Gambling addiction is a primary chronic disease of brain reward, incentive, memory and interrelated circuitry. The perception of addiction has often been associated with substance abuse. This article aims to highlight some of the psychological, mental health and wellbeing impact gambling has on lifestyle and family. Almost 70% of the population in the UK participates in some form of gambling, and an estimated 250 000–310 000 people live with gambling issues. There are several factors that encourage an individual to gamble, including: stimulating the mind; escape; winning; reward; coping; excitement; prompting social interaction; exploration; financial gains; and boredom. The complexity of gambling behaviour can compromise wellbeing and lead to public health crises. Early intervention in treating gamblers can support the mental health and wellbeing of the addict and family.


Are games worthy of academic attention? Can they be used effectively in the classroom, in the research laboratory, as an innovative design tool, as a persuasive political weapon? Game Mods: Design Theory and Criticism aims to answer these and more questions. It features chapters by authors chosen from around the world, representing fields as diverse as architecture, ethnography, puppetry, cultural studies, music education, interaction design and industrial design. How can we design, play with and reflect on the contribution of game mods, related tools and techniques, to both game studies and to society as a whole?


The influence of polarization dependence is an unavoidable problem in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications, especially for anisotropically-enhanced structures with strong surface plasmon coupling. In this work, the polarization dependence of SERS in crossed nanowires (NWs) on metal or dielectric films was investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The measured SERS spectra indicated that the strong polarization dependence of the crossed NWs was greatly influenced by the substrate, which was determined by only the direction of the bottom NWs for a metal film or the top NWs for a dielectric film. The studies further demonstrated that this polarization dependence was not related to the diameter ratio or intersecting angle of the NWs. The present work not only improves the applications of SERS but also increases our understanding of surface plasmon excitation in complicated metal nanostructures.


Abstract This paper investigates morphological alternation between so-called extended and restricted roots in Ranmo, leading to a new proposal about the nature of pluractional predicates. Extended roots show properties associated with 'pluractional' verbs attested crosslinguistically; in particular, they are associated with both plural participant and iterative interpretations. However, they differ from typical pluractionals in the following two ways: (i) they are not morphologically formed on the basis of their restricted counterparts (which are associated with singular, punctual readings) and (ii) they are compatible with numeric modifiers. I propose that these differences can be understood under the proposal that all pluractionals obligatorily involve two components which are always distinctly represented in the semantics—PL(ural) and DEG(ree). The latter contributes a large quantity (as opposed to a simple plural) reading. However, languages vary with respect to whether these two can form a single syntactic unit (and hence be bundled into a single morpheme). This predicts a simple typology in which only a subset of so-called pluractional verbs yield a necessarily large quantity reading.


The case updates events since the Court's ruling against Myriad Genetics on March 29, 2010 and should be used in conjunction with Gene Patents (A). On July 29, 2011, a US Appeals Court reversed the prior ruling against Myriad. On September 16, 2011, the first major overhaul of US Patent law in nearly 60 years was signed into law. Among other provisions, the law moved the US to a first-to-file priority when granting patents, as was the practice in most of the rest of the world. Many felt this change would help to reduce the amount of patent litigation. The case ends with the Supreme Court's 9 to 0 on March 29, 2012 ruling against another company in a case similar to Myriad's. Within five days of that decision, the Supreme Court remanded the Myriad case back down to the Court of Appeals for reconsideration. Learning Objective: This case intends to enrich students' understanding of the unique and specific characteristics and challenges of ventures and venture investing in biotechnology, with particular attention to the influence of recent legal decisions regarding gene patenting.


TiCr2 based alloys of AB2 type with C15 Laves phase structure are good candidates for hydrogen storage. In this work, we used density functional theory and plane-wave pseudo potential technique to study electronic properties of TiCr2H3 and TiMgCr2H3. In TiCr2, the H atom interacts more strongly with the Ti than with Cr atoms and tends to occupy the g (2A2B) site; the TiCr2H3 has an insulating character. In Ti0.875Mg0.125Cr2H3, H atoms interact with both Ti atom and Mg atom, and Ti0.875Mg0.125Cr2H3 conserves its metallic character. Structural stability of TiCr2H3 and Ti0.875Mg0.125Cr2H3 is investigated by calculating their formation enthalpies. Total and partial electronic densities of states and electronic charge differences of the compounds are also computed and discussed.


OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence and risk factors for developing proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), tractional retinal detachment (TRD), and neovascular glaucoma (NVG) at 5 years after the initial diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Insured patients aged ≥18 years with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and 5 years of continuous enrollment were identified from a nationwide commercial claims database containing data from 2007 to 2015. The incidences of PDR, TRD, and NVG were computed at 5 years following the index diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Associations between these outcomes and demographic, socioeconomic, and medical factors were tested with multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS At 5 years following the initial diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, 1.74% (1,249 of 71,817) of patients had developed PDR, 0.25% of patients had developed TRD, and 0.14% of patients had developed NVG. Insulin use (odds ratio [OR] 3.59, 95% CI 3.16–4.08), maximum HbA1c >9% or >75 mmol/mol (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.54–2.69), renal disease (OR 2.68, 95% CI 2.09–3.42), peripheral circulatory disorders (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.25–2.83), neurological disease (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.24–2.11), and older age (age 65–74 years) at diagnosis (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.28–2.03) were identified as risk factors for development of PDR at 5 years. Young age (age 18–23 years) at diagnosis (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.29–0.74), Medicare insurance (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.70–0.76), morbid obesity (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.59–0.87), and smoking (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.70–1.00) were identified as protective factors. CONCLUSIONS A subset of patients with type 2 diabetes develop PDR and other neovascular sequelae within the first 5 years following the diagnosis with type 2 diabetes. These patients may benefit from increased efforts for screening and early intervention.


In this study, the authors investigate the income inequality responses of Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics in the United States to the income maintenance program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) using cross sections of state-level data. The results show that this program indeed reduces income inequality but the impacts are not uniform across racial/ethnic groups. Specifically, the authors find that Blacks have results that differ from those of the other two groups or those of the United States as a whole. These results are robust when using either the Gini or Theil measure of inequality.


Folates are well known to be essential for many cellular processes, including cellular proliferation. As a consequence, antifolates, the fraudulent mimics of folic acid, have been shown to be potent therapeutic agents in many cancers. Over the past several decades, efforts to improve on this class of drugs have met with little success. Recently, one analog specifically designed to have high affinity for the reduced folate carrier, which efficiently internalizes natural folates and antifolates, has been shown to be very active in T-cell lymphoma. Pralatrexate, approved by the U.S. FDA in 2009, is highly active across many lymphoid malignancies, including chemotherapy resistant T-cell lymphoma. Emerging combination studies have now shown that pralatrexate is highly synergistic with gemcitabine, histone deacetylase inhibitors like romidepsin and bortezomib. These insights are leading to a number of novel Phase 1 and 2 combination studies which could challenge existing regimens like CHOP, and improve the outcome of patients with T-cell lymphoma


This article examines the effects of globalization on changing notions of the 'savage'. We compare discussions taking place in different contexts in the late 18th century concerning two Swedish scholars and travellers to Africa: Anders Sparrman (1748–1820), a naturalist and Linnaean disciple, and Carl Bernhard Wadström (1746–99), an engineer and economist. Both moved in Swedish Swedenborgian circles, and both became involved in the British abolitionist movement. Nevertheless, their images of African 'Others' diverged in crucial respects, reflecting differences in their ideological outlooks, institutional affiliations, and understandings of how the world was changing. More specifically, we argue that the perception of global change brought about by a new economic framework of production and consumption provides a key for reading and comparing Wadström's and Sparrman's texts. Comparing their divergent uses of 'savagery', the article also highlights the versatility of the savage as a tool for presenting distant parts of the world to a domestic audience.


Drawing heavily on the original documents of the Archives de la guerre, John G. Gallaher has written the first complete account of the storied Irish Legion, which joined with Napoleon to fight England.Following the failed Rebellion of 1798, hundreds of Irishmen fled to the Continent to avoid imprisonment or execution. As part of his planned campaign against England and Ireland in 1803, Napoleon authorized the creation of an Irish Legion to invade Ireland in order to tie down British forces that could otherwise have been used against the main French invasion of England. The promise of returning to Ireland with the French army at their backs brought many recruits to the Legion. The Irish emigrants who enlisted in this special unit of the French army were Irish nationalists who intended to liberate Ireland and create an Irish republic.When the anticipated expedition to Ireland never took place, some of the Irishmen quit the army though the great majority of them remained to fight for Napoleon. Battalions of the Legion encountered the British at Flushing in 1809, fought Wellington in Portugal in 181011, and served with distinction at the Battle of Bautzen and in Silesia, where after heavy losses in lesser engagements with the enemy, the Legion was finally destroyed on the banks of the Bober River in 1813. The Legion was reorganized in the winter of 181314, but with a dwindling number of Irishmen.With the passage of time the Irish became Bonapartists, and following the Second Restoration in 1815, the surviving remnants of the Irish Legion were disbanded. Until the end, the men of the Legion did not lose their love for Ireland nor their hope that one day they would return to their native land as part of a French military expedition. The Irish veterans of the Napoleonic wars were retired at half pay and most settled in France. They had become French soldiers of the Napoleonic Empire."


