Abstract
 Buxbaumia viridis is a bryophyte whose gametophyte is highly reduced, while its sporophyte is relatively large, present all year round in its different phenological stages. In the Pyrenees, where the species is present in humid forests, especially pure Abies alba or mixed A. alba and Fagus sylvatica forests, the sporophytes mature in spring, losing their winter green colour. Herbivory has been detected on young capsules in spring. Observed damages are mainly of two types: cut setae, where capsule is completely lost and whose responsible organism has not been identified; and more frequently, torn capsules where sporal mass is partly gone, sometimes only part of the theca at the base of the capsule remains. The responsible organisms in the second type are young slugs (genus Arion), what have been observed in situ twice. The animal tears the capsule and scrapes with its radula the sporal mass from the inside. Between 1999 and 2014, we visited 40 localities with Buxbaumia viridis populations, located in Navarra and Huesca on the southern versant of the Pyrenees, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées on the northern versant, aiming to estimate the number of individuals. Grazing on B. viridis capsules has been detected in 28 of these localities (70%), proving that this consumption is not accidental. Regarding the grazing rate, 10 localities showed consumption less than 20% of the total sporophyte number, 14 a consumption ranging from 21 to 59%, and finally, 4 were over 60% of grazed sporophytes. This sporophyte consumption is so high that it might have an important incidence on the species conservation.


How much does European citizenship cost in the EU? This was the question that has raised so much controversy over the Maltese citizenship-for-sale programme. The outright selling of Maltese nationality to rich foreigners led to unprecedented responses by the European Parliament and European Commission. This paper examines the affair and its relevance for current and future configurations of citizenship of the EU. It studies the extent to which Member States are still free to lay down the grounds for the acquisition and loss of nationality without any EU supervision and accountability. It is argued that the EU's intervention in the Maltese citizenship-for-sale affair constitutes a legal precedent for assessing the lawfulness of passport-for-sale programmes in other EU Member States. The affair has also revealed the increasing relevance of a set of European and international legal principles limiting Member States' discretion over citizenship matters and providing a supranational constellation of accountability venues scrutinizing the impact of their decisions over citizenship. The Maltese citizenship-for-sale affair has placed at the forefront the EU general principle of sincere cooperation in nationality matters. Member States' actions in the citizenship domain cannot negatively affect in substance the concept and freedoms of European citizenship.


The introduction of computerized information systems into health care practices may cause changes to the way healthcare workers conduct their routine work activities, such as work flow and the time spend on each activity. To date the available work measurement tools are confined to activities in hospitals and do not cover residential aged care facilities (RACFs). There is little evidence about the effects of technology on caregivers' work practices, including the distribution of time on activities in a RACF. This requires the measurement of caregivers' activities using a valid and reliable measurement tool. The contribution of this research is to develop and test such a tool. The tool was developed based on literature research and validation in two RACFs. The final instrument contains 48 activities that are grouped into seven categories. They include direct care, indirect care, communication, documentation, personal activities, in-transit and others. This measurement tool can be used to measure the changes in caregivers' work activities associated with the introduction of computerized information systems in RACFs, including the efficiency gains of such systems.


Information-processing studies have shown an attentional bias (AB) towards threat cues in individuals with anxiety disorders. Research has consistently shown that AB to threat may play a causal role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Recent empirical evidence has demonstrated support for Attention Retraining (AR) to modify AB to threat, resulting in reductions of anxiety. Currently, AR approaches have not been systematically tested in individuals with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of a computer-based attention retraining (CBAR) treatment for clinical levels of PTSD using a modified dot-probe paradigm. A single-case time-series design was employed with a treatment and post-treatment period, following baseline. Results indicated significant reductions in trauma-related symptoms, attention to threat cues, state anxiety and depression, along with a significant increase in coping self-efficacy. AB change for the group was not significant. A significant relationship between AB change and PTSD symptoms was found. The results were discussed from the standpoint of the viability of AR for trauma.


This study investigated euphemistic forms and functions of English and Japanese by
using contrastive analysis as well as considering the views on euphemism of
Japanese English-language speakers and Australian Japanese-language speakers.
In order to achieve these goals, four Research Objectives (RO) were addressed. RO1
aimed to identify the functions of euphemistic expressions in terms of
communication. R02 aimed to investigate the characteristic features of contexts in
which native and non-native speakers of the target languages (English and Japanese)
encounter positive and negative aspects of euphemism. The purpose of RO3 was to
examine the target group's (native and non-native speakers of the target language)
conceptualisations of and attitudes towards euphemism and its role in different social
contexts. R04 investigated how euphemistic expressions are handled by Japanese
people learning English as a second/foreign language and Australians learning
Japanese as a second/foreign language, when faced with sociolinguistic difficulties.
ROI was addressed by an extensive literature review. A combination of quantitative
and qualitative studies was used to investigate R02, R03 and R04. The quantitative
method, which was questionnaire based, targeted 272 students from universities in
Japan and 176 students from universities in Australia. This addressed parts of R02
and R03. The qualitative method, which involved interviews with eight Australians
and Japanese (who were in the target country when the interviews were conducted)
was utilised for R02, RO3 and R04.
The results of the investigations showed the language learners' communication
difficulties caused by euphemistic, dysphemistic and doublespeak locutions in the
target language. The results also indicated clearly the relevance of these three
entities, which can be utilised interchangeably according to the speaker's purposes,
the different desirable semantic outcomes and the inclusion of intermingled elements
of communication settings. The outcomes of the research provide a valuable means
of establishing an understanding of how and why euphemisms are currently exploited
in both Japanese and English; this is an area that has only been touched upon in
previous educational research. The study concluded that promoting the contexts in which euphemism, dysphemism
and doublespeak are used in social settings will potentially enhance the effective
second/foreign language education. The framework of the analysis presented, along
with the research outcomes, facilitated the researcher's development of some sample
lesson plans which could be used to improve communicative strategies, especially
for Australians learning the Japanese language and Japanese learning English.


A rapid and simple method is described for demonstrating the presence of alkaline phosphatase activity in cells of blood and bone marrow. Smears were fixed with 10 per cent formalin in methanol at 0 ± 5 C. for 30 seconds and stained by the azo dye procedure, using propanediol buffer at a pH of 9.6. A "scoring" technic is outlined, which permits the comparison of alkaline phosphatase activities of blood leukocytes of different individuals. Alkaline phosphatase activity was found only in neutrophilic granulocytes and was localized exclusively in the cytoplasm of these cells. In normal adults, 43 to 95 per cent (mean of 78%) of all neutrophils were unstained. Staining was up to ten times more intense in smears from patients with a variety of pathologic disorders.


Active reflux may occur during periods of platform-top brine generation, but the role and fate of these brines after reflux events are uncertain. We have used a numerical flow model to investigate and quantify the response of reflux brines to changes in platform-top salinity. Simulations suggest that reflux brines, originally concentrated to gypsum saturation (150‰), have a relatively long platform residence time, on the order of 100 times the duration of the reflux event. When brine-generating conditions cease, brines will continue to sink through the platform, entraining seawater, a variant of reflux circulation we term latent reflux. Mesosaline brines intercepted by drilling of carbonate margins by the Ocean Drilling Program may have originated from Pleistocene reflux event(s) on the adjacent platform top and be currently moving by latent reflux. Latent-reflux circulation could deliver a significant quantity of dissolved reactants to platform carbonates, including Mg for dolomitization.


This study explores claims that organic agriculture may be an empowering development strategy by investigating the impacts of conversion to organic farming systems on the lives of small-scale farmers in Cambodia. The thesis interrogates the diverse uses and abuses of the term 'empowerment' in development rhetoric and argues for an empowerment model that is derived from farmers' self-defined concepts of development. This model was used to conduct a qualitative case study involving semi-structured interviews and focus groups with members of organics initiatives in seven diverse Cambodian communities.

Results indicate that many farmers in all communities felt that their most important objective was not only to achieve food security, but to achieve 'food sovereignty' by being able to grow sufficient rice to feed their family. Farmers joined the organics initiatives primarily to improve their health and reduce the cost of farming inputs. As a result of joining the initiatives, all farmers (including both certified and non-certified organic farmers) felt they had improved their health and food security. Most farmers also increased incomes, created stronger family and community ties and felt they had more control over their livelihoods. These benefits were not, however, distributed equally amongst individuals or communities. Very poor and isolated farmers could not generally access benefits. The three main factors that determined the impact of the organics initiatives on farmer empowerment were identified as: the individual's level of resources, the strength of the farmer group, and the policies and values of the supporting organisation.

The implications for future initiatives are, firstly, the tremendous potential for farmers and wider rural communities to benefit from organic agriculture as a development strategy. However, this study also shows that if organics is to be viable for low-resource people, it may be necessary to promote both resources and techniques in organics initiatives. Also, a focus on building strong relationships both within the farmers group and linkages with local and wider stakeholders may enhance long-term sustainability of organics initiatives.


