Many malignant human tumors, including melanomas, are auxotrophic for arginine due to reduced expression of argininosuccinate synthetase-1 (ASS1), the rate-limiting enzyme for arginine biosynthesis. Pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI-PEG20), which degrades extracellular arginine, resulting in arginine deprivation, has shown favorable results in clinical trials for treating arginine-auxotrophic tumors. Drug resistance is the major obstacle for effective ADI-PEG20 usage. To elucidate mechanisms of resistance, we established several ADI-PEG20–resistant (ADIR) variants from A2058 and SK-Mel-2 melanoma cells. Compared with the parental lines, these ADIR variants showed the following characteristics: (i) all ADIR cell lines showed elevated ASS1 expression, resulting from the constitutive binding of the transcription factor c-Myc on the ASS1 promoter, suggesting that elevated ASS1 is the major mechanism of resistance; (ii) the ADIR cell lines exhibited enhanced AKT signaling and were preferentially sensitive to PI3K/AKT inhibitors, but reduced mTOR signaling, and were preferentially resistant to mTOR inhibitor; (iii) these variants showed enhanced expression of glucose transporter-1 and lactate dehydrogenase-A, reduced expression of pyruvate dehydrogenase, and elevated sensitivity to the glycolytic inhibitors 2-deoxy-glucose and 3-bromopyruvate, consistent with the enhanced glycolytic pathway (the Warburg effect); (iv) the resistant cells showed higher glutamine dehydrogenase and glutaminase expression and were preferentially vulnerable to glutamine inhibitors. We showed that c-Myc, not elevated ASS1 expression, is involved in upregulation of many of these enzymes because knockdown of c-Myc reduced their expression, whereas overexpressed ASS1 by transfection reduced their expression. This study identified multiple targets for overcoming ADI-PEG resistance in cancer chemotherapy using recombinant arginine-degrading enzymes. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(11); 2581–90. ©2013 AACR.


This article will examine Ottoman and British diplomatic correspondence and the satirical press and argue that during the Eastern Crisis of 1875-78, representatives of the Great Powers conceived of a hierarchy of masculinities that became a major part of their diplomatic rhetoric. At the top of this order was the masculinity that European statesmen saw in themselves and legitimized their imperialist projects; they particularly emphasized honor, and a logic-based intelligence which enabled them to order their governments, economies, and households so that noble, white, Christian men controlled the people of presumed lesser classes, races, religions, and genders. Until the end of this crisis, Ottoman officials sought to convince their European counterparts that they should accept them as, if not equals, at least junior partners. Therefore, Ottomans did not challenge the European belief in a hierarchy of masculinities but sought instead to prove that the new Ottoman statesman was a modern and rational man both capable and in possession of the moral imperative to rule over the lesser peoples of the Ottoman Empire. In particular, Ottoman officials depicted Christian separatists as cruel, savage, and too ignorant for independence, mirroring the arguments that anti-Ottoman Europeans made about the Ottomans.


The Indonesians identification with the Pancasila five-principle values as the country ideology  and foundation,  are  recently  continuously  questioned  by  many  people.  Corruption,  violence  due  to ethnicities  and  religions,  injustice,  unequal  access  to  education  and  health,  and  the  separation movements  in  some  regions  in  Indonesia  are obvious  examples of the  incidents  attributed  as the  loss of  the  Indonesians  Pancasila  values.  On  the  other  hand,  Indonesians  are  also  known  for  their hospitality ,  helpfulness,  and  having  high  level  of  solidarity  when  they  are  facing  natural  disasters  or  in sport,  especially  when the  Indonesia  football  team  is  competing  with other  teams,  defending  the country.  In  the  paradoxical  social  situations,  this  research  is  held  and  its  purpose  is  to  generate  a  valid measurement  tool  to  find  an  index  for  Indonesians  the  Pancasila-identification.  This  index  is expected to be a valid base for education and social interventions.  The interventions  purposes are to keep  and  improve  the  Pancasila-identification  in  Indonesians.  The  measurement  of  concurrent validation  was held  in  Jakarta  with 290  students  as  respondents.  They  were studying  in  different universities  and  given  the  reliable  Identification-with-Pancasila  Scales  (α  ≥  0.7).  They  are  from different  ethnicity  and  religion  background.  The  research  found  that  the  scale  is  valid  for  the  first,  the second, the fourth and the fifth principle (r ≥  0.3; p < 0.01) by using criteria (gold standard) scale A TGS,  IW AHS,  SDP  and  ANES.  For  the  third  principle  of  the  Pancasila-identification,  construct-suitable criteria  scale  is  needed  and  which  is  Nationalism  and  Patriotism s  Scale.


Design of the catalogue for the 'Archiving Place & Time: Contemporary Art Practice in Northern Ireland' exhibition. The engagement of visual culture and art practice in Northern Ireland with the socio-political and economic development of a post-conflict society is at the forefront of the concerns of this exhibition and publication. This includes engagements with history, memory and archival material, in addition to issues around urban regeneration in a post-industrial city or the reconstruction of post-conflict identity.The title Archiving Space and Time is also significant in this context. It implies a response to the changing definitions of space and questions of the inevitability of history raised by the Agreement. Over ten years on, there is a need to register, to record the investigations impelling artists working in this changed situation. Yet an archive is never a static body of knowledge, a repository of the past – it has another life as a resource for the future, as an active agent in the processes it seeks to record. This timeframe has been deliberately selected as one that marks the most significant period of political change in Northern Ireland in recent years. However these recognitions only emerge over a period of time. The curators of this exhibition believe that this is now a moment at which an assessment is not only possible but necessary.This catalogue, 'Archiving Place & Time: Contemporary Art Practice in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement', has been published as part of an exhibition of the same name. The exhibition and catalogue were commissioned by the Millennium Court Arts Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University and Wolverhampton Art Gallery and presented in November – December 2009 (Manchester), April – May 2010 (Craigavon) and June – December 2010 (Wolverhampton). The initial showing of the exhibition at Manchester Metropolitan University in November 2009 was accompanied by a symposium in conjunction with the British Association of Irish Studies.


Although the small (22 Kd) heat shock protein/αB‐crystallin functions as a major structural protein and molecular chaperone in the vertebrate lens, little is known about the protein's role in nonlenticular tissues such as the heart and skeletal muscle. Recent studies have demonstrated that αB‐crystallin expression is uniquely regulated during myogenesis in vitro. We report here for the first time that the temporal and spatial expression of αB‐crystallin is similarly regulated in vivo during mouse embryogenesis. Expression of αB‐crystallin mRNA was detected by in situ hybridization in the primitive heart at 8.5 days post‐conception (p.c.) and in the myotome of the somites at 10.5 days p.c. This tissue‐restricted pattern was corroborated by immunohistochemical studies. αB‐crystallin mRNA and protein expression were uniform in the developing atria and ventricles without regional differences or gradients. αB‐crystallin expression was absent in the endocardial cushion, pulmonary trunk, aorta, and endothelium. Examination of muscle precursors revealed expression throughout the dorsoventral aspect of the myotomes and in developing skeletal muscle. Our findings suggest that αB‐crystallin may serve pivotal roles as a structural protein and a molecular chaperone in myofiber stabilization of metabolically active tissues during early embryo‐genesis. Thus, early αB‐crystallin expression in myogenic lineages supports the hypothesis that the putative functions of αB‐crystallin are coupled to the activation of genetic programs responsible for myogenic differentiation and cardiac morphogenesis. Dev Dyn 208:75–84, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Many naturally occurring categories vary across multiple stimulus dimensions (e.g. size, color, texture). When humans categorize multidimensional stimuli on the basis of a single dimension this has been taken to indicate use of a rule that could be verbalized. Sorting on the basis of all the stimulus dimensions ('overall similarity' or 'family resemblance') has been taken to indicate a more basic, implicit, automatic, perhaps associative process. However, a review of the literature on animal discrimination learning shows that animals often discriminate on the basis of one dominant dimension. In recent experiments, situations conducive to more complex cognitive processes have increased family resemblance sorting in humans. In an effort to resolve this apparent paradox, experiments were conducted in which humans and pigeons were exposed to multidimensional category discrimination tasks under closely similar conditions. Preliminary results show no evidence that even a non-verbal rule can be said to be involved in pigeons' choices in these conditions, despite the fact that under some conditions a single dimension may dominate their behavior.


Coated optical components with demanding spectral performance specifications have been manufactured at CSIRO. A number of these components also required a surface figure below ?\100 peak-to-valley and surface variation of ?\1600 rms over 75mm diameter for the completed coated optics. Multi-wavelength ellipsometry combined with spectrophotometry enabled us to meet targeted performance.