The regional differentiation makes impossible the sustainable socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation without the monitoring public governance results in space and time. Despite the comprehensive approach of the current procedure, approved by the federal government, it does not adequately assess the executive authorities effectiveness. Its main problem is the impossibility to assume such important administrative function as forecasting the social and economic development of Russian territorial subjects. The authors propose an alternative methodology on the basis of the system economic theory. This technique is implemented in several consecutive stages. Firstly, we develop the system of 30 indicators. Secondly, we normalize the values of the indicators using the method of pattern. Thirdly, we calculate the index of the social and economic development of Russian regions for 2011–2015 assuming that the indicators are equal. Last, we group Russian regions into clusters according to the level of their social and economic development using neural network technologies (Kohonen selforganizing maps). Only 9 in 80 subjects of the Russian Federation (RF) had the degree of realizing the social and economic potential higher than 40 % during the period under consideration. In 2011–2015, the most of regions had a low and lower than average level of social and economic development (with an aggregate share about 64.3 %). It means that, under current conditions, the majority of the RF regions have considerable reserves for realizing their social-economic potential. In particular, the absence of the territorial subjects with a high level of social and economic development proves that. The authors have simulated the social and economic situation of the RF subjects by means of an adequate Bayesian neural networks. The obtained results can be used as the basis for further research in the field of evaluating executive authorities effectiveness and forecasting the level of social and economic development of Russian regions.


Identity theft has fostered to a major security problem on the Internet, in particular stealing passwords for web applications through phishing and malware. We present TruWallet, a wallet-based authentication tool that improves previous solutions for protecting web-based authentication. In contrast to other wallet-based solutions, TruWallet provides (i) strong protection for users' credentials and sensitive data by cryptographically binding them to the user's platform configuration based on Trusted Computing technology, (ii) an automated login procedure where the server is authenticated independently from (SSL) certificates, thus limiting the possibility of attacks based on hijacked certificates and allowing less dependency on the SSL PKI model, and (iii) a secure migration protocol for transferring wallet data to other platforms. Our implementation uses a small virtualization-based security kernel with trusted computing support and works with standard SSL-based authentication solutions for the web, where only minor modifications and extensions are required. It is interoperable so that we can re-use existing operating systems and applications like web browsers.


Failure to adjust timing of biological events to ongoing rapid climate change may incur negative fitness consequences for organisms and may have severe negative consequences for population viability. We studied long-term trends in breeding phenology and reproductive success of a barn swallow Hirundo rustica population during 1971−2009 in relation to spring accumulated temperature (degree-days). Degree-days at the time of a phenological event constitute a more accurate and meaningful measure of the biological environment than mean temperatures over fixed time intervals, because accumulated temperature determines seasonal development, emergence and reproduction of many organisms, including the invertebrates on which species at higher trophic levels feed. Although laying dates showed an inverted U-shaped trend over time, degree-days at laying of first and second clutches increased linearly, suggesting that barn swallows are becoming increasingly ecologically mismatched relative to spring events. In addition, higher degree-days at laying were associated with smaller second clutches. These findings suggest that barn swallows are currently delaying reproduction relative to spring phenology, with negative consequences for their reproductive output. This delay may thus contribute to the population decline observed over the last decades. Degree-days at the time of reproduction may therefore provide a mechanistic link between phenology, breeding success and demographic trends of migratory bird populations.


Australia's engagement with Asia from 1944 until the late 1960s was based on a sense of responsibility to the United Kingdom and its Southeast Asian colonies as they navigated a turbulent independence into the British Commonwealth. The circumstances of the early Cold War decades also provided for a mutual sense of solidarity with the non‑communist states of East Asia, with which Australia mostly enjoyed close relationships. From 1967 into the early 1970s, however, Commonwealth Responsibility and Cold War Solidarity demonstrates that the framework for this deep Australian engagement with its region was progressively eroded by a series of compounding, external factors: the 1967 formation of ASEAN and its consolidation by the mid-1970s as the premier regional organisation surpassing the Asian and Pacific Council (ASPAC); Britain's withdrawal from East of Suez; Washington's de‑escalation and gradual withdrawal from Vietnam after March 1968; the 1969 Nixon doctrine that America's Asia-Pacific allies must take up more of the burden of providing for their own security; and US rapprochement with China in 1972. The book shows that these profound changes marked the start of Australia's political distancing from the region during the 1970s despite the intentions, efforts and policies of governments from Whitlam onwards to foster deeper engagement. By 1974, Australia had been pushed to the margins of the region, with its engagement premised on a broadening but shallower transactional basis.


In this paper, a new control strategy for megawatt scale multilevel photovoltaic (PV) inverters under partial shading is proposed. In the proposed system, the photovoltaic arrays are divided into zones and each zone is connected to DC to AC inverter. The DC to AC inverters of multiple zones are connected in series to form the required medium voltage and transfer power to the grid. In such a system where all zones are uniformly illuminated, the output voltage vectors of all the inverters are of equal magnitude and in phase with each other. However, under partial shading, the output voltage magnitude and phase angles of individual DC to AC inverters need to be adjusted in such a way that the available real power is transferred to the grid and the power factor of the overall system is as close to unity as possible. A control strategy is developed to operate the series connected multilevel inverter configuration under partial shading, by continuously monitoring the real and reactive powers supplied by each inverter. The developed strategy does not require a central controller and/or communications between the various DC to AC inverter blocks. The proposed control strategy is simulated for a 6.6 kV, three phase utility scale PV system rated at 5 MW.


Relay technology has been included in long term evolution (LTE) cellular system through 3GPP Release 10. Relay-based LTE cellular system is one of the most promising technologies to enhance the throughput and coverage of access network. Deployment of relays in a cell opens many issues of frequency/time domain radio resource allocation and frequency planning. In this study, the authors consider the uplink of LTE relay-assisted network and formulate the joint scheduling and intra-cell interference mitigation as a non-linear optimisation problem. They take into account the projection of the gradient of user's utility function over the user's rate vector based on Lagrangian method. They propose a novel transformation of scheduling problem into combinatorial Knapsack optimisation to convert the optimisation problem into binary integer non-linear program. Finally, they present an alternate solution through a low complexity algorithm to allocate resources based on group of resource blocks, whereas considering the contiguity constraint. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is near optimal with a much lower complexity order.


We propose a multiscale quantization approach for fast similarity search on large, high-dimensional datasets. The key insight of the approach is that quantization methods, in particular product quantization, perform poorly when there is large variance in the norms of the data points. This is a common scenario for real- world datasets, especially when doing product quantization of residuals obtained from coarse vector quantization. To address this issue, we propose a multiscale formulation where we learn a separate scalar quantizer of the residual norm scales. All parameters are learned jointly in a stochastic gradient descent framework to minimize the overall quantization error. We provide theoretical motivation for the proposed technique and conduct comprehensive experiments on two large-scale public datasets, demonstrating substantial improvements in recall over existing state-of-the-art methods.


Helichrysum Mill., (Asteraceae) species have been used in folk medicine for thousands of years in the world. The In vitro cytotoxic effects in human lymphocytes of 6 Helichrysum taxa used in Turkey folk medicine were investigated. Blood samples were obtained from healthy donors, nonsmoking volunteers, which were incubated and exposed to increasing concentrations of methanol extracts of Helichrysum taxa (0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/mL). According to results, other taxa outside H. peshmenianum and H. goulandriorum affected MN rates at high concentrations (0.5 and 1 mg/mL). However mitotic and replication indexes rates of H. pallasii and H. chionophilum did not show a cytotoxic effect.


Arbitral institutions make regular decisions on the required impartiality, independence and qualifications of arbitrators. The decisions and their underlying analyses are rarely available to the public. Therefore, the arbitration community is missing a valuable source of clarification and analysis, and a poor clarification and analysis may ultimately lead to untenable appointments and unfounded challenges. The article and the following decision summaries explain how the Danish Institute of Arbitration approaches the challenge of arbitrators. The article is inspired by the arbitrator challenge digest published by the London Court of International Arbitration a few years ago, but the approach by the Danish Institute of Arbitration is unique in a number of ways. The Institute's approach reflects a delicate balance between efficiency, flexibility, party autonomy and due process. Based on the fifty-seven challenge decisions outlined below, the article explains how the Institute aims at finding the right balance in a number of different circumstances. The article thereby provides a tool for in-house attorneys, external counsel, arbitrators, institutional staff and other arbitration practitioners to make the right arguments and proper analyses when dealing with issues concerning the challenge of arbitrators.


The introduction of applied diplomas for 14–19‐year‐olds from September 2008 in England is leading to increased numbers of young people of current school age (14–16) attending further education (FE) colleges, where aspects of these new qualifications are taught. Although students aged 14 and 15 have previously attended FE, the numbers involved are now set to be larger. However, traditionally, initial teacher training (ITT) for FE has focused on adult learning and prepared trainees to work with more mature students. This article draws upon existing literature as well as empirical data from small‐scale research into the circumstances and perceptions of staff and 14‐ and 15‐year‐old students at college. Deriving from this, it makes some tentative suggestions for how teacher trainers can respond to younger students in FE and so better prepare their trainees. However, any such response and the impact it may have is constrained by the political and social context for FE in England and specifically by the tight control the government maintains over teacher training in FE. This current strategy ignores the complexity of FE, so this article argues for a more radical transformation of ITT, based upon the concept of learning cultures, to enable and encourage new teachers to make professional judgements relevant to the particular circumstances of their own students.