Recent developments have helped elucidate the function of the autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease proteins, polycystin-1 and polycystin-2, and have revealed the primary defect in autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, by positional cloning of the gene, PKHD1. Several studies demonstrating that polycystin-2 can act as a calcium-ion-permeable cation channel, and that polycystin-1 may be involved in regulating/localizing this channel, have provided compelling evidence of the function of these proteins. A role in regulating intracellular calcium levels seems likely, with the many cellular abnormalities associated with cystogenesis due to a disruption of calcium homeostasis. Improved mutation analysis in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease has led to the finding of genotype/phenotype correlations which could be related to possible cleavage of polycystin-1. A major recent breakthrough has revealed the primary defect in autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease. Genetic analysis showed that the PCK rat model is orthologous to autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, and allowed the human gene, PKHD1, to be precisely localized and identified. PKHD1 is a large gene, encoding a protein, fibrocystin, of 4074 amino acids, which is predicted to have a large extracellular region, a single transmembrane domain and a short cytoplasmic tail. Fibrocystin may act as a receptor with critical roles in collecting-duct and biliary development.


This study investigates the determinants of bridging ties within networks of interconnected firms. Bridging ties are defined as nonredundant connections between firms located in different network communities. We highlight how firms can enter into these relationships because of the incentives and opportunities for action that are embedded in the existing network structure. Specifically, we propose that the dynamics of proximate network structures, which reflect firms' and their partners' direct connections, affect the formation of bridging ties by shaping the value-creation and value-distribution incentives for bridging. We also argue that the evolving global network structure affects firms' propensity to form bridging ties by shaping the structural opportunities for bridging. We test our theory using the network of partnership ties among firms in the global computer industry from 1991 to 2005. We find support for structural incentives and opportunities as influential precursors of bridging ties.


Background: In traditional teaching philosophy, large-class units such as First-Year Engineering Mechanics have experienced significant challenges with respect to a lack of close lecturer-student interaction, prompt performance feedback, and students' engagement and self-motivation in the unit study. Online blended learning and self-assessment approaches have become useful tools to reinforce traditional teaching and assessment modes of 'attending the real lectures' or to 'physically sit for the quiz tests'. Their advantage lies in study flexibility and unconstrained self-development of students in the designated unit activities. A pilot study of e-quiz and e-review programs was undertaken in a First- Year Engineering Mechanics unit to evaluate their usefulness in students' blended learning. Purpose: How to enhance individual students' unit feedback, minimise the physical constraints of quiz access, and remove the barrier of limited topic-review opportunities is expected to be tackled in this study. Design/Method: The Pearson Mastering Engineering online platform was utilised in the e-quiz practices. This contains interactive self-learning and self-assessment modalities with sufficient hands-on feedback to guide students through an entire set of quiz problems after completing the assessment. The e-review was implemented through Elluminate Live to allow students to participate in weekly online review sessions conducted by the unit lecturer using a graphics tablet. Statistical data were analysed for the userfriendliness of online educational tools, enhanced level of effective learning and the students' feedback and view of the learning experience. Results: A small number of high-achiever participants tended to best utilise e-quiz program to advance their academic performance when compared to formal assessment components including the in-class quizzes and final examination. Underperforming students (as the majority) presented less interest in the e-quiz primarily due to their 'assessment-oriented' mindset. Better understanding of mechanics topics/contents and more engagement and self-motivation were found through the e-quiz surveys. The e-review study suggested that students preferred viewing the recorded e-review sessions to personally participating in the peer-to-peer live consultation. Student participants praised the userfriendly Elluminate Live features in terms of 'interactive learning', 'collaborative learning' and 'a sense of learning community'. The usefulness of recorded e-review sessions and comprehensive review materials were also highly commended. Conclusions: The e-quiz pilot study offers great potential to enhance the first-year students' understanding of complex mechanics concepts and impact positively on their flexible self-evaluation. It particularly facilitates more able students to further advance their achievement levels. The e-review was clearly recognised by students as a supplementary academic support to gain more direct individual interactions with lecturers. The higher utility of e-review materials, especially for viewing recorded ereview sessions, was shown to be beneficial to effective learning. The student disengagement and low participation/survey response numbers are of particular concern, which is anticipated to be altered when both programs are introduced as additional assessment components in the furture study.


SUMMARY The ability of two live trachoma vaccines to protect against naturally acquired infection was tested in young Gambian children. With a mineral oil adjuvant vaccine prepared from a Gambian strain of trachoma (MRC–187) a barely significant measure of protection was demonstrable 6 months after the first dose, but not at 1 year, despite a reinforcing dose given 6 months after the first. In a later trial an aqueous vaccine prepared from the 'fast-killing' variants of strains 'SA–2' and 'ASGH' failed to induce immunity. Two years after vaccination, the proportion of vaccinated children progressing to cicatricial trachoma was less than in the controls, and the average severity of the disease in terms of clinical score was greater; vaccine-induced hypersensitivity may have contributed to this result. Irrespective of whether they had received trachoma vaccine, children with completely normal eyes at the outset were less likely to acquire trachoma than those with slight conjunctival folliculosis or papillary hyperplasia. In children acquiring trachoma, there was a highly significant positive correlation between severity of the disease and the presence of conjunctival inclusions. The pattern of trachoma differed significantly in the two villages used in both trials; the prev alence, severity and proportion of inclusion-positive subjects were all higher in the village with the greater population density. An efficient follow-up organization, use of a slit-lamp for clinical observations, and a scoring system for recording physical signs are all desirable for trachoma vaccine field trials. We are highly indebted to Dr G. Turner (Lister Institute, Elstree, Herts) for his assistance in making the vaccine used for Trial II; to Dr N. M. Lam (Pfizer Ltd.) and Dr C. H. Smith (Evans Medical Ltd.) for making the Trial III vaccine; to Dr I. A. Sutherland (M.R.C. Statistical Unit) for his advice and help with the statistical aspects; to the Pennsylvania Refinery Co. Inc. for a generous gift of Drakeol 6 VR; and to Mr M. Race for his invaluable technical assistance in The Gambia. We are also grateful to the Director and staff of the M.R.C. Laboratories, The Gambia, for various facilities; and to The Gambian Government for per mission to undertake these trials.


The important role of transport infrastructure for regional development is one of the fundamental principles of regional economics. In its most simplified form it implies that regions with better access to locations of input materials and markets will, ceteris paribus, be more productive, more competitive and hence more successful than more remote and isolated regions. The paper presents results of the research project 'Socio-Economic and Spatial Impacts of Trans-European Transport Networks (SASI)' undertaken for the European Commission. The main goals of the project were to design an interactive and transparent modelling system for forecasting the impacts of transport infrastructure investments and transport system improvements, in particular of the trans-European transport networks (TETN), on socio-economic activities and developments in Europe, including spatial and temporal distribution, and to demonstrate the usability of the modelling system by applying it to a number of relevant case studies. The paper will first explain the theoretical foundation and internal structure of the simulation model developed as well as its input and output. The model is a recursive simulation model of regional socio-economic development subject to exogenous assumptions about the economic and demographic development of the EU as a whole and about transport infrastructure investments and improvements. The second part of the paper will present the results of the application of the model to a set of different assumptions on TETN infrastructure investments and their likely socio-economic impacts on the European regions in terms of GDP per capita, unemployment and accessibility. The model results suggest that the development trajectories of all regions are rather similar in all scenarios, thus confirming the assumption that general socio-economic and technical macro trends are more powerful driving forces for regional economies than infrastructure improvements. It is also shown that some infrastructure scenarios lead to a slightly less polarised distribution of accessibility and GDP among regions, however, not enough to reverse the general trend towards economic polarisation within the European Union. The third part of the paper will outline model improvements currently made in the follow-up project 'Integrated Appraisal of Spatial Economic and Network Effects of Transport Investments and Policies' (IASON). The new model will be more comprehensive in theory and more disaggregate in terms of regions and economic sectors and will include the future member states of the European Union in eastern Europe.


ABSTRACT This article applies sociological theories of 'craft' to computer gaming practices to conceptualise the relationship between play, games, and labour. Using the example of the game Dota 2, as both a competitive esport title and a complex game based around a shared practice, this article examines the conditions under which the play of a computer game can be considered a 'craft'. In particular, through the concept of 'prehension', we dissect the gameplay activity of Dota 2, identifying similarities with how the hand practices craft labour. We identify these practices as 'contact', 'apprehension', 'language acquisition' and 'reflection'. We argue that players develop these practices of the hand to make sense of the game's rules and controls. From this perspective, it is the hand that initiates experiences of craft within computer gameplay, and we offer examples of player creativity and experimentation to evidence its labour. The article concludes with a discussion on the need for future research to examine the quality of gaming labour in the context of esports.


Finding viable economic solutions to significantly reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from energy and transportation products in the near future is paramount for the long-term survival of fossil fuel burning systems. One of which, the industrial gas turbine, has proven for decades to be a versatile energy system providing high efficiencies in combined heat and power applications melding well within existing infrastructure. Applying appropriate technology, the industrial gas turbine could be augmented to both sequester carbon and improve efficiency leveraging the full heating value of the fuel. The paper considers a more detailed operational assessment of a gas turbine using exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to enable cost effective post combustion carbon sequestration and utilization. In this study, the effect of using EGR will be assessed at part load and throughout the operational envelope quantifying component and overall performance, detailed combustion characteristics, and maximizing the utilization of exhaust heat and sequestered carbon in various applications. This study will also attempt to quantify true carbon footprint of gas turbine installations and endeavor to understand the relative change of replacing the gas turbine with an all-electric alternative. Fundamentally, we are looking to see if there is a future to sustain and adapt this significant natural gas (NG) energy infrastructure to a net-zero carbon emissive future by 2050.