For the urban poor in developing countries, informal waste recycling is a common way to earn income. There are few reliable estimates of the number of people engaged in waste picking or of its economic and environmental impact. Yet studies suggest that when organized and supported, waste picking can spur grassroots investment by poor people, create jobs, reduce poverty, save municipalities money, improve industrial competitiveness, conserve natural resources, and protect the environment. Three models have been used to organize waste pickers: microenterprises, cooperatives, and public-private partnerships. These can lead to more efficient recycling and more effective poverty reduction.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to quantify the changes in the liquidity premium for the real estate equities markets of the United States, Europe and Asia during the period of 2002 – 2012. The liquidity crisis of 2007-8 had a dramatic impact on returns, valuations and capital raising abilities of the listed real estate sector globally, and the paper focuses on understanding and explaining relative liquidity premiums under dynamic market conditions.Design/methodology/approach - Market liquidity is measured in each market, U.S, Europe and Asia by analysing liquidity in three different dimensions of tightness, depth and resilience. We calculate percentage bid-ask spread as a measure of market tightness, market depth is given by the Hui-Heubel (HH) liquidity ratio (Hui and Heubel, 1984), while resilience refers to the speed at which the price fluctuations resulting from trades are dissipated using a Market-efficient coefficient (MEC) (Hasbrouck and Schwartz, 1988). The company data sample groups securities into large, medium and small market capitalisations across each of the three regions.Finally the dependency of real estate firm liquidity with other securities market indicators is measured in each market, U.S, Europe, Asia by constructing the Hui-Heubel liquidity ratio on a selection of key companies and correlating this with the VIX index. A higher HH ratio indicates higher price to volume sensitivity. Findings - In all three markets bid-ask spreads reduced significantly, and market liquidity and efficiency increased during the period of 2002 – 2007. Since that date the results have a more regional bias, and we examine the reasons behind this. The MEC confirms that European companies exhibit lower levels of liquidity than their US counterparts, and this a contributing factor behind periods of relative underperformance. We discovered a high correlation between market correlation and the VIX Index.Originality/value - The results provide important clues for investors and real estate companies in pricing liquidity throughout the cycle and illustrates the regional differences over the period. This has important implications for investors regarding the pricing of risk, and absolute and relative returns, and for companies, in terms of capital raising ability. In addition the finding of the close relationship between RE stocks liquidity and the VIX index confirms the importance of equity market influences on public real estate valuations.


Article presents the latest knowledge on the pathophysiology of erectile dysfunction (ED), the influence of xenoestrogens on ED and fertility in men and the possibilities of the blocking xenoestrogen actions with natural ingredients as well as treatment options for ED with medicinal plants. With the rising phenomenon of ED in the world there is rising a market with ED treatment products. Especially in menu of internet online shops come increasingly to light new natural over the counter products for ED treatment. Sale and use of medicinal plants and their extracts in the treatment of ED is based according to the declaration of the producers first of all on a number of the thousand-year-old traditions in some nations, based on the efficacy and safety of these plants, verified in the healing practice. Aim of this article was to make an extensive review of the scientific and professional literature and to find out which medical plants, sold in the herbal products for ED, was evaluated for efficacy and safety in relevant clinical trials. The review of the literature shows, that by some marketed medicinal plants lack clinical studies, the results of some clinical studies related to the same medicinal plant are controversial and some bring significantly positive effects, but their number is minimal. The future is therefore open to starting the number of new clinical trials testing the medicinal plants in the treatment of ED with possible inclusion of some of these plants in evidence based medicine, if confirming their efficacy and safety.


This essay introduces and argues for a Muslima theology that is constructive, theological, and comparative. Lamptey seeks to marshal a wider array of resources for Muslim women to assert authority and agency and to thwart efforts to corral conclusions on Muslim women and gender into predetermined repertoires. To set the context for this constructive move, the essay begins by surveying prominent strategies Muslim women scholars in the United States have adopted to negotiate interpretative limits and to assert authority. This survey also explores notable critiques of these strategies. Engaging both strategies and critiques, the remainder of the essay articulates a new approach—Muslima theology—and highlights its constructive, theological, and comparative possibilities. The first two characteristics of this approach—constructive and theological—are evident in some existing discourse, and Lamptey argues for their expansion and integration. The third characteristic—comparative—is novel. It is not wholly new but it is likely invaluable.


Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is widely applied in inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Its relatively low work function (WF) and high hydrophilicity hinder the achievement of high power conversion efficiency and device stability. This article describes a novel and readily available approach to enhancing the WF and waterproofness of PEDOT by copolymerising dopamine (DA) with a PEDOT backbone via an efficient radical coupling reaction between 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT), DA and sustainable lignosulfonate as the dopant under mild oxidation. The product, PDA:PEDOT:LS, had a WF of 5.45 eV due to electron transfer in the phenol–quinone–PEDOT backbone. The open-circuit voltage of PDA:PEDOT:LS was 1.02 V, compared with 0.86 V for PEDOT:PSS, and it had a higher power conversion efficiency. PDA:PEDOT:LS exhibited much lower acidity, with a pH of 5.3, excellent waterproofness and lowered hydrophilicity due to the cross-linking copolymerisation between 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT), DA and lignosulfonate. The greater waterproofness will have a key practical application in improving the durability of PSC devices.


In September after summer feeding has ceased, Northeast Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) tend to aggregate in ICES Area IVa before starting to migrate south towards the spawning grounds, between December and February. During this autumn period, the Norwegian purse-seine fleet catches mackerel in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea and the northern part of the North Sea. Between 1999 and 2005, Norway's Institute for Marine Research carried out annual acoustic surveys on a research vessel capable of trawling, to estimate the biomass concurrently with the fishery. During the surveys, mackerel were sampled with pelagic trawls (486 and 538 m circumference) at an average speed of 3.5–4 knots, and age, length, and weight was determined for use in biomass estimation. Mackerel age, length, weight, length-at-age, and weight-at-length (condition) in trawl catches were all significantly lower than observed in purse-seine catches from nearby commercial vessels, indicating that the research trawl selects younger, smaller, and perhaps weaker, fish. This finding has a significant influence on acoustic estimation of abundance of mackerel. Using data from purse-seine-caught mackerel instead of those caught in the trawl, the estimated total number of mackerel in the area of operation decreased by an average of 26.4%, and concurrent estimates of total biomass increased by an average of 32.2%. The results raise the importance of awareness of the differences in applying trawl samples to estimate year-class abundance and biomass and to study variations in growth and condition of fast-swimming species such as mackerel.


As a follow-up to a previous article, this review provides several in-depth concepts regarding a survival analysis. Also, several codes for specific survival analysis are listed to enhance the understanding of such an analysis and to provide an applicable survival analysis method. A proportional hazard assumption is an important concept in survival analysis. Validation of this assumption is crucial for survival analysis. For this purpose, a graphical analysis method and a goodnessof- fit test are introduced along with detailed codes and examples. In the case of a violated proportional hazard assumption, the extended models of a Cox regression are required. Simplified concepts of a stratified Cox proportional hazard model and time-dependent Cox regression are also described. The source code for an actual analysis using an available statistical package with a detailed interpretation of the results can enable the realization of survival analysis with personal data. To enhance the statistical power of survival analysis, an evaluation of the basic assumptions and the interaction between variables and time is important. In doing so, survival analysis can provide reliable scientific results with a high level of confidence.


Felix Platter, only son of a schoolmaster, at 15 years of age, left Basle, in October, 1552, to study medicine at Montpellier University. His four years' journal of his experiences there has long been known in its original German form to students of the period. In this excellent English translation it will attract a wider circle of readers. Felix worked hard, obtained his bachelor of medicine degree, and returned to Basle to be welcomed by his devoted parents; proceeded to M.D. at Basle and became the


Increased research attention has been paid to how the Knowledge Intensive Business Service (KIBS) helps to improve the innovation system. However, until recently few studies have been carried out on how the external environment influences the growth of KIBS. This article develops a concept framework of how knowledge environment established by innovation systems influences KIBS. It also points out that the National Systems of Innovation, Regional Systems of Innovation and Sectoral Systems of Innovation will co-create the knowledge environment of KIBS, which will affect the growth of KIBS. The article also notes that knowledge from multinational corporations is a critically important external resource for KIBS in the catch-up countries. The evidences from Japanese industry and the Indian software industry are used to show illustrations.


The European Data Protection Regulation applies since May 25th, 2018. It creates a uniform data protection legal framework within the EU. National and international medical research projects, regardless of whether they were started before or after the introduction of the GDPR, are obliged to follow this new regulation and implement it promptly. This raises various challenges for a large number of medical research projects. The University Medicine Greifswald commissioned this legal report, that was prepared by DIERKS+COMPANY. Two real-world research projects, the Baltic Fracture Competence Centre (BFCC) as well as the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) provide use cases, questions, and context for this legal report. It addresses questions regarding all steps of data processing. The report provides practical answers to a wide array of technical and organisational questions in the area of data protection-compliant processing of research data. A comprehensive guide to GDPR-compliant data processing has been developed, which both summarises the broad legal environment and provides specific assistance in the design and implementation of GDPR-compliant data management processes, including Informed Consent, Legal Consequences of Withdrawal, and Privacy by Design.


Deep learning models such as the Transformer are often constructed by heuristics and experience. To provide a complementary foundation, in this work we study the following problem: Is it possible to find an energy function underlying the Transformer model, such that descent steps along this energy correspond with the Transformer forward pass? By finding such a function, we can view Transformers as the unfolding of an interpretable optimization process across iterations. This unfolding perspective has been frequently adopted in the past to elucidate more straightforward deep models such as MLPs and CNNs; however, it has thus far remained elusive obtaining a similar equivalence for more complex models with self-attention mechanisms like the Transformer. To this end, we first outline several major obstacles before providing companion techniques to at least partially address them, demonstrating for the first time a close association between energy function minimization and deep layers with self-attention. This interpretation contributes to our intuition and understanding of Transformers, while potentially laying the ground-work for new model designs.


The psychologist Marc Bornstein suggested it was surprising that (a) non-linguistic infants demonstrated categorical perception of colour and (b) such categorical perception did not facilitate the learning of colour names (Bornstein 1985). This is "Bornstein's paradox" and it has been articulated by a number of researchers since 1985. The purpose of this paper is to argue that there is in fact no paradox. Susan Carey's idea of "core cognition" is extended to colour categorization and it is argued that, if colour is a domain of core cognition, the development from initial infant colour experience need not be continuous with linguistic experience (Carey 2009). This argument makes reference to Carey's work on object permanence, and number as analogous to colour naming.