During 2007-2008 survey conducted on the Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) in Isparta province Psilophrys parvulus (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae) and its host Kermes bacciformis (Hemiptera: Coccoidea, Kermesidae) represent new species records for Turkey. Previously, P. parvulus was known only from Italy where it was first recorded. The emergence behavior of this parasitoid differs from that of most scale insect parasitoids emerging from the anal opening of its host rather than chewing a hole in the scale insect's test to emerge.


In France, formal guild training was not as ubiquitous a means of socializing young people into a trade as it has been portrayed by scholars. Guilds were limited geographically, and in many French cities privileged enclaves controlled by clerical or noble seigneurs curbed the sway of corporate structures, or even created their own. Eighteenth-century Bordeaux provides an extreme example of how limited guild training was in France's fastest-growing city. The clerical reserves of Saint-Seurin and Saint-André that housed much of the region's industrial production had quasi-corporate structures with far more open access and fewer training requirements. In Bordeaux, journeymen contested masters' control over labor and masters trained almost no apprentices themselves. Formal apprenticeship mattered exceptionally little when it came to training people to perform a trade in Bordeaux.


As the global climate is changing rapidly, there is a need to make conservation decisions to facilitate species' persistence under climate change. Models employed to make predictions regarding the impacts of climate change on species' distributions, and ultimately persistence, typically assume that interannual variability in environmental conditions is independent between years. However, the colour of environmental noise has been shown to affect extinction risk in populations occupying spatially static environments, and should therefore affect persistence during climate change. This study aims to investigate the importance of noise colour for extinction risk during climate‐induced range shifts.


In this Thesis, I demonstrated how modelling and control of synthetic
gene networks can be achieved by using principles from control
and systems theory. The first step consisted in analysing the expected
challenges and in looking for suitable solutions to them. The first choice
made in this context concerned the selection of a suitable testbed to prove
real-time in-vivo controllability of gene networks in a cell population. I
needed a benchmark that had the following properties: (a) a reasonable
level of complexity (b) an available differential equation model (c) decoupled
from the rest of endogenous gene circuitry. As described in Chapter
2, IRMA satisfied these properties. IRMA is synthetic gene network
built in S. cerevisiae, thus a eukaryotic model system, made up of five
yeast genes completely rearranged in their regulatory network topology
to avoid any cross talk with wild type genome. A non-linear, hybrid,
time-delayed mathematical model for IRMA has been re-derived to test
the effectiveness of the designed control strategies in-silico. Several alternative
strategies have been designed, tested and presented in Chapter
3 to address the problem at hand. A major goal I struggled to achieve
during control system design was to minimise the level of complexity
of the proposed strategies: the risk in ignoring this lays in obtaining
solutions showing astonishing results in-silico but failing to display the
robustness required in real-world experiments. Therefore, the proposed
schemes spanned from the simple relay based control to the Smith Predictor
based configuration that includes a proportional-integral controller
and a Pulse-Width-Modulation strategy. Designs, peculiarities and performances
of these control schemes have been exposed in Chapter 3.
In order to translate these designs in in-vivo control strategies, I proposed
and implemented a new technological platform presented in Chapter
4. As previously outlined, a paradigm shift was needed in order to
demonstrate the working hypothesis. As a matter of fact, flask-based
experiments could not be used to accomplish real-time in-vivo control
experiment because of the several limitations (theoretical and practical)
listed in Chapter 4. Therefore I decided to take advantage of the latest
achievements in the field of microfluidics. Device design, optimisation
and fabrication has been presented together with the results of a collaboration
with Prof. Jeff Hasty at University of California at San Diego.
During my visit at Prof. Hasty's laboratory in late 2009, I have been able
to acquire technical expertise that allowed me to re-engineer their platform
in Dr. di Bernardo Laboratory at TIGEM as described in Chapter
4. Once the platform was set up, I carried out experimental procedures
to obtain in-vivo real-time control whose results have been reported in
Chapter 5.
At the same time I could apply principles from control theory to
the identification of a well-known gene network motif, namely a Positive
Feedback Loop, in a mammalian cell line. The results of this study have
been presented in Chapter 6 with considerations on dynamical properties
of this simple circuit and some hints at potential advantages it can confer
to cells.
All these results, taken together confirm that control theory principles
can be successfully applied to both the identification and control of gene
regulatory networks and open new roads for research in the fields of
systems and synthetic biology.


The authors conducted a cluster-randomized trial to examine the effectiveness of structured teacher adaptations to the implementation of an evidence-based summer literacy program that provided students with (a) books matched to their reading level and interests and (b) teacher scaffolding for summer reading in the form of end-of-year comprehension lessons and materials sent to students' homes in the summer months. In this study, 27 high-poverty elementary schools (75–100% eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch) were matched by prior reading achievement and poverty level and randomly assigned to one of two implementation conditions: a core treatment condition that directly replicated implementation procedures used in previous experiments, or a core treatment with structured teacher adaptations condition. In the adaptations condition, teachers were organized into grade-level teams around a practical improvement goal and given structured opportunities to use their knowledge, experience, and local data to extend or modify program components for their students and local contexts. Students in the adaptations condition performed 0.12 standard deviation higher on a reading comprehension posttest than students in the core treatment. An implementation analysis suggests that fidelity to core program components was high in both conditions and that teachers in the adaptations condition primarily made changes that extended or modified program procedures and activities in acceptable ways. Adaptations primarily served to increase the level of family engagement and student engagement with summer books. These results suggest that structured teacher adaptations may enhance rather than diminish the effectiveness of an evidence-based summer literacy program.


ABSTRACT It is common practice for geological studies based on interpretation of 3D seismic data to utilize two-way time datasets for convenience. Even depth-imaged or depth-converted 3D datasets have limitations if palaeogeometries are important in understanding the geological process under investigation. In this study I introduce the production of a back-stripped 3D seismic cube to allow examination of restored geometries and depths, which requires time-to-depth conversion and 3D back-stripping. For both processes, either standard functions or more complex models can be utilized as merited. To illustrate the method, I have produced a back-stripped 3D seismic cube across a saucer-shaped igneous intrusion. The sill's restored original geometry fits recent observational and experimental intrusion models, with some modification. Magma supply appears to have been to a deep off-centre point within the inner sill, 3000 m below palaeosurface, with a possible contribution to a more peripheral feeder system below the inclined sheet, and magma propagation to the outer sill being outwards and upwards. The value of a back-stripped 3D seismic cube is not limited to studies of igneous intrusions, but may have application in many areas of subsurface sedimentary basin studies, such as fluid migration path modelling and evolution of hydrocarbon trap geometries.


The ubiquitin E3 ligase TRAF2 requires sphingosine 1-phosphate for its activity. Binding of tumor necrosis factor–α (TNF-α) to its receptor triggers the Lys63 polyubiquitination of RIP1 (receptor interacting protein 1) by the ubiquitin E3 ligase TRAF2 (TNF receptor–associated factor 2). The inhibitor κB kinase (IKK) complex is recruited to polyubiquitinated RIP1, where two of its subunits (IKKα and IKKβ) are phosphorylated and activated. Phosphorylation of IκBα by the IKK complex triggers its degradation, thereby releasing the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) subunits p60 and p50, which translocate to the nucleus and activate transcription of target genes. TRAF2 interacts with sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1), which phosphorylates the sphingolipid sphingosine to generate sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). Although the interaction of SphK1 with TRAF2 was known to promote activation of NF-κB, the precise role of SphK1 in NF-κB signal transduction was unclear. Alvarez et al. found that lack of SphK1, whether through depletion by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), genetic deficiency, or pharmacological inhibition, decreased phosphorylation of IKKα, IKKβ, and IκBα in response to TNF-α. Sphk1–/– mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) also showed reduced TNF-α–induced translocation of p65 to the nucleus, a defect that was rescued by expression of wild-type, but not catalytically inactive, SphK1. S1P produced by SphK1 can be released by cells and act on G protein–coupled receptors. However, treatment of cells with exogenous S1P or a reagent that activates S1P1 and S1P3 receptors (dihydro-S1P) did not alter phosphorylation and degradation of IκBα, suggesting that S1P did not act through its cell surface receptors to regulate NF-κB signaling. Lys63 polyubiquitination of RIP1 in TNF-α–treated cells was reduced by knockdown of SphK1 by siRNA, and in vitro assays indicated that TRAF2 ubiquitinated RIP1 only in the presence of S1P. S1P directly bound to TRAF2 at its RING domain and was detected in TRAF2 immunoprecipitates, an association that was increased by TNF-α treatment. The authors note that because Lys63 polyubiquitination of RIP1 promotes cell survival, their finding that S1P is a cofactor for TRAF2 helps to explain the previously reported antiapoptotic effects of S1P and SphK1. S. E. Alvarez, K. B. Harikumar, N. C. Hait, J. Allegood, G. M. Strub, E. Y. Kim, M. Maceyka, H. Jiang, C. Luo, T. Kordula, S. Milstien, S. Spiegel, Sphingosine-1-phosphate is a missing cofactor for the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRAF2. Nature 465, 1084–1088 (2010). [PubMed]