The number of protein sequences being deposited in databases is currently growing rapidly as a result of large-scale high throughput genome sequencing efforts. A large proportion of these sequences have no experimentally determined structure. Also, relatively few have high quality, specific, experimentally determined functions.
Due to the time, cost and technical complexity of experimental procedures for the determination of protein function this situation is unlikely to change in the near future. Therefore, one of the major challenges for bioinformatics is the ability to automatically assign highly accurate, high-specificity functional information to these unknown protein sequences. As yet this problem has not been successfully solved to a level both acceptable in terms of detailed accuracy and reliability for use as a basis for detailed biological analysis on a genome wide, automated, high-throughput scale.
This research thesis aims to address this shortfall through the provision and benchmarking of methods that can be used towards improving the accuracy of high-specificity protein function prediction from enzyme sequences. The datasets used in these studies are multiple alignments of evolutionarily related protein sequences, identified through the use of BLAST sequence database searches.
Firstly, a number of non-standard amino acid substitution matrices were used to re-score the benchmark multiple sequence alignments. A subset of these matrices were shown to improve the accuracy of specific function annotation, when compared to both the original BLAST sequence similarity ordering and a random sequence selection model.
Following this, two established methods for the identification of functional specificity determining amino acid residues (fSDRs) were used to identify regions within the aligned sequences that are functionally and phylogenetically informative. These localised sequence regions were then used to re-score the aligned sequences and provide an assessment of their ability to improve the specific functional annotation of the benchmark sequence sets.
Finally, a machine learning approach (support vector machines) was followed to evaluate the possibility of identifying fSDRs, which improve the annotation accuracy, directly from alignments of closely related protein sequences without prior knowledge of their specific functional sub-types. The performance of this SVM based method was then assessed by applying it to the automatic functional assignment of a number of well studied classes of enzymes.


ABSTRACT Airborne lidar bathymetry (ALB) is an effective advanced technology for mapping and measuring water depth in shallow water coastal zones as well as inland freshwater bodies such as rivers and lakes. The ability of light beams to detect and traverse shallow water columns has provided valuable information about unmapped and often poorly understood coastal and inland waterbodies. ALB surveys require specific best practices and quality management procedures to provide the highest-quality end product. Implementing quality assurance procedures before the survey commences and frequent quality control checks during and after the survey are essential steps. In this article, we summarize overall ALB development history, discuss specific ALB requirements, and provide examples that reflect our experiences of the Leica Chiroptera ALB system. Supplemental surveys, in situ measurements, and developing in-house algorithms are all beneficial and have the means to increase confidence and versatility of lidar bathymetry.


Maternal and fetal liver iron concentrations and associated haematology parameters were determined in an adolescent sheep paradigm characterised by rapid maternal growth, premature delivery and feto-placental growth restriction. Singleton-bearing dams were offered a control or high dietary intake to induce normal or growth-restricted pregnancies, respectively. Pregnancies were terminated on Day 90 or 130 of gestation or progressed to term. Relative blood volume increased (P < 0.05) and liver iron concentration decreased (P < 0.003) from mid to late gestation in control, but not in high-intake dams. At 90 and 130 days gestation, liver iron concentrations were reduced (P < 0.001) in high-intake dams but fetal liver iron was independent of dam nutrition. High intakes leading to poor pregnancy outcome at term were characterised by increased maternal haematocrit, haemoglobin, total plasma protein, albumin (all P < 0.001) and serum iron (P < 0.05), and by reduced oestradiol 17β (P < 0.001) at Day 130. Thus, high dietary intakes that promote rapid maternal growth and adiposity are associated with early depletion of maternal liver iron stores and a relative failure of normal blood volume expansion, which may, in turn, underlie the reduction in uteroplacental blood flows and fetal nutrient delivery previously established for this paradigm.


The antifungal and fungicidal effects of hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) oil and its individual components were studied in a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments. Mycelial growth of the plant pathogenic fungi Pyrenophora avenae and Pyricularia oryzae was completely inhibited by 0.4% hyssop oil. Volatile components diffusing from agar medium containing 0.4% hyssop oil also completely inhibited the growth of these two fungi. Various components of hyssop oil (L-bornyl acetate, isopinocampheol and pinocamphone), used individually, reduced growth of P. avenae and, where combinations of individual components were used, any mixture containing isopinocampheol completely inhibited fungal growth. Growth of P. oryzae was less affected by individual components of the oil. Hyssop oil reduced germination of Botrytis fabae conidia and uredospores of Uromyces viciae-fabae, but in contrast to the data from in vitro experiments, its effects on pathogen infection were less clear cut. Thus, although 0.05% hyssop oil reduced rust infection of broad bean when applied 1, 2 or 3 days before, or 1 or 2 days after inoculation, its effects against barley powdery mildew and apple powdery mildew were variable. It is suggested that this variability might be the result of the volatile components of the oil diffusing away from leaf surfaces, thus reducing the concentration of active components on the leaf surface.


Abstract The present study investigates the potential role of medicinal plants Citrullus colocynthis and Tephrosia apollinea in ameliorating the oxidative stress developed during the generation of reactive oxygen species. Organic extracts of different organs (leaf, stem and root) of these medicinal plants obtained in n-hexane, chloroform, n-butanol and water were assayed for radical scavenging, total antioxidant capacity, anti-lipid peroxidation and reduced glutathione. The total phenolic content (TPC) of both selected medicinal plants was also evaluated. The results indicated that extracts of T. apollinea leaf, stem and root have higher TPC compared to those of C. colocynthis. Similarly, the results of the present study revealed higher bioactivity of C. colocynthis than that of T. apollinea in various antioxidant assays. Various plant parts of each plant were also compared.


In the years before the Progressive Conservative victory in the federal election of 1984, George Perlin of Queen's University authored a book with the provocative thesis that the Conservative Party suffered from a "syndrome" peculiar to losing political parties. A malady had developed over the decades of electoral reversals. Adversity had bred an institutionalized party of opposition. Party ranks had become populated by those feeling perpetually on the outside. Long years in opposition meant that for many the expression of criticism and negative sentiments were the mainstays of political dialogue. "A party which is habitually in opposition becomes absorbed entirely in the strategy and tactics of criticism," wrote Perlin. "It tends to approach all debate with an attacking, destructive style."(f.1)Perlin's perceptions of the PCs provide a useful guide for those seeking insight into the party's history. Back - to - back electoral victories in the 1980s have dramatically changed party behaviour and orientation. The transition from a party of habitual opposition to one able to broker a successful electoral coalition is a fascinating evolution. Equally fascinating is the parallel debate being played out in the ranks of the federal and provincial NDP over the differences between principled socialist opposition and cautious, fiscally responsible government. A guide to the historical context for this parallel debate can be gathered from the assorted works surveyed here. The current tensions between long - held points of social and economic criticism, and the proclaimed demands of government, have deep roots.NDP premiers, such as Ontario's Bob Rae, are finding themselves questioned by federal compatriots about their loyalty to traditional party sentiments relating to economic and budgetary matters. In return, Rae and his provincial counter - parts maintain that responsible leadership involves consideration for constraints such as debt loads and credit ratings. Rae, in fact, has adapted the notion of an opposition mentality to his fellow Ontario New Democrats. The following passage from his speech of Nov. 29, 1992 to the Ontario New Democratic Party Provincial Council might have been employed by Perlin with regard to the Conservatives in opposition:The culture of the Party for many years was that of a Party in Opposition. I think it is fair to say that the Party in Opposition did not spend a whole lot of time talking about how to do things. I think it is fair to say that the Party in Opposition spent a great deal of time talking about what, in an ideal world, we would like to do.This language of Opposition which is almost internal to our - selves in terms of the dialogue which goes on within us is one which really has to change to a language which deals very directly with what we can do and how we must do it well.(f.2)Rae's portrait of the New Democratic Party tradition stands in stark contrast to what is normally presented. More common is the image of visionaries seeking a more just world order in the face of voter uncertainty, corporate opposition, and the poaching of their platforms by vote - seeking brokerage parties. Dedication to a cause and a set of principles were praised as fundamental virtues. Within this self - conception party members were under - standably sceptical about those who asserted the language of governmental necessities and financial limitations.As was the case for the Progressive Conservatives, the sense of being opposed to prevailing conditions and power balances has a long history. Going back to the early days of the CCF, one finds remembrances of individuals sacrificing in hopes of winning symbolic victories and public awakening. Tales of early reformers taking on the established order figure prominently in party annals. Armed with an extensive critique of the social order, CCF activists worked in hopes of long - term, fundamental change. …


ABSTRACT The periplasmic chaperone Skp has long been implicated in the assembly of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) in Escherichia coli. It has been shown to interact with unfolded OMPs, and the simultaneous loss of Skp and the main periplasmic chaperone in E. coli, SurA, results in synthetic lethality. However, a Δskp mutant displays only minor OMP assembly defects, and no OMPs have been shown to require Skp for their assembly. Here, we report a role for Skp in the assembly of the essential OMP LptD. This role may be compensated for by other OMP assembly proteins; in the absence of both Skp and FkpA or Skp and BamB, LptD assembly is impaired. Overexpression of SurA does not restore LptD levels in a Δskp ΔfkpA double mutant, nor does the overexpression of Skp or FkpA restore LptD levels in the ΔsurA mutant, suggesting that Skp acts in concert with SurA to efficiently assemble LptD in E. coli. Other OMPs, including LamB, are less affected in the Δskp ΔfkpA and Δskp bamB::kan double mutants, suggesting that Skp is specifically necessary for the assembly of certain OMPs. Analysis of an OMP with a domain structure similar to that of LptD, FhuA, suggests that common structural features may determine which OMPs require Skp for their assembly.