The Swedish legislation indicates that patients in the forensic psychiatric setting should be re-integrated into society through rehabilitative measures including nursing care. This was recognized by the National Board of Health and Welfare (i.e. Socialstyrelsen) in 2002, but concluded that there is a vast knowledge gap regarding the aim and the content of nursing care in forensic psychiatric settings. Still nursing care in forensic psychiatry is sparsely described. Recent research confirms this description of a knowledge gap and adds that there is a lack of structured nursing care in forensic psychiatry (Horberg, 2012). Nonetheless, the content and outcome of nursing care in the forensic psychiatric setting is hard to visualize. The actual patient needs and problems has to be identified and defined. To meet this knowledge gap, structured and categorized descriptions of the patients' nursing care needs need to be described. Frauenfelder et al., 2014) claims that NANDA could be the tool to label problems and risk diagnoses, although they call for further research.The implementation of nursing diagnoses according to NANDA started in 2011, one year after Forensic Psychiatry Care Stockholm became one department, and the implementation process is still on-going. Previously, the forensic psychiatric care in Stockholm had been spread out over three different departments with dissimilar culture. The new management wanted a "unified department", and one way to achieve this was to use NANDA as a tool for a common language in nursing care. The implementation started with a meeting with the ward managers and Registered Nurses. A project plan for the implementation was presented and discussed. The project leader met all RNs in the department in small groups to describe and motivate the use of NANDA. Up till now eleven wards have been involved and at least two meetings have been held at each ward. The project leader has participated at ward rounds and supervised the RNs in the use of NANDA. In conclusion, more RNs need to be engaged to continue the progress of the project. Another task is to find a less time consuming implementation process and to evaluate the implementation to this point. It is also important, further down the line, to introduce the tools Nursing Diagnoses Interventions (NIC) and Nursing Diagnoses Outcome (NOC) in the forensic psychiatric setting. Apart from a common nursing language, the use of standardized descriptions, actions and goals would fill the knowledge gap regarding aim and content of nursing care in forensic psychiatric settings (Escalada-Hernandez et. al., 2015).


CONTEXT
Hospitalization for heart failure is associated with high postdischarge mortality and morbidity. The predictive value of the QRS duration during admission for heart failure has not been well studied.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the predictive value of the QRS duration in patients hospitalized for heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Retrospective, post hoc analysis from the Efficacy of Vasopressin Antagonism in Heart Failure Outcome Study With Tolvaptan (EVEREST), an event-driven, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in patients hospitalized for heart failure and having an LVEF of 40% or less. A total of 4133 patients were enrolled at 359 North American, South American, and European sites between October 7, 2003, and February 3, 2006. After excluding 1029 patients with a pacemaker, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or both at enrollment and 142 patients without a reported baseline QRS duration, 2962 patients were included in the analysis: 1641 had a normal QRS duration (< 120 ms) and 1321 had a prolonged QRS duration (> or = 120 ms).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Dual primary end points were all-cause mortality and the composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure.

RESULTS
During a median follow-up of 9.9 months, all-cause mortality was 18.7% for patients with a normal baseline QRS duration and 28.1% for patients with a prolonged baseline QRS duration (hazard ratio [HR], 1.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.38-1.87). The composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure was 32.4% for patients with a baseline QRS duration less than 120 ms and 41.6% for patients with a baseline QRS duration of 120 ms or greater (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.24-1.58). The increased risk associated with prolonged QRS duration was confirmed after adjusting for multiple variables for all-cause mortality (HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.02-1.50) and the composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.10-1.49). Only 105 patients (3.6%) who presented with a prolonged baseline QRS duration had a normal QRS duration on their last inpatient electrocardiogram.

CONCLUSION
A prolonged QRS duration appears common in patients with reduced LVEF who are hospitalized for heart failure and is an independent predictor of high postdischarge morbidity and mortality.


This paper focuses on applications of Bayesian approaches to acoustic modeling for speech recognition and related speech-processing applications. Bayesian approaches have been widely studied in the fields of statistics and machine learning, and one of their advantages is that their generalization capability is better than that of conventional approaches (e.g., maximum likelihood). On the other hand, since inference in Bayesian approaches involves integrals and expectations that are mathematically intractable in most cases and require heavy numerical computations, it is generally difficult to apply them to practical speech recognition problems. However, there have been many such attempts, and this paper aims to summarize these attempts to encourage further progress on Bayesian approaches in the speech-processing field. This paper describes various applications of Bayesian approaches to speech processing in terms of the four typical ways of approximating Bayesian inferences, i.e., maximum a posteriori approximation, model complexity control using a Bayesian information criterion based on asymptotic approximation, variational approximation, and Markov chain Monte Carlo-based sampling techniques.


Construction of geotechnical structures produces various environmental impacts. These include depletion of limited natural resources, generation of wastes and harmful substances during material productions and construction, ineffective usage of energy during processing of raw materials into construction materials, and emissions of unwanted gasses during transportation of materials and usage of equipments. With increasing interests in sustainability at the global scale, there is a need to develop a methodology that can assess environmental impacts at such scale for geotechnical construction. Using embodied energy and gas emission, quantitative measures of environmental impact are evaluated using a case study of a new high speed railway line construction in the UK. Based on the results, the keys to energy savings are (a) to optimise the usage of materials with high embodied energy intensity value (b) to optimise the transportation network and logistics for processes using primarily low embodied energy intensity materials and (c) to reuse as much materials on-site as possible to minimise the quantity of spoils or distance to disposal sites. The evaluated embodied energy and embodied carbon values are compared to those of other types of structures and of other activities and carbon tax values. Such comparisons can be used to discuss among various interested parties (clients, contractors, consultants, policy makers, etc) to make the construction industry more energy efficient. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.


A measurement of event-plane correlations involving two or three event planes of different order is presented as a function of centrality for 7 μb −1 Pb+Pb collision data at √s NN =2.76 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Fourteen correlators are measured using a standard event-plane method and a scalar-product method, and the latter method is found to give a systematically larger correlation signal. Several different trends in the centrality dependence of these correlators are observed. These trends are not reproduced by predictions based on the Glauber model, which includes only the correlations from the collision geometry in the initial state. Calculations that include the final-state collective dynamics are able to describe qualitatively, and in some cases also quantitatively, the centrality dependence of the measured correlators. These observations suggest that both the fluctuations in the initial geometry and the nonlinear mixing between different harmonics in the final state are important for creating these correlations in momentum space.


Perlite is a highly potential national resource, and its use in silicone elastomer compounds as an alternative reinforcing filler to commercial grade fumed silica is targeted in this thesis work. Thus, comparative results are projected to be acquired. Expanded and raw perlite are characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), BET Surface Area Analyzer, Pycnometer and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Attrition mill is used to reduce particle size of expanded perlite. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) results showed that particle size was around 260 nm, whereas Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed particle size was between 40-50 nm. Using BET surface analysis and surface titration experiments, hydroxyl group density on expanded perlite surface was calculated, which came out to be 0.0406 –OH/nm2. Perlite and PDMS masterbatches were prepared using a high-speed mixer and mechanical and rheological properties of the elastomers cured from the masterbatches were studied using a Universal Testing Machine (UTM) and Rubber Process Analyzer (RPA 2000). Surface of the mineral was further modified using Hexamethyldisilazane, increasing wettability and mechanical properties of the elastomer samples. Rheological studies and SEM characterization showed a homogeneous distribution of the filler. As a result, surface modified nano expanded perlite exhibited uniform dispersity in the PDMS matrix, similar to commercial grade fumed silica, and their composites exhibited good mechanical properties.


The study of social interactions in medical work has primarily dealt with doctor-patient consultations in which the body is often talked about rather than actually manipulated. In surgery, the body itself is manipulated and radically transformed. By contrast, social interaction and detailed teamwork organization during operative surgery have been understudied. In this chapter, I first show how anatomy, or the surgical field as it is referred to by surgeons, is situated and collectively achieved during an operation, both through the way in which it is locally seen and interpreted, and also through the way the patient's body is actually cut, dissected, cauterized, and repaired. Second, I show that surgical practice is an exemplary case of collaboration in which a team's actions are timely, precise and coordinated. This paper deals with surgical practice as it is locally shaped within the course of an operation; it focuses on the way in which surgical action is temporally situated and interactively organized. In order to do that, the analyses are based on a substantial corpus of video recorded surgical operations, using open techniques as well as laparoscopic approaches. On this basis, the paper analyzes the systematic way in which surgeons coordinate their actions – in directives and requests concerning the management of instruments and of micro-actions responsible for the progression of the operation.


At present about 100 countries in the world are considered malarious, is thought to kill between 1.1 and 2.7 million people worldwide each year, of which about 1 million are children under the age of 5 years in these areas. Under ideal circumstances, the clinical suspicion of malaria would be confirmed by a laboratory test that is simple to perform, rapid, sensitive, specific and expensive. At the present time, no such test exists. The most common test for malaria diagnosis remains the microscopic examination of giemsa or the fields – stained blood smears. The test is based on the detection of Plasmodium falciparum specific histidine rich protein ii (hrp) and a pan malarial species specific enzyme aldolose, produced by the respective parasites and released into the blood and the test is based on immune chromatography, the test is highly sensitive. Method: In this study included 100 patients, 60% of patients had history suggestive of malaria, another 40% gave the history of irregular fever; For each patient peripheral blood sample was collected, thin and thick smear blood films were made immediately after blood collection, stained with Leishman stain and examined for malaria parasite by light microscopy. Results: The blood films results indicated that 40 (20%) patients were infected with malaria and the rest 171 (85.5%) were malaria negative. Among positive patients Plasmodium vivax was detected in 24 cases (60%) and Plasmodium falciparum in 10 cases (31%) and 6 cases mixed infection (PV + PF) (15%) correspondingly, the Para HIT Test results indicated that 29 (14.5%) of the patient sample were positive for malaria parasites and 171 (85.5) were malaria negative out 29 patients cases. Infection with Plasmodium vivax accounted for 17 (58.6%) while infection with Plasmodium falciparum accounted for 9 (25%) and 3 (1.3%) with mixed infection of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum.