Today coffee has become one of the most popular beverages in the world and is cultivated in many countries. However, in recent years many areas of production, for example in the province of Loja, Ecuador in the valley of Vilcabamba, many are experiencing a threat in the form of a small Coleoptera species. Hypothenemus hampei, also known as la broca de café, passes the majority of its life cycle within the coffee berries and in the process of reproduction and colonization it destroys the bean that makes the beverage. This destruction of the bean no only affects the consumer, but all the coffee growers that depend on the success of their coffee crop for the livelihood so much that they may turn to pesticides as a fast and efficient solution. This study attempted to continue to develop the use of biological pest control in the form of Beauveria bassiana, a fungus that attacks la broca and can be cultivated in a laboratory and applied to the coffee plants. With the support of La Fundación Colinas Verdes, a comparison between two garden plots was done on a farm with la broca, one garden with application and one without to determine if B. bassiana affects la population of H. hampei. It was found that the population of H. hampei in the garden with application of B. bassiana decreased by four percent in a eleven-day duration, while the percentage in the garden without the application did not change. In addition, another experiment demonstrated the effectiveness of the B. bassiana cultivating method and it is important to follow up on other methods de diminish the contamination in the cultivating process by other fungi. Although this study found proper results, since this one was only completed in one month, more studies are necessary. Códigos de ISP: 614, 602, 615 Palabras claves: coleópteros, hongos, café


This thesis is about globalisation and the firm. Specifically it concerns a particular type of firm called here a 'leading medium-sized enterprise'. or LME. This term is derived from the Japanese 'chuken kigyo' which is used in Japan to distinguish the LME from small and medium-sized firms on the one hand and large firms on the other. LMEs are not exclusive to Japan, but they thrive there. The thesis establishes the importance of the LME as a (hitherto neglected) concept and business type, and analyses the conditions in Japan that have favoured the emergence of such firms there. Subsequently the investigation employs the Japanese LME to illustrate the approach to globalisation o f this particular kind of firm. Apart from being medium sized and a leader in its self-determined area of business, the LME is characterised by being independent and highly specialised in its core competence, to which it has devoted considerable time and effort. Deriving from and substantiating its particular character is a mode of operation and strategic philosophy called here 'articulation', which is an incremental approach applied first to the LME's domestic development and subsequently to internationalisation.
The type of firm discussed here is the manufacturing LME and the form of internationalisation analysed is foreign direct investment (FDI). In contrast to the large transnational corporation (TNC), the smaller LME is hypothesised to be more
prone to favour proximity in its inaugural FDI endeavours. So the adjacent multinational region of East Asia is introduced as the potential initiating location for FDI by Japanese LMEs. Within this region, Taiwan is posited as the representative of 'super proximity' because of the high degree of complementarity it is deemed to have with internationalising Japanese LMEs. An aggregate sample of 110 Japanese LMEs which have invested in Taiwan are compiled and analysed to see how this investment has contributed to shaping their globalisation strategies. From this
aggregate sample, five case study LMEs are abstracted for more detailed examination of the motives, strategies and regional impacts (contribution to globalisation) of internationalising LMEs.
In order of priority, this research has been conducted in Japanese, English. Chinese and French. In fact, it could not have been started without knowledge of at least written Japanese and Chinese. The first contribution to knowledge of this thesis, therefore, is that it brings to light information and materials not readily available to Westerners not conversant with these languages. In addition, the concepts of the LME and articulation have been introduced into accounts of the internationalisation of the firm, and also employed as analytical tools to show that the process of internationalisation by the smaller, specialised firm (as opposed to the large, multifunctional TNC) is accomplished in a manner distinctive to itself, because of its assertive concentration on its core competence, and despite the constraints of size and scope imposed upon it. This thesis also demonstrates that Japanese LMEs make a distinctive contribution to the on-going process o f globalisation, by their (generally positive) impacts on the overseas locations in which they operate, and by helping to shape the economic integration of the East Asian region.


Global Labour History has firmly established itself in the past three decades. This anthology provides an overview of the conceptual aspects of the discipline and is underpinned by case and field studies from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and China. It is dedicated to Marcel van der Linden, the doyen of, and networker for, Global Labour History.


Cycling as a sustainable means of transport brings a number of benefits, which includes improved health and well-being for individuals, improved air quality and climate change, accessibility and reduced traffic congestion at the national level. However, despite the benefits of cycling and the efforts by the government to promote this mode of transport, many short trips in Britain suitable for cycling are still made by motorised transport modes. People seem reluctant to change their mode of travel behaviour in favour of cycling. Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of complicated behaviour of people and the ones of cyclists at first.

The thesis aimed to understand route choice behaviour for cycling for utility purposes in England. The thesis examined why cyclists use their current routes and how various features influence their choices. The thesis also probed the reasons for the choices and the relationship between the choice and the characteristics of cyclists.
A mixed method approach was applied for the thesis, using questionnaires, actual route data collection for quantitative methods and interviews for qualitative methods. This approach allowed the researcher to examine diverse aspects of the research questions, which individual methods were unlikely to address.

The thesis has identified what route features are important for cyclists, and why these features are considered important. In terms of the issues regarding cycling infrastructures, the preferences of cyclists were found to be linked to the fear to motorised traffic on roads, which is a fundamental issue that may not be revealed through quantitative studies. Another key finding identified was that cyclists choose different routes dependent on the conditions applicable even for same trip purposes. In this respect, it was noted that often their choices are forced by prevailing road instructions such as one-way road, although they may be aware that the alternative road conditions may not be good from a cycling viewpoint. However, it was also found that, where practicable, cyclists are likely to choose a route strategically, in a manner that will minimise the physical efforts required for cycling. Finally, based on the observations of the different geographical and environmental characteristics and atmosphere to cycling in two case study cities, the thesis also discovered the segment of the population who could become the main target for promoting the benefits of cycling.


The extent to which growth reduces global poverty has been disputed for 30 years. Although there are better data than ever before, controversies are not resolved. A major problem is that consumption measured from household surveys, which is used to measure poverty, grows less rapidly than consumption measured in national accounts, in the world as a whole and in large countries, particularly India, China, and the United States. In consequence, measured poverty has fallen less rapidly than appears warranted by measured growth in poor countries. One plausible cause is that richer households are less likely to participate in surveys. But growth in the national accounts is also upward biased, and consumption in the national accounts contains large and rapidly growing items that are not consumed by the poor and not included in surveys. So it is possible for consumption of the poor to grow less rapidly than national consumption, without any increase in measured inequality. Current statistical procedures in poor countries understate the rate of global poverty reduction, and overstate growth in the world.


ABSTRACT
 The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2020a) requires all teachers to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples', culture and history where there is scope to meaningfully do so. However, there is a general absence in Australia and internationally of understanding culturally responsive pedagogy for those perspectives in teaching Physical Education (PE). This concept paper proposes an educational framework comprising Yunkaporta's (2009) 8 Ways Aboriginal Pedagogy and the Game Sense approach (GSA) (Australian Sports Commission [ASC], 1996). for games and sport teaching in PE to move towards a culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy. We provide an empirical argument that curricula are instruments of colonisation and explain the creation of a cultural interface through games and sport as one approach for decolonising PE. We present an opportunity to 'close the gap' between Western and Aboriginal knowledge through the purposeful design of engagement in reconciliation, respect and recognition of continuous living Aboriginal cultures. We use the game Parndo (ASC, 2000) to illustrate an example of how Yunkaporta's (2009) framework and the GSA become a solution for closing our identified gap. By proposing a culturally responsive curriculum, we focus on the importance of identity for all people and how curricula must be relevant and meaningful for all Australians. Importantly, Yunkaporta's (2009) 8 Ways is a product of 'cultural interface', co-created through dialogue between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educators. Our findings, although not transferable to other settings, nonetheless have relevance to other countries where there is a similar move to decolonise PE curricula.


The Five Technological Forces Disrupting Security: How Cloud, Social, Mobile, Big Data and IoT are Transforming Physical Security in the Digital Age explores the major technological forces currently driving digital disruption in the security industry, and what they foretell for the future. The book provides a high-level perspective on how the industry is changing as a whole, as well as practical guidance on how to incorporate these new technologies to create better security solutions. It also examines key questions on how these new technologies have lowered barriers for new entrants in the field and how they are likely to change market dynamics and affect customer choices. Set in the context of one of the early dot.com companies to enter physical security, the narrative is written for professionals from Chief Security Officers and systems integrators to product managers and investors.Explores the five major technological forces driving digital change in commercial security Shows practitioners how to align security strategies with these inevitable changesExamines how the consumerization of security will change the vendor playing fieldIllustrates how security professionals can leverage these changes in their own careersProvides an adoption scorecard that ranks trends and timeline for impact


In his recent discussion of regional innovation systems (RIS), Philip Cooke outlines the two starkly different interpretations of regional innovation systems. (Regional Innovation Systems, Asymmetric Knowledge and the Legacies of Learning, Draft 2007). He notes in his review, "Clearly, there are two kinds of regional innovation occurring in these examples. The first is geographically proximate, the second is functionally proximate." On one side of the philosophical divide about interpreting the exploitation of knowledge are economists and politicians who embrace the benefits of an integrated world economy that features an alliance between multinational corporations (MNC) and metro regional governments. In this functional interpretation of regional innovation, the potential new knowledge in a metro regional economy can be organized to feed directly into the multinational corporate global value chains. Cooke contrasted this "globally competitive" functional perspective, with the second perspective that he called the "market geographical perspective." In this second conception of regional innovation, small firms "co-locate" in a metro region and benefit from "knowledge spill-overs" obtained from inter-industry regional value chain transactions." This article explores the two interpretations of the regional innovation systems in terms of how they contribute to regional job creation and regional wealth. The article provides advice to regional economic development agencies on the strategy for implementing a regional small business innovation system. Protecting the regional knowledge from exploitation by the MNCs would require a deliberate strategy for the regional small business innovation system. It would mean that local business and political leaders would adopt the philosophical values of regional allegiance and territorial loyalty to their regional citizens.