Abstract The leaves of the Khat plant are chewed for their stimulatory effect by many people who live around the Red Sea. People from this area have migrated throughout the world, bringing the practice with them. Consequently many countries have needed to address the question whether khat should be regulated. We argue here that, because khat use is mainly associated with Muslim people, the Islamic law about khat is also an important consideration in this debate. Accordingly this article explores the position of khat under Islamic law. In addition to a study of sources of Islamic shari'a, we have conducted focus groups with Somali people who had settled in Australia, and participants' views are considered. Across the Muslim world opinion is sharply divided amongst Islamic scholars and Muftis on the correct approach to khat. The three main positions on khat are that it is halal (permissible), makruh (detested or discouraged) or haram (forbidden). It may be shown that each view has some support in the scholarly literature of Islam. Each was accepted by some members of the focus groups. Most of those who participated in the focus groups had a strong view on the correct position pursuant to Islam and this view influenced their decision to support or reject prohibition and to chew or not to chew khat. This supports the claim that legal pluralism is a reality in Australia. In countries like Australia that purport to allow the free exercise of religion, prohibition of khat use may have implications for this freedom for some individuals. If khat is seen by some Muslims as an accepted part of cultural life and Muslim religious activity, targeting khat may then be seen as targeting these communities. Given that the overwhelming majority of khat users in Australia and other common law states are Muslim immigrants, the uncertain status of khat in Islam poses significant challenges to policy makers in immigrant receiving nations. As these communities' cultural norms are, to a large extent, derived from the Islamic religion, any government response to the use of khat should take into consideration these religious and cultural norms.


Formulation has been established as a core competency in Clinical Psychology training. There is a small but growing evidence base demonstrating the benefits of its use from the perspective of clinicians. However, there are few empirical studies investigating formulation use with children and adolescents. In addition, there is little known about the client's experience of cognitive-behavioural theraphy (CBT) formulation. This thesis explores formulation in Psychological Therapy. The first paper reviews the use of formulation within the child and adolescent literature. The key components within a formulation, key factors of formulation which should be explored with children and the clinical utility of formulation are described and discussed based on the extant literature. The research highlights the need to consider developmental milestones, collaboration with families and to consider the child's wider system when formulating. Formulation appeared to be a trans-theoretical concept, occuring throughout the assessment-intervention continuum. However, more empirical research is needed to understand these findings further.

The second chapter is an interpretative phenomenological analysis exploring CBT formulation with clients who have depression. Themes were identified highlighting how formulations were developed, that formulations were difficult to receive, although, after some time participants reported many positive feelings and reactions towards their formulation. It seemed that sharing initial difficult feelings with their clinician was difficult. Although several benefits of formulation were established such as, making a new sense of oneself, better control and perspective over feelings and thoughts. Research limitations and suggestions for future research are made.

The final paper provides a reflective account on the challenges of working from a scientist and clinician perspective during the research process. The challenge of maintaining a balance between the two perspectives is discussed within the context of generating a research idea, recruitment, interviewing and writing up the empirical paper.


Cell phone and personal computer use has increased considerably in recent years, particularly in developed countries. These devices have facilitated communication on a global scale. However, there have been a number of reports of health problems related to the electromagnetic waves emitted by such electronic devices. A long list of both general and severe symptoms, including headaches, fatigue, tinnitus, dizziness, memory loss, irregular heartbeat and whole-body skin le-sions, have been reported. These are reportedly associated with the condition known as electro-magnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). This report shows how a subject's abnormal involuntary body movements, caused by electromagnetic waves emitted by a cell phone, are prevented by placing a gold alloy inlay in the subject's mouth. It appears that the subject's involuntary movements are the result of balance dysregulation resulting from EHS. The subject's various symptoms improve after the specific dental treatment. However, the underlying mechanism of the symptoms and the rea-sons why this treatment is so successful remain unknown. Further research is required to clarify these issues.


A 12-day-old Brown Kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) was presented with anorexia, torticollis, head-tilt, and coelomic distension. Radiographs showed an ill-defined, fat-opaque, coelomic mass displacing viscera craniodorsally. Curvilinear mineral opacities were superimposed over the ventral aspect of the mass. Computed tomography demonstrated the presence of mineral within the periphery of a fat attenuating mass consistent with a retained yolk sac. A deutectomy (yolk sac excision) was performed. Histopathology of the excised tissue confirmed the diagnosis of a retained yolk sac with multifocal mineralization.


While helmet wearing reduces the severity of injuries in motorcycle crashes, it may also increase the likelihood of getting involved into a traffic accident through a reduction in the rider's field of view. The authors thus investigated the perceptual effects of helmet wearing when riding a motorcycle. The task consisted of negotiating curves in a fixed-based simulator while the helmet visor vertical dimension and need to check the handlebar-mounted speedometer were manipulated. Decreasing the vertical aperture below roughly 30 deg significantly impaired a rider's ability to maintain their lane position and speed; with the effect of aperture being significantly greater when speedometer checking was required. The present findings provide further support for near/far point models of steering and help to quantify the tradeoff between physical and perceptual effects in helmet design.


There are more than 212,000 at-grade railroad crossings in the United States. Several feature paths running adjacent to the railroad tracks, and crossing a highway; they serve urban areas, recreational activities, light rail station access, and a variety of other purposes. Some of these crossings see a disproportionate number of violations and conflicts between rail, vehicles, and pedestrians and bikes. This research focuses on developing a methodology for appropriately addressing the question of treatments in these complex, multimodal intersections. The methodology is designed to be able to balance a predetermined, prescriptive approach with the professional judgment of the agency carrying out the investigation. Using knowledge and data from the literature, field studies, and video observations, a framework for selecting treatments based on primary issues at a given location is developed. Using such a framework allows the agency to streamline their crossing improvement efforts; to easily communicate and inform the public of the decisions made and their reasons for doing so; to secure stakeholder buy-in prior to starting a project or investigation; to make sure that approach and selected treatments are more standardized; and to ensure transparency in the organization to make at-grade crossings safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, without negatively impacting trains or vehicles.


This research explores the impacts of the most recent U.S. economic crisis on the Mexican immigrant labour market, specifically from the town of Tunkas, Yucatan. Based on Bourdieu.'s theory of Capital production, and the transnational theoretical perspective, this study aims to build a conceptual frame for the migrant's social capital in modern societies. A key element of this analysis is that a pioneer migrant-woman has initiated the tunkaseno social network in Los Angeles and Orange County, California; and has set the route to migrate to North. Finally this analysis presents how U.S. worksite enforcement policy affects the labour market that tunkasenos encounter in Southern California in the midst of a financial crisis. Tunkas, our Mayan community, native from the Southern Mexican state of Yucatan has experienced a constant migration process to California ever since the Bracero Program started. Mayan migrants have acquired new responsibilities, and a hybrid identity as transnational citizens. Yucatecan migration is defined as a contemporary Mexican migration, mostly undocumented, exacerbated during the nineties, in the midst of the Mexican financial crisis from 1994 to 1997. The present work is part of a broader research that discusses the transformation of Mexican migration patterns of different states of Mexico. This project is based on fieldwork in the communities of origin and destination. As well, on the survey results and life stories obtained during 2005-2006, and 2008-2009 by MMFRP1, where I took part in both editions as a researcher...


Abstract Introduction: Many pregnant women are concerned about the pain they will experience in labor and how to deal with this. This study's objective was to explore women's postpartum perception and view of how they dealt with labor pain. Methods: Semistructured postpartum interviews were analyzed using the constant comparison method. Using purposive sampling, we selected 17 women from five midwifery practices across the Netherlands, from August 2009 to September 2010. Results: Women reported that control over decision making during labor (about dealing with pain) helped them to deal with labor pain, as did continuous midwife support at home and in hospital, and effective childbirth preparation. Some of these women implicitly or explicitly indicated that midwives should know which method of pain management they need during labor and arrange this in good time. Discussion: It may be difficult for midwives to discriminate between women who need continuous support through labor without pain medication and those who genuinely desire pain medication at a certain point in labor, and who will be dissatisfied postpartum if this need is unrecognized and unfulfilled.


Most discussions about capital punishment in the United States treat the distinct phenomena of death sentencing and execution as joined: in the ordinary case, it is assumed, the first will lead eventually to the second. But in fact it is exceptional for a death sentence to cause the death of the individual sentenced. During the entire modern death penalty era, since 1976, the ratio of death sentences pronounced in the U.S. to those carried out has been about six to one.This Article seeks to investigate the causes of the disparity. It surmises that our tolerance for it grows out of political and institutional ambivalence about capital punishment, and undertakes to identify which actors and processes enact this ambivalence and thus hinder the conversion of death sentences into executions. My research assistants and I chose a small number of jurisdictions that we found representative in which to study the post-sentence careers of death row inmates. We considered the roles of death while in prison, executive clemency, and federal habeas corpus intervention in creating attrition from death row, but taken together these events failed to account for all (indeed, even very much) of the disparity. We investigated in more detail the frequency of sentence reversal by postconviction appeal or collateral state remedies, but contrary to expectation, we found that these processes could not account for the disparity we had observed.We then undertook a more granular study, following the careers of a cohort of death row inmates, all of whom resided on death row in 1995 (and nearly half of whom still reside there today). Our findings suggest that the most powerful explanation was simply delay. Our study population consists entirely of prisoners who have been under sentence of death for seventeen years or longer, yet more of them (in some of our jurisdictions many more) are still alive and under sentence of death than have been executed. To be sure, necessary and expected legal processes consumed some of the intervening years, and the Article investigates and discusses the developments in capital punishment law that have contributed to impeding the march of execution. A variety of measures have been designed to hasten the processing of capital cases between sentence and execution, but they have been unsuccessful. Since 1976, the typical interval between sentence and execution has grown markedly over time, cannot really be explained by necessity, and begins to resemble a permanent feature of the system of capital punishment. Although predicting the outcome of individual cases is difficult, it appears that many death sentences that have not been carried out will never be carried out, and that we have accommodated ourselves to this reality.In closing, the Article discusses the implications of these observations for our national conversation about capital punishment, considers the recent landscape of explicit death penalty abolition activity (especially in California), and makes some predictions about the future of capital punishment.


