however, we detected little allelic dif- ferentiation (FST = 0.003) across sampling times. Our data imply that introgressed populations of Acanthopagrus spp. are more widespread and persistent than previously predicted.


[1] The first swath bathymetry and side-scan sonar imagery from the South Sandwich forearc reveals detailed seafloor morphology, tectonic fabric, and sedimentary features in an area where plate convergence is approximately normal to the trench. Simultaneously collected seismic reflection, gravity, and magnetic data provide information about the structure and composition of the forearc crust. Interpretation of these data together with the marine magnetic record of seafloor spreading in the east Scotia Sea back arc basin since 15 Ma has enabled quantitative estimation of sediment subduction and subduction erosion rates. Any accretionary prism present is constrained to be very small, extending 6 km or less from the trench. The contrast between this result and a time-integrated estimate of potential accretionary prism volume suggests that >95% of the sediment which has entered the trench since 15 Ma has been subducted. The position of the South Sandwich island arc in relation to back arc magnetic lineations implies that the arc has migrated ∼70 km westward relative to the Sandwich plate since 15 Ma. Taking account of published observations concerning the typical geometric evolution of arc-trench systems, the average rate of forearc slope retreat during this interval is inferred to be 3.1–4.7 km Myr−1. Gravity modeling suggests that the forearc crust averages ≤10 km in thickness within 110 km of the trench. For 10-km-thick forearc crust the rate of slope retreat implies an average rate of subduction erosion of forearc crust of 31–47 km3 km−1 Myr−1. At the present convergence rate of 74 km Myr−1 this erosion rate requires a 420–635 m thick layer of subducting material derived from the forearc crust. A time-integrated estimate of the potential volume of forearc-derived trench fill sediments subducted since 15 Ma implies that frontal erosion can only account for <40% of total subduction erosion. Therefore basal erosion must significantly exceed frontal erosion. The new data also provide insights concerning forearc strain regime and forearc basin evolution in the area studied. Extensional faulting near the trench slope break is probably caused by gravitational instability of the steep lower forearc slope. A lack of extensional strain indicators in the upper forearc and arc may be a consequence of the fact that the east Scotia Sea is a mature back arc basin contributing significant "ridge push" in the vicinity of the arc. The data reveal no evidence of arc-parallel extension or of large serpentinite seamounts, as found in the Mariana forearc, and a causal link between these two observations is proposed. Seismic profiles across the forearc basin suggest that the balance between sediment accumulation and erosion is sensitive to changes in the elevation of the trench slope break. It is hypothesized that the basin is a dynamic feature which goes through repeated cycles of growth and destruction controlled by cyclic uplift and collapse of the trench slope break.


NotePals is an ink-based, collaborative note taking application that runs on personal digital assistants (PDAs). Meeting participants write notes in their own handwriting on a PDA. These notes are shared with other participants by synchronizing later with a shared note repository that can be viewed using a desktop-based web browser. NotePals is distinguished by its lightweight process, interface, and hardware. This demonstration illustrates the design of two different NotePals clients and our web-based note browser.


Prescriptive easements form an important but often overlooked building block in the architecture of property law. Prescription, the doctrine that allows a long-term user of another's land to acquire a prescriptive easement burdening that land without compensating the owner, transforms a trespass into a permanent property right good against the world. Of all the elements of prescription, adverse use or adversity is often the most intensely disputed and often proves to be outcome determinative. Given its importance to prescriptive easement claims, courts have developed a number of presumptions to frame their analysis of the adversity element. For many years, leading treatise writers have advised that if a prescriptive easement claimant establishes that otherwise unexplained use of another's land has occurred in an open and notorious manner and continued without interruption for the statutory prescription period, the claimant's use is presumed to have been adverse to the owner. The same leading authorities acknowledge that a minority of courts employ the opposite presumption—that otherwise unexplained use is presumed to be permissive.