Energy consumption is becoming a serious issue for data centers. Minimizing the energy consumption of a data center is a complex problem. It consists of developing energy models for servers and network elements and investigating energy-aware (green) routing strategies using these models. In this paper, we adapt energy models for servers and network elements in a data center. The server energy model incorporates the impact of temperature and voltage of a server on its leakage energy. Using the server and network energy models, we propose a green routing scheme that minimizes the total combined energy consumption of servers and network elements in a data center under dynamic traffic. The proposed green routing scheme uses dynamic voltage scaling, rate adaptation, and anycast transmission for minimizing the total energy consumption. Extensive simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed green routing in minimizing the total energy consumption of a data center as compared to well-known existing approaches.


Exacerbations of asthma are episodes that require a change in treatment. Treatments of exacerbations are planned gradually according to the needs of the patients. Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) -either intravenous (IV) or nebulised- is a treatment option that is used with increasing frequency in patients with severe exacerbations of asthma who do not respond to the initial treatment. MgSO4 may have bronchodilatory and an anti-infl ammatory eff ects in the airways. Both nebulised and IV forms of MgSO4 seem to be eff ective in children. However, the effi cacy of nebulized MgSO4 is limited in adults. IV MgSO4 can be used in adults who suff er from a severe exacerbation and who do not respond to the initial treatment. MgSO4 has no major side eff ects and is a cost eff ective treatment that benefi ts patients in addition to the conventional treatments in severe exacerbations. In this review, the role of MgSO4 in exacerbations of asthma was presented with the data obtained from the recent studies and meta-analyzes.


This thesis explores the impact of new technologies on learning and teaching and draws on research work carried out over a ten-year period. The thesis looks at the facilitators and barriers to using digital technologies effectively and explores the challenges for educators as they respond to the changes brought about by these digital technologies. It presents eight published works that have investigated the impact of digital technologies and collected data using a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The core paper provides a model by which the impact of digital technologies can be analysed and understood and the remaining papers populate that model. The model identifies a system of learning spaces that describe the ways that learners, teachers and managers respond to the challenges and opportunities that digital technologies bring to learning. The papers explore how the school space, the teaching space, the personal learning space and the living space have all been transformed by digital technologies. These papers highlight the ongoing tension within education brought about by the conflicting ambitions of managers to control learning while at the same time encouraging personalisation. The papers consider the nature of digital divides and also the potential hazards presented to young people by digital technologies. Finally, the papers explore the relationship between the use of digital technologies and academic achievement. The work presented here provides a coherent contribution to the field that offers new understandings of the impact of digital technologies on learning, and identifies key issues for further research.


Public transport operators make significant efforts toward improving the quality of operations by upgrading and maintaining infrastructure and rolling stock, training personnel, and offering better and more responsive services to passengers. Among these responsive services is the extension of service at night (night-time extension) whose goal is to serve night-time demand for passengers. This paper examines, analyzes, and evaluates the performance and quality of the Athens Metro night-time service extension for a two-month trial period. Based on ridership estimates and extensive passenger satisfaction surveys, results indicate that the night-time extension attracted a considerable number of passengers who previously used their private automobiles for the same trips and that users were highly satisfied with the service.


A single recessive gene, lpr, induces an autoimmune-lymphoproliferative syndrome in several strains of mice. The lymphoid organs of lpr/lpr mice contained cells with increased amounts of myb RNA, which codes for a protein found in the nucleus. A similar human lymphoproliferative disorder also had an increase in c-myb expression. Mouse T cells induced by mitogens to proliferate did not express large amounts of myb RNA, indicating that marked myb expression is not a general feature of lymphocyte activation and proliferation.


In art practices during the first half of the 20th century sensory craft making skills, in many respects, were emphasised at the expense of thinking. The second half of the 20th century re-addressed this imbalance by way of conceptual art in the service of ideas. In the conceptual art project language was often deployed both orally and textually. The tendency in art writing today to over-theorise, often leads to dry, dense, stale and inaccessible language (think of some doctoral theses). There are, however, writers who can bring poetic, intuitive insights in a sentence or phrase that reveals as much as the extended structural application of theory. J D McClatchy recognises this in his introduction to his book 'Poets or Painters' when he comments:'The poets bring to their task a fresh eye and a freshened language, vivid with nuance and colour and force. Their essays are flecked with poetic asides and startlingly apt phrases, as when Frank O'Hara calls Jackson Pollock's Number 12 (1952) 'a big, brassy gigolo of a painting''. Language for O'Doherty/Ireland is indispensable but the eye always remains paramount. In his logical 'thinking' approach to art he does not neglect the sensory 'feeling' side of his nature. The eye and the word form a mutually purposeful binary in his work. This article examines the use and importance of language in the art and writing of Irish born, New York based artist/writer Patrick Ireland/Brian O'Doherty.


Previous studies suggest that food-web theory has yet to account for major differences in food-web properties of marine versus other types of ecosystems. We examined this issue by ana- lyzing the network structure of food webs for the Northeast US Shelf, a Caribbean reef, and Benguela, off South Africa. The values of connectance (links per species 2 ), link density (links per spe- cies), mean chain length, and fractions of intermediate, omnivorous, and cannibalistic taxa of these marine webs are somewhat high but still within the ranges observed in other webs. We further com- pared the marine webs by using the empirically corroborated 'niche model' that accounts for observed variation in diversity (taxon number) and complexity (connectance). Our results substanti- ate previously reported results for estuarine, fresh-water, and terrestrial datasets, which suggests that food webs from different types of ecosystems with variable diversity and complexity share fun- damental structural and ordering characteristics. Analyses of potential secondary extinctions result- ing from species loss show that the structural robustness of marine food webs is also consistent with trends from other food webs. As expected, given their relatively high connectance, marine food webs appear fairly robust to loss of most-connected taxa as well as random taxa. Still, the short average path length between marine taxa (1.6 links) suggests that effects from perturbations, such as over- fishing, can be transmitted more widely throughout marine ecosystems than previously appreciated.


While intelligent transportation systems come in many shapes and sizes, arguably the most transformational realization will be the autonomous vehicle. As such vehicles become commercially available in the coming years, first on dedicated roads and under specific conditions, and later on all public roads at all times, a phase transition will occur. Once a sufficient number of autonomous vehicles is deployed, the opportunity for explicit coordination appears. This article treats this challenging network control problem, which lies at the intersection of control theory, signal processing, and wireless communication. We provide an overview of the state of the art, while at the same time highlighting key research directions for the coming decades.


Down syndrome is one of the commonest causes of developmental delay in children. Postural stability problems often exist with Down syndrome. To investigate the effect of core stability exercises on postural stability in children with down syndrome. Thirty children (21 boys and 9 girls) with down syndrome, with ages ranged from 6 to 10 years were participated in this study. They were assigned randomlyinto study and control group. Study group received core stability exercises and conventional physical therapy program while control group received Conventional physical therapy program. The duration of treatment was 8 weeks. Postural stability was evaluated pre and post treatment by Biodex *Balance System. There was a significant decrease in anteroposterior, mediolateral, and overall stability indices of the study group compared with control group post treatment (p < 0.001). Both groups showed a significant decrease in anteroposterior, mediolateral, and overall stability indices post treatment compared with pre treatment (p < 0.001). Eight weeks of core stability exercises is effective in improving postural stabilityand balance of children with Down syndrome. Core stability exercises should be considered as important part of the rehabilitation program for childrenwith Down syndrome.


Lactoferrin (Lf) is a glycoprotein of the primary innate immune-defense system of mammals present in milk and other mucosal secretions. This protein of the transferrin family has broad antimicrobial properties by depriving pathogens from iron, or disrupting their plasma membranes through its highly cationic charge. Noteworthy, Lf also exhibits immunomodulatory activities performing up-and down-regulation of innate and adaptive immune cells, contributing to the homeostasis in mucosal surfaces exposed to myriad of microbial agents, such as the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts. Although the inflammatory process is essential for the control of invasive infectious agents, the development of an exacerbated or chronic inflammation results in tissue damage with life-threatening consequences. In this review, we highlight recent findings in in vitro and in vivo models of the gut, lung, oral cavity, mammary gland, and liver infections that provide experimental evidence supporting the therapeutic role of human and bovine Lf in promoting some parameters of inflammation and protecting against the deleterious effects of bacterial, viral, fungal and protozoan-associated inflammation. Thus, this new knowledge of Lf immunomodulation paves the way to more effective design of treatments that include native or synthetic Lf derivatives, which may be useful to reduce immune-mediated tissue damage in infectious diseases.