The main goal of this research is to study the impact of somatic cell counts (SCC) on the profitability of commercial dairy farms in Kosovo based on the existing raw milk quality standards in order to determine the economic losses caused by high somatic cell counts in the raw milk produced by Kosovo dairy farms. The research results come from individual raw milk samples that were taken from June to September 2007 on 50 farms in the Dukagjini region and in the Kosovo plain . These samples were collected from 656 lactating cows out of a total of 816 cows under investigation. The strategy of the study is based in the collection and analysis of data concerning the following parameters: SCC, herd size, raw milk yield, raw milk protein and application of proper milking proce dures. Based on the existing administrative instruction for raw milk quality standards for the year 2007 , research found that the overall annual financial losses calculated on the 50 dairy farms under investigation reached an amount of €42,263 per year, whilst the average annual financial loss per farm was €845. Sixty -four percent (64%) of the 50 dairy farms produced milk that fell in Class III of the Administrative Order and received a price being 20% lower than the Class I price, resulting in an average annual loss of 2,772 euros/farm.


Purpose. To compare the intraocular pressure (IOP) before and after Laser In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK), measured by Diaton, Perkins, and noncontact air pulse tonometers. Methods. Fifty-seven patients with a mean age of 34.88 were scheduled for myopia LASIK treatment. Spherical equivalent refraction (SER), corneal curvature (K), and central corneal thickness (CCT) and superior corneal thickness (SCT) were obtained before and after LASIK surgery. IOP values before and after surgery were measured using Diaton, Perkins, and noncontact air pulse tonometers. Results. The IOP values before and after LASIK surgery using Perkins tonometer and air tonometers were statistically significant (p < 0.05). However, no significant differences were found (p > 0.05) for IOP values measured with Diaton tonometer. CCT decreases significantly after surgery (p < 0.05) but no statistical differences were found in SCT (p = 0.08). Correlations between pre- and postsurgery were found for all tonometers used, with p = 0.001 and r = 0.434 for the air pulse tonometer, p = 0.008 and r = 0.355 for Perkins, and p < 0.001 and r = 0.637 for Diaton. Conclusion. Transpalpebral tonometry may be useful for measuring postsurgery IOP after myopic LASIK ablation because this technique is not influenced by the treatment.


We envision an Autonomic Software Product Line (ASPL). The ASPL is a dynamic software product line that supports self adaptable products. We plan to use reflective architecture to model and develop ASPL. To evaluate the approach, we have implemented three autonomic product lines which show promising results. The ASPL approach is at initial stages, and require additional work. We plan to exploit online learning to realize more dynamic software product lines to cope with the problem of product line evolution. We propose on-line knowledge sharing among products in a product line to achieve continuous improvement of quality in product line products.


The Supreme Court's decision in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC continues to obsess academics and courts alike. Despite all the attention, however, the "Chevron revolution" never quite happens, and the close of the Supreme Court's 2014-15 Term was full of hints of new judicial skepticism about excessive judicial deference to agency decisions. So we have a decision that is seen as transformatively important but that is honored in the breach, in constant danger of being abandoned, and the subject of perpetual confusion and uncertainty. This article, written for a symposium in honor of Peter Strauss, seeks both to bury and to praise Chevron.The article begins by describing Chevron as a form of self-regulation. That feature alone is enough to explain why it has not taken over the world and will never do so. The article then lays out a basic understanding of Chevron, focusing on the distinction between Chevron and the quite different model of deference exemplified by Skidmore v. Swift and Co. The argument here is for a reading of Chevron that is both weaker and stronger than that often proposed. On the one hand, courts retain an essential and meaningful role in determining the boundaries of what Peter Strauss has labeled "Chevron space"; they have real work to do. On the other hand, in doing that work, the views of the agency can never be ignored; in doctrinal terms, Skidmore applies within step one. These principles are explicated in part by reviewing the vocabulary of Chevron doctrine. This part concludes by placing Chevron in a jurisprudential framework that draws on the distinction between "interpretation" and "construction." That distinction, or something like it, maps onto and helps elucidate the distinction between step one and step two. Courts have ultimate authority over interpretation but yield to agency construction.Part III applies the framework developed in Part II to the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in City of Arlington v. FCC, which held that Chevron applies to agency determinations going to their own jurisdiction. The majority and the dissent in that case were both correct, making City of Arlington that rare creature, a unanimous 6-3 decision.Chevron is not a revolutionary shift of authority from the judiciary to the executive. That Chevron is dead. The Chevron that survives is an appropriate allocation of decisionmaking responsibility among the three branches, relying on the judiciary to enforce congressional decisions, but protecting agency authority and discretion where Congress has left the decision to the executive. Long may it reign.


Although termites are ecosystem engineers in tropical and sub‐tropical environments, the study of termite ecology is often constrained by sampling difficulties and a lack of established sampling protocols, particularly for savannas. The efficiency and relevance of different methods along climatic gradients, even within a single biome, is largely unknown. Here, we compare the relative contribution of two commonly used sampling methods, cellulose baits and active searching transects, in quantifying savanna termite diversity along a rainfall gradient in South Africa; sampling was conducted during the wet season across four markedly different savanna types. We also assessed the usefulness of different forms of baiting techniques. The relative efficiency of sampling method varied with annual rainfall. In arid savannas, baiting was as effective as active searching transects at sampling termite diversity and we recommend the use of baiting rather due to it being less labor intensive. In savannas of moderately low to intermediate rainfall, baiting and transects sampled different termite species and so both are deemed necessary for an accurate assessment of termite diversity. In contrast, in wetter savannas transects gave a better assessment of diversity, with cellulose baits not contributing much to diversity assessment. The efficiency of baiting techniques differed across the rainfall gradient, with baits needing to be left in the field for a longer period in more arid savannas. We conclude that habitat type, even within a single biome, will determine the sampling method or methods necessary to quantify termite diversity accurately.


The year 2012 heralded significant developments in open access (OA) that impacted the relationships between the major stakeholders in scholarly publishing: researchers, funders, publishers and governments. In the UK, the clear preference for a gold OA policy enunciated by the government-backed 'Finch Report' is now being implemented by the research councils. Although the policy has been modified to include green routes to OA publishing, arguments continue about the optimal route to a system of open access that can work on a global scale. Resolution of these disputes will require courage and imagination.


It is well known that contingent representation is on the rise in patent litigation. But why? And what are the lawyers in the field like? Although scholars have studied contingent litigation in other contexts — such as medical malpractice, personal injury, and products liability litigation — patent litigation has received almost no attention. This gap in the literature is unsettling because patent litigation is different from these other fields of contingent litigation in important and interesting ways. These differences include: patent litigation is much more uncertain; the costs of litigating claims are usually significantly higher; and patents, including their underlying infringement claims, are freely assignable. Absent in most other contingent litigation contexts, these characteristics of patent litigation shed light on the broader topics of litigation and contingency relationships in general.Drawing upon several sources of data, including in-depth interviews with over forty lawyers involved in contingent representation in patent litigation and examination of over forty contingent fee agreements, this Article provides the first comprehensive analysis of the rapid evolution of contingent representation in patent law. The development of contingent representation includes top-tier litigation firms recently transitioning to taking on high value contingent cases, small entrants representing plaintiffs in lower value cases, and numerous general practice firms experimenting with contingent patent litigation. These diverse players each select and litigate cases using varied methods, resulting in different levels of risk and reward. The Article uses the study of these players to discuss how and why attorney-client contingent relationships established in the nascent marketplace of patent contingent litigation differ from other types of contingent litigation, and what patent law can teach about contingent representation in general. It also lays the foundation for future quantitative research comparing the results of contingent and hourly billing representation.


In the context of Hofstede's distinction between collectivist and individualist societies, an analysis was conducted of rhetorical devices utilized to invite affiliative audience responses in 11 speeches delivered by the two principal candidates in the 2012 American presidential election (Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney). Results were compared with preexisting data on Japanese and British political speeches. Whereas Anglo American politicians principally utilized implicit rhetorical devices, the Japanese principally utilized explicit devices. Whereas individualized audience responses (isolated applause and individual remarks) occurred throughout the American speeches, Japanese audiences invariably responded together. Collective audience responses also occurred in the American speeches, but showed a greater diversity than those for the British or Japanese, with chanting and booing, as well as cheering, applause, and laughter. In the American speeches, a significant positive correlation was found between affiliative response rate and electoral success; this is the first study to demonstrate such a significant relationship.


AbstractThis study addresses some of the multiple factors that play a role in children's developing narrative abilities. It starts by reviewing approaches to narrative analysis that have had an impact on the study of children's narratives since the 1970s. Such analyses are reevaluated from a developmental perspective, based on crosslinguistic findings from picturebook narratives. The generality of these results is then examined by comparing narratives produced by children in different elicitation settings, based on findings from a large-scale Hebrew-language sample. Finally, an attempt is made to integrate these findings along different dimensions involved in developing narrative knowledge, as manifested by children at different phases of development: in recruiting linguistic forms for narrative functions, in combining foreground plotline events with affective evaluation and background circumstances, and in perceiving what it means to tell a story in task-appropriate ways. The development of narrative abilities is shown to yield a complex web of interrelations between abstract narrative competence and how this is realized in storytelling performance. (Linguistics)


From recent IIASA workshops on water quality modeling a need can be identified for comparative studies of different model types against the same set of field data. Similarly, some of the motivation for a state-of-the-art survey on water quality modeling to be prepared under the auspices of IIASA stems from the desire to bring order and authenticity to a fast-developing field of technology. The problem is as follows: although models can be readily applied in management and decisionmaking, they are not always so readily subject to a prior verification against field data from the river system. One reason underlying this problem is that the relevant field data, with a sufficiently high sampling frequency and collected over a sufficiently long period, either do not exist or have not been publicized.

The primary objective of this paper is the dissemination of a set of time-series field data suitable for the identification and verification of dynamic models for water quality. Here water quality is interpreted as the interaction between three variables: dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration-a broad measure of the healthy state, or otherwise, of a river; biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration -- a macro-measure of typical municipal/domestic organic waste materials; and a population of algae. A secondary objective is the comparison, by means of response error statistics, of several models that have been derived by reference to the field data. And yet a third objective is to present a summarizing and concluding statement on river water quality model development exercise which spans various publications over the past four or five years.

With respect to model comparison and model assessment the paper concludes with a cautionary message on the use of simple fitting error statistics; and, in any case, it is argued that judgments about the "best" model are dependent upon the intended application of the model. On the accuracy of the models as representations of the real system it is found that many questions remain unresolved, and particularly so for those aspects of the models related to the growth kinetics, death, and decay properties of floating algal populations. The hope is expressed that, given the data, others will be stimulated not only to answer these questions but also to reassess the assumptions that the paper makes concerning the mixing and transport characteristics of the case study reach of river.


Abstract. This study not only examined the spatiotemporal variations of active-layer thickness (ALT) in permafrost regions during 1948–2006 over the terrestrial Arctic regions experiencing climate changes, but also identified the associated drivers based on observational data and a simulation conducted by a land surface model (CHANGE). The focus on the ALT extends previous studies that have emphasized ground temperatures in permafrost regions. The Ob, Yenisey, Lena, Yukon, and Mackenzie watersheds are foci of the study. Time series of ALT in Eurasian watersheds showed generally increasing trends, while the increase in ALT in North American watersheds was not significant. However, ALT in the North American watersheds has been negatively anomalous since 1990 when the Arctic air temperature entered into a warming phase. The warming temperatures were not simply expressed to increases in ALT. Since 1990 when the warming increased, the forcing of the ALT by the higher annual thawing index (ATI) in the Mackenzie and Yukon basins has been offset by the combined effects of less insulation caused by thinner snow depth and drier soil during summer. In contrast, the increasing ATI together with thicker snow depth and higher summer soil moisture in the Lena contributed to the increase in ALT. The results imply that the soil thermal and moisture regimes formed in the pre-thaw season(s) provide memory that manifests itself during the summer. The different ALT anomalies between Eurasian and North American watersheds highlight increased importance of the variability of hydrological variables.


Smoke pollution from wildfires can adversely affect human health, and there is uncertainty about the amount of smoke pollution caused by prescribed v. wildfires, a problem demanding a landscape perspective given that air quality monitoring is sparse outside of urban airsheds. The primary objective was to assess differences in fire intensity and smoke plume area between prescribed fires and wildfires around Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. We matched thermal anomaly satellite data to databases of fires in forests surrounding both cities. For each matched fire we determined hotspot count and quantified their intensity using the fire radiative power (FRP) measurement. Smoke plumes were mapped using MODIS true colour images. Wildfires had more extreme fire intensity values than did prescribed burns and the mean size of wildfire plumes was six times greater than of prescribed fire plumes for both cities. Statistical modelling showed that the horizontal area covered by smoke plumes could be predicted by hotspot count and sum of FRP, with differences between cities and fire type. Smoke plumes from both fire types reached both urban areas, and particulate pollution was higher on days affected by smoke plumes. Our results suggested that prescribed fires produced smaller smoke plume areas than did wildfires in two different flammable landscapes. Smoke plume and FRP data, combined with air pollution data from static monitors, can be used to improve smoke management for human health.


In recent years, nonlinear wake oscillator models have been shown to arise as a leading order approximation to the vortex shedding instability from a circular cylinder in a uniform flow (Alberéde and Monkewitz, 1992). Skop and Balasubramanian (1995) and Balasubramanian and Skop (1996) have extended the Van der Pol oscillator to model vortex shedding in non-uniform flow scenarios by introducing an axial diffusive coupling term in the equation. The results of their investigations have yielded a universal linear relationship between a turbulent kinematic viscosity that scales the diffusive coupling term and the shear parameter that quantifies the shear in the flow.
 In this paper, following Skop and Balasubramanian (1997), we use the diffusively coupled Van der Pol oscillator as the governing equation for one component of the fluctuating lift force on the cylinder. The second component of the lift force is represented by a stall term which is linearly proportional to the transverse velocity of the cylinder. The coupled fluid-structural equations are employed to numerically simulate the response of a uniform pivoted cylinder in uniform and shear flow. The numerically predicted response amplitudes and bounds of lock-in are compared to available experimental results.


Interest in the Ir genes of rheus monkeys stems from their phylogenetic relationship to man and the extensive data already available on the major histocompatibility complex of the monkey. At least two independent dominant H-linked Ir genes have been identified in the rhesus. These genes control the ability of monkeys to respond to the random linear copolymer of glutamyl alanine (GA), or the dinitrophenyl conjugate of glutamyl lysine (DNP-GL). These synthetic polymers can elicit weak delayed-type skin reactions and strong humoral responses in some monkeys. In a series of unrelated monkeys phenotyped for the serologically defined RhL-A specificities of both segregant series, there were no correlations between any RhL-A specificity and responder status to the GA or DNP-GL polymers. However, segregation analysis of 21 rhesus families sired by 3 fathers indicated the capacity of the offspring to form antibodies was associated with genes coded for in the RhL-A complex. In three monkeys, verified recombination within the RhL- A complex between the genes coding for the serologically defined determinants (SD loci) and the gene(s) controlling the lymphocyte- activating determinants (Lad loci) responsible for mixed lymphocyte reactivity was established. In two of these monkeys the immune response genes controlling the DNP-GL response segregated with the Lad genes, while in the third case the Ir-GL gene segregated with the SD loci, tentatively localizing the Ir-GL gene between the SD and Lad loci. In addition, we have shown that genetically distinct genes control responsiveness to DNP-GL and GA. These genes were separated by recombination, thus one monkey inherited the Lad, Ir-GL, and SD loci from one paternal haplotype and by crossing over inherited the gene controlling GA responsiveness from the other paternal haplotype. The fine structure mapping of the RhL-A gene complex is compared with the H- 2 and HL-A gene complexes. Several striking similarities were noted.


Iron particles were synthesized inside poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propansulfonic acid) (p(AMPS)) and used as a catalyst in the reduction of nitro benzene and 4-nitrophenol to aniline and 4-aminophenol, respectively, in acidic medium. It was demonstrated that hydrogel networks can be used effectively as catalysis media in the reduction of some organic toxic materials. The results verified that iron particles containing p(AMPS) hydrogel networks yield faster conversion rates. Additionally, iron nanoparticles containing p(AMPS) hydrogel networks could catalyze the reaction, giving 32% yield without any added cocatalyst, providing self cocatalyst mission.


ABSTRACT This paper explores the development of policies dealing with teachers' digital competence in Norway, Ireland and Spain. Using a documentary research approach, the study analysed relevant policy documents from each country over a thirty-year period to the present day. Analysis of the documents highlights historical differences and similarities in how technology in education policies developed during that period and differences in how teacher education was addressed. Despite these differences, the analysis indicates a convergence in recent years towards a common understanding and the importance of teachers' digital competence influenced by supranational frameworks. The paper discusses the potential influence of these supranational frameworks and examines the opportunities and challenges of this policy convergence.


The role of macrophages (monocytes) for the induction of interleukin 2 receptors (IL 2R) on human B lymphocytes was studied by a direct immunofluorescence method with the use of a fluoresceinated anti-IL 2R monoclonal antibody and a flow cytofluorometer. Highly purified B lymphocytes alone did not induce IL 2R on their surface by stimulation with Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I, anti-mu antibody, or pokeweed mitogen. However, the addition of monocytes successfully induced IL 2R on B lymphocytes stimulated with these mitogens in a dose-dependent manner. Interleukin 1 (IL 1) produced by monocytes could partially replace the accessory function of monocytes. In accordance with these results, the proliferation of B lymphocytes and the differentiation to immunoglobulin-producing cells in response to IL 2 were also dependent on monocytes or IL 1. These results suggest that the accessory function of macrophages for IL 2-induced B cell activation is primarily on the induction of IL 2R on B lymphocytes.


Statistical methods for network data often parameterize the edge-probability by attributing latent traits such as block structure to the vertices and assume exchangeability in the sense of the Aldous-Hoover representation theorem. These assumptions are however incompatible with traits found in real-world networks such as a power-law degree-distribution. Recently, Caron & Fox (2014) proposed the use of a different notion of exchangeability after Kallenberg (2005) and obtained a network model which permits edge-inhomogeneity, such as a power-law degree-distribution whilst retaining desirable statistical properties. However, this model does not capture latent vertex traits such as block-structure. In this work we re-introduce the use of block-structure for network models obeying Kallenberg's notion of exchangeability and thereby obtain a collapsed model which both admits the inference of block-structure and edge inhomogeneity. We derive a simple expression for the likelihood and an efficient sampling method. The obtained model is not significantly more difficult to implement than existing approaches to block-modelling and performs well on real network datasets.