It turns out that the vast majority of U.S. courts employ a hybrid approach to this question, starting with a presumption of adverse use but then applying counter-presumptions of permissive use in a number of special circumstances. This Article urges the reporters currently preparing the Restatement of the Law Fourth Property (Restatement Fourth) to institutionalize this hybrid approach and fashion a black letter rule that mirrors the dominant judicial practice. In support of this position, this Article first reviews previous Restatement attempts to clarify the law of prescriptive easements. Next, it analyzes academic scholarship that has defended prescription and its doctrinal cousin, adverse possession, called for their abolition, or advocated for their reform. Finally, this Article offers a detailed discussion of relevant case law in all fifty states and explains why the hybrid approach, what this Article calls the Presumption of Adverse Use with Specialized Exceptions (the PAUSE approach), is consistent with many of the institutional goals of the Restatement Fourth reporters, especially their aim to articulate relatively invariant property rules and yet identify appropriate places for property law to be responsive to context, social norms, and customs.


The synthesis and characterization of a novel two-photon-absorbing fluorene derivative, LT1, selective for the lysosomes of HCT 116 cancer cells, is reported. Linear and nonlinear photophysical and photochemical properties of the probe were investigated to evaluate the potential of the probe for two-photon fluorescence microscopy (2PFM) lysosomal imaging. The cytotoxicity of the probe was investigated to evaluate the potential of using this probe for live two-photon fluorescence biological imaging applications. Colocalization studies of the probe with commercial Lysotracker Red in HCT 116 cells demonstrated the specific localization of the probe in the lysosomes with an extremely high colocalization coefficient (0.96). A figure of merit was introduced to allow comparison between probes. LT1 has a number of properties that far exceed those of commercial lysotracker probes, including higher two-photon absorption cross sections, good fluorescence quantum yield, and, importantly, high photostability, all resulting in a superior figure of merit. 2PFM was used to demonstrate lysosomal tracking with LT1.


This document provides an overview of the long-term care system, the number and develop-ment of beneficiaries and the long-term care policy in Denmark. The report is part of the first stage of the European project ANCIEN (Assessing Needs of Care in European Nations), commissioned by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The first part of the project aims to facilitate structured comparison of the long-term care systems and policies in European Nations. Thus, this report is one of comparable reports provided for most European countries.


Sexuality and ethnicity are potent categories, especially in combination. In news reporting, the ways in which such categories are symbolically mobilised may seem very much of the present, but such uses are often deeply rooted in the past and reproduce stock notions that were developed in previous historical formations. The present article takes a front-page tabloid news story as an example of how this can operate. It shows how the story draws on various stereotypical representations of female and black sexuality on the one hand, white European and black African social arrangements on the other. Its narrative structure privileges and silences certain "voices" in the narrative, and uses what these "voices" say to support its key thematic template. The discourse of the story is schematically organised around this template, which deals in long-established binary conceptions of civilisation and primitiveness, and strategically opposed values of social responsibility and personal fulfilment. These are reinforced not only by the various textual features of the narrative, but also by its intertextual relation to the other, subsidiary, front-page story in the same edition of the newspaper. The lead story plays fear and fascination off against each other as its key point of interest, and in doing so ensures that various gender and racial myths and stereotypes are maintained in ideological circulation.


The embryonic lethal phenotype observed when DDK females are crossed with males from other strains results from a deleterious interaction between the egg cytoplasm and the paternal pronucleus soon after fertilization. We have previously mapped the Om locus responsible for this phenotype, called the DDK syndrome, to an approximately 2-cM region of chromosome 11. Here, we report the generation of a physical map of 28 yeast and bacterial artificial chromosome clones encompassing the entire genetic interval containing the Om locus. This contig, spanning approximately 2 Mb, was used to map precisely genes and genetic markers of the region. We determined the maximum physical interval for Om to be 1400 kb. In addition, 11 members of the Scya gene family were found to be organized into two clusters at the borders of the Om region. Two other genes (Rad51l3 and Schlafen 2) and one EST (D11Wsu78e) were also mapped in the Om region. This integrated map provides support for the identification of additional candidate genes for the DDK syndrome.


We study the convergence of several natural policy gradient (NPG) methods in infinite-horizon discounted Markov decision processes with regular policy parametrizations. For a variety of NPGs and reward functions we show that the trajectories in state-action space are solutions of gradient flows with respect to Hessian geometries, based on which we obtain global convergence guarantees and convergence rates. In particular, we show linear convergence for unregularized and regularized NPG flows with the metrics proposed by Kakade and Morimura and co-authors by observing that these arise from the Hessian geometries of conditional entropy and entropy respectively. Further, we obtain sublinear convergence rates for Hessian geometries arising from other convex functions like log-barriers. Finally, we interpret the discrete-time NPG methods with regularized rewards as inexact Newton methods if the NPG is defined with respect to the Hessian geometry of the regularizer. This yields local quadratic convergence rates of these methods for step size equal to the inverse penalization strength.