[1] The long-term stability, high accuracy, all-weather capability, high vertical resolution, and global coverage of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) suggests it as a promising tool for global monitoring of atmospheric temperature change. With the aim to investigate and quantify how well a GNSS RO observing system is able to detect climate trends, we are currently performing an (climate) observing system simulation experiment over the 25-year period 2001 to 2025, which involves quasi-realistic modeling of the neutral atmosphere and the ionosphere. We carried out two climate simulations with the general circulation model MAECHAM5 (Middle Atmosphere European Centre/Hamburg Model Version 5) of the MPI-M Hamburg, covering the period 2001–2025: One control run with natural variability only and one run also including anthropogenic forcings due to greenhouse gases, sulfate aerosols, and tropospheric ozone. On the basis of this, we perform quasi-realistic simulations of RO observables for a small GNSS receiver constellation (six satellites), state-of-the-art data processing for atmospheric profiles retrieval, and a statistical analysis of temperature trends in both the "observed" climatology and the "true" climatology. Here we describe the setup of the experiment and results from a test bed study conducted to obtain a basic set of realistic estimates of observational errors (instrument- and retrieval processing-related errors) and sampling errors (due to spatial-temporal undersampling). The test bed results, obtained for a typical summer season and compared to the climatic 2001–2025 trends from the MAECHAM5 simulation including anthropogenic forcing, were found encouraging for performing the full 25-year experiment. They indicated that observational and sampling errors (both contributing about 0.2 K) are consistent with recent estimates of these errors from real RO data and that they should be sufficiently small for monitoring expected temperature trends in the global atmosphere over the next 10 to 20 years in most regions of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). Inspection of the MAECHAM5 trends in different RO-accessible atmospheric parameters (microwave refractivity and pressure/geopotential height in addition to temperature) indicates complementary climate change sensitivity in different regions of the UTLS so that optimized climate monitoring shall combine information from all climatic key variables retrievable from GNSS RO data.


Abstract How has the United States behaved historically toward friendly states with nuclear weapons ambitions? Recent scholarship has demonstrated the great lengths to which the United States went to prevent Taiwan, South Korea, and West Germany from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet seemingly on the other side of the ledger are cases such as Israel, South Africa, and Pakistan, where the United States failed to prevent proliferation, and where many have argued that the United States made exceptions to its nonproliferation objectives given conflicting geopolitical goals. A reexamination of the history of U.S. nonproliferation policy toward Israel, South Africa, and Pakistan, based on declassified documents and interviews, finds that these cases are not as exceptional as is commonly understood. In each case, the United States sought to prevent these states from acquiring nuclear weapons, despite geopolitical constraints. Moreover, once U.S. policymakers realized that prior efforts had failed, they continued to pursue nonproliferation objectives, brokering deals to prevent nuclear tests, public declaration of capabilities, weaponization, or transfer of nuclear materials to other states.


This article addresses an underexplored area of investigation within the global justice debate: To what extent does globalisation structurally undermine the freedom of states? And if it does, what type of injustice does this constitute? It is argued here that a republican theory of freedom as non-domination is better equipped than existing cosmopolitan and social liberal accounts to explain the systemic connections between domestic, international and global injustice. The forms of unchecked power that globalisation sets off create new opportunities for the domination of states – by other states as well as by non-states actors. And when citizens live in dominated states, they are themselves exposed to domination. The upshot is a normative analysis of the global arena that attributes a central role to states, yet is deeply critical of the status quo.


Here we provide both a theoretical and numerical analysis of scattering in vortex collisionsusing the 2-D point vortex model, where both the dipole-vortex collision is considered in the three vortex case, and the dipole-dipole collision is considered in the four vortex case. We begin by presenting the basics of turbulence in classical fluids, and in quantum fluids which we then use to give an exposition of the 2-D point vortex system. The point vortex model is then given completely for the general case of N point vortices in an infinite domain. We express the system as a Hamiltonian formulation as done by Kirchhoff, with the equations of motion derived using Hamilton's canonical equations. It is then considered how to best solve the system numerically. We form a numerical simulation using the famed Dormand-Prince adaptive time step Runge-Kutta scheme, as well as an elementary controller to adjust the time- step, pseudo-code is provided to demonstrate the method. The motion of two point vortices, in both the vortex/anti-vortex and identical vortex case, is then considered both numerically and theoretically as a check of the reliability of the simulations finding precise agreement between numerical and theoretical results. We then consider the crux of the current work, the dipole-vortex collision and the dipole- dipole collision, partly inspired by the work of Aref [H. Aref, Phys. Fluids 3 (1979), 393- 400]. We solve each case numerically, with an additional theoretical treatment in the dipole- vortex case. We solve the three vortex collision for the scattering angle, minimum lengths and critical lengths. Continuing, the four vortex collision is solved for the scattering angles and the minimum lengths. We find similarities in the results of both systems, and also note an apparent mistake in Aref's work in the three vortex case, as well as noting regions of atypical vortex behavior in the four vortex case, possibly corresponding to regions of self-similar vortex collapse.


This article introduces the concept of sustainability-rooted anticonsumption (SRAC), which refers to consumers' anticonsumption practices of voluntary simplicity in living and, on a smaller level, collaborative consumption and boycotting with the goal of supporting sustainable economic development. The SRAC measurement approach is validated based on three empirical studies. Results of a representative German sample (Study 2) reveal that SRAC is predominantly negatively linked to consumer overconsumption dispositions. Exemplary, voluntary simplification and boycott intention may result in declining levels of indebtedness. Study 3 shows that psychosocial well-being is positively related to SRAC and overconsumption. However, a simplified lifestyle and a greater willingness to boycott are not necessarily associated with psychosocial well-being. This article provides insights for practitioners and policymakers to leverage existing SRAC values via "new" business models (sharing offers) or to influence the existing level of consciousness to effectively pave the way for solid progress in the sustainability movement.


The aim of the present paper is to continue a critical study on Hellenistic Sciences. Such a study began with some previous papers on Euclid, where some remarkable aspects of the Alexandrinian mathematician emerged; in particular, we focused on some characters, innovative with respect to the previous Greek philosophical tradition and undervalued until now by historiography and critical literature. Here, the figure of Archimedes is analysed in the light of previous results and consequent criteria; he is freed from a long tradition, started with Plutarch, that sees the Sicilian scientist inside a Platonistic (in some sense) paradigm or, inversely, in an Aristotelian one. The re-reading of his works in the light of the new hypotheses, as expressed by other authors and scholars, allows us to delineate a more pragmatic and modern figure of scientist. In particular, some metaphysical problems as those concerning the Truth and Prime Causes, that were central in the Platonic-Aristotelian tradition, are in such a way avoided or suspended, in favour of more exact and appropriate modelling tools that make the phenomenical world more predictable and controllable also by technologies.


Dirac algorithm allows to construct Hamiltonian systems for singular systems, and so contributing to its successful quantization. A drawback of this method is that the resulting quantized theory does not have manifest Lorentz invariance. This motivated the quest of alternatives to the usual Hamiltonian theory on the space of sections; a particular instance of this search is the so called restricted Hamiltonian theory, where the equations of motion of a field theory are formulated by means of a multisymplectic structure, a kind of generalization of the symplectic form to the multidimensional context, and even a constraint algorithm working in this context has been proposed. In the present article we will try to provide partial aswers to two questions intimately related with these issues: First, to assign multisymplectic spaces to variational problems in the Griffiths formalism in such a way that the equations of motion can be written as restricted Hamiltonian systems, and second, to propose a covariant Dirac-like algorithm suitable to work with them; it must be recalled that given the Griffiths formalism contains the classical variational problems as particular instances, it yields to a novel covariant algorithm for deal with constraints in field theory. Moreover, in this formulation the constraint algorithm becomes simply the Cartan algorithm designed for deal with Pfaffian systems.


Summary In order to explore and exploit natural resources in Mexico, it is required high performance technology and engineering human capacity, with both it is creating methodologies to offer a better quality results. The exploration of natural resources, it is the area of knowledge in which geophysics and geology are practiced, however for these two sciences to be understood in the same space, subsurface images are needed. So, implementing an efficient method to avoid noise signals caused by the same time reverse migration algorithm is the method of absorbing borders. This method proposes to subdivide the seismic image into borders in order to obtain only the propagation and retro-propagation signal without spurious signals. This implementation in the oil industry is necessary to generate greater effectiveness in the seismic inversion and thus the generation of seismic images with a better interpretation. Without this implementation, we have worked in the oil industry for more than 30 years, which is why it is innovative for our oil field projects in Mexico to carry it out. It can be said that when referring to the images in depth we are talking about deep migration PSDM (Pre-Stack Depth Migration) and its elements are input data, pre-processing, migration algorithm and speed model. Reverse-time migration (RTM) is a pre-stacking migration technique that, unlike the rest of migrations, ignores simplifications and uses the full-wave equation [Whitmore, 1983] . In the past decades a great variety of absorbent borders have been developed, especially for the modeling of the seismic wave. Subsequently, among the various attempts to improve the classical PML, (Kuzouglu, 1996) and, (Roden, 2000) developed the convolutional PML or CPML (Convolutional Perfectly Matched Layer) for the Maxwell equations and were adapted to the equations of elastodynamics by Komatitsch and Martin, ( Komatitsch, 2007 ). The latter are used to simulate the direct problem in the present work. The development of the reversal algorithm in time, consisted in the implementation of absorbent borders in the different domains of the seismic image. This implementation considerably improves the seismic image compared to the inverse algorithm without absorbing borders and even with absorbent borders not as elaborate as the development in this thesis work. By means of the implementation of convolutional absorbent borders, it modifies the way of thinking of the current algorithms of programming, for which this thesis work is a clear example of the algorithmic revolution applied to the geophysics of the last decade.