Comamonas testosteroni, previously known as Pseudomonas testosteroni, is an aerobic, motile, nonspore-forming Gram-negative bacterium. It rarely infects humans and can commonly live in environments, such as soil, water, plants, and animals. In addition to this, it can also survive for a long period in hospital environments. The microorganism infections are often treatable in humans; thus, mortality is rare. Up to today, among all cases in the literature, only five died due to underlying diseases. We present a case of a 10-year-old male patient with cerebral palsy who was positive with C. testosteroni in the tracheal aspirate culture. The patient died on day 50 of hospitalization owing to the fact that his prognosis was extremely poor. In the medical literature, the patient is the second case of pneumonia.


Custodians of the Sacred Mountains is the first comprehensive ethnography of the Bali Aga, a large ethnic minority that occupies the island's central highlands. The Bali Aga are popularly viewed as the indigenous counterparts to other Balinese who trace their origin to invaders from the Javanese kingdom of Majapait, who have ruled Bali from the fourteenth century A.D. Although Bali remains one of the most intensely researched localities in the world, the Bali Aga have long been overshadowed by the more exotic courtly culture of the south. A closer analysis of the changing position of the Bali Aga within Balinese society provides a key to understanding the polities and social process of cultural representation in Bali and beyond. The process is marked by a blend of representational competition and cooperation among the Bali Aga themselves, among the Bali Aga and southern Balinese, and later among the island's aristocratic elites and foreign colonizers or scholars, and state authorities. The study of this process raises important issues about the establishment and maintenance of status and power structures at regional, national, and global levels. Custodians of the Sacred Mountains explores the marginalization of the Bali Aga in light of a critical theory of cultural representation and calls for a morally engaged approach to ethnographic research. It proposes an intersubjective and communicative model of human interaction as the foundation for understanding the relative significance of cooperation and competition in the cultural production of knowledge.


Stability criteria of front-mounted lateral movable three-point hitches have been known for several years. The steering ability of the tractor will be improved by this kind of implement hitch, compared with an implement hitch unable to move sideways. This is applicable particularly when a soil-working implement is used. There are several other advantages with front-mounted lateral movable three-point hitches. In spite of all advantages, this kind of implement hitch is not used in practice. This work shows that the lateral motion of front-mounted directional implements mostly follows the simplified theory proposed by Jonsson (1983). Also the lateral motion of front- mounted non-directional implements follows the simplified theory, provided that the area within which the non-directional hitch-point is moving can be approximated by a point. Another necessary requirement for the simplified theory is that the friction in the links can be neglected. According to the simplified theory, directional implements are moving towards the directional hitch-point and non-directional implements are moving towards the non-directional hitch-point. The lateral disturbances, are exponentially reduced according to the equation (Jonsson, 1983): Ls = Ls0 ∙e^-(x/Lh) where Ls side disturbance X travelled distance Lh hitch length The simplified theory assumes that the areas within which the hitch points are moving, when implements are moving laterally, can be approximated by points. This assumption implies that the hitch length can be approximated as constant. This approximation was shown to be fulfilled when the implement was mounted on a rear-mounted three-point hitch. In this case, the force in the upper link was relatively small. This was shown by a study of two different pulled non-directional implements. One implement with a draught force in the upper link and one with a compressive force in the upper link. The return of the implement from the lateral disturbance was almost similar for both implements. Thus, small variations in the upper link force were shown to have only minor influence on the lateral motion of the implement. To get front-mounted three-point linkages laterally stable and self-centring a large draught force in the upper link is required. This complicates the application of the simplified theory to front-mounted laterally movable three-point hitches, because the simplified theory has so far neglected the influence of the force in the upper link. The influence of different hitch geometry variables on the areas, within which the hitch points move when the implement moves laterally, has been studied in this work. For laterally stable implement-hitch combinations it is normally possible to approximate the area, within which the directional hitch point moves, by a point. The area, within which the non-directional point moves, is often larger. However, some combinations of hitch variables made it possible to reduce this area, within which the non-directional hitch-point moves, so much that also this area could be approximated by a point. Variable changes that contribute to reduce this area are: 1 Reducing the convergence of the lower links or moving forward the convergence point of the lower links 2 Reducing the length of the upper link 3 Increasing the relation between the upper link draught force and the soil force 4 Increasing the length of the lower links The influence on the lateral motion of the implements from these variables was studied partly by simulating the lateral motion of different implements and partly by measuring the lateral motion of different test hitch-implement combinations. In the simulations, the motion of the implement was always directed towards the momentary hitch point. The motion of the implements was then compared with the lateral motion of the implements according to the simplified theory. As long as the hitch points were moving within a small area, the lateral motion of the implement followed the simplified theory.


Purpose – The aim of this article is to examine perceptions and expectations of two major stakeholders: students and employers of the importance of skills and attributes for securing entry-level employment in accounting. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conduct an empirical study using a list of 78 items, starting by comparing employers' expectations with students' perceptions concerning the set of technical and non technical skills required from accounting graduates to pursue a career in the accounting profession This study involving data collection from 81 accounting students in five business schools in Tunisia and 48 practitioners. Findings – Findings indicate that employers are seeking graduates who possess a diverse range of non-technical skills. However, accounting students perceive that it is rather technical skills which determine their abilities to pursue a career in the accounting profession. Practical implications – The paper's findings are of interest to several different parties, primarily the professional accounting body, universities and students. Originality/value – The paper describes an empirical study, conducted on a developing country, which provides a better understanding of new skills expected for future accountants in this changing business environment. The paper constitutes also a meaningful contribution to the accounting education literature, as it examines an interesting subject that has not yet been investigated in the Tunisian context.


Featuring incredible creatures and grotesque gargoyles, "The Medieval Menagerie" takes us from the improbable to the impossible as it traces the depiction and the meaning of real and imaginary animals in medieval art. From unicorns and dragons to elephants, lions, and monkeys, medieval society was fascinated with animals, whether they actually existed or not. The more fantastic the creature, the greater its hold seems to have been on the fertile imaginations of the Middle Ages. Both art and literature abound with vividly concocted examples of Gothic monsters (gargoyles and griffins), bizarre ideas about real if exotic beasts (lions were believed to be born dead and resurrected by the father lion three days later), and strange visions of composite creatures (such as a widely accepted animal believed to be a cross between an ant and a lion). Featuring the celebrated collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, "The Medieval Menagerie" is illustrated with the splendid and amusing beasts found in medieval painting, sculpture, architecture and decorative arts, as wello as in bestiaries and manuscripts. The text explores the depiction and the meaning of real and imaginary animals in medieval art. Elegant, lively and intelligent, "The Medieval Managerie" captures some of the wildest creatures ever to grace a Gothic cathedral.


Objectives
Fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFAs) are a novel class of endogenous lipids with suspected anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties in adults. They have been reported to be present in breast milk (BM), but there is no data about their role in infant growth and nutrition. Our objective was to determine the role of maternal body mass index (BMI) on BM FAHFA composition and to delineate the association of these BM fatty acids on infant growth and adiposity.

Methods
This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of maternal vitamin D supplementation during lactation (NCT00412074). We included 40 control mother-infant dyads who had BM samples at one (V1) and four (V4) months and outcome data available. At V1 and V4, maternal and infant anthropometrics were measured, dual energy absorptiometry (DXA) scans conducted, and BM samples collected. BM lipids were measured using established methods of UHPLC-C30RP/HRAM mass spectrometry. Our primary infant growth outcomes were percentage of fat and lean mass, fat mass index, and fat-free mass index. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to analyze the relation between individual lipids, maternal BMI, and infant growth. Focusing on V1 measurements, we computed the unadjusted associations between maternal BMI with BM lipids; BM lipids with infant growth using Pearson's correlations; and the adjusted associations of BM lipids at V1 with infant growth using linear regression with adjustment for relevant covariates.

Results
The mean maternal BMI was 29 kg/m2. There was no correlation between maternal BMI and reported dietary intake of fat. Higher maternal BMI was associated with a higher concentration of saturated and monounsaturated FAHFAs, and a lower concentration of polyunsaturated FAHFAs in BM at V1. In an unadjusted model, saturated and monounsaturated FAHFAs were associated with higher infant fat mass and lower lean mass. The converse was seen with polyunsaturated FAHFAs which were associated with lower infant fat mass and higher lean mass. In a fully adjusted model, these associations were attenuated but the overall pattern persisted (Table 1).

Conclusions
Maternal BMI influences the FAHFA composition of BM. In turn, BM FAHFA composition may play a role in programming infant growth patterns.

Funding Sources
The Nutritional Obesity Research Consortium Grant.

Supporting Tables Images and/or Graphs


1. We have reported that the renin-angiotensin system is activated in acute asthma, and also by high-dose nebulized beta 2-agonists. The contribution of other possible stimuli such as hypoxia is unknown. The present study examined the effect of hypoxia alone and also combined with beta 2-agonists on the activity of the renin-angiotensin system. 2. In a double-blind crossover study, eight healthy subjects were randomized to inhale a hypoxic (FiO2 = 12%) or normoxic mixture for a period of 30 min, with either nebulized salbutamol (5 mg) or placebo administered into the circuit after 10 min. Plasma renin, angiotensin II and serum angiotensin-converting enzyme were measured at baseline and at intervals up to 2 h. Pulse rate and oxygen saturation were monitored continuously throughout the study. 3. After hypoxia alone, there was no change in the levels of plasma renin or angiotensin II. When salbutamol was added to the hypoxic mixture, there was a significant rise in plasma renin and angiotensin II [mean (SEM) maximal increase in angiotensin II of 5.6 (2.9) pg/ml and renin of 15.5 (6.3) mu-units/ml at 60 min, P < 0.05 compared with normoxia]. When salbutamol was administered in the normoxic mixture, plasma renin and angiotensin II also increased but this effect was similar to the effect of salbutamol in the hypoxic mixture. Serum angiotensin-converting enzyme levels were unaffected by hypoxia or salbutamol. 4. We conclude from these results that there is activation of the renin-angiotensin system in healthy subjects by salbutamol, but not hypoxia. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Vitamin D and calcium are metabolically interrelated and highly correlated dietary factors. Experimental studies have shown their anticarcinogenic effects due to their participation in regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis in normal and malignant breast cells. Given the emerging interest in their potential roles in the etiology of breast cancer, we review the current epidemiologic literature on dietary and/or supplemental intakes of vitamin D, endogenous circulating levels of vitamin D, and dietary and/or supplemental intakes of calcium in relation to breast cancer risk. To place these studies in context, we also provide a brief review of other supporting epidemiologic evidence. Despite inconsistent results from the epidemiologic studies, several lines of evidence suggest that vitamin D and calcium may be involved in the development of breast cancer. Specifically, (a) there is some epidemiologic evidence for inverse associations between vitamin D and calcium intakes and breast cancer; (b) serum, plasma, and/or blood levels of vitamin D metabolites have been inversely associated with breast cancer risk in some studies; (c) high sunlight exposure, presumably reflecting vitamin D synthesis in the skin, has been associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer; (d) vitamin D and calcium intakes have been inversely related to breast density, an intermediate end point for breast cancer; (e) calcium has been associated with a reduced risk of benign proliferative epithelial disorders of the breast, putative precursors of breast cancer; and (f) certain polymorphisms of the vitamin D receptor might modify breast cancer susceptibility. To further confirm the potential protective effects of calcium and vitamin D on breast cancer, well-designed cohort studies and clinical trials are warranted. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(8):1427-37)


Background Limited information suggests that men who have sex with men (MSM) are informally obtaining antiretroviral medication (ARVs) and using them for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

METHODS
Data are drawn from an on-going study examining the use of non-prescribed ARVs for PrEP. To date, 24 qualitative interviews have been conducted with HIV-negative, substance-using MSM living in Miami, Florida, USA. Data are presented from two participants who reported HIV seroconversion while using non-prescribed ARVs for PrEP.

RESULTS
Preliminary data indicate that some young MSM: (i) lack awareness of and accurate information about the efficacious use of PrEP; (ii) obtain non-prescribed ARVs from HIV-positive sex partners and use these medications for PrEP in a way that does not provide adequate protection against HIV infection or cohere with established guidelines; and (iii) engage in multiple HIV transmission risk behaviours, including condomless anal sex and injection drug use.

CONCLUSIONS
The informal, non-prescribed and non-medically supervised use of ARVs for HIV prevention has the potential to undermine the protective benefits of PrEP and leave men unprotected against HIV transmission and at risk for ARV resistance.


Gas distribution mapping is a crucial task in emission monitoring and search and rescue applications. A common assumption made by state-of-the art mapping algorithms is that only one type of gaseous substance is present in the environment. For real world applications, this assumption can become very restrictive. In this paper we present an algorithm that creates gas concentration maps in a scenario where multiple heterogeneous gas sources are present. First, using an array of metal oxide (MOX) sensors and a pattern recognition algorithm, the chemical compound is identified. Then, for each chemical compound a gas concentration map using the readings of a Photo Ionization Detector (PID) is created. The proposed approach has been validated in experiments with the sensors mounted on a mobile robot which performed a predefined trajectory in a room where two gas sources emitting respectively ethanol and 2-propanol have been placed.


Lycoris radiata has beautiful bright-red flowers with both medicinal and ornamental value. However, the mechanisms underlying an unusual characteristic of Lycoris radiata, flowering without leaves, remain unclear. In this study, climatic influences, biomass composition, and yearly variations in bulb contents across eight developmental stages of L. radiata were analyzed. Thus, L. radiata summer dormancy was investigated in three dimensions: climate-associated phenology, biomass distribution characteristics, and physiologic bulb changes. The results showed that dormancy was most strongly affected by high ambient temperature, followed by scape development, flowering, leafing out, vigorous leaf growth, flower bud differentiation, flower bud predifferentiation, and leaf maturation. Biomass allocation, bulb contents, oxidoreductase activity, and root activity fluctuated significantly in L. radiata among developmental stages. Relative bulb dry weight was greatest during the dormant period (95.95% of total dry weight) and lowest during vigorous leaf growth (November–December). Root biomass was also significantly greater during dormancy than during flowering, leaf maturation, and flower bud differentiation. Only root biomass during vigorous leaf growth was greater than root biomass during dormancy. However, in dormant bulbs, soluble sugar content, soluble protein content, root activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and peroxidase (POD) activity decreased. Thus, summer dormancy in L. radiata only constitutes a morphologic dormancy of the aboveground plant; the bulb and root remain physiologically active. The results suggest that L. radiata is sensitive to both ambient temperature and light, and that summer dormancy is triggered by the synergistic stimulation of these two factors. Although temperature controls dormancy, it plays only a limited regulatory role during the L. radiata flowering period. Thus, it is difficult to induce flowering or regulate annual flowering in this species through temperature control alone.


Abstract Birdsong is an important sexually selected trait, and its acoustic features are socially transmitted in the process of song learning. Though a great deal of research has been conducted to shed light on the mechanisms and functions of song learning, we still do not have clear answers as to why for some species, including Estrildid finches and humans, the ability of "social" vocal learning has evolved. Therefore, this paper addresses social factors responsible for song learning, especially focusing on tutor choice in Estrildid finches, with the aim of elucidating what is already clear about how the social environment shapes songs and what is needed in future studies.


This paper investigates high-frequency (HF) market and limit orders in the U.S. Treasury market around major macroeconomic news announcements. BrokerTec introduced i-Cross at the end of 2007 and we use this exogenous event as an instrument to analyze the impact of HF activities on liquidity and price efficiency. Our results show that HF activities have a negative effect on liquidity around economic announcements: they widen spreads during the pre-announcement period and lower depth on the order book during the post-announcement period. The negative impact on liquidity mainly derives from HF trades. Nonetheless, HF trades improve price efficiency during both the preannouncement and post-announcement periods.


Severe drought is a notable feature of the hydrology of central Southwest (CSW) Asia. Although studies have linked the region's interannual precipitation variability to remote forcings that include East Asia jet stream variability and western Pacific tropical convection, atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs) forced by observed sea‐surface temperatures demonstrate little skill in simulating interannual precipitation variability in this region. Here, statistical methods of correcting systematic errors in GCM simulations of CSW Asia precipitation are investigated. Canonical correlation analysis is used to identify model fields related to observed precipitation anomaly patterns. These relationships are then used to predict observed precipitation anomalies. This approach is applied to the ECHAM 4.5 GCM using regional precipitation, upper‐level winds and western Pacific tropical precipitation as predictors of observed CSW Asia precipitation anomalies. The statistical corrections improve the GCM precipitation simulations, resulting in modest, but statistically significant, cross‐validated skill in simulating CSW Asia precipitation anomalies. Applying the procedure to hindcasts with persisted sea‐surface temperatures gives lower, but statistically significant, precipitation correlations in the region along the Hindu Kush mountain range. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society


Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) experience multiple pulmonary exacerbations throughout their lifetime, resulting in repeated antibiotic exposure and hospital admissions. Reliable diagnostic markers to guide antibiotic treatment in patients with CF, however, are lacking. Given that the CF airway is characterized by persistent and frequent bacterial infection, our goal was to determine if procalcitonin (PCT) could be used as a severity and prognostic marker of CF exacerbation. We enrolled 40 participants at the time of diagnosis of CF pulmonary exacerbation. Inclusion criteria: age ≥19 years with exacerbation requiring antibiotics as determined by the treating physician. Exclusion criteria: antibiotics initiated more than 48 hours prior to enrollment, and pregnancy. Blood samples were collected on enrollment day and after 7–10 days of treatment. Of the 40 patients enrolled, 23 (57.5%) had detectable levels of PCT (≥0.05 ng/mL). PCT levels were significantly associated with pulmonary exacerbation scores (p=0.01) and per cent decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) (p=0.01) compared with the best in the last 12 months. Those who had worsening PCT during treatment had less improvement in FEV1 (p=0.001) and were more likely to be readmitted to the hospital sooner (p<0.0001). Likewise, those who had a detectable PCT at the time of admission were more likely to be readmitted sooner (p=0.03). PCT elevation during antibiotic treatment is associated with less improvement in FEV1 and earlier readmission. A detectable PCT level occurs only in more severe CF exacerbations. Multicenter trials are needed to confirm whether PCT may play a role in the clinical care of patients with CF.


Teacher education needs to engage teacher candidates in developing crosscultural competence so that they may be able to transmit global learning to their future students. This study theorizes cross-cultural competence (CCC) from the perspectives of multicultural and global education. During a four-year project at a mid-western US university, utilizing Web 2.0 technologies, the authors implemented and evaluated a pedagogical approach intended to foster crosscultural competence with an emphasis on dispositional transformation. A mixedmethod design assessed students on CCC standards and found that they developed affective as well as cognitive CCC. By implication, the model can be adapted in other teacher education classrooms to foster cross-cultural, multicultural global learning.