We derive the force of the electromagnetic radiation on material objects by a direct application of the Lorentz law of classical electrodynamics. The derivation is straightforward in the case of solid metals and solid dielectrics, where the mass density and the optical constants of the media are assumed to remain unchanged under internal and external pressures, and where material flow and deformation can be ignored. For metallic mirrors, we separate the contribution to the radiation pressure of the electrical charge density from that of the current density of the conduction electrons. In the case of dielectric media, we examine the forces experienced by bound charges and currents, and determine the contribution of each to the radiation pressure. These analyses reveal the existence of a lateral radiation pressure inside the dielectric media, one that is exerted at and around the edges of a finite-diameter light beam. The lateral pressure turns out to be compressive for s-polarized light and expansive for p-polarized light. Along the way, we derive an expression for the momentum density of the light field inside dielectric media, one that has equal contributions from the traditional Minkowski and Abraham forms. This new expression for the momentum density, which contains both electromagnetic and mechanical terms, is used to explain the behavior of light pulses and individual photons upon entering and exiting a dielectric slab. In all the cases considered, the net forces and torques experienced by material bodies are consistent with the relevant conservation laws. Our method of calculating the radiation pressure can be used in conjunction with numerical simulations to yield the distribution of fields and forces in diverse systems of practical interest.


In this article, contrary to popular belief, it is argued on the basis of transaction cost economics that consumers will become subcontractors on electronic markets. The effects of this tendency counter the benefits that might accrue to them as a result of product differentiation and price discrimination by firms, and is in actual fact an inescapable part of electronic markets, given the nature of the products and market mechanisms one should expect. Consumers invest time and effort building up a relation with an e-tailer; an investment that is idiosyncratic. The e-tailer only needs to invest in generic assets that enable him to automate the process of collecting and processing customer information needed in order to differentiate between products and discriminate between prices. The consumer becomes a dependent subcontractor.


Objective. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of civamide cream 0.075% for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. Methods. We conducted a 12-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind study with a 52-week open-label extension. Patients with OA of the knee received either civamide cream 0.075% or a lower dose of civamide cream, 0.01%, as the control. The 3 co-primary endpoints in the double-blind study were the time-weighted average (TWA) of change from baseline to Day 84 in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain subscale, the WOMAC physical function subscale, and the Subject Global Evaluation (SGE). In the 52-week open-label extension study, the Osteoarthritis Pain Score and SGE were assessed. Results. A total of 695 patients were randomized to receive civamide cream 0.075% (n = 351) or civamide cream 0.01% (control; n = 344) in the double-blind study. Significance in favor of civamide cream 0.075% was achieved for the TWA for all 3 co-primary efficacy variables: WOMAC pain (p = 0.009), WOMAC physical function (p < 0.001), and SGE (p = 0.008); and at Day 84 for these 3 variables (p = 0.013, p < 0.001, and p = 0.049, respectively). These analyses accounted for significant baseline-by-treatment interactions. In the 52-week open-label extension, efficacy was maintained. Civamide cream 0.075% was well tolerated throughout the studies. Conclusion. These studies demonstrate the efficacy of civamide cream for up to 1 year of continuous use. Civamide cream, with its lack of systemic absorption, does not have the potential for serious systemic toxicity, in contrast to several other OA treatments.


There is an ongoing paradigm shift in manufacturing, in which the modern manufacturing industry is changing towards global manufacturing networks and supply chains. This will lead to the flexible usage of different globally distributed, scalable and sustainable, service-oriented manufacturing systems and resources. Combining recently emerged technologies, such as Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Semantic Web, service-oriented technologies, virtualisation and advanced high-performance computing technologies, with advanced manufacturing models and information technologies, Cloud Manufacturing is a new manufacturing paradigm built on resource sharing, supporting and driving this change. It is envisioned that companies in all sectors of manufacturing will be able to package their resources and know-hows in the Cloud, making them conveniently available for others through pay-as-you-go, which is also timely and economically attractive. Resources, e.g. manufacturing software tools, applications, knowledge and fabrication capabilities and equipment, will then be made accessible to presumptive consumers on a worldwide basis. Cloud Manufacturing has been in focus for a great deal of research interest and suggested applications during recent years, by both industrial and academic communities. After surveying a vast array of available publications, this paper presents an up-to-date literature review together with identified outstanding research issues, and future trends and directions within Cloud Manufacturing.


Observations, around the North Sea, have been collected for twenty stations in the British Isles and for fifteen stations on the Continent during the period 6 to 10 January 1949, and used in a discussion of a large storm disturbance on 8 January. The primary object of the investigation has been to get a picture of the water movements inside the North Sea, and of the way in which these movements are produced, in the course of a storm. Maps of co-disturbance lines in the North Sea have been drawn at frequent intervals and compared with the simultaneous meteorological conditions. The disturbance around the coast, and in the Thames and Humber estuaries, has been examined in detail, and the progression around the coast has been shown to be similar to that of the diurnal tide. Estimates have been made of the changes, during the storm, in the average level of the North Sea, and it has been shown that when the level was rising there was a large inflow of water down the western half; when the level was falling the outflow was up the eastern North Sea. New light has been thrown on several problems connected with storm surges. In particular, it would appear that storm surges of external origin, which hitherto could not be explained in terms of the winds, may be a direct result of an earlier outflow of water produced during a surge when the level has been lowered; also the excessive damping normally observed in the disturbed tide at Southend, which leads to an average value of eddy viscosity in the North Sea somewhat larger than that normally accepted, may be due to a reflexion from the German bight which arrives near the time when the lowest levels are expected. Two estimates have been made of the frictional constant, on the assumption that the tractive force of the wind varies as the square of the wind velocity, and are in agreement with accepted values. Prediction of the disturbance at Southend using a previously established formula has given good results. The disturbance transmitted through the Straits of Dover has been investigated.


Global data sets of the stable carbon isotope composition of plant leaves, of CO2 in canopy air, and of CO2 in the background atmosphere were compiled and compared to results of a global vegetation model (BIOME4) that simulated, at these three scales, the magnitude, direction, and timing of fluxes of CO2 and 13C between the biosphere and the atmosphere. Carbon isotope data on leaves were classified into 12 Plant Functional Types (PFTs), and measurements from canopy flasks were assigned to 16 biomes, for direct comparison to model results. BIOME4 simulated the observed leaf δ13C values to within 1 standard deviation of the measured mean for most PFTs. Modeled δ13C for C3 grasses, tundra shrubs, and herbaceous plants of cold climates deviated only slightly more from measurements, perhaps as a result of the wide geographic range and a limited set of measurements of these PFTs. Modeled ecosystem isotopic discrimination against 13C (Δe) averaged 18.6 globally when simulating potential natural vegetation and 18.1 when an agricultural crop mask was superimposed. The difference was mainly due to the influence of C4 agriculture in areas that are naturally dominated by C3 vegetation. Model results show a gradient in Δe among C3‐dominated biomes as a result of stomatal responses to aridity; this model result is supported by canopy air measurements. At the troposphere scale, BIOME4 was coupled to a matrix representation of an atmospheric tracer transport model to simulate seasonally varying concentrations of CO2 and 13C at remote Northern Hemisphere measuring stations. Ocean CO2 and 13C flux fields were included, using the HAMOCC3 ocean biogeochemistry model [ Six and Maier‐Reimer, 1996 ]. Model results and observations show similar seasonal cycles, and the model reproduces the inferred latitudinal trend toward smaller isotopic discrimination by the biosphere at lower latitudes. These results indicate that biologically mediated variations in 13C discrimination by terrestrial ecosystems may be significant for atmospheric inverse modeling of carbon sources and sinks, and that such variations can be simulated using a process‐based model.


Nitrogen is a vital nutrient for plant growth. Traditional methods of manufacturing nitrogen fertilizers are energy intensive and lead to the production of greenhouse gases. Nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria have shown promise as an environmentally friendly method of producing biofertilizer containing nitrogen. A potential candidate organism, Anabaena cylindrica, was assessed for adaptability to changes in growth conditions. Variations in flow regime of the air in the reactor, superficial velocity of the air entering the reactor, temperature, light cycle and intensity had little statistically effect over the ranges tested on either the average growth rate or final biomass concentration. The nitrogen content, chlorophyll and final biomass concentrations increased considerably to 74.2 ± 6.9 mg N/L, 12.3 ± 0.97 μg/mL and 0.81 ± 0.16 g/L, respectively, when 0.15 mM of magnesium sulfate heptahydrate and 0.005 mM of disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetate dihydrate was present in the culture medium. Magnesium is utilized within the cyanobacterial cell for many purposes. Evaluation of the growth of wheat, camelina, carrots, tomatoes and Kentucky bluegrass, when treated with cyanobacterial biofertilizer, showed statistically similar results when compared to chemically fertilized plants.


This volume derives from a manuscript given into the hands of a British commissioner, appointed to intervene between warring factions in Oman in 1856. He immediately recognised the work as a unique record of all that is known concerning the ruling figures in Oman, from the founding of Islam to the mid-nineteenth century. Based upon native records and the later writings of Salil-ibn-Salik, there is no doubt as to the importance of this work in tracing the history of that region. This facsimile, containing the invaluable appendices of the original edition, first published in 1871, will be welcomed both by historians and students of Arab history.


The active vibration control system for aluminum plate with SFSF boundary conditions with using piezo-patch actuators is presented in the paper. Piezo-actuators and piezo-sensors are located in opposite site of the plate. Moreover such elements of control system are oriented in their quasi-optimal locations in two perpendicular directions X and Y. The mathematical models of the plate are determined separately for odd and even modes in selected frequency range 10-250 Hz with using Digital Signal Analyzer at the laboratory stand. Such approach allowed us to design two PD control laws for considered models with help Matlab/Simulink software. In the last chapter the experimental tests of the open-loop and closed-loop systems in time and frequency domain are presented. The obtained results have proved that these controllers were designed correctly. Additional damp in the both closed-loop systems cause the excellent vibration reduction in comparison to the open-loop system for the whole mechanical structure.


The Agribusiness Education Programs office has extra copies of the 1999 Integrated Crop Management Conference proceedings available for purchase. If you pick up copies at the office, the cost is $20 each. If copies are shipped to you, they are $23 each and this price includes the shipping cost. To place an order, make your check payable to Iowa State University and mail it to Agribusiness Education Programs, 2104 Agronomy Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011. If you have questions, please call me at 515-294-6429.


We characterize the structure and mechanical properties of 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxamide (BTA) supramolecular polymers using correlative AFM and fluorescence imaging. AFM allows for nanoscale structural investigation but we found that statistical analysis is difficult because these structures are easily disrupted by the AFM tip. We therefore correlate AFM and fluorescence microscopy to couple nanoscale morphological information to far-field optical images. A fraction of the immobilized polymers are in a clustered or entangled state, which we identify based on diffraction limited fluorescence images. We find that clustered and entangled polymers exhibit a significantly longer persistence length that is broader distributed than single unentangled polymers. By comparison with numerical simulations we find significant heterogeneity in the persistence length of single unentangled polymers, which we attribute to polymer–substrate interactions and the presence of structural diversity within the polymer.


Organizations have, in the past, often been discussed as if they were Cartesian mentalities, planning agendas, learning from doing, processing information, reducing equivocality, mimicking and copying, floating disembodiedly apart from the actors who work in these organizations. We are offered representations of organizations as organically grounded metaphors that minimize the biological facticity of employees: namely, their need for food. While the inputs to organizations conceived as if they were quasi-systems are well explored, and the emotional and `irrational' side of organizations is increasingly discussed, the necessity of inputs to the biological systems that staff them is not. Nonetheless, despite the lack of explicit scholarly attention to food at work, its importance guarantees its hidden presence in the organizational literature, often in the context of more `serious' themes. We identify four approaches to the relationship between food, work and organization. For dessert, we propose a research menu that aims to uncover several possibilities for making the role of food in organizational life more explicit.


On 29th - 30th March 2007, SUERF and the Central Bank of Cyprus jointly organized a Seminar: Corporate Governance in Financial Institutions. The papers in the present publication are based on a sample of the presentations at the Seminar. Together, the papers illuminate a number of key issues in corporate governance in a variety of financial firms. In the first paper based on a keynote address, Spyros G. Stavrinakis, Central Bank of Cyprus gives an overview of the legal framework for corporate governance in financial institutions in Cyprus. According to a Central BankDirective issued in 2006, implementation of corporate governance principles is mandatory for all banks incorporated in Cyprus and their overseas branches and for some Cyprus branches of foreign banks domiciled outside the European Economic Area. Banks are obliged to have a robust internal governance framework, consistent lines of reporting and effective risk identification, management, monitoring and reporting procedures for all the risks to which credit institutions are actually or potentially exposed. The board of directors should take the lead in establishing and approving ethical standards and corporate values for itself and for the bank's senior executive management. Potential conflicts of interest should be identified, prevented or appropriately managed. Each bank should maintain a compliance function that monitors compliance with rules, regulations and policies. Clear lines of responsibility and accountability should be set and enforced. New members of the board of directors as well as the senior executive managers of banks have to be vetted and approved by the Central Bank of Cyprus for their " fitness and properness." In order to ensure transparency concerning the implementation of the principles, each bank's corporate governance framework should be disclosed in the bank's annual report and on its public website. In the second paper by Christian Harm, University of Muenster, "The Governance of the Banking Firm" the author builds on the literatures on corporate governance and financial regulation. In relation to governance of financial institutions, agency theory has both merits and shortcomings. It provides good explanations in many delegation situations but it has severe difficulties in dealing with institutions with several stakeholders and complex objective functions for the management. Firms guided by shareholder value may work more effectively than firms guided by stakeholder cacophony. Depositors are important stakeholders in banks. Since they are typically incapable of managing the supervision of their claims on the bank, they rely on regulators to do it for them. Remuneration systems for bank managers should provide proper incentives. According to the author, incentives should be structured such as to reward particular strategic achievements. Banks can apply executive stock option plans, but should confine options to a secondary place behind other long-term incentives based on success criteria that further shareholder interests without compromising the regulatory mission. Such an incentive framework tends, however, to be very complex so that the general ambiguities associated with the concept of governance could imply that in the banking firm, selecting managers with a proper intrinsic motivation may be superior to defining complex remuneration programs. In the third paper "Corporate Governance Issues in Non-Shareholder Value Financial Institutions: ACase Study of Mutual Building Societies in the UK", David T. Llewellyn, Loughborough University, focuses on corporate governance in non-incorporated financial firms. The author describes the relevant stakeholders and the nature of agency problems in different types of financial firms. He compares monitoring mechanisms, incentives, abilities and feasibilities of managers and members of mutuals. Mutuality raises specific corporate governance issues: Corporate governance is less clearly defined because the firm's objectives are less clearly defined. Conflicts of interest between managers and owners are less easily identified and it is more difficult to create management incentives. The almost exclusive source of capital is retained profits and each member has a non-exclusive and non-marketable claim to residual net worth. Voting rights are typically not proportional to the size of the ownership stake. There is no market in ownership claims and therefore no effective market in corporate control. Consequently, there is ample scope for mutuals to be inefficient. There is, however, no evidence that the efficiency and performance of mutuals are poorer that that of incorporated financial firms. In the fourth paper "Corporate Governance in Emerging Market Banks", Bridget Gandy, Fitch Ratings Ltd., and her co-authors from the rating agency look at the framework for corporate governance of banks in a sample of emerging market countries. Since the crisis in the late 1990s in Latin America and Asia, there has been a marked improvement in corporate governance of financial institutions in the regions under observation. Many countries have taken legal steps to develop functioning market economies with a view to the need to satisfy the demands of international capital markets. Several banks have listed their shares on stock exchanges in developed markets and foreign bank ownership and involvement in local banking systems have increased. In Central and Eastern Europe, countries' desire for EU-accession has impacted on the development of their corporate governance systems. At the individual bank level, Fitch Ratings looks at bank board independence and quality, oversight and the importance of related party transactions, the integrity of the audit process, acceptability of executive and director remuneration, ownership structures and transparency. In evaluating the quality of governance at the country level, the authors apply a three-pillar approach in line with Montesquieu: Powers and responsibilities need to be separated between a representative legislature, a competent and accountable executive branch and a fair and independent judiciary. The paper contains an interesting table in which a number of key regulatory initiatives in a sample of emerging market countries are compared. The authors point out that large scale privatizations have reduced the importance of state-owned banks in many countries. There are, however, still several examples with complex holding structures involving banks with potential negative implications for corporate governance quality and problems with related party transactions. Acquisitions by foreign banks with developed corporate governance standards have generally had a positive impact and also listing of bank shares on foreign stock exchanges with tough disclosure and transparency requirements have contributed positively to the quality of corporate governance in emerging market banks. Read together, the four papers give a good overview of the development of corporate governance practices and remaining problems in financial institutions of different types and with domicile in different countries.


Enhanced reality visualization is the process of enhancing an image by adding to it information which is not present in the original image. A wide variety of information can be added to an image ranging from hidden lines or surfaces to textual or iconic data about a particular part of the image. Enhanced reality visualization is particularly well suited to neurosurgery. By rendering brain structures which are not visible, at the correct location in an image of a patient''s head, the surgeon is essentially provided with X-ray vision. He can visualize the spatial relationship between brain structures before he performs a craniotomy and during the surgery he can see what''s under the next layer before he cuts through. Given a video image of the patient and a three dimensional model of the patient''s brain the problem enhanced reality visualization faces is to render the model from the correct viewpoint and overlay it on the original image. The relationship between the coordinate frames of the patient, the patient''s internal anatomy scans and the image plane of the camera observing the patient must be established. This problem is closely related to the camera calibration problem. This report presents a new approach to finding this relationship and develops a system for performing enhanced reality visualization in a surgical environment. Immediately prior to surgery a few circular fiducials are placed near the surgical site. An initial registration of video and internal data is performed using a laser scanner. Following this, our method is fully automatic, runs in nearly real-time, is accurate to within a pixel, allows both patient and camera motion, automatically corrects for changes to the internal camera parameters (focal length, focus, aperture, etc.) and requires only a single image.


South African Advanced Life Support (ALS) providers follow an autonomous practice model of care. This advanced role profile is characterized by clinical skill competence and autonomous decision making whilst demonstrating a high level of awareness of their own ethical attitudes, values and beliefs. It is through a professional commitment that ALS providers deliver an advanced evidence based practice that should be maintained constantly within a dynamic environment. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is seen as an instrument for this. CPD should also serve as a means to acquire professional excellence and going beyond the boundaries of meeting the base level standard with the aim of providing the finest quality of care in the interest of patient safety. Purpose of the research The purpose of this research is to identify gaps in the professional development of out-of-hospital ALS providers trained in South Africa by assessing frequency of performance of ALS clinical skills, by determining perceived level of competence and predictors of confidence, and by sourcing information on attendance of CPD activities and training needs. vi Methodology This study used a quantitative non-experimental design. Data was attained from an e-mail based descriptive survey that was limited to a precise and concise questionnaire. The data from 140 (N) ALS providers was subjected to a descriptive statistical analysis using the PASW statistics version 18.0 to systematically show patterns and trends. Frequency distributions were generated to describe data categories. Bivariate analysis was conducted using Chi-square and Pearson correlation tests. Results Results indicated that ALS providers performed clinical skills infrequently. Of the total number of respondents 140 (N), the average ALS clinical skills performance was 6 (4.8%) daily. In the 2-6 times a week category 8 (6.4%) ALS clinical skills were performed. ALS clinical skills performance in the once a week category showed an average of 7 (5.6%) and the once a month category, an average of 17 (13.7%) ALS skills were performed. An average of 31 (25%) ALS skills were performed in the once in six months category whilst an average of 54 (43.5%) were performed in the greater than six months category. CPD activities that are appropriate to ensuring the maintenance of competence for these clinical skills were not adequately undertaken. Medical updates were mostly attended by ALS providers, 52 (42.9%) whilst CPD events that addressed clinical skills, was mostly limited vii to the ACLS course 42 (34.7%). The needs assessment for CPD showed that 56 (53%) of respondents expressed a need for paediatric and obstetric simulated skill sessions, whilst 43 (40.9%) requested clinical skills workshops and 39 (37.1%) expressed a need for clinical practice in theatre and coronary care units. Conclusions and recommendations This study shows that ALS clinical skill competence is maintained by frequent practice and appropriateness of CPD activities. The infrequent performance of ALS skills coupled with the lack of appropriate and diverse CPD activity attendance results in poor maintenance of competence. The loss of competence can be related to poor reported levels of confidence which consequently places patient safety at risk. To safeguard against medical error and ensure patient safety, it is strongly recommended that CPD audits be undertaken on all ALS providers for appropriate CPD compliance related to clinical skills performance. In addition to a clinical skills audit, it is recommended that a national clinical skills registry be established with the intention of facilitating clinical skill surveillance, to determine a notifiable, high risk skill set. To safeguard against knowledge and clinical skill attrition and loss of competence, the delivery of CPD activities should be assessed for effectiveness and appropriateness.