Geospatial regions have different requirements for energy development due to variations in environmental, economic, social, and political constraints which influence their energy demand profiles and generation capacities. These constraints determine the policy, strategy, and implementation priorities for sustainable energy consumption, generation, and distribution. This PhD research project focuses on the role of interfaces between sustainable energy policy and appropriate technology; and its iterative feedback loop mechanism to encourage the implementation of sustainable energy systems in a vulnerable society. As a novel contribution to knowledge and practice, this PhD work concludes that: 1. Establishing a local business case for indigenous, appropriate technology, utilising a solid network which receives committed, political support, is an effective intervention strategy to fast track the deployment of sustainable energy systems, which breaks the cycle of vulnerability through social transformation and community empowerment. 2. Being aware of their own Western-Educated-Industrialised-Rich-Democratic (WEIRD) mindsets is a first step for knowledge exchange practitioners to overcome cultural differences and to introduce the intervention strategy. This was synthesised from the following new understandings which were obtained as the outputs of this PhD research: 1. Re-interpretation of the theory of vulnerable societies in relation to sustainable energy; 2. Re-interpretation of the theory of sustainable energy in relation to the proposed fourth dimension of sustainability; 3. Re-interpretation on the theory of appropriate technology in relation to technological independence and indigenous wisdom; 4. Novel conceptual model of a vulnerable societys problem system; 5. Novel conceptual model of the interfaces between sustainable energy policy and appropriate technology in vulnerable societies. It is expected that the outcome of this PhD research can bridge the gaps identified in theoretical sustainable energy policies whilst in practice provide sound advice and confidence for policy makers and initiative implementers in grounding equal access to energy as a fundamental agent of change towards sustainable societal development.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is a B-cell malignancy characterised by the accumulation of clonal plasma cells (PC) in the bone marrow (BM). The molecular bases for this incurable disease have been widely investigated in the last years, and the development of modern genomic technologies has contributed to the understanding of the pathogenesis of MM. The molecular mechanisms that explain the cellular origin of myeloma cells, the cytogenetic abnormalities and their clinical implications, and the biological information provided by gene expression profiling analysis are reviewed in this paper. In addition, a molecular classification of MM in seven groups based on the relationship between gene expression profiling, chromosomal translocations and prognostic outcome is also presented. And finally, the recent hypothesis of a potential unifying event in the pathogenesis of MM, supported by cyclin D deregulation in virtually all MM tumours, will be summarised.


The growing competition between tourist destinations drives territories to continuous innovation with the aim of positioning themselves in an increasingly crowded market, and the search for positioning involves creation of new tourism products based on the authenticity, sustainability and originality of the destination especially after shock situations such as Covid 19.

The travel ban seems to be the right moment to speed up reorganisation of a territorial offer able to satisfy the demand for sustainability to which the need for security has been added. A tourism product able to meet these needs is food and wine tourism.

The challenge for destinations is therefore to make use of the obvious advantages of food and wine tourism through technological innovation but above all through a process innovation based on knowledge and organisation of their territory in order to build a tourism offer designed according to the market logic.

Starting from the concept of a tourism product and the importance that food and wine tourism could have for a rural region like Basilicata situated in the south of Italy, we have envisaged the food and wine tourism ecosystem as a model able to determine local development through the involvement of all the players essential to the holistic development of the territory.


Introduction Fatigue is the most troublesome untreated symptom during radical breast radiotherapy. This situation persists due to an uncertain aetiology and an inability to identify patients at high risk of experiencing significant fatigue during subsequent radiotherapy. Aetiological investigations of the current study concentrated on discriminating the radiotherapy-specific effects on fatigue, in a context encompassing multiple psychological and physiological covariates. Prognostic aspects sought to characterise a 'high-risk' patient. Methods The study cohort comprised 100 women, diagnosed with Stage 0 to IIA breast cancer, and prescribed standard whole breast irradiation to 40Gy in 15 fractions over three weeks. The use of systemic therapies was an exclusion criterion. A cytokine-induced sickness behaviour model framed the study investigations, and provided a theoretical link between localised radiotherapy and systemic fatigue. The outcome fatigue was assessed before, during and four weeks after radiotherapy, using the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Fatigue Subscale. Volumes of tissue irradiated were derived from dose-volume histogram analysis concentrations of the cytokine interleukin-6 soluble receptor were established via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Multivariate analysis determined the factors that contributed to fatigue and generated a prognostic model that classified participants to fatigued or non-fatigued groups. Results 38% of participants experienced significant fatigue during radiotherapy, with the remainder little affected. The fatigued group recorded relatively elevated pre-radiotherapy levels of depression, and particularly anxiety, as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Depression uniquely accounted for 34% of the variance in pre-treatment fatigue. During radiotherapy, depression level and interleukin-6 soluble receptor concentration were significantly elevated in the fatigued group compared to the non-fatigued group (p < 0.0001, p = 0.01, respectively). The volume of tissue irradiated significantly affected peripheral interleukin-6 soluble receptor concentration (p = 0.003), but was not significantly associated with fatigue. A model comprising pre-treatment fatigue, anxiety and activity level (as measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire) reliably classified 82% of the study participants to the correct fatigue outcome (sensitivity 71.1% specificity 88.7%). Conclusion Psychological mood is the strongest predictor of fatigue before and during radiotherapy. Inter-related data is consistent with the concept that a lower psychological mood prior to radiotherapy relates to a distinct immunological and behavioural response during radiotherapy. These aetiological insights may inform fatigue treatment pathways, and ensure the targeting of future interventions at early breast cancer patients at a high risk of experiencing fatigue.


The study examines the effect of tax avoidance and tax evasion on personal income tax administration in Nigeria. Tax evasion and tax avoidance, a problem which seems to have defied solution, had been deviled the tax system right from colonial times. While some had blamed the situation on tax authorities for not living up to expectation with regards to tax administration, others attribute it to the unpatriotic attitude of tax payers. It was in this light of contending position that the researcher carryout a survey in Nigeria with particular reference to Federal Inland Revenue Service Abuja. The sample size was derived statistically using Yaro Yamani formula. The sample size consists of three hundred and five (305) employees of Federal Inland Revenue Service Abuja. The study utilizes primary and secondary data. Tables and percentages were used for the analysis. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The research findings disclose that enlightenment and adequate utilization of tax revenue on public goods will discourage tax avoidance and tax evasion, high tax rates encourage tax avoidance and tax evasion, personal income tax generation has not being impressive and personal income tax rates are too high. The researcher therefore concluded that there is a direct and positive relationship between tax avoidance, tax evasion, tax rates and personal income tax administration in Nigeria. Hence recommended that tax officials should be constantly trained and retrained on the job, a deliberate and more aggressive public enlightenment campaign should be embarked upon by government and the reduction in tax rates for the poor. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA


As a Fulbright Specialist in Kuwait in 2015, I was introduced to a textile known as sadu, which loosely translated means "moving at the pace of a camel." This rich textile has been a part of the traditionally nomadic Bedouin culture of the Middle East, and is front and center in fast moving Kuwait. Hugging the shores of the Arabian Gulf, Kuwait is at the intersection of desert and gulf, a nation full of progress, forward thinking, and contemporary approaches to practically everything. On Gulf Road, right in the heart of Kuwait City sits the center of sadu weaving, Beit al Sadu, an organization focused on finding a way for this traditional woven textile to function within contemporary culture. Throughout Kuwait and the region, sadu weaving is a symbol of both traditional and contemporary culture. Artists, designers, and now craft producers from outside are appropriating the symbols and designs into their work, whether it is for a laser cut book cover, or tile motif on the local Aquarium, or "sadu" cloth mass produced in Pakistan. The value placed on sadu is evident, but many people are not aware of the ongoing tradition of woven cloth. A goal of Al Sadu House is for the community to continue to embrace the cloth itself, while continuing to preserve the heritage and future of sadu weaving. Through examples from Kuwaiti culture, interviews with weavers and patrons, I will discuss the ways in which this textile is viewed and the work that is being done to shift the focus from these symbols, to the rich history and present making of the cloth itself. I will present the ongoing project titled Weaving Stories, a collaborative community based exhibition that aims to foster an understanding and appreciation of sadu and the artisans who create it.


The present paper addresses the topic of fault location in power networks with cable lines. In the era of smart-grid the demand of intelligent measurement systems capable of providing quickly and with high accuracy the right location of faults in power networks is growing fast. Many proposals can be found in literature relevant to different approaches. Some commercial instrumentation is also available on the market for this purpose. Protection relays implementing this feature can either be found. This paper presents the experimental results of a measurement campaign carried out in the MV power network in the city of Milan (Italy). For this purpose the local Utility (A2A SpA) is using a commercial distributed measurement system (the ALTEA FLS) for locating both faults and also fast transients due to customers' loads operation. Preliminary experimental results have shown good performance. They have been better analyzed in order to investigate over the reliability and the accuracy of such measurement system.


We introduce search and matching unemployment into a model of trade with differentiated goods and heterogeneous firms. Countries may differ with respect to size, geographical location, and labor market institutions. Contrary to the literature, our single-sector perspective pays special attention to the role of income effects and shows that bad institutions in one country worsen labor market outcomes not only in that country but also in its trading partners. This spill-over effect is conditioned by trade costs and country size: smaller and/or more centrally located nations suffer less from inefficient policies at home and are more heavily affected from spill-overs abroad than larger and/or peripheral ones. We offer empirical evidence for a panel of 20 rich OECD countries. Carefully controlling for institutional features and for business cycle comovements between countries, we confirm our qualitative theoretical predictions. However, the magnitude of spill-over effects is larger in the data than in the theoretical model. We show that introducing real wage rigidity can remedy this problem.


The Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) program has begun deploying a large array of biogeochemical sensors on profiling floats in the Southern Ocean. As of February 2016, 86 floats have been deployed. Here the focus is on 56 floats with quality controlled and adjusted data that have been in the water at least 6 months. The floats carry oxygen, nitrate, pH, chlorophyll fluorescence, and optical backscatter sensors. The raw data generated by these sensors can suffer from inaccurate initial calibrations and from sensor drift over time. Procedures to correct the data are defined. The initial accuracy of the adjusted concentrations is assessed by comparing the corrected data to laboratory measurements made on samples collected by a hydrographic cast with a rosette sampler at the float deployment station. The long-term accuracy of the corrected data is compared to the GLODAPv2 data set whenever a float made a profile within 20 km of a GLODAPv2 station. Based on these assessments, the fleet average oxygen data are accurate to 1±1%, nitrate to within 0.5±0.5 µmol kg−1, and pH to 0.005±0.01, where the error limit is 1 standard deviation of the fleet data. The bio-optical measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence and optical backscatter are used to estimate chlorophyll a and particulate organic carbon concentration. The particulate organic carbon concentrations inferred from optical backscatter appear accurate to with 35 mg C m−3 or 20%, whichever is larger. Factors affecting the accuracy of the estimated chlorophyll a concentrations are evaluated.


The role that III-V compound semiconductors will play in the early years of the 21st century will be subject to frequent change. This is not only because of the expanding capabilities of the III-Vs but also because of the advances in Silicon technologies, particularly Silicon-Germanium HBTs. It is possible to point out more than a few applications that will remain growth areas for the III-Vs. This paper will not dwell on those applications, which are related to LEDS and Lasers or on Millimeter Wave amplifiers, but will instead focus on those applications where the future is more subject to revision. These are the high speed applications of HBTs. The competition will be a boost to development of III-V HBTs because innovations and improvements will be implemented as a result.


Numerous, seemingly unrelated technologies eventually culminated in what we know today as the field of computer graphics (CG). The article focuses on prior art documents cited in CG patent applications to identify the technology at the origin, the problems encountered, and that solutions proposed in the 1940s and 1950s that led to the generation of images with computers in the early 1960s. The analysis is threefold: the aggregation of patent classification supplied information about the technologies at the origin of CG, the firms behind these patents provided an idea about the players, and the analysis of individual publications provided information about the problems they addressed and the solutions that were proposed. This approach enriches previous works on CG history, which are usually based on the pioneers' views or on the personal experiences of author(s). The key finding made in this prior art analysis reveals that, in addition to computing and television, CG has deep roots in radar-related technologies and aircraft instrumentation.


Abstract. The presence of polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) at summer high latitudes could affect the retrieval of ozone profiles using backscattered ultraviolet (UV) measurements. PMC-induced errors in ozone profile retrievals from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) backscattered UV measurements are investigated through comparisons with Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) ozone measurements. This comparison demonstrates that the presence of PMCs leads to systematic biases for pressures smaller than 6 hPa; the biases increase from  ∼ −2 % at 2 hPa to  ∼ −20 % at 0.5 hPa on average and are significantly correlated with brightness of PMCs. Sensitivity studies show that the radiance sensitivity to PMCs strongly depends on wavelength, increasing by a factor of  ∼  4 from 300 to 265 nm. It also strongly depends on the PMC scattering, thus depending on viewing geometry. The optimal estimation-based retrieval sensitivity analysis shows that PMCs located at 80–85 km have the greatest effect on ozone retrievals at  ∼  0.2 hPa ( ∼  60 km), where the retrieval errors range from −2.5 % with PMC vertical optical depth (POD) of 10−4 to −20 % with 10−3 POD at backscattering angles. The impacts increase by a factor of  ∼  5 at forward-scattering angles due to stronger PMC sensitivities. To reduce the interference of PMCs on ozone retrievals, we perform simultaneous retrievals of POD and ozone with a loose constraint of 10−3 for POD, which results in retrieval errors of 1–4 × 10−4. It is demonstrated that the negative bias of OMI ozone retrievals relative to MLS can be improved by including the PMC in the forward-model calculation and retrieval.


In the standard model of particle physics, the weak interaction is described by vector and axial-vector couplings only. Nonzero scalar or tensor interactions would imply an additional contribution to the differential decay rate of the neutron, the Fierz interference term. We derive a limit on this hypothetical term from a measurement using spin-polarized neutrons. This method is statistically less sensitive than the determination from the spectral shape but features much cleaner systematics. We obtain a limit of b=0.017(21) at 68.27% C.L., improving the previous best limit from neutron decay by a factor of four.


Thirty-eight species of ostensibly chonetoid brachiopods (some under open nomenclature) have been described from the Silurian and Lower Devonian rocks of southeastern Australia, although most are neither widely distributed nor abundant. Descriptions of many have been based on inadequate material, and in one significant case ( Johnsonetes australis) the original material is lost, necessitating selection of a neotype to resolve formally the identity of that species in comparison with the similar species J. culleni. In this systematic revision the known species are redescribed and where possible their generic positions and possible synonymy determined; three are rejected from the Chonetoidea. Silurian taxa include Strophochonetes melbournensis, S. kemezysi n.sp. and "Protochonetes" cf. minimus. Early Devonian faunas are much more diverse. Lochkovian species are S.? savagei n.sp., S.? psiloplia, "S." cresswelli, Parachonetes robustus, and the poorly known "Chonetes" ruddockensis. "Strophochonetes" cresswelli and P. robustus are also found in the Pragian, along with Asymmetrochonetes? planata, Parachonetes baragwanathi, P.? bowieae, P.? suavis, Septachonetes micrus, "Chonetes" taggertyensis and "Chonetes" foedus. The youngest species in the region are Emsian: Johnsonetes australis, J. culleni, J. latus, Septachonetes melanus, Parachonetes buchanensis, P. spooneri, P. konincki and P. flemingi. No species is currently known to be sufficiently widely distributed geographically and sufficiently restricted stratigraphically to be of clear biostratigraphic use. Several former species are junior synonyms. Strophochonetes melbournensis includes Chonetes infantilis, and Johnsonetes australis includes Chonetes teicherti. Parachonetes robustus, the name- bearer for Gill's "robustus gens", certainly includes both Chonetes killarensis and C. productoida. It is likely that the two other species of this group, P. baragwanathi and P. buchanensis, are also synonymous but, for lack of appropriate specimens, this cannot be conclusively established. The Cambrian Chonetes concinna, subsequently (and wrongly) referred to Eoorthis, is refigured and confirmed as not being a chonetoidean. Chonetes gaskini is shown to be the ventral valve of a spiriferid, and Chonetes bipartita has already been assigned to the sowerbyelloid Plectodonta.


This paper enhances a well-known dynamic portfolio management algorithm, the BGSS algorithm, proposed by Brandt et al. (Review of Financial Studies, 18(3):831–873, 2005). We equip this algorithm with the components from a recently developed method, the Stochastic Grid Bundling Method (SGBM), for calculating conditional expectations. When solving the first-order conditions for a portfolio optimum, we implement a Taylor series expansion based on a nonlinear decomposition to approximate the utility functions. In the numerical tests, we show that our algorithm is accurate and robust in approximating the optimal investment strategies, which are generated by a new benchmark approach based on the COS method (Fang and Oosterlee, in SIAM Journal of Scientific Computing, 31(2):826–848, 2008).


The newest concept in grain marketing is to identify specific quality needs of individual users, resulting in more efficient allocation of grain supplies, greater user satisfaction, and increased value of U.S. grain. This paper presents results from a project that assimilated and organized information about the market potential of end-user specific (value-added) grains. The author suggests that the country elevator will become the key point for segregation of grains by quality.


We performed a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study of a novel aspirin (ASA) derivative, which shows strong anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo. A series of ASA-based benzyl esters (ABEs) were synthesized and their inhibitory activity against human colon (HT-29 and SW480) and pancreatic (BxPC-3 and MIA PaCa-2) cancer cell lines was evaluated. The ABEs that we studied largely comprise organic benzyl esters bearing an ASA or acyloxy group (X) at the meta or para position of the benzyl ring and one of four different leaving groups. The nature of the salicyloyl/acyloxy function, the leaving group, and the additional substituents affecting the electron density of the benzyl ring, all were influential determinants of the inhibitory activity on cancer cell growth for each ABE. Positional isomerism also played a significant role in this effect. The mechanism of action of these compounds appears consistent with the notion that they generate either a quinone methide or an m-oxybenzyl zwitterion (or an m-hydroxybenzyl cation), which then reacts with a nucleophile, mediating their biological effect. Our SAR study provides an insight into the biological properties of this novel class of compounds and underscores their potential as anticancer agents.