Abstract The Kimberley coast in Australia's far north-west is the traditional country and home of a number of Indigenous groups and hosts some of the country's richest cultural heritage, most spectacular rock art, scenery and wildlife, making it an attractive tourism destination. A growing expedition cruise industry provides the main means of visitor access to remote coastal sites and offers excursions to shore-based attractions in what are mostly Aboriginal Reserve lands. In light of concerns about environmental and cultural site impacts resulting from increasing visitor numbers, this study examined biophysical site impacts along access trails to shore-based attractions and used qualitative methods to ascertain cultural impacts. The synthesis of the findings highlights that cultural concerns arising from visitor access without having sought traditional owner consent for such access, combined with a lack of traditional owner involvement in the planning, management or running of visitor activities, overshadow currently low environmental impacts of onshore expedition cruise activities. To overcome the continuing impasse regarding the issue of unsanctioned visitor access, the Kimberley urgently needs a coordinated approach by key stakeholders and the traditional owners which recognises and acknowledges the historical context. Such a process would facilitate tourism activities to become culturally sustainable.


This is a cross-sectional study that focuses on the assessment of the semantic network in the mental lexicon of second language learners. Generally, the number of words a learner claims to know is a reflection of achievement and advances in his vocabulary knowledge. However, the size of a learner's vocabulary knowledge only reveals half of the story about his lexical competence. An understanding of the quality of word knowledge allows for a clearer interpretation of the organisation and integration of lexical items in the mental lexicon. Typically, vocabulary researchers have utilised word association tests to measure vocabulary depth. However, there are several problems with the traditional methodology of this test, which has resulted in some inaccurate claims about a non-native speaker's lexical ability, such as the dichotomous native-like versus non-native-like categorisation of lexical ability. The aim of this thesis study was to test an alternative word association test that claims to capture partial native-like lexical knowledge in non-native speakers. Up to this point, this method had only been developed and tested on native speakers of English. The results of the analysis in this study reveal that this test does capture a range of native-like levels of lexical ability in non-native speakers of English. The findings suggest that this alternate word association measure of vocabulary depth could be used in conjunction with other language and vocabulary measures for both diagnostic and placement purposes. The information gained from this study provides a new approach to and understanding of vocabulary acquisition research and assessment.


Agroecology – as a scientific discipline and as an approach to sustainable farming practice – has objectives similar to those of organic agriculture. The paper sharpens the profile of both concepts and identifies strengths and weaknesses. The overarching challenge of both is to minimize trade-offs between food and fiber production on the one hand and non-commodity ecosystem services on the other hand. A comparison of the two approaches may well be inspiring, especially for the future development of organic food systems. Best use of human, social and natural capital characterizes organic farmers, especially in developing countries, as documented by many case studies from sub-Saharan Africa. That also applies to organic farms in temperate zones, although usually more external inputs are used in organic farming there. While the profitability of organic farms is comparable to or slightly higher than that of conventional ones, per area food production is lower by an average of 20 to 25 percent in temperate zones. Overly restrictive production standards are often mentioned as the cause, but also a lag in production techniques. One of the main approaches of organic agriculture to augment productivity is ecological or eco-functional intensification. Thereby, the goal is to maintain the ecological and social qualities of the farms and to increase food output. The future development of organic agriculture can be characterized by a comprehensive culture of innovation embracing social, ecological and technological innovations. Such a concept of innovation includes dynamic interactions between farmers and scientists in order to strengthen system resilience and make better use of basic research from a wide range of scientific disciplines.


This paper highlights the crucial role played by international access to intermediate inputs to explain firm-level performance, via two channels simultaneously: trade and FDI. We develop a simple theoretical model showing that trade integration of input market entails an efficiency improvement within firms able to import (gains from input switching) and an efficiency decline within other firms (losses from domestic input availability). At the same time, FDI integration of input market implies non-importers' efficiency enhancement (gains from input switching) and some ambiguous effects on importers' efficiency (due to additional losses from foreign input availability). Using firm-level data from the Chinese manufacturing sector over the period 2002-2006, we find some results coherent with our theoretical predictions.


ABSTRACT Aim: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive NSCLC identifies a unique subset of patients who respond to treatment with crizotinib (Pfizer Inc, NY), an ALK receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor. However, it is not well established whether ALK status is predictive of a better or a worse outcome for those who do not receive crizotinib. We performed a systematic review of recent literature on ALK positive NSCLC to answer this question. Methods: Ovid Medline and Embase databases were searched for publications on ALK-positive NSCLC until December 2013. Studies were included if outcomes for crizotinib naive patients were presented for either Progression-Free Survival (PFS) or Overall Survival (OS). For each study identified, 2 investigators independently extracted and tabulated relevant findings. Demographics, ALK status, type of diagnostic test, treatment received and response to treatment were noted. To determine if ALK status was prognostic, efficacy outcomes (PFS and / or OS) for ALK-positive patients were compared to ALK wild type (WT) patients. Results: Twenty one studies published between 2009 to 2013, with nearly 8000 screened NSCLC patients and 700 ALK-positive patients, met the selection criteria. All publications were retrospective in nature, majority reported single institution experiences, with a mix of completely resected early stage NSCLC and recurrent or advanced disease. The number of ALK-positive patients in studies determined by Fluorescent In Situ Hybridisation (FISH) ranged from 7 to 121 (mean = 32) and the number of ALK-positive patients in studies determined by non-FISH methods ranged from 3 - 39 (mean = 18). Enrichment strategies were commonly employed with predominantly adenocarcinomas being selected for ALK testing. PFS and / or OS for ALK-positive NSCLC patients did not demonstrate a favourable outcome and was similar or worse compared to EGFR WT/ ALK WT patients. Conclusions: This analysis of published retrospective studies in ALK-positive NSCLC, suggest that ALK-positivity is not a positive prognostic factor and does not confer a favourable outcome in absence of crizotinib therapy. Disclosure: J. Binko: Employee of Pfizer Oncology and holder of Pfizer stock; P. Delahoy: Employee of Pfizer Oncology and holder of Pfizer stock. M. Alam: Employee of Pfizer Oncology and holder of Pfizer stock.


[1] To evaluate the quality and temporal consistency of the large-scale Brewer-Dobson circulation in meteorological data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the stratosphere-troposphere exchange of ozone is calculated using a model with linearized stratospheric ozone chemistry. Simulations are performed with the 45-year reanalysis ERA-40 and with operational data (OD) for the period November 1999 to March 2005. In both hemispheres the ozone exchange fluxes are generally higher with ERA-40 than OD. In the Northern Hemisphere this discrepancy appears to be exacerbated by the introduction of satellite observations into the ERA-40 assimilation system in 1973. A comparison to a simulation with data from a run of the ERA-40 system in which no radiance observations were assimilated for the period January–March 1973 serves to demonstrate this point. The ozone exchange flux was also analyzed as a function of the forecast range of the assimilated winds used to drive the model. For optimal comparison between the two assimilation systems, this is done for the year July 2001 to June 2002, when there is maximum overlap between the respective model cycles. The sensitivity to forecast time and update frequency of the forecast series is found to be much stronger for ERA-40 than OD. For the later years of the reanalysis it is concluded that the circulation bias introduced by the assimilation of (satellite) observations is strongly reduced during forecast mode. From a chemistry transport modeling perspective the results imply that the stratospheric and upper tropospheric transport of tracers like ozone can be improved by using the forecasts of the reanalysis but is best represented with the operational data.


This paper proposed a new configuration of heat recovery cycle integrating PTES with ORC. A thermodynamic model was built to study the charging process of PTES. A parametric analysis has been conducted to evaluate the performance of the charging process. This paper defined the efficiency of the charging process of PTES with/without ORC. The isentropic efficiency of compressor/expander, the pressure ratio, and the designed temperature have been chosen to analyze the performance of the charging process. The proposed solution can be potentially used to improve the round-trip efficiency of PTES.