The proposed setting–Development Science Framework (DSF), views each SDG as a source of highly correlated Big Data attributes and seeks to explore their interactions in a predictive, spatio-temporal context. For example, the relationships among SDGs 13, 14 & 15 on human livelihood, reflected by SDGs 1 through 7, are particularly intriguing and modelling their dynamics can provide answers to general questions in the form of What Works Across Countries and Sectors? The relationships among attributes describe the invariant conditions that epitomise the meaningfulness of the concept which DSF learns from available data. DSF adopts first principles approach, treating SDGs as sub-projects, driven by the well-documented relationship between knowledge & development in time and space. It focuses on trust, interdisciplinarity, authoritative data, knowledge transfer, resources, tools & techniques. Analogous to Eleanor Roosevelt's view on where universal rights begin, it takes a bottom-up approach to the universal agenda 2030, seeking real knowledge on indicators from "...small places, close to home–so close and so small that they cannot be seen on" the World Bank SDG Atlas. Its main objectives are therefore to map and deliver knowledge about clusters of individual societies on that global map, their disparate neighborhoods, activities, achievements and influencing factors, based on indicators deriving from relevant and authoritative data from various sources, including grey literature and citizen science. Its implementation strategy is for three pilot DSF SDG monitoring nodes to be established in three African countries with known socio-economic heterogeneity, in order to provide a clear baseline for the project. To effectively support agenda 2030 at the country level, the project requires a guarantee that policy makers affecting each monitoring node, are in full agreement with Open Data Initiative (ODI) agenda.


Background: The influenza virus is one of the most important factors for higher mor-bidity and mortality in the world. Recently, researchers have been focused on influenza conserved antigenic proteins such as hemagglutinin stalk domain (HA2) for vaccine production and serological studies. The HA2 plays a major role in the fusion of the virus with host cells membrane. The immunity system enables to produce antibody against HA2. The aim of this study is polyclonal antibody production against influenza HA2. Methods: This study was done in the Influenza Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran for one year from September 2013 to October 2014. In the present study, re-combinant HA2 protein was produced in prokaryotic system and purified using Nickel affinity chromatography. The purified HA2 was mixed with Freund's adjuvant (com-plete and incomplete) and injected into two New Zealand white rabbits by intramuscu-larly and subcutaneously routes. Immunization was continued for several months with two weeks interval. Before each immunization, blood was drawn by venous puncture from the rabbit ear. Function of rabbit's sera was evaluated using radial immunodiffusion (RID) in both forms, Single RID (SRID) and Double RID (DRID). Finally, antise-rum activity against HA2 was evaluated using western blotting as serological assay. Results: Sedimentary line and zone was observed in RID assays (SRID and DRID) rep-resent interaction between HA2 protein and anti- HA2 antibody. As well as, western blotting results was positive for HA2 protein. Therefore, these results showed that polyclonal antibody produced against HA2 protein can identify HA2 protein antigenic sites. Conclusion: These findings show that humoral immune responses have properly been stimulated in rabbits and these antibodies can identify HA2 protein and may be suitable for other serological methods. Abstract


This paper presents a search-based method for generating maps for the popular real-time strategy (RTS) game StarCraft. We devise a representation of StarCraft maps suitable for evolutionary search, along with a set of fitness functions based on predicted entertainment value of those maps, as derived from theories of player experience. A multiobjective evolutionary algorithm is then used to evolve complete StarCraft maps based on the representation and selected fitness functions. The output of this algorithm is a Pareto front approximation visualizing the tradeoff between the several fitness functions used, and where each point on the front represents a viable map. We argue that this method is useful for both automatic and machine-assisted map generation, and in particular that the Pareto fronts are excellent design support tools for human map designers.


Interaction between adults and infants by nature constitutes a strong powerasymmetry relationship. Based on the assumption that communicative practices with infants are inseparably intertwined with broader cultural ideologies of good child care, this paper will contrast how parents in two distinct socio-cultural communities deal with power asymmetry in interactions with 3-months old infants. The study consists of a microanalysis of videotaped free play mother-infant interactions from 20 middle class families in Muenster, Germany and 20 traditional farming Nso families in Kikaikelaki, Cameroon. Analysis followed a discursive psychology approach. The focus of analysis is on how mothers handle and negotiate power-distance in these interactions and what discursive strategies they draw on. Mothers in both groups used various forms of directives and control strategies. The Muenster mothers, however, mainly used mitigated directives that can be seen as strategies to reduce the competence gap between mother and child, while the Nso mothers mainly used upgraded directives to stress the hierarchical discrepancy between mother and child. The different strategies are discussed in light of the prevailing broader cultural ideologies and the normative orientations that they reflect. Finally, the findings are discussed with regard to possible developmental consequences of these distinct cultural practices for the child. Keywords: power-asymmetry; mother-infant interaction; discursive psychology; culture; Nso farmers; Muenster middle class families


To cope with the massive bandwidth demands of Virtual Reality (VR) video streaming, both the scientific community and the industry have been proposing optimization techniques such as viewport-aware streaming and tile-based adaptive bitrate heuristics. As most of the VR video traffic is expected to be delivered through mobile networks, a major problem arises: both the network performance and VR video optimization techniques have the potential to influence the video playout performance and the Quality of Experience (QoE). However, the interplay between them is neither trivial nor has it been properly investigated. To bridge this gap, in this article, we introduce VR-EXP, an open-source platform for carrying out VR video streaming performance evaluation. Furthermore, we consolidate a set of relevant VR video streaming techniques and evaluate them under variable network conditions, contributing to an in-depth understanding of what to expect when different combinations are employed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to propose a systematic approach, accompanied by a software toolkit, which allows one to compare different optimization techniques under the same circumstances. Extensive evaluations carried out using realistic datasets demonstrate that VR-EXP is instrumental in providing valuable insights regarding the interplay between network performance and VR video streaming optimization techniques.


Title of Thesis: Immunohistochemistry Analysis of Ki-67 and P53 Proteins in Oral Lichen Planus Compared to Other Oral Epithelial Lesions Aqdar Abdullah Akbar, Master's of Biomedical Science, 2014 Thesis Directed by: Meiller, Timothy F., DDS, Ph.D Professor, Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences University of Maryland School of Dentistry Aim: The goal of this project was to determine if selected biomarkers of oral cancer are expressed in lichen planus and to identify the relationship, if any, of these biomarkers to malignant transformation. Methods: Six each of archived specimens with confirmed histopathological diagnosis of oral benign fibroma, oral reticular lichen planus, oral erosive lichen planus, oral mild to moderate dysplasia, oral severe dysplasia, and oral squamous cell carcinoma were selected. A total of 35 acceptable specimens were stained using an immunohistochemistry method for Ki67 and P53 proteins. Specimens were scanned with Aperio Scanscope CS and slides were analyzed visually, for expression patterns, and also using Aperio software. Results: The results of the present study demonstrated that the expression of P53 in oral lichen planus was 40.3 %, compared to 31.6% in oral benign fibroma, 46.3% in oral erosive lichen planus, 43.9% in oral mild to moderate dysplasia, 46.4% in oral severe dysplasia, and 47.2% in oral squamous cell carcinoma. On the other hand, Ki67 expression for oral lichen planus was 32.3% compared to 19.1% in oral benign fibroma, 40.3% in oral erosive lichen planus, 36% in oral mild to moderate dysplasia, 44.3% in oral severe dysplasia, and 48.9% in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Conclusion: Expression of the P53 and Ki67 biomarkers do not consistently correlate with malignant transformation of oral lichen planus appear to be associated with premalignant lesions of dysplasia. P53 and Ki67 are not a definitive diagnostic tool and further investigation to other biomarkers is needed.


: Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) consists in the concurrent construction of a model of the environment (the map), and the estimation of the state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey the current state of SLAM and consider future directions. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto standard formulation for SLAM. We then review related work, covering a broad set of topics including robustness and scalability in long-term mapping, metric and semantic representations for mapping, theoretical performance guarantees, active SLAM and exploration, and other new frontiers. This paper simultaneously serves as a position paper and tutorial to those who are users of SLAM. By looking at the published research with a critical eye, we delineate open challenges and new research issues, that still deserve careful scientific investigation. The paper also contains the authors' take on two questions that often animate discussions during robotics conferences: Do robots need SLAM? and Is SLAM solved? Abstract —Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) consists in the concurrent construction of a model of the environment (the map ), and the estimation of the state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications, and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey the current state of SLAM and consider future directions. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto standard formulation for SLAM. We then review related work, covering a broad set of topics including robustness and scalability in long-term mapping, metric and semantic representations for mapping, theoretical performance guarantees, active SLAM and exploration, and other new frontiers. This paper simultaneously serves as a position paper and tutorial to those who are users of SLAM. By looking at the published research with a critical eye, we delineate open challenges and new research issues, that still deserve careful scientific investigation. The paper also contains the authors' take on two questions that often animate discussions during robotics conferences: Do robots need SLAM? and Is SLAM solved?


Stable isotope analysis of biogenic tissues such as tooth enamel and bone mineral has become a well-recognised and increasingly important method for determining the provenance of human remains, and it has been used successfully in bio-archaeological studies as well as forensic investigations. In particular, (18)O and (2)H stable isotope signatures of bone and hair, respectively, are well-established proxies of climate (temperature) and source water and are therefore considered as indicators of geographic life trajectories of animals and humans. While the methodology for (2)H analysis of human hair, fingernails, and bone collagen is currently used to determine human provenance, i.e. geographic origin and identify possible migration patterns, studies involving the analysis of (2)H in tooth enamel appear to be nonexistent in the scientific literature. Ground tooth enamel was analysed by continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) coupled on-line to a high-temperature conversion elemental analyser (TC/EA). An array of tooth enamel samples from archaeological and modern teeth has been analysed under different experimental conditions, and the results of this proof-of-concept study are presented. While no significant differences in (2)H abundance were noted as a result of H exchange studies or different sample preparation protocols, no significant differences or trends in measured δ(2)H-values were observed either with regard to known differences in geographical provenance. We concluded that the δ(2)H-values obtained from tooth enamel could not be used as proxy for a person's geographical origin during adolescence.


OBJECTIVE
The clinical features of patients with psoas abscess in a local setting, including the microbiology, incidence and aetiologies, have not been well described. This study aimed to review such clinical features and patient outcomes.

DESIGN
Retrospective case series.

SETTING
Regional hospital, Hong Kong.

PATIENTS
Adults (aged ≥18 years) with psoas abscess admitted to Tuen Mun Hospital from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2010 were included. The clinical presentations, aetiologies, microbiology, treatments, hospital stays, intensive care unit admissions, and outcomes of these patients were reviewed.

RESULTS
The series entailed 42 patients, five of whom developed their psoas abscess after admission and seven were intravenous drug abusers. The most common presenting symptom in community-onset cases was back, hip, or thigh pain (43% [16/37]). Fever was present at presentation in 41% (15/37) of these patients, four of whom presented with fever only. The diagnosis was made by computed tomography in 95% (40/42) of these cases. In all, 23 abscesses were considered secondary; the most common aetiology being infective spondylitis or spondylodiscitis. The commonest causative organism for a primary psoas abscess was methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, while for secondary abscesses they were more commonly from the gastro-intestinal and genitourinary tracts. Overall in-hospital mortality rate was 14% (6/42). Secondary psoas abscess patients had longer hospital stays (mean, 62 vs 34 days; P=0.007).

CONCLUSION
Psoas abscess is an uncommon condition. Most patients presented with only non-specific symptoms leading to difficulty in making an early diagnosis. In more than half of these patients, the psoas abscesses were secondary, the aetiology of which differed from reported overseas experience.


Background There is currently no reliable method to predict major postoperative cardiopulmonary complications for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we hypothesized that exercise oxygen desaturation (EOD) and heart rate change results in a stair-climbing test (SCT) would predict postoperative cardiopulmonary complications for patients with NSCLC. Material/Methods We examined 171 patients (41 females and 130 males) with NSCLC by preoperative SCT from January 2010 to July 2015. Among them, 27 underwent wedge resection, 122 underwent lobectomy, and 22 underwent pneumonectomy. The correlation between postoperative cardiopulmonary complications and parameters of SCT and pulmonary function test (PFT) parameters were analyzed retrospectively. Results The overall 30-day postoperative morbidity of the patients was 46/171 (26.9%), with death occurring in 3/171(1.8%). The age, FEV1%, MVV, height of climbing, EOD, and heart rate change were found to be significantly different between the group with postoperative cardiopulmonary complications and those without. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that EOD and heart rate change were independently correlated with postoperative cardiopulmonary complications. In addition, a model predicting the probability of postoperative cardiopulmonary complication based on logistic regression for multivariable analysis was used to confirm our findings. Conclusions A symptom-limited SCT with oxygen saturation monitoring is a safe, simple, and low-cost method to evaluate cardiopulmonary function preoperatively.


The notion of a "living Constitution" often rests on an implicit assumption that important constitutional values will "grow" in such a way as to make the Constitution more attractive over time. But there are no guarantees: What can grow can also wither and die. This essay, presented as the 2018 Robert F. Boden Lecture at Marquette University Law School, marks the sesquicentennial of the Fourteenth Amendment's ratification as a powerful charter of liberty and equality for black Americans. But for much of its early history, the Fourteenth Amendment's meaning moved in reverse, overwhelmed by the end of Reconstruction, the gradual entrenchment of Jim Crow in the South, and the consolidation of racial discrimination in the North. All of the recognized modalities of living constitutionalism—evolving public mores, social movements, electoral outcomes and landmark legislation, and common law development—contributed to constitutional changes that left the Fourteenth Amendment meaning less in the late 19th and early 20th centuries than it did at its ratification. The Amendment's early history is thus an instance of dying—not living— constitutionalism. It is far from clear, however, that alternative constitutional approaches—such as originalism—could have prevented this constitutional regression. This essay explores how the Fourteenth Amendment got so off track and whether the theory of living constitutionalism can be modified to help it hang on to the Constitution's core commitments in the face of social change. Ultimately, the essay suggests that constitutional methodology may be less important than constitutional culture in this regard, and that the culture of living constitutionalism ought to emphasize caution over optimism about the inevitability of moral progress. The Fourteenth Amendment's "lost years" offer precisely the sense of tragedy that might inspire that cultural shift.


ABSTRACT Aim: It is believed that API2-MALT1 positive gastric MALT lymphoma exhibit a good prognosis because they do not exhibit multiple genomic abnormalities. However, there is no data on the long-term natural history and clinical outcome of API2-MALT1 positive gastric MALT lymphoma. The aim of this study was to clarify the management and long-term outcome of this lymphoma. Methods: From November 1993 to December 2013, 155 consecutive patients with gastric MALT lymphoma were enrolled in this study. 137 of 155 patients were examined for API2-MALT1 chimeric transcript by means of RT-PCR and/or FISH. 134 of 155 patients received H. pylori eradication therapy. Second-line treatments were radiation therapy (RTx), chemotherapy (CTx), and total gastrectomy. All patients were followed up by endoscopy and abdominal CT regularly. Results: The number of API2-MALT1 positive patients was 36. The mean follow-up period of these patients was 69.3 months (range: 12-175 months). Thirteen patients were H. pylori positive. Seven patients had ≥ stage II-1 disease. Of the 36 patients, H. pylori eradication therapy was given to 25, RTx to 7, and CTx to 2 as 1st line treatment, while 2 patients selected watchful waiting strategy. Only one patient out of 25 responded to H. pylori eradication therapy alone. Of the 24 non-responders, 9 patients selected watchful waiting, and 15 received 2nd line treatment. The clinical outcome of these latter 15 patients was complete response (CR) or stable disease (SD) over a mean follow-up period of 74.7 months (12-175 months). The clinical outcomes of 11 patients treated without H. pylori eradication as 1st line strategy, were CR in 9 and SD in 2, over a mean follow up time of 57.5 months (18-106 months). No patient died from disease progression of MALT. However, 4 patients died of gastric carcinoma, DLBCL without API2-MALT1, myelodysplastic syndrome, and laryngeal cancer. The 12 patients with watchful waiting strategy had SD for 75.6 months of mean follow-up time (12-175 months). Conclusions: The long-term prognosis of API2-MALT1 positive gastric MALT lymphoma was good, and second-line treatments usually resulted in CR. Although a 'watchful waiting strategy' may be acceptable, careful observation for development of 2nd malignancies and disease progression is essential during follow-up of API2-MALT1-positive MALT lymphoma. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Human platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFRs) expressed in human Hep G2 cells internalized and concentrated in a juxtanuclear region near the Golgi network within 10 minutes after the cells were treated with PDGF. A PDGFR mutant (F5) that lacks high-affinity binding sites for the Src homology 2 domain-containing proteins phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI-3 kinase), Ras guanosine triphosphatase activating protein, phospholipase C-gamma, and a phosphotyrosine phosphatase (Syp) remained at the cell periphery. Restoration of the PI-3 kinase binding sites on F5 completely restored the ability of the receptor to concentrate intracellularly. A PDGFR mutant lacking only PI-3 kinase binding sites failed to concentrate intracellularly. Thus, PI-3 kinase binding sites appear both necessary and sufficient for the normal endocytic trafficking of the activated PDGFR.