In contrast to the international arena, accountability and civil society have until recently attracted little attention in the EU context. Civil society is said to play a decisive role in holding EU authorities to account, but this positive assessment lacks systematic examination. This article clarifies the concept of accountability and civil society and suggests a typology of accountability relations to explore the different roles civil society organisations may play as actors or facilitators of EU accountability. The heuristic use of this analytical approach is demonstrated by drawing on empirical findings from a recently completed research project.


The aim of the mini-workshop was to bring together people whose work in mathematics and mathematical physics centers around geometry and topology applicable in modern string theory. More specifically, whose interests are in one or another way connected to gerbes and twisted K-theory and their applications in topological field theory, conformal field theory and M -theory. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 18xx, 19xx, 55xx, 57xx, 81xx. Introduction by the Organisers The Mini-Workshop Gerbes, Twisted K-Theory and Conformal Field Theory organized by Branislav Jurčo (München), Jouko Mickelsson (Helsinki) and Christoph Schweigert (Hamburg) was held August 14th – August 20th, 2005. The idea of this mini-workshop was to bring together people working on different aspects of gerbes (and related topics) to exchange different points of view, make the interactions more intense and eventually establish new collaborations. Because of different backgrounds of participants, the organizers asked Jarah Evslin and Hisham Sati to prepare some expository lectures on M -theory, supergravity and superstrings oriented towards a more mathematical audience. Also Christoph Schweigert prepared an introduction on the use of gerbes and gerbe modules in the description of D-branes in Wess-Zumino-Witten models and Dale Husemöller reported on the point of view of stacks and gerbes in the form used in algebraic geometry following Deligne's exposition of nonabelian cohomology in LN 900. As equivalence classes of line bundles are geometric realizations of the second integral cohomology classes, stably equivalence classes of bundle gerbes are geometric realizations of the third integral cohomology classes. Similarly to line bundle 2140 Oberwolfach Report 38/2005 that can be equipped with connection, gerbe can be equipped with connection and curving (B-field). Taking this extra differential geometric structures into account the relevant cohomology is the Deligne cohomology. Gerbes can be equipped with modules, which are vector bundles twisted with the third integral cohomology class in questions. These are the structures important in string theory when we want to describe D-branes in topologically nontrivial backgrounds. D-brane charges are conjecturally classified (at least in some situations) by the corresponding twisted K-theory. This links very nicely K-theory to conformal filed theory. Similarly higher versions of gerbes and their nonabelian generalizations are expected to be useful for description of higher rank forms gauge theories and the conjectural M theory. As usually, this interaction between geometry, topology and theoretical physics makes the subject attractive to researches with different backgrounds. Gerbe and gerbe modules turn out to be a crucial input in the description of the Wess-Zumino term in the presence of boundaries. The quantization of the position of D-branes in string backgrounds with three-form fluxes actually arises as a consequence of integrality properties of these modules. This was discussed in talks of Christoph Schweigert and Krzyzstof Gawedzki who explained how gerbes help to solve WZW conformal sigma models and how they provide an uniform and effective treatment of classical and quantum theories without and with boundaries. Closely related to WZW theory is the Chern-Simons gauge theory. The precise relation between these two theories in the language of multiplicative bundle gerbes, 2-bundle gerbes and the corresponding Deligne cohomology classes was described in the talk of Michael Murray. In the same way as vector bundles give rise to class in the topological K-theory of the manifold, gerbe modules give rise to a class in twisted K-theory. Twisted K-theory has been proposed as the recipient of D-brane. Equivariant twisted Ktheory KG(G) on a compact Lie group G can be endowed with the structure of a ring. Due to a result of Freed Hopkins and Teleman this ring turns out to be the Verlinde algebra, familiar from conformal field theory. More generally equivariant twisted K-theory KH(G) in the case when G/H is hermitian symmetric can be related to the N = 2 chiral ring. This extension was discussed in the talk of Sakura Schäfer-Nameki. Volker Braun in his talk showed some explicit computations in twisted K-theory relevant for N = 1 supersymmetric Wess-Zumino-Witten models. Explicit construction of twisted equivariant K-classes using Dirac operators related to supersymmetric WZW models was given in talk of Jouko Mickelsson. A nice application of multiplicative bundle gerbes was given by Alan Carey. The multiplicative structure gives rise to the fusion product on bundle gerbe D-branes. Quantization functor relates these to the twisted equivariant K-classes. Another aspect is the action of dualities on gerbes and gerbe modules and the related twisted K-classes. In the case of circle and torus bundle, there has been a lot of activity recently. In their talks Jarah Evslin and Hisham Sati introduced the concept of duality how it is emerging in M -theory, supergravity and superstring theory. They explained how anomaly cancellation and consistency of quantum field theories under different dualities lead to the description of filed configurations in Mini-Workshop: Gerbes, Twisted K-Theory and Conformal Field Theory 2141 terms of generalized cohomology theories (e.g. K-theory and elliptic cohomology). Talk of Varghese Mathai was devoted to global aspects of T -duality and relations to noncommutative geometry. T -duality for orbispaces from the point of view of of stacks and gerbes introduced in talk of Dale Husemoller was presented by Ulrich Bunke in his lecture. Peter Bouwknegt gave an overview of the topic of generalized geometry and its relation to gerbes, T -duality and mirror symmetry. Nonabelian gerbes, their relation to nonabelian cohomology and their application to quantum theory was another topic presented in some lectures. Nonabelian generalizations of bundle gerbes, their modules and differential geometry along with an application to anomaly of five branes were presented by Paolo Aschieri followed by the talk of Branislav Jurčo about simplicial description of nonabelian bundle gerbes with connection and curving. Simplicial description leads naturally to classification of bundle gerbes related to crossed modules. Closely related talk was given by Danny Stevenson who described the string gerbe based on the recent simplicial construction of the string group. He as well as Urs Schreiber in his talk on nonabelian holonomy used the groupoid point of view to gerbes. A nonabelian bundle gerbe can be thought as an example of a 2-bundle which comes together with the concept of higher algebraic structures and categorification, subjects of the lecture of Hendryk Pfeiffer. We are very glad that there was a lot of interactions across the various groups of researchers. Physicists and mathematicians enjoyed both the talks and the lively after talks discussion. Also mini-workshop benefited a lot from the activity and curiosity of young participants. Mini-Workshop: Gerbes, Twisted K-Theory and Conformal Field Theory 2143 Mini-Workshop: Gerbes, Twisted K-Theory and Conformal Field Theory


Seventeen ancient wood-rat middens, ranging in radiocarbon age from 7400 to 19,500 years and to older than 40,000 years, have been uncovered in the northeastern, north-central, southeastern, and southwestern sectors of the Mohave Desert. Excellent preservation of macroscopic plant materials (including stems, buds, leaves, fruits, and seeds) enables identification of many plant species growing within the limited foraging range of the sedentary wood rat. An approximately synchronous zonal differentiation of vegetation in response to a gradient of elevation on limestone in the northeastern Mohave Desert is apparent from the macrofossil evidence, preserved in wood-rat middens and ground-sloth coprolites, covering a time span bracketed by radiocarbon ages of about 9000 and 10,000 years. XerophilQus juniper woodlands descended to an elevation of 1100 meters, some 600 meters below the present lower limit of woodland (1700 meters) in the latitude of Frenchman Flat. But desert or semidesert shrubs coexisted with the woodland trees throughout much of the span of elevation corresponding to the pluvial lowering of the woodland zone, and the more mesophytic phase of pinyonjuniper woodland was evidently confined to montane habitats at elevations above 1500 meters. Joshua trees, accompanied by desert shrubs, prevailed down to about 600 meters at Gypsum Cave, Nevada, but only the shrubs of the existing warm-desert vegetation occurred at 530 meters near Rampart Cave, Arizona. Pleistocene middens from the southeastern Mohave Desert record a relatively large downward shift of the pinyon-juniper woodland zone, paralleling the remarkably low minimum elevation of the existing woodland zone in that area. The macrofossil evidence speaks for former continuity of the many disjunct stands of woodland vegetation in the Mohave Desert region, at least along the higher divides connecting most of the ranges. However, there is no macrofossil evidence of pluvial continuity of range for the more mesophytic, montane, coniferous-forest zone of ponderosa pine or white fir now occupying islands of relatively mesic environment on the highest mountains of the region. On the contrary, the uneven stocking of the lofty mountains of the Mohave Desert with mesephytic or boreal species and the trend toward endemism suggest a long history of isolation.


Acquiring data for text-to-speech (TTS) systems is expensive. This typically requires large amounts of training data, which is not available for low-resourced languages. Sometimes small amounts of data can be collected, while often no data may be available at all. This paper presents an acoustic modeling approach utilizing long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks (RNN) aimed at partially addressing the language data scarcity problem. Unlike speaker-adaptation systems that aim to preserve speaker similarity across languages, the salient feature of the proposed approach is that, once constructed, the resulting system does not need retraining to cope with the previously unseen languages. This is due to language and speaker-agnostic model topology and universal linguistic feature set. Experiments on twelve languages show that the system is able to produce intelligible and sometimes natural output when a language is unseen. We also show that, when small amounts of training data are available, pooling the data sometimes improves the overall intelligibility and naturalness. Finally, we show that sometimes having a multilingual system with no prior exposure to the language is better than building single-speaker system from small amounts of data for that language.