Microseismic interpretation of hydraulic fracturing requires an understanding of the mechanism of the microseismic sources. Quantitative geomechanical models can predict microseismicity for quantitative comparison with field data and can be used to reconcile 3D seismic earth models, fracture engineering, and fracture monitoring. Because microseismicity represents only one component of the geomechanical response to hydraulic fracturing, a microseismic geomechanics framework can provide insights into the connection with the fracture network. During hydraulic fracturing, microseismicity can be induced by both fluid pressure and stress mechanisms, resulting in wet events directly associated with the fracture network and remote dry events. Accurate interpretation of the hydraulic-fracture characteristics requires distinguishing identification of dry microseismicity not in hydraulic connection with the stimulated fracture network. Predictive microseismic geomechanical models also can be used to infer the primary, conductive hydraulic-fracture networks and to run scenario testing to improve engineering design.


Background / Objectives Automatic algorithms for stent struts segmentation in optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of coronary arteries have been developed over the years, particularly with application on metallic stents. The aim of this study is three-fold: (1) to develop and to validate a segmentation algorithm for the detection of both lumen contours and polymeric bioresorbable scaffold struts from 8-bit OCT images, (2) to develop a method for automatic OCT pullback quality assessment, and (3) to demonstrate the applicability of the segmentation algorithm for the creation of patient-specific stented coronary artery for local hemodynamics analysis. Methods The proposed OCT segmentation algorithm comprises four steps: (1) image pre-processing, (2) lumen segmentation, (3) stent struts segmentation, (4) strut-based lumen correction. This segmentation process is then followed by an automatic OCT pullback image quality assessment. This method classifies the OCT pullback image quality as 'good' or 'poor' based on the number of regions detected by the stent segmentation. The segmentation algorithm was validated against manual segmentation of 1150 images obtained from 23 in vivo OCT pullbacks. Results When considering the entire set of OCT pullbacks, lumen segmentation showed results comparable with manual segmentation and with previous studies (sensitivity ~97%, specificity ~99%), while stent segmentation showed poorer results compared to manual segmentation (sensitivity ~63%, precision ~83%). The OCT pullback quality assessment algorithm classified 7 pullbacks as 'poor' quality cases. When considering only the 'good' classified cases, the performance indexes of the scaffold segmentation were higher (sensitivity >76%, precision >86%). Conclusions This study proposes a segmentation algorithm for the detection of lumen contours and stent struts in low quality OCT images of patients treated with polymeric bioresorbable scaffolds. The segmentation results were successfully used for the reconstruction of one coronary artery model that included a bioresorbable scaffold geometry for computational fluid dynamics analysis.


Objective
This study evaluated the ability of 0.8% neem leaf extract (NLE) to treat diabetes mellitus by assessing its effects on blood glucose, insulin levels and islet morphology in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats.

Methods
Diabetes was induced in two to three-day old rat pups by STZ intraperitoneally (60 mg/kg), followed by a further 40 mg/kg dose 12-23 weeks later. The diabetic treated (DT) rats received 0.8% w/v NLE in tap water while diabetic control (DC) and normal control (NC) rats received water ad libitum. Body weight, water and chow consumption, and blood glucose were evaluated weekly. Blood and pancreas were collected at the end of the study to evaluate serum insulin and islet histology, respectively.

Results
Neem leaf extract (0.8%) improved weight gain and beta cell regeneration but did not reduce blood glucose. Serum insulin increased slightly in the treated group and three-fold in the DC group (p < 0.05).

Conclusion
The results suggest that NLE has beta cell regenerating potential.