The livestock industry is highly dependent on available and cheap feedstuff. Competition between man and animal for the same food is increasing. Subsequently, the search for alternatives to feed livestock must go on. Waste materials from agro-industry are possible alternatives to the traditional feedstuffs which are continuously increasing in price and scarsity. This paper discusses some of the methods and possible ways of using wastes products from the agricultural sector. Materials like rice straw has been used as animal feed but its use is declining. Many rice farmers no longer keep buffaloes or cattle and therefore the need to use the straw is diminishing. Palm byproducts, such as palm kernel cake, are useful and contribute towards the country's foreign exchange. About 1.7 million tonnes of palm kernel cake is exported annually bringing an income of about RM400 million. However, the livestock industry is deprived of the palm kernel cake which if used locally can support more than half a million heads of cattle. Other byproducts such as rice straw, palm fronds, rice bran and corn stover are not produced in such large quantities, but if the process of collecting and processing to improve their quality can be consolidated as a viable industry much of the feed imports can be reduced. Newer technologies need to be developed with considerations of reducing labour and related costs in the methods of collecting, processing, storage and distribution.


A recording infrared absorption hygrometer which measures the absolute humidity in a 1-meter light path is described. Record is obtained on a remote self-balancing potentiometer. Use is made of the 1.37 p water vapor absorption band and a 1.24 reference band. Isolation is by means of transmission type interference band-pass liglit ' filters. Infrared detection is by means of a lead sulfide photocell and amplifier. Isolation filters are contained on a sector wheel which is rotated to chop an infrared beam. A self-balancing null system is employed whereby the energy in the absorption band is kept equal to the energy in the reference band at all times. Balance is maintained by automatically varying the temperature of the lamp supplying the infrared energy, and the temperature of the lamp is a measure of the water vapor in the sensing path. An index of the lamp temperature is obtained by means of a monitor photocell, and meter or recorder. Included is a discussion on the calibration and field tests made on the instrument at the Weather Bureau Laboratories, Washington, D. C.


Bulk samples of carrot seed are tested for Xanthomonas hortorum pv. carotae (Xhc) using a seed wash dilution-plating protocol (Asma, 2005). In this protocol, three 10 gram samples of carrot seed, equivalent to three subsamples of 10,000 seeds each, are soaked in buffer and serial dilutions are plated onto a semi-selective medium that limits the growth of bacteria other than Xhc. Testing protocols for seed-borne pathogens usually assume that infested seeds are fairly uniform (i.e. they follow the normal "bell-shaped curve") with regards to bacterial populations on individual seeds and that the assay will detect the average number of bacteria for infested seed present in the sample. However, several studies have shown that the number of bacteria found on individual seeds may vary widely and follow non-normal distributions (i.e. they do not follow the normal "bell-shaped curve") (Dutta et al., 2013). If the distributions of Xhc among infested carrot seeds are non-normal, assay results from bulk samples could result in an inaccurate estimate of the true population number. For example, if a seed lot contains relatively few, highly infested seeds, the bulk seed lot assay will be highly influenced by the number of highly infested seeds that are in a particular sample. On the other hand, a seed wash assay may not detect any infested seeds if only a few seeds in a seed lot are actually infested. The objective of this research is to determine the incidence and level of Xhc infestation among individual seeds in infested carrot seed lots. It is anticipated that this information will be important to the Oregon carrot seed industry, since many countries and markets have a zero-tolerance policy for Xhc in carrot seed. The incidence and level of infestation on individual seeds could also influence inoculum thresholds that are required for the development of bacterial blight in carrot root production. A better understanding of seed infestation in carrot seed lots will enable carrot seed producers to improve the methods used to prevent, detect, and treat infested seeds prior to market.


This study aimed to establish the economic and technical applicability of the alternative control methods to methyl bromide (MB) in pepper and eggplant. These crops were grown in plastic houses and tunnels including open field strawberry cultivation in the East Mediterranean region of Turkey and were assessed over the 2000-2002 growing season. In addition the study using a pre and post questionnaire aimed to monitor the change in farmer practices who have adopted alternative techniques other than MB, and their understanding of the environmental concerns associated with MB such as ozone depletion. Experiments were conducted under farmer's field conditions, and solarization was combined with fresh cow manure, low dosage pesticides and/or antagonistic microorganisms. Effect of these treatments on soil-borne pathogens and nematodes were determined, and also yield.The results indicated solarization combined with dazomet at 400 kg ha-1 was just as effective as MB application to soil-borne diseases and nematode control in plastic-houses. In this treatment, yield was obtained as much as in MB treatments in eggplant, while pepper and strawberry yield was less. Yield was determined as 109 and 36 t ha-1 in fresh cow manure combined with solarization treatment, however it was 115 and 51 t ha-1 in MB in eggplant and strawberry, respectively. This application was preferred to the MB alternative due to its low cost applicability. Results obtained from the questionnaire indicated that 91% of the farmers were using MB in 2000, and this decreased to 66% by 2002. Farmers' awareness to the alternative applications to MB increasing from 3% to 13%, and that MB is an ozone depleting fumigant over the same period rose from 7% to 13%.


When you're working with CSS and need a quick answer, CSS Pocket Reference delivers. This handy, concise book provides all of the essential information you need to implement CSS on the fly. Ideal for intermediate to advanced web designers and developers, the 4th edition is revised and updated for CSS3, the latest version of the Cascading Style Sheet specification. Along with a complete alphabetical reference to CSS3 selectors and properties, you'll also find a short introduction to the key concepts of CSS. Based on Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, this reference is an easy-to-use cheatsheet of the CSS specifications you need for any task at hand. This book helps you: Quickly find and adapt the style elements you need Learn how CSS3 features complement and extend your CSS practices Discover new value types and new CSS selectors Implement drop shadows, multiple backgrounds, rounded corners, and border images Get new information about transforms and transitions


Marine biofouling is the accumulation of organisms on underwater surfaces, causing increased ship hydrodynamic drag, which results in higher fuel consumption and decreased speed and range. Biofilms constitute a major component of the overall biofouling and may lead to a 14 % increase in ship fuel costs. Past solutions to antifouling (AF) have used toxic coatings which have subsequently been shown to severely affect marine life. The prohibited use of these antifoulants has led to the search for bio-inspired AF strategies. Current approaches towards the production of alternative coatings include the incorporation of natural AF compounds into paints. Screening assays for novel AF compounds are often separated into two categories; toxicity and AF assays. Increasingly there is evidence that active compounds affect organisms at non-toxic concentrations, hence, the necessity for more insightful AF testing, such as bacterial and diatom attachment. This study assessed natural product (NP) antifouling performance of two marine seaweeds (Chondrus crispus and Bifurcaria bifurcata) and two isolated pure compounds from terrestrial sources (usnic acid and juglone) against two marine biofilm bacteria, Cobetia marina and Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus. Overall it was found that all NPs affected bacterial attachment, however, juglone demonstrated the best AF performance against both bacterial species at a concentration range between 5 - 20 ppm. Biofilm colonisation is a surface related phenomenon, thus novel bioassays have been developed to directly test biofilm attachment and growth on NP-containing coatings for both static and hydrodynamic conditions. This study has incorporated NPs into a model coating system, using two formulations in order to assess their effect on biofilm growth. Laboratory screening of NP-containing coatings is often largely unexplored mainly due to difficulties in assessing their activity over short experimental time scales (typically only a maximum of a few days). To date there are only a limited number of reports on laboratory assessment for antifouling paints and their effect on biofilm growth and/or attachment. In this study, NP-containing model paints were applied on to coupons, placed in 24-well plates and then inoculated with the marine biofilm forming bacteria. This has been achieved by the development of a novel bioassay protocol that has allowed the in situ observation of biofilm formation and growth, by corroborating different techniques such as a multidetection microplate reader and confocal laser scanning microscopy (through nucleic acid staining). There was good correlation between the two techniques which showed that the NP containing coatings significantly inhibited biofilm growth and also revealed marked differences in biofilm structure (e.g. bio-volume, morphology and thickness). The goal of this study was to develop a new protocol to allow assessment of biofilm formation on coatings in a high throughput non-invasive manner. New protocols and methods using microfluidic devices were developed for the assessment of bacterial attachments and initial biofilm formation in the presence and absence of a NP under hydrodynamic conditions. This led to the development and fabrication of a novel lab-on-a-chip device for the investigation of the biofilm response to different hydrodynamic conditions. The microfluidic flow channels were designed using computational fluid dynamic simulations so as to have a pre-defined, homogeneous wall shear stress in the channels, ranging from 0.03 to 4.30 Pa, which are relevant to in-service conditions on a ship hull.


This study analyzes the sociolinguistic variation of obligatory contractions between the preposition de and the definite articles in the interlanguage of adult learners of Portuguese as foreign language in the United States. Using this variation phenomenon as an example, the main objective of this pilot study is to discuss the feasibility of using speech data from telecollaborative interactions in interlanguage variation studies. The analyzed data come from four audio-recorded teletandem sessions held in 2017 among nine US-based learners of Portuguese and native speakers of this language in Brazil. The quantitative analysis included three linguistic group factors —preceding word category, gender marking, and number marking— and four social group factors —learner gender, native language, immersion experience, and teletandem session. The results showed that only gender marking was selected as a significant factor for the occurrence of contraction. The study concluded that speech data from telecollaborative interactions can be used as one of the tasks in large scale interlanguage variation studies. However, it also cautions researchers to consider some of the major issues regarding selection of variables, learners' style shifting and stage of acquisition, and technical limitations of this type of interaction.


Details are provided about a series of ejective stops in Waimoa, spoken in East Timor. Not uncommon in other parts of the world, ejective stops are exceptionally rare within the whole Austronesian area. We report here on the existence of voiceless ejective stops in Waimoa (also Waima'a), an Austronesian language spoken in East Timor. This is only the second Austronesian language for which ejectives have ever been reported. According to the most recent edition of Ethnologue (Grimes 2000), Waimoa is a member of the Nuclear Timor subgrouping within the larger Timor grouping inside Central Malayo-Polynesian. (2) The language is most closely related to Kairui-Midiki and Habu, and has approximately 3,000 speakers living in a small number of villages on the Baucau plateau on the northeastern coast of East Timor. Neighboring languages are Galoli (Austronesian) to the west, Kairui-Midiki to the south, and Makasae (non-Austronesian) concentrated in and around the city of Baucau immediately to the east. Tetun Dili is widely used as a lingua franca in interethnic communication in this whole area--particularly with the Makasae. Waimoa speakers report that Wairnoa and Kairui-Midiki are mutually intelligible, and may be used as alternatives to Tetun between speakers of these languages. Field data for this report were collected in the village of Caisido, ten kilometers west of Baucau. Initial analysis of our data indicates that Waimoa has the following contrastive system of stops: (1) voiceless unaspirated p t k ? voiceless aspirated [p.sup.h] [t.sup.h] [k.sup.h] voiceless ejective p' t' k' voiced plain b d g (Near)minimal sets can be found incorporating all stop types at three places of articulation--including the three ejective stops (p', t', k'). The result is a four-way stop contrast system at velar, coronal, and bilabial place. (2) a. kama 'bed' [k.sup.h]a ma 'eat already' k' ama 'scratch' gama 'shark' b. tegi 'kneel' [t.sup.h]eki 'gecko' t'eri 'belch' degu (3) 'night' c. porti 'strong' [p.sup.h]alta 'lack' p'ari 'big' baibain 'usually' The voiceless glottal stop is contrastive in intervocalic position. As it is marginal to discussion here, it will not be considered further. Ejectives in Waimoa are articulated clearly and in a manner that is consistent with the phonetic description provided by Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) and Layer (1994), among others. While there is complete closure of the oral cavity, there is simultaneous closure and raising of the laxynx. The latter results in compression in the oral cavity. Oral closure is then released, triggering a stop burst that is markedly louder and stronger than that found in other kinds of stops. The acoustic effect is of a loud pop on release. A number of observations can be made about the distributional characteristics of ejectives in Waimoa. They are of relatively limited frequency, and occur almost always in word-initial position. They never appear before other consonants, unlike voiceless unaspirated stops, for example, krini 'dry' and klohi 'soft'. We have so far recorded only one example of an ejective stop appearing either word-medially or in post-consonantal position: namp'ita 'lightning'. The combination sa k'ie 'intestinal worm' with post-vocalic k' is analyzed as a generic-specilic compound, where sa is a generic term referring to insects and k'ie denotes an intestinal worm in particular (cf. sa p'au 'mosquito'). One final phonotactic trait of ejectives, shared also by voiceless aspirates, is that they can appear only once in a word: p'obo 'wet' and k'alcan 'sago' in contrast to other stops: bobo 'grandfather' (voc. …


We give the first polynomial-time algorithm for performing linear or polynomial regression resilient to adversarial corruptions in both examples and labels.
Given a sufficiently large (polynomial-size) training set drawn i.i.d. from distribution D and subsequently corrupted on some fraction of points, our algorithm outputs a linear function whose squared error is close to the squared error of the best-fitting linear function with respect to D, assuming that the marginal distribution of D over the input space is \emph{certifiably hypercontractive}. This natural property is satisfied by many well-studied distributions such as Gaussian, strongly log-concave distributions and, uniform distribution on the hypercube among others. We also give a simple statistical lower bound showing that some distributional assumption is necessary to succeed in this setting.
These results are the first of their kind and were not known to be even information-theoretically possible prior to our work.
Our approach is based on the sum-of-squares (SoS) method and is inspired by the recent applications of the method for parameter recovery problems in unsupervised learning. Our algorithm can be seen as a natural convex relaxation of the following conceptually simple non-convex optimization problem: find a linear function and a large subset of the input corrupted sample such that the least squares loss of the function over the subset is minimized over all possible large subsets.


The Neugebauer equations and the Demichel equations on which they are based are one of the basic tools for modeling colour printing systems that use the halftoning technique. However, these equations implicitly assume that the colour ink distributions in the screen superposition are statistically independent. We show that this condition is not satisfied in the conventional screen superposition used for colour printing, and we discuss the consequences of this fact. Furthermore, we give a precise criterion that deter- mines, for any number of superposed regular screens, in which cases the Demichel (and hence the Neugebauer) equations are satisfied, and in which cases they fail: The Demichel equations fail in all cases where the screen su- perposition is singular, and they are satisfied in all non- singular screen superpositions. We illustrate our results with several examples of both cases.© 2000 John Wiley & Sons,


In the past decade, smart home technologies have been a topic of interest for many researchers with the aim of automating daily activities. However, despite increasing progress in this area, less attention has been paid to smart environments that can adapt to changes in residents' preferences over time. Here we introduce CASAS, an adaptive smart home system that discovers and adapts to changes in the resident's preferences in order to generate satisfactory automation policies. The adaptation capability of CASAS is achieved by utilizing data mining methods as well as learning strategies that adapt to the resident's explicit and implicit preference feedback. In this paper, we present a description of the adaptation models employed by CASAS together with the results of experiments applied to both synthetic and real smart environment data.


Abstract Much-maligned urban high schools are in need of major reform if they are to ensure that their students are prepared to be successful workers in the post-industrial economy. Ongoing small school reforms may help provide the personalization needed to make schooling relevant and engaging, but without self-devised personal learning plans, students will never attain the levels of autonomy, self-directedness, and responsibility that are crucial in the global age. Introduction The model of schooling most prevalent in urban high schools today is an industrial-age relic where students are expected to learn the skills and values that do little to enhance their abilities to navigate their futures (Anyon, 2005; Delors, 1998; Egol, 2003; Meier, 2002; Toffler & Toffler, 1994). It is a model that relies on a "pedagogy of poverty" (Haberman, 2000) ensuring that the already disadvantaged continue to be disenfranchised in the Post-Fordist economy and the rapidly changing "Global Village." Scholars have offered strategies to rectify this regrettable situation, strategies such as culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy (Anyon, 2005; Delpit, 1996) that show much promise but may be unattainable in the present urban high school environment of control, where goals are set for low-level skills attainment. To counter the present state of urban high schools, this article proposes the use of personalized learning plans (PLP's) that are developed, maintained, and monitored by the student; plans that would require increased levels of responsibility, trust, and autonomy among students and educators. The results may be the fostering of autonomous, self-reliant, and self-directed workers as well as responsible, effective citizens. Changing skills, values, and dispositions The skills and values required to succeed in the global economy, particularly autonomy, collaboration, self-directedness, and responsibility, are lacking in most urban high schools (Anyon, 2005; Egol, 2004). The ability to work autonomously without supervision or coercion while functioning in a collaborative, team-oriented structure are essential for urban school graduates to succeed as "knowledgeworkers" rather than low-wage service employees destined for financial insecurity (Reich, 1991; 2002). Urban high schools that rely on bureaucratic structures and behaviors have allowed urban students and their teachers to become deskilled (Anyon, 1997; Johnson, 2004) with their reliance on scripted lessons and unauthentic assessments, and may be widening the gap in wealth and power in the US (Giroux, 2003; Sehr, 1997). Yet, focusing on economic needs and workforce skills does not minimize the importance of learning to live in a multicultural global society. The model of organization championed by leaders in management fields is one that is democratic, collaborative, and tolerant (Deming, 1986; Senge, 1990), one that would be conducive to fostering citizens who can live peacefully amongst those of other races, cultures, and religions. This model can be replicated in small, autonomous schools but, as will be explained later, must be reinforced by self-devised, PLP's. Global skills in the Accountability Era Autonomy is one of the key traits that knowledgeworkers in the global economy must possess (Dobbin & Boychuk, 1999). Due to the impact of the accountability movement of the past two decades with its crushing effects on urban education (see Anyon, 1997; 2005), US schools have resisted allowing for student autonomy (Solomon & Battistich, 1996). Although attempts have been made to increase autonomy of teachers with such reforms as "site-based management" (Shapiro, Benjamin, & Hunt, 1995) these attempts are at risk due to top-down directives of states and the federal government emanating from "get tough" business approaches that dictate the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (Meier & Wood, 2004). If urban high schools wish to prepare students for the future workforce, they may have to subvert the constrictive forces of the accountability movement and move toward empowering those who work in the schools: teachers and students. …


Pupil size changes represent a subtle social cue, often processed outside of conscious awareness. Despite this subtlety, changes in pupil size affect our perceptions of the character and emotions of others. In a series experiments we demonstrated for the first time that pupil size changes are also encoded into long-term memory. In the experiments participants were exposed 51 Poster abstracts to faces whose pupils dilated or constricted. In a subsequent task they were asked to judge the faces for friendliness and interest. Importantly, at this later stage all the faces displayed pupils of the same size. Despite not noticing the pupil size changes in the previous task, participants' ratings were influenced by whether a face had displayed dilated or constricted pupils. This effect interacted with the gender and trustworthiness of the facial stimuli, and affected participants differently if they had been primed to feel socially excluded. Extending this last finding we present unpublished data examining the influence of loneliness on pupil-memory effects. We found participants who were high in loneliness demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to pupil size changes. Conversely those who were less lonely showed the predicted pup