Digital libraries are complex sociotechnical artifacts. As such they will be understood and treated in different ways by the different groups that interact with them. The different understandings of these groups will be rooted in the differing tacit, underlying 'technological frames' that they will have of digital libraries as technologies. In cases where developers and users are both involved in the development of digital library collections, and where the frames of developers and users differ significantly, this can result in difficulties in the collection development process. It is important, therefore, to acknowledge that such differences can exist between developers and users, and to find ways to identify, describe, and mediate them. The paper describes the case of the Digital Water Education Library (DWEL). DWEL was an example of community-led collections development, in which users - in this case educators - were involved in the design and development of its collection. An ethnographic and communications-based analysis of DWEL's organizational communication revealed the existence of different technological frames among the developers and the users of DWEL, differences which impeded the progress of the project. These differences were exacerbated by the project's distributed organizational structure and reliance on network communication technologies for the bulk of its organizational communication. The paper describes how these differences were mediated, in part through the sharing of 'boundary objects' - graphic representations of the project's structures and processes - among the developers and users, and how these representations subsequently informed the development of an online tool that represented some of the developers' knowledge to the users.


Additive Manufacturing represents a promising technology as an alternative to the conventional manufacturing process, with rapid and economic product development, as well as a significant weight reduction and a freeform design. Although the mechanical properties of additively manufactured metals, such as the Ti-6Al-4V alloy, are well-established, a complete understanding of the fatigue performance is still a pending aspiration due to its inherent stochastic complexity and the influence of several manufacturing factors. This paper presents a study of the influence of speed manufacturing and porosity in the fatigue behaviour of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy. To this aim, a numerical simulation of the expected porosity at different laser velocities is performed, together with a simulation of the residual stresses. These numerical results are compared with experimental measurements of residual stresses and a qualitative analysis of the porosities. Then, fatigue strength is experimentally obtained for two different laser speeds and fitted by a probabilistic model. As a result, the probabilistic S–N fields for different laser velocities are found to be similar, with scatter bands nearly coincident, drawing the conclusion that this effect is negligible in comparison with other concurrent ones, such as roughness or surface defects from manufacturing conditions, promoting crack initiation and premature fatigue failure.


Archean chert at Rocklea Dome, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, has evaporitic structures that include moulds resembling halite hoppers, and apparent moulds and relicts of sulfate and carbonate minerals. The interpreted evaporite paragenesis has, therefore, an essentially modern aspect. Minute enigmatic peloids resembling primary bodies such as ooids or organic remains are present locally but are probably diagenetic. Correlation, based on lithology and structural position, with the middle Archean (3.3–3.5 Ga) Warrawoona Group is strongly indicated, suggesting that the chert provides the earliest evidence of halite hoppers so far reported, and a gross similarity in chemical composition between middle Archean seawater and present seas would be indicated.


Abstract. This study focuses on the temperature field observed in boreholes drilled as part of interdisciplinary scientific campaign targeting the El'gygytgyn Crater Lake in NE Russia. Temperature data are available from two sites: the lake borehole 5011-1 located near the center of the lake reaching 400 m depth, and the land borehole 5011-3 at the rim of the lake, with a depth of 140 m. Constraints on permafrost depth and past climate changes are derived from numerical simulation of the thermal regime associated with the lake-related talik structure. The thermal properties of the subsurface needed for these simulations are based on laboratory measurements of representative cores from the quaternary sediments and the underlying impact-affected rock, complemented by further information from geophysical logs and data from published literature. The temperature observations in the lake borehole 5011-1 are dominated by thermal perturbations related to the drilling process, and thus only give reliable values for the lowermost value in the borehole. Undisturbed temperature data recorded over more than two years are available in the 140 m deep land-based borehole 5011-3. The analysis of these observations allows determination of not only the recent mean annual ground surface temperature, but also the ground surface temperature history, though with large uncertainties. Although the depth of this borehole is by far too insufficient for a complete reconstruction of past temperatures back to the Last Glacial Maximum, it still affects the thermal regime, and thus permafrost depth. This effect is constrained by numerical modeling: assuming that the lake borehole observations are hardly influenced by the past changes in surface air temperature, an estimate of steady-state conditions is possible, leading to a meaningful value of 14 ± 5 K for the post-glacial warming. The strong curvature of the temperature data in shallower depths around 60 m can be explained by a comparatively large amplitude of the Little Ice Age (up to 4 K), with low temperatures prevailing far into the 20th century. Other mechanisms, like varying porosity, may also have an influence on the temperature profile, however, our modeling studies imply a major contribution from recent climate changes.


Like most Canada Research Chairs, I have been involved with an array of curricular and community initiatives, as well as new research and new reflective / interpretive work. The primary work in each of these areas is described below. Our Space In order to have the studio facilities, meeting space, and resources to undertake a wide array of projects, I established the Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place (MMaP) at Memorial University (www.mun.ca/music/mmap/). The MMaP Centre was officially constituted in January 2003 and, after several years of operating in rather cramped quarters, it has recently moved into new facilities in the Arts and Culture Centre of St. John's. We now have, in addition to office space, a multimedia library, audio restoration facility, multimedia production studio with excellent video as well as audio capability, and a "gallery" space that we use for workshops, media training sessions, small performances, and guest lectures. The MMaP Research Centre is now viewed within the province as an interface between the university and local communities, a mobilizer of Applied Ethnomusicology projects, and a collaborator in the organization of numerous conferences, concerts and festivals. "Our space," then, operates with a philosophy that differs from "myspace": it is responsible to the community (with community representation on the executive board as well as a committee of regional representatives) and is prepared to serve their interests wherever possible. Reaching Out A major initiative that ties directly to the research program described below has been to enable better public access to archival resources at Memorial University, particularly the large audio collection of MUNFLA, the Folklore and Language Archive of Memorial University. We initiated production of an archival CD series in 2004. Each CD is packaged in a DVD case to allow sufficient space for extensive print documentation (usually a booklet of approximately 50 pages). Furthermore, each CD has developed a specific theme that represents a shared concern of academics and practitioners: diverse definitions of "tradition" and "modernity," for instance, or the nature of the Newfoundland song canon. Our first two releases, It's Time for Another One: Folk Songs from the South Coast of Newfoundland and Folklore of Newfoundland and Labrador: A Sampler of Songs, Narrations, and Tunes, are distributed nationally by Landwash Distribution (www. landwashdistribution.com). Three more CDs are in various stages of planning or preparation: one is a re-release of a popular local radio program, Saturday Nite Jamboree, packaged with a booklet on the history of early radio in the province; a second is a Canada-wide anthology of traditional fiddling and related instrumental practices, with an emphasis on cultural diversity and little known archival sources; the third will feature archival recordings of Atlantic Canadian Mi'kmaw song. Most of the CDs have had guest producers and several have been collaborations. The fiddle anthology, for instance, is being produced with support from Folkways Alive and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. In addition to the CD series, the MMaP Centre has developed a website with the earliest audio recordings made in Atlantic Canada. MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada (www.mun.ca/folklore/ leach) was launched in 2004 with over 300 audio clips, community profiles, biographies of artists and considerable historical and contextual material. Both English and Gaelic language material is included. It was expanded and updated for a relaunch in 2006 and will shortly migrate to the Digital Archive Initiative of the Memorial University libraries. The website has served both as a source of information about songs and a key to university holdings that are of interest to Newfoundland and Labrador families. With much appreciated cooperation of MUNFLA, the MMaP Research Centre has made copies of archival recordings for family members who contact us--over four dozen to date. …


These days, it is common practice to base inference about the coefficients in a hetoskedastic linear model on the ordinary least squares estimator in conjunction with using heteroskedasticity consistent standard errors. Even when the true form of heteroskedasticity is unknown, heteroskedasticity consistent standard errors can also used to base valid inference on a weighted least squares estimator and using such an estimator can provide large gains in efficiency over the ordinary least squares estimator. However, intervals based on asymptotic approximations with plug-in standard errors often have coverage that is below the nominal level, especially for small sample sizes. Similarly, tests can have null rejection probabilities that are above the nominal level. In this paper, it is shown that under unknown hereroskedasticy, a bootstrap approximation to the sampling distribution of the weighted least squares estimator is valid, which allows for inference with improved finite-sample properties. For testing linear constraints, permutations tests are proposed which are exact when the error distribution is symmetric and is asymptotically valid otherwise. Another concern that has discouraged the use of weighting is that the weighted least squares estimator may be less efficient than the ordinary least squares estimator when the model used to estimate the unknown form of the heteroskedasticity is misspecified. To address this problem, a new estimator is proposed that is asymptotically at least as efficient as both the ordinary and the weighted least squares estimator. Simulation studies demonstrate the attractive finite-sample properties of this new estimator as well as the improvements in performance realized by bootstrap confidence intervals.


Although rare in chronic phase myeloid leukemia (CML), primary or acquired resistance to the treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) may be observed in the advanced phases of disease. Bcr/Abl related resistance has been well described, while the other mechanisms of resistance are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the role of two SH2-containing, non-receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases (Shp1 and Shp2) in the resistance to Imatinib (Ima). To this aim, we have first used, as model system, a couple of Ima-sensitive (KCL22s) and Ima-resistant (KCL22r) KCL22 cell lines. In these cells, Ima resistance is independent by the oncogenic Bcr/Abl activity. We have found a very low level of Shp1 (both mRNA and protein), a protein with a tumour suppressor activity, in the KCL22r resistant cells, when compared to KCL22s sensitive cells. We have al shown the down-regulation of this gene to be related to the methylation level of SHP1 promoter. Indeed, 5-Azacytidine (5-AC) treatment, along with demethylation of the promoter region, re-induced expression of Shp1 in KCL22r. That treatment also re-established the Ima sensitivity, i.e. Ima growth inhibition, in these cells. At molecular level, the restored Ima sensitivity was associated to a significant reduction of phosphorylation of both STAT3 and ERK1/2. To better understand the functional role of Shp1, we carried out mass spectrometry to search for Shp1-binding proteins, and found that Shp1 interacts in these cells with Shp2, a protein phosphatase well known as positive regulator of oncogenic pathways, including the Ras/MAPK pathway. Gain-of-function mutations have been described in various hemopoietic neoplasias including Juvenile Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia. In Ph+ cells, oncogenic Bcr/Abl protein activates Shp2 through Gab2, an adaptor protein that, once phosphorylated is able to bind SH2 domain of Shp2. Through complex interactions that may involve the two carboxy-terminal tyrosine residues (542 and 580) Shp2 is also a signal transducer of growth factor receptor. We hypothesized that, Shp1, through dephosphorylation, might modulate the activity of Shp2 and constitute an important mechanism of Ima resistance. Knock-down of Shp1 in KCL22s cell line resulted in complete phosphorylation of Shp2 both 542 and 580 tyrosine residues and in its reduced sensitivity to the drug, thus supporting the role of this protein in Ima sensitivity. On the other hand, knock-down of Shp2 in KCL22r, that shows low Shp1 level, resulted in growth inhibition, restored Ima sensitivity and is associated to a significant reduction of phosphorylation of both STAT3 (60%) and ERK1/2 (70%). The data on primary cells support the role of Shp1 in Ima resistance in patients. Indeed, we analyzed 60 CML patients classified, according to the ENL definitions, as optimal (n =35), suboptimal (n=17) Ima responder, and primary (n=5) or secondary resistant (n=3) to Ima. The levels of Shp1 mRNA were significantly reduced in resistant patients [ratio of SHP1/ABL 3.2 ± 1.04, (mean±SD), * p <0.05] when compared to the suboptimal (3.8±1.54) and optimal responders (5.8±1.77). Moreover, the Shp1 decrease was observed in CD34+ cells isolated from 6 resistant patients in comparison to 6 optimal responders. In conclusion, our study suggests that an aberrant balance between the Shp1 and 2 levels play a role in the Bcr-Abl independent resistance to Ima through activation of Ras/MAPK pathway and that lower levels of Shp1 are associated with non responsive patients.


Throughout the ages the presence, seen or unseen, of winged beings hovering between the human and divine worlds has been recognized. Peter Lamborn Wilson reveals their role in all the great religions, as the mediators, the protectors or if necessary the punishers. He considers their function as messengers: carrying a Greek hero to the realms of sleep; raising Mohammed to heaven; wrestling with Jacob; or announcing the birth of Christ. He analyses the image of the angel; angelic choirs; the archangels' war against Satan. And he delves into arcana such as angels and shamanism, and angelic eroticism. The illustrations gather angels from every culture and artistic medium, every time and place.


The refractivity of helium computed from experimental measurements made at 15 different wavelengths by use of a corner-reflector Michelson interferometer, and computed from recent theoretical values of oscillator strength at 26 different wavelengths, is reported. The experimental measurements range from 4801 to 20586 A. The absolute refractivity at 760 torr, 0°C, 5462.258 A is 3.4950×10−5. A dispersion formula describing the data is (n-1)×105=1470.091/(423.98-σ2).Other dispersion formulas are discussed. The experimental and theoretical computations are compared with the experimental and theoretical work of various authors. The comparison includes computations of effective F values, absorption wavelength, dielectric constant, molecular polarizability, and Verdet constant.


Abstract "Biotherapies" include both biopharmaceuticals and cell and gene therapies. Biopharmaceuticals are macromolecules created by biotechnologies. In the case of monoclonal antibodies, the starting dose to be given to Humans is difficult to select because there may be no relevant animal model. At the time of registration, the knowledge of the mechanism of action of monoclonal antibodies is insufficient and cohort follow up studies are needed. Genetic predisposition and pharmacokinetics are interindividual sources of variability. Some of the adverse drug reactions are predictable but others are unexpected or even paradoxical. Cell and "ex vivo" gene therapies consist in the manipulation of collected cells and their infusion in autologous or allogenic clinical settings. The methodology of the clinical development of drugs cannot be readily applied to these therapies. On the other hand, "in vivo" gene therapy uses vectors or macromolecules which can be considered as biopharmaceuticals.


The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors, a new class of anticancer agents with a mechanism of action based on augmenting existing tumor-specific immunity, is often restricted or avoided in patients with autoimmune disease. The rationale for this restriction is that the autoimmune toxic effects observed with the use of these agents could be amplified in patients with rheumatic diseases. Moreover, patients would have an exacerbation of their underlying inflammatory condition. This restriction makes sense; however, the number of patients who would not be eligible to receive immune checkpoint inhibitor agents would be substantial. The lifetime risk of developing an inflammatory autoimmune rheumatic disease is estimated to be 1 in 12 for women and 1 in 20 for men.1 Data on the outcomes of patients with autoimmune disease who have received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy are needed. In this issue of JAMA Oncology, Johnson et al2 report, to our knowledge, the largest series of patients with melanoma with preexisting autoimmune disease who have been treated with ipilimumab to date. These patients had a diversity of autoimmune disease ranging from rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis to more serious conditions such as ulcerative colitis and multiple sclerosis. Only a minority of patients (8 [27%]) had an exacerbation of their disease with ipilimumab therapy. All flares could be medically treated and usually were observed within 3 to 6 weeks of initiating therapy. Typical immunerelated adverse events (irAEs) (grade 3-5) occurred in 10 (33%) of the patients. A recent meta-analysis of ipilimumabmediated irAEs in 1265 patients from 22 clinical trials reported an incidence of 25% of higher-grade irAEs with treatment. At 33%, these types of adverse events may be more common in patients with underlying autoimmune disease.3 Fifteen patients (50%) with autoimmune disease experienced neither a flare of their underlying condition nor an irAE. The clinical response rate in this cohort was 20%, typical for ipilimumab, with 5 partial and 1 complete response. These data underscore the safety of administering ipilimumab in patients with autoimmune disease. The immune checkpoint inhibitor agents are associated with unique immune-related toxic effects that often make practicing oncologists hesitant to use the drugs. Repeated studies have shown that irAEs can be medically treated and serious toxicities prevented with vigilance to identify symptoms at an early stage in evolution. The same approach would be used with patients having concurrent autoimmune disease, as has been demonstrated by Johnson et al,2 to ensure patient safety.


U.S. income inequality has risen dramatically in recent decades. Researchers consistently find that greater income inequality measured at the state or national level is associated with diminished subjective well-being (SWB) in the U.S. We conduct the first multi-scale analysis (i.e., at the ZIP-code, MSA, and state levels) of the inequality-SWB relationship using SWB data from the U.S. Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index and income inequality data from the American Community Survey. We use the rich set of SWB measures afforded by the dataset (evaluative, positive hedonic, and negative hedonic) to examine the consistency of the relationship. We find that the relationship is both scale-dependent and measure-dependent: income inequality is SWB-diminishing in large regions for all measures, SWB-diminishing in small regions for negative hedonic measures, and SWBimproving in small regions for evaluative and positive hedonic measures. Lastly, we find that taking all regions together, the net relationship between income inequality and SWB is negative for all hedonic measures.


Our work is concerned with finding optimum connection strategies in highperformance associative memory models. Taking inspiration from axonal branching in biological neurons, we impose a displacement of the point of efferent arborisation, so that the output from each node travels a certain distance before branching to connect to other units. This technique is applied to networks constructed with a connectivity profile based on Gaussian distributions, and the results compared to those obtained with a network containing purely local connections, displaced in the same manner. It is found that displacement of the point of arborisation has a very beneficial effect on the performance of both network types, with the displaced locally-connected network performing the best.


This thesis is concerned with the removal of particulate
material from gases using fibrous filters.
described under three headings:-
(a) The Collision Efficiency The particle fibre collision
efficiency is calculated by computing trajectories in the
Davies and Kuwabara flow fields. Electrostatic and
gravitational field forces are taken into account. The
influence of fibre Knudsen number and Reynolds number on
inertial interception is predicted.
A model is described which takes into account a log normal
distribution of fibre spacing in a filter. It is used to
predict the pressure drop across a random fibre mat and its
mean efficiency of inertial interception both of which are a
factor of two or three less than predicted by the simple
Kuwabara model.
(b) Particle Retention Mechanisms' It is shown that bounce
is the only significant mechanism responsible for particle
non-adhesion in fibrous filters. An equilibrium model is
used to predict the critical particle size above which adhesion
fails.
The behaviour of filters in the low adhesion region is
examined by measuring the collection efficiency of model
filters using narrow sized fractions of dust. The efficiency
is a decreasing function of particle size and velocity,
trends which agree with the equilibrium model.
(c) Non-stationary Filtration The behaviour of filters under
load is examined experimentally. The efficiency may either
increase or decrease initially with loading, the characteristics
depending on the same factors which influence the
single fibre efficiency.


We describe the abundance, biomass, size composition, and trophic structure of fish assemblages of shallow (10 m depth) fore reef habitats at 2 US Pacific atolls (Kingman, Palmyra) and 2 Kiribati-owned atolls (Tabuaeran, Kiritimati) in the northern Line Islands. Our characterization spans several coincident gradients (in human habitation and exploitation, latitude, and nutrient upwelling) from uninhabited, presently unfished, and oligotrophic Kingman to relatively densely populated, fished, and equatorially upwelled Kiritimati. Major findings are most consistent with direct effects of extraction on large-bodied predators and indirect effects on lower-level assemblage structure. Fish assemblages at Palmyra and especially Kingman atolls were characterized by high total standing biomass, large average body sizes, a preponderance of apex predators and other pis- civorous fishes in an inverted biomass pyramid, few and small planktivorous fishes, and herbivores dominated by non-territorial species. Median body sizes at color change from initial to terminal phase (an index of sex change in parrotfishes) were also small for 4 species of parrotfish at Kingman and Palmyra. Fish assemblages at Tabuaeran and especially Kiritimati atolls had starkly contrasting char- acteristics: piscivorous and other fisheries-targeted fishes were depauperate, lower-trophic levels dominated fish biomass, planktivorous fishes were larger-bodied and more numerous, territorial her- bivores were better represented, and size at maturation in parrotfishes was proportionately larger. Our results show the effects that even modest fishing effort can have on assemblage structure and indicate the importance of reefs like Kingman as increasingly rare relicts of natural coral reefs, pro- viding insights into the natural structure and function of these ecosystems.


Loved by students for the visual and flexible way to build computer skills, the Illustrated Course Guides are ideal for learning Microsoft Excel 2010 regardless of your experience level. Each two-page spread focuses on a single skill, making information easy to follow and absorb. The Illustrated Course Guides split Microsoft Excel 2010 concepts and skills into three manageable levels - Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced - perfect for workshops or accelerated courses.


Like its Slavic counterpart (2008), the Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon aims at combining recent insights from comparative Indo-European linguistics with modern Balto-Slavic accentology. While the Lithuanian lexicon serves as a starting-point, the dictionary contains a number of etyma that are unique to Latvian or Old Prussian. Unlike in most other Baltic etymological studies, both Latvian and Lithuanian accentual data feature prominently. The author's renewed attempt to reconstruct part of the Balto-Slavic lexicon has resulted in numerous additions and corrections. The introductory chapter explains the structure of the dictionary and clarifies its theoretical framework. In addition, it provides a concise introduction to Baltic historical linguistics. The volume concludes with an extensive bibliography and a word index.


Stream bed temperature profiles were monitored continuously during water year 1990 and 1991 (WY90 and 91) in two New Mexico arroyos, similar in their meteorological features and dissimilar in their hydrological features. Stream bed temperature profiles between depths of 30 and 300 cm were examined to determine whether temporal changes in temperature profiles represent accurate indicators of the timing, depth and duration of percolation in each stream bed. These results were compared with stream flow, air temperature, and precipitation records for WY90 and 91, to evaluate the effect of changing surface conditions on temperature profiles. Temperature profiles indicate a persistently high thermal gradient with depth beneath Grantline Arroyo, except during a semi-annual thermal reversal in spring and autumn. This typifies the thermal response of dry sediments with low thermal conductivities. High thermal gradients were disrupted only during infrequent stream flows, followed by rapid re-establishment of high gradients. The stream bed temperature at 300 cm was unresponsive to individual precipitation or stream flow during WY90 and 91. This thermal pattern provides strong evidence that most seepage into Grantline Arroyo failed to percolate at a sufficient rate to reach 300 cm before being returned to the atmosphere. A distinctly different thermal pattern was recorded beneath Tijeras Arroyo. Low thermal gradients between 30 and 300 cm and large diurnal variations in temperature, suggest that stream flow created continuous, advection-dominated heat transport for over 300 days, annually. Beneath Tijeras Arroyo, low thermal gradients were interrupted only briefly during periodic, dry summer conditions. Comparisons of stream flow records for WY90 and 91 with stream bed temperature profiles indicate that independent analysis of thermal patterns provides accurate estimates of the timing, depth and duration of percolation beneath both arroyos. Stream flow loss estimates indicate that seepage rates were 15 times greater for Tijeras Arroyo than for Grantline Arroyo, which supports qualitative conclusions derived from analysis of stream bed temperature responses to surface conditions. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Little is known about how substrates bind to CtXR (Candida tenuis xylose reductase; AKR2B5) and other members of the AKR (aldo-keto reductase) protein superfamily. Modelling of xylose into the active site of CtXR suggested that Trp23, Asp50 and Asn309 are the main components of pentose-specific substrate-binding recognition. Kinetic consequences of site-directed substitutions of these residues are reported. The mutants W23F and W23Y catalysed NADH-dependent reduction of xylose with only 4 and 1% of the wild-type efficiency (kcat/K(m)) respectively, but improved the wild-type selectivity for utilization of ketones, relative to xylose, by factors of 156 and 471 respectively. Comparison of multiple sequence alignment with reported specificities of AKR members emphasizes a conserved role of Trp23 in determining aldehyde-versus-ketone substrate selectivity. D50A showed 31 and 18% of the wild-type catalytic-centre activities for xylose reduction and xylitol oxidation respectively, consistent with a decrease in the rates of the chemical steps caused by the mutation, but no change in the apparent substrate binding constants and the pattern of substrate specificities. The 30-fold preference of the wild-type for D-galactose compared with 2-deoxy-D-galactose was lost completely in N309A and N309D mutants. Comparison of the 2.4 A (1 A=0.1 nm) X-ray crystal structure of mutant N309D bound to NAD+ with the previous structure of the wild-type holoenzyme reveals no major structural perturbations. The results suggest that replacement of Asn309 with alanine or aspartic acid disrupts the function of the original side chain in donating a hydrogen atom for bonding with the substrate C-2(R) hydroxy group, thus causing a loss of transition-state stabilization energy of 8-9 kJ/mol.


In historical and geologic times significant climatic and topographical changes have taken place, the topographical changes are those where it varies the coordinate «z» that corresponds to the altitude or depth of the environment. The climatic changes can produce topographical changes, and in the other hand, topographical changes more rarely produce climatic changes. The human action generates many of these changes and it accelerates them notably. The dynamic interaction in the time of the three factors, climatic, topographical, and human it is what is denominated «environmental change». Inside this mark the dispersion of Hypostomus commersoni is analyzed in the east of the pampasia, from 1957 until the present time. New records for Crenicichla lepidota and of some species introduced recently: Ictalurus cf. punctatctus, Acipenser cf. baerii and Oreochromis sp., are given. Great part of the climatic change perhaps is modelable and predictable, but the topographical changes and the human factor have a high grade of randomness, for what the goods of the environmental change are, for the time being, impredecibles.


SUMMARY The global range of the Aldabra white-throated rail Dryolimnas cuvieri aldabranus, the last surviving flightless bird in the Indian Ocean, was restricted to only three islands of Aldabra Atoll in 1998. It was extirpated on the islands of Grand Terre (before the late 1800s) and Picard (soon after 1910), mainly due to the introduction of feral cats by early settlers. In 1999, following the eradication of cats from Picard, 18 Aldabra rails were successfully reintroduced. After the reintroduction, population growth of the Aldabra rail on Picard was predicted to continue to approximately 1,000 pairs by 2010. In this paper, we report on the long-term effectiveness of the reintroduction by updating the Aldabra rail population estimate on Picard 12 years after the translocation and one year after the predicted maximum was expected to be reached. We confirm the predicted carrying capacity on Picard has been reached and probably exceeded; report a reliable survey method for the Aldabra rail, which can be applied to other terrestrial bird species; and recommend subsequent monitoring and conservation management strategies for the Aldabra rail and potentially other species of rail.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study was to assess the independent influences of gender and cannabis use on milestones of early course in schizophrenia.

METHOD
In this population-based, first-contact incidence study conducted in The Hague, the Netherlands, patients (N=133) were interviewed with the Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History, and key informants were interviewed with the Instrument for the Retrospective Assessment of the Onset of Schizophrenia. Milestones of early course were 1) first social and/or occupational dysfunction, 2) first psychotic episode, and 3) first negative symptoms.

RESULTS
Male patients were significantly younger than female patients at first social and/or occupational dysfunction, first psychotic episode, and first negative symptoms. Cannabis-using patients were significantly younger at these milestones than were patients who did not use cannabis. Multivariate analyses showed that cannabis use, but not gender, made an independent contribution to the prediction of age at first psychotic episode: male cannabis users were a mean of 6.9 years younger at illness onset than male nonusers. In contrast, age at first social and/or occupational dysfunction and the risk of developing negative symptoms before the first contact with a physician for treatment of possible psychotic disorder were predicted by gender, but not by cannabis use.

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate a strong association between use of cannabis and earlier age at first psychotic episode in male schizophrenia patients. Additional studies examining this possibly causal relationship are needed.


The United States Supreme Court's expansion of the Federal Arbitration Act (the "FAA") has made arbitration clauses ubiquitous in consumer and employment contracts and provoked heated debate. Recently, though, arbitration clauses have become common in a different context: wills and trusts. Courts have reached wildly different conclusions about whether these provisions are enforceable under state arbitration law. However, no judge, scholar, or litigant has considered the more important question of whether the FAA governs these terms. This Article fills that gap. It first examines the statute's text and legislative history, and concludes that Congress intended the FAA only to cover arbitration clauses in "contracts." Nevertheless, the Article shows that the Court has not rigidly enforced this predicate. As a matter of federal common law, the FAA applies if there is a plausible argument that the parties have agreed to arbitrate — even if the arbitration clause does not appear in a document that meets the black-letter test for contractual validity. The Article then claims that this approach has opened the door for the FAA to govern testamentary arbitration clauses. Indeed, when trustees, executors, and beneficiaries accept fees or property under a will or trust, they also manifest assent to the instrument's terms. Finally, the Article analyzes how some of the most challenging features of the Court's interpretation of the FAA — including the scope of the statute, the separability doctrine, and preemption — would play out in the field of wills and trusts. By doing so, the Article seeks not only to provide guidance for courts and policymakers, but to illustrate that testamentary arbitration may not suffer from some of the flaws that make contractual arbitration so polarizing.


Biofuels are a currently a very hot topic with significant interest in both ethanol and biodiesel production. These fuels can be used in current internal combustion engines with little or no modification. Biodiesel can be produced from a variety of sources. One of the most promising sources is microalgae. In some species of algae, oil or lipids can account for as much as 70% of their total biomass. Unfortunately, the cost to produce biodiesel from algae is much too high to compete with petroleum-based fuels. To reduce the production cost of algae, wastewater has been discovered to be an excellent growth media. For this study, Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp., and Chlamydomonas sp. were selected to test their ability to grow on wastewater growth media while cleansing the water of contaminants and producing oil. Lab tests in 10L tanks showed that all three species grow well and provide excellent treatment of municipal wastewater by reduction of ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate at levels of 99%, 87%, and 99%, respectively. After successful lab tests, a 230L (60 gal.) pilot tank was constructed to demonstrate scalability of the growth system. Scenedesmus was selected for growth tests at the pilot scale. Six growth tests of one week each were conducted at two light levels and three temperatures to investigate the effects these parameters have on the growth rate and nutrient uptake. In the pilot scale tests, Scenedesmus was shown to cleanse the water as efficiently as at the lab scale achieving nutrient reductions of over 99% for ammonia and phosphate. Biomass production was also shown to be very high at the pilot scale with accumulations of biomass greater than the predicted yield for five of the six tests.


College students develop the skills and attitudes that faculty encourage. Critical thinking is perhaps the most oft-cited post-secondary learning objective, although common classroom practice belies its importance. Based on 25 years of conducting critical thinking faculty development programs on dozens of campuses, the authors suggest ways by which instructional development workshops can reduce the gap between aspirations to teach critical thinking and effective critical thinking pedagogy. The suggestions are separated logically into the steps of preparation, delivery of the workshop, and post-workshop follow up. The critical roles played by campus administrators, key faculty, and post-workshop mentors are highlighted as vital partners enhancing the actual workshop. Curriculum proposals and postsecondary mission statements pay homage to the importance of critical thinking (Arons, 1985,6). On behalf of students, those efforts tout the value of reasoned evaluation skills for future citizens (Shaw, 1996). But how do we intend to move from the call to encourage critical thinking to the integrated classroom effort required to implement critical thinking into our pedagogy? A common strategy is to hold a workshop in the hope that teachers can be sold on the need for critical thinking and then taught enough about it such that at least a few more classrooms will serve as developmental sites enlarging the base of appreciation for the virtue and efficacy of critical thinking. A certain desperation activates these desires for we are all too aware of the extent to which our culture discourages critical thinking (Esterle and Clunnan 1993). Consumerist inclinations encourage resistance to the disciplined reflectiveness required for critical thinking. But just holding an instructional workshop is by itself of little worth. Faculty have an understandably jaundiced view of the counsel of outsiders with little knowledge of the local context, including the special merits and demerits of the institution where the workshop is being held. They have probably attended workshops before and have been less than impressed. So, if a workshop is to hold promise as a stimulus for student learning of critical thinking, it must be crafted with unusual care to avoid its becoming part of a litany of similar failed efforts where any immediate adrenaline rush is not followed by consonant educational improvement. This article draws on some 25 years of experience as a workshop facilitator for critical thinking. The experiential base consists of failures and successes, all deceptively applauded at the time of the workshop itself. An important point lies therein: the success of an instructional development workshop resides in its impact on student learning weeks after the workshop, rather than on the immediate reactions of workshop participants. Many campuses continue permanent instructional development programs; the personnel responsible for these efforts recognize quite correctly that the workshops sometimes effect change (Rutherford and Grana, 1995). But what factors increase the likelihood that a particular workshop will encourage learning growth? While this article attempts to answer that question as it applies specifically to critical thinking, the suggestions herein are, mutatis mutandis, applicable to instructional workshops of other kinds as well. The structure of the suggestions will be based on the temporal steps that comprise an instructional workshop. I. Preparing For The Workshop Even the best critical thinking workshop will fail to change faculty behavior if certain preparatory steps are not taken. The administration, the faculty, and the workshop facilitators must all possess specific attributes if the program is to be optimal. The administration at any institution of higher learning plays a major role in determining whether professional development programs are in place, how much funding they receive, and the degree of their effectiveness. …


This article argues that conservation agendas need to be informed by a landscape aesthetics that embraces the cultural and material richness of people's relationship to place to better inform conservation agendas. Historical and contemporary views of landscape aesthetics and their relationship to nature conservation and notions of wilderness need to be included to complement a scientific expert assessment of conservation needs and approaches. Recent examples of conservation projects in Zanzibar are used to reveal how representations and symbols in nature are deeply embedded in biodiversity conservation aspirations and practices promoted by conservation experts. The article posits that an embodied and pluralistic approach to landscape aesthetics can more profoundly contextualize the specificity of interaction between people and between people and their environments and lead to more viable conservation and development outcomes. This would provide a contingent perspective that would to help elucidate nuanced understandings of social relations and place, thereby better serving both conservation and development agendas.


Current European Union regulatory risk assessment allows application of pesticides provided that recovery of nontarget arthropods in‐crop occurs within a year. Despite the long‐established theory of source‐sink dynamics, risk assessment ignores depletion of surrounding populations and typical field trials are restricted to plot‐scale experiments. In the present study, the authors used agent‐based modeling of 2 contrasting invertebrates, a spider and a beetle, to assess how the area of pesticide application and environmental half‐life affect the assessment of recovery at the plot scale and impact the population at the landscape scale. Small‐scale plot experiments were simulated for pesticides with different application rates and environmental half‐lives. The same pesticides were then evaluated at the landscape scale (10 km × 10 km) assuming continuous year‐on‐year usage. The authors' results show that recovery time estimated from plot experiments is a poor indicator of long‐term population impact at the landscape level and that the spatial scale of pesticide application strongly determines population‐level impact. This raises serious doubts as to the utility of plot‐recovery experiments in pesticide regulatory risk assessment for population‐level protection. Predictions from the model are supported by empirical evidence from a series of studies carried out in the decade starting in 1988. The issues raised then can now be addressed using simulation. Prediction of impacts at landscape scales should be more widely used in assessing the risks posed by environmental stressors. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:1499–1507. © 2014 SETAC


Purpose: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are potent tools to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) induced after allogeneic stem cell transplantation or donor lymphocyte infusions. Toward clinical application of Tregs for GVHD treatment, we investigated the impact of Tregs on the therapeutic graft-versus-tumor (GVT) effect against human multiple myeloma tumors with various immunogenicities, progression rates, and localizations in a humanized murine model. Experimental Design: Immunodeficient Rag2−/−γc−/− mice, bearing various human multiple myeloma tumors, were treated with human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) alone or together with autologous ex vivo cultured Tregs. Mice were analyzed for the in vivo engraftment, homing of T-cell subsets, development of GVHD and GVT. In additional in vitro assays, Tregs that were cultured together with bone marrow stromal cells were analyzed for phenotype and functions. Results: Treatment with PBMC alone induced variable degrees of antitumor response, depending on the immunogenicity and the growth rate of the tumor. Coinfusion of Tregs did not impair the antitumor response against tumors residing within the bone marrow, irrespective of their immunogenicity or growth rates. In contrast, Tregs readily inhibited the antitumor effect against tumors growing outside the bone marrow. Exploring this remarkable phenomenon, we discovered that bone marrow stroma neutralizes the suppressive activity of Tregs in part via production of interleukin (IL)-1β/IL-6. We furthermore found in vitro and in vivo evidence of conversion of Tregs into IL-17–producing T cells in the bone marrow environment. Conclusions: These results provide new insights into the Treg immunobiology and indicate the conditional benefits of future Treg-based therapies. Clin Cancer Res; 19(6); 1467–75. ©2012 AACR.


This study examines anthropometric and somatotypical differences between German male junior shot putters (n = 19) and javelin throwers (n = 19). Recreational athletes (n = 11) served as the control group (age range 16 – 23 years). Overall, the shot-putters were larger and had longer legs and arms as compared to the junior javelin throwers. For the smaller javelin throwers of the higher performance category shorter legs compared to the height of the hull were observed on average. There was a notably shorter leg of the spear throwers. The powerful javelin throwers had longer arms than the less powerful. For all anthropometric widths and depths, and the circumferences and the body weight, the junior shout putters achieved higher values than the spear throwers and recreational athletes. The skinfold thicknesses, the body fat mass and the BMI were highest among the shot putters. The shot putters had the highest values for endomorphy and pyknomorphia (Knussmann), on the other hand, the lowest values for ectomorphy. For the shot putters body height, shoulder width, hand width, foot width, chest circumference, minimal forearm circumference, calf circumference, arm span, plastic index and macrosomia were positively related to performance. Some skinfolds (calf, thigh) correlated negatively with the shot put distances. For the javelin throwers radiale, stylion, dactylion and ectomorphy correlated negatively with the throw widths, but the AKS index, the BMI, the Quetelet index, the Rohrer index, the Livi index, the Pelidisi index, the Broca index, mesomorphy, the metric index and plastic index correlated positively with the performance. The higher class shot putters of the present study achieved a mean somatotype of 2.9 – 5.6 – 1.1 and the higher class javelin throwers of 2.1 – 4.9 – 1.8. As the shot putters and the javelin throwers of the present investigation were rather young, there is still a significant development potential for the mesomorphic component in comparison to Olympians.


ATLAS is a multipurpose experiment which records the products of the LHC collisions. To reconstruct trajectories of charged particles produced in these collisions, the experiment is equipped with large-scale tracking systems built of silicon planar sensors (pixel and strip-based), as well as a drift?tube based detector system. This talk will cover the first experience gained with these tracking systems, such as the commissioning and first operational experience, including monitoring and calibration procedures. The talk will further address the alignment procedures and the results obtained. Finally, the performance of the tracking systems with the LHC in collison mode will be presented and compared with the expected parameters and with the Monte Carlo simulations, also covering their particle identification capabilities.


Chlorinated ethenes (CEs) pose a long-lasting risk for humans and the environment. Nowadays, they are the major groundwater contaminant worldwide and are of particular concern since they form a dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL). Reductive dehalogenation of the CEs to the non-toxic end-products ethane and ethene is used for nearly twenty years as the most efficient and used remediation technique called enhanced reductive dehalogenation (ERD). However, in some cases the reduction of CEs is halted to 1,2-dichloroethene (1,2-DCE) or to the carcinogenic vinyl chloride (VC). The dechlorination is known to be a complex process and many factors were identified to play an important role in quantitative and qualitative reduction of the CEs in-situ. This study was designed to show new methodological approach and demonstrated the importance of both, the biological and environmental variables, for the performance of ERD. The combination of analytical data, molecular biological analysis and statistical methods could be used as a tool for finding of a proper efficient remediation procedure for the removal of chlorinated ethenes.


This work presents an evaluation of the CompCert formally specified and verified optimizing compiler for the development of DO-178 level A flight control software. First, some fundamental characteristics of flight control software are presented and the case study program is described. Then, the use of CompCert is justified: its main point is to allow optimized code generation by relying on the formal proof of correctness and additional compilation information instead of the current un-optimized generation required to produce predictable assembly code patterns. The evaluation of its performance (measured using WCET and code size) is presented and the results are compared to those obtained with the currently used compiler.


This article investigates the relationship between national integration policy models and their outcomes. To evaluate this relationship in greater depth, I studied two typifying migrant groups: ethnic Germans from Romania who migrated legally to Germany—enjoying extensive rights and citizenship upon arrival—and Romanian migrants who migrated to Italy irregularly. Surprisingly, while Romanians in Italy tended to perceive their migration as successful, ethnic Germans migrating to Germany generally perceived a loss of status. Migrants' reactions to various models of policies and the differences in their transnational practices provided the basis for my explanation of this puzzle.


Generalized zero-shot Learning (GZSL) aims to recognize images from either seen or unseen domain, mainly by learning a joint embedding space to associate image features with the corresponding category descriptions. Recent methods have proved that localizing important object regions can effectively bridge the semantic-visual gap. However, these are all based on one-off visual localizers, lacking of interpretability and flexibility. In this paper, we propose a novel Semantic-guided Reinforced Region Embedding (SR2E) network that can localize important objects in the long-term interests to construct semantic-visual embedding space. SR2E consists of Reinforced Region Module (R2M) and Semantic Alignment Module (SAM). First, without the annotated bounding box as supervision, R2M encodes the semantic category guidance into the reward and punishment criteria to teach the localizer serialized region searching. Besides, R2M explores different action spaces during the serialized searching path to avoid local optimal localization, which thereby generates discriminative visual features with less redundancy. Second, SAM preserves the semantic relationship into visual features via semantic-visual alignment and designs a domain detector to alleviate the domain confusion. Experiments on four public benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed SR2E is an effective GZSL method with reinforced embedding space, which obtains averaged 6.1% improvements.


Chemistry laboratories provide students with a chance to test their ideas and learn difficult concepts by performing experiments. The study assesses students' perceptions of their learning environments and their teacher-student interactions in a chemistry laboratory setting at the higher secondary level in selected private schools using the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) and Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). The sample consists of 250 students studying in classes 11th and 12th. The learning environments in the chemistry laboratory at the higher secondary level show that the mean scores of the preferred form of the SLEI are higher than the actual form. This means that the students' preferred learning environments that are more open ended in terms of decision making on the part of the students, seek better material support to perform the laboratory experiments in terms of equipment, chemicals and more cohesiveness with one another in terms of providing support for each other etc. The results on the QTI show that the students see their teachers as good leaders most of the time and have also rated their teachers in terms of exhibiting helpful and friendly nature, understanding and giving students freedom and responsibility in the chemistry laboratory. No significant gender differences have been reported in the chemistry laboratory learning environments however, significant gender differences were found to exist in students' perceptions of their teacher interpersonal behavior in chemistry laboratory settings.


The authors argue that the density of rhetorical devices in Chapter VI of Jerome's Vita Malchi Monachi Captivi not only serves as proof of Jerome's literary competence, but also informs the reader about the real purpose of this short work, namely to serve as an argument in favour of celibacy. Rhetorical devices such as apostrophe, rhetorical questions, biblical allusions, metaphor, antithesis, polarity, rhyme, alliteration, parallelism and chiasmus in this short chapter are pointed out while some parallels are also drawn with the work of a contemporary Syriac-speaking author, Aphrahat the Persian Sage.


Entity matching seeks to identify data records over one or multiple data sources that refer to the same real-world entity. Virtually every entity matching task on large datasets requires blocking, a step that reduces the number of record pairs to be matched. However, most of the traditional blocking methods are learning-free and key-based, and their successes are largely built on laborious human effort in cleaning data and designing blocking keys. In this paper, we propose AutoBlock, a novel hands-off blocking framework for entity matching, based on similarity-preserving representation learning and nearest neighbor search. Our contributions include: (a) Automation: AutoBlock frees users from laborious data cleaning and blocking key tuning. (b) Scalability: AutoBlock has a sub-quadratic total time complexity and can be easily deployed for millions of records. (c) Effectiveness: AutoBlock outperforms a wide range of competitive baselines on multiple large-scale, real-world datasets, especially when datasets are dirty and/or unstructured.


Whitebark pine forests are declining due to infection by white pine blister rust and mountain pine beetle, combined with the effects of climate change and fire suppression. The Canadian Rocky and Columbia Mountains represent a large portion of the whitebark range; a vast area, exemplifying the need for knowledge about whitebark pine stands to target restoration. The aim of our work was to identify variables predicting live tree infection, seedling infection, canopy kill, mortality, and regeneration across this region, and present the results in spatially-explicit formats to assist land managers with restoration. Live tree and seedling infection by white pine blister rust increased over the last decade and cascading effects of the disease are intensifying, including canopy kill and mortality. We show that large diameter trees are more likely to be infected, and the highest infection rates are in southern and western areas. The conditions for seedling infection are more strongly influenced by fine-scale climatic conditions than for trees. Areas with low regeneration are: (1) the dry east slopes where live tree infection is low; and (2) where live tree infection rates are high, suggesting that canopy kill and mortality are influencing regeneration. Results highlight where to target restoration and coordinate across boundaries.


OBJECTIVES The impact of stroke on the emotional outcome of patients is large. The aim was to describe the emotional outcomes among a cohort of patients which was of sufficient size to provide a precise estimate of their frequency and help identify those factors which are associated with poor outcomes after an acute stroke. METHODS 372 surviving patients, who had been referred to a hospital and entered into a randomised trial to evaluate a stroke family care worker, were asked to complete questionnaires at a 6 month follow up. These included measures of emotional distress (general health questionnaire 30 item, hospital anxiety and depression scale) and physical functioning (modified Rankin, Barthel index). A regression analysis was used to identify factors which were independently associated with poor outcomes. RESULTS 184 (60%) surviving patients scored more than 4 on the GHQ-30, 55 (22%) more than 8 on the HAD anxiety subscale, and 49 (20%) more than 8 on the HAD depression subscale. Patients with severe strokes resulting in physical disability were more likely to be depressed whereas there was a less strong relation between disability and anxiety. Patients with posterior circulation strokes had consistently better emotional outcomes than those with anterior circulation strokes. CONCLUSIONS These data may help identify those patients at greatest risk of poor emotional outcomes and thus help in planning trials and delivering appropriate interventions.


Background: The dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with increased mortality, morbidity as well as public health care expenses worldwide. Previous research suggests that yoga holds promise for obesity and T2DM management. Objective: The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of intensive integrated approach of yoga therapy (IAYT) on body fat and body mass index (BMI) and resting metabolism in mid-life overweight patients with T2DM (BMI, Mean ± SD, 27.05 ± 4.51). Materials and Methods: Twenty-four mid-life patients (6 females) with T2DM (Age, Mean ± SD, 55.38 ± 7.96 years) participated in the study and practiced IAYT for 7 days. The IAYT works at five layers of human existence (physical, vital, mental, intellectual and bliss) to bring positive health. The body fat and BMI and resting metabolism were recorded before and after IAYT using Karada Scan body composition monitor HBF-375 from Omron Healthcare Singapore PTE LTD. Statistical Analysis: SPSS-16 was used to analyze the data. Shapiro-Wilk test showed that the data was not normally distributed. Further, the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test was used to analyze the change in means of pre- and post-measurements. Results: Data analysis showed that there was a significant decrease in body fat and BMI and resting metabolism (in all assessments, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The present study suggests that 7 days practice of IAYT has a great promise for the management of overweight in mid-life patients with T2DM. Additional well-designed studies are needed before a strong recommendation can be made.


LAI (leaf area index LeafArea Index,) is the study of green plant atmosphere O2/CO2 exchange, water cycle and water loss, solar energy utilization efficiency and conversion of the important basic work. Through the gap ratio (gap-fraction)principle, LAI digital imaging indirect method are described systematically. Through the determination of the South China different typical wetland canopy 9 observation points, the leaf area index, extinction coefficient, radiation through the characteristic index coefficient of community canopy. And by measuring height LAI characteristics of different stages of secondary forest. The CI110 digital canopy imager (Digital Plant Canopy Imager CI110) method to reduce human error.Also discusses the reasons of south China typical single and mixed forest of mountain rain-forest in LAI than in LAI minor. And the canopy LAI of different types of comparative analysis. The results provide scientific basis for the study of atmospheric environment effect for Hainan coastal vegetation.


This paper argues that the market rules governing the operation of the England and Wales electricity market in combination with the structure of this market presents the two major generators National Power and PowerGen with opportunities to earn revenues substantially in excess of their costs of production for short periods of time. Generators competing to serve this market have two strategic weapons at their disposal: (1) the price bid for each generation set and (2) the capacity of each generation set made available to supply the market each half-hour period during the day. We argue that because of the rules governing the price determination process in this market, by the strategic use of capacity availability declarations, when conditions exogenous to the behavior of the two major generators favor it, these two generators are able to obtain prices for their output substantially in excess of their marginal costs of generation. The paper establishes these points in the following manner. First, we provide a description of the market structure and rules governing the operation of the England and Wales electricity market, emphasizing those aspects that are important to the success of the strategy we believe the two generators use to exercise market power. We then summarize the time series properties of the price of electricity emerging from this market structure and price-setting process. By analyzing four fiscal years of actual market prices, quantities and generator bids into the market, we provide various pieces of evidence in favor of the strategic use of the market rules by the two major participants. The paper closes with a discussion of the lessons that the England and Wales experience can provide for the design of competitive power markets in the US, particularly California, and other countries.


Nonlinear Dynamics of Complex Systems describes chaos, fractal and stochasticities within celestial mechanics, financial systems and biochemical systems. Part I discusses methods and applications in celestial systems and new results in such areas as low energy impact dynamics, low-thrust planar trajectories to the moon and earth-to-halo transfers in the sun, earth and moon. Part II presents the dynamics of complex systems including bio-systems, neural systems, chemical systems and hydro-dynamical systems. Finally, Part III covers economic and financial systems including market uncertainty, inflation, economic activity and foreign competition and the role of nonlinear dynamics in each.


Landslide mechanisms and processes, particularly within the basal deformation region during failure, are poorly understood in the current knowledge. The aim of this research is to understand the initiation processes of shallow rainfall-triggered landslides under humid, tropical conditions. The major objectives are (1) to investigate the actual processes of rainfall-triggered landslides; and (2) to examine the relationship between the rates of pore water pressure increase and the rates of soil movement. Field sampling has been undertaken at two landslide sites on weathered volcanic slopes on Lantau Island, Hong Kong (22 N, 114(^o)E). Reinflation tests have been conducted on the undisturbed soil samples using a triaxial stress path cell to replicate the field conditions during rainstorm events. Various rates of increasing pore water pressure have been designed with reference to the field monitoring data. Landslide initiation processes have been deduced by examining the relationship between the increasing pore water pressures and soil deformation. The results demonstrate that rainfall-induced landslide development on weathered slopes undergoes three stages with distinctive movement patterns towards failure. The key controlling mechanism appears to be plastic deformation. The varied velocities are dependent on the stress state (changes in the mean effective stress, under constant shear stress), the pore water pressure reinflation rate and soil permeability, stage 1 represents a perfectly plastic state below yield. Velocity remains low or at zero as the soil particles are strongly interlocked. The fluctuating to constant strain rates at stage 2 are primarily controlled by the reinflation rate and permeability after exceeding the yield state, with localised interparticle sliding. Rapid acceleration to failure occurs at stage 3, facilitated by the general remoulding process. The systematic movement patterns have also been observed in shallow rainfall- induced landslides in plastic soil materials. The steady-state behaviour could be a precursor for the acceleration to the final failure.


Increased predation on nests of ducks in prairie uplands, as a result of habitat alteration, has been hypothesized to cause decreased nest success and population sizes. We tested whether, and by how much, nest success declined using data compiled from 37 studies conducted between 1935 and 1992 at 67 sites in the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada and the United States. Nest success declined (P = 0.0002) over time, but time explained only 10% of the variation ; precipitation (P = 0.79) did not account for additional variation in nest success. Nest success declined at similar (P = 0.13) rates among 5 species, but late nesters (gadwall [Anas strepera], blue-winged teal [A. discors], and northern shoveler [A. clypeata]) had higher success (P = 0.004) than early nesters (mallard [A. platyrhynchos], and northern pintail [A. acuta]). Populations of gadwalls and northern shovelers, however, have not declined, indicating that declines in nest success may not be related causally to population change. Long-term population declines in blue-winged teal, northern pintails, and mallards coincide with large-scale temporal declines in nest success. Declines in nest success were parallel in parkland and grassland regions, suggesting a causal agent (or agents) that act(s) at a broad scale, despite inherent differences in the composition of the predator communities and habitats between regions.


The rise of cybercrime in the last decade is an economic case of individuals responding to monetary and psychological incentives. Two main drivers for cybercrime can be identi fied: the potential gains from cyberattacks are increasing with the growth of importance of the Internet, and malefactors' expected costs (e.g., the penalties and the likelihood of being apprehended and prosecuted) are frequently lower compared with traditional crimes. In short, computer-mediated crimes are more convenient, and pro table, and less expensive and risky than crimes not mediated by the Internet. The increase in cybercriminal activities, coupled with ineff ective legislation and ineffective law enforcement pose critical challenges for maintaining the trust and security of ourcomputer infrastructures.Modern computer attacks encompass a broad spectrum of economic activity, where various malfeasants specialize in developing speci c goods (exploits, botnets, mailers) and services (distributing malware, monetizing stolen credentials, providing web hosting, etc.). A typical Internet fraud involves the actions of many of these individuals, such as malware writers, botnet herders, spammers, data brokers, and money launderers.Assessing the relationships among various malfeasants is an essential piece of information for discussing economic, technical, and legal proposals to address cybercrime. This paper presents a framework for understanding the interactions between these individuals and how they operate. We follow three steps.First, we present the general architecture of common computer attacks, and discuss the flow of goods and services that supports the underground economy. We discuss the general flow of resources between criminal groups and victims, and the interactions between diff erent specialized cybercriminals.Second, we describe the need to estimate the social costs of cybercrime and the profi ts of cybercriminals in order to identify optimal levels of protection. One of the main problems in quantifying the precise impact of cybercrime is that computer attacks are not always detected, or reported. Therefore we propose the need to develop a more systematic and transparent way of reporting computer breaches and their eff ects.Finally, we propose some possible countermeasures against criminal activities. In particular, we analyze the role private and public protection, and the incentives of multiple stake holders.


This article analyzes proposals to reform agency decision making and then expands the discussion to include broader issues of why agency caseloads are so large, what can be done to reduce them, and what is the appropriate role for the federal courts in reviewing agency policymaking. The proposals include first, Judge Heifitz's proposals suggestive of a future where alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and automated data processing will lead to more efficient caseload management. He suggests ALJs should remain assigned to particular agencies to best utilize their experience rather than become part of a unified corps able to hear cases before any agency. In analyzing his ADR proposal, I raise a cautionary concern that in many regulatory and benefit claims decisions, government officials act as surrogates for the public. Here government officials have a responsibility to exercise their policy making function and only approve settlements that are consistent with their legislatively-mandated standards. Second, I analyze James Cawley's provocative thesis that the Sunshine laws have led to decreased deliberative discussions at multi-member agencies, reduced collegiality, and have resulted in a decline in the importance of agency meetings. I then critically examine his proposal that deliberative discussions by agency members be exempt from the Sunshine laws procedural requirements. The article then more broadly asks for a rethinking of the benefits claims process and on the regulatory side, a re-examination of standards by which courts review agency regulatory decisions. The fundamental questions are: (1) what is the appropriate role of the federal courts in reviewing executive policymaking, and (2) when is regulatory action necessary to safeguard the public from imperfections in the market place? In the twenty-first century, the United States is in a period of expanding government deficits that inhibit economic growth and burden future generations. Certain fundamental problems of administrative policy that affect agency caseloads and their resolution must be addressed. What benefit programs should be funded and at what levels? What is the proper role of government in our economy? Should the supervision and regulation of banks and savings and loans associations be increased or decreased? What regulatory techniques should be used to improve environmental quality? What is the role of the federal courts in reviewing agency policymaking decisions?


Research findings usually
suggest that premarital cohabitation is associated with increased risk of
marital dissolution. In Iceland, cohabitation has been semi-formalized and if
people register cohabitation they acquire certain rights and undertake some obligations.
Using data on register cohabitation thus enables us to investigate the proposed
association from a somewhat different perspective. The data allow us to focus
on couples that intend to live together while weeding out couples that merely
"drift" into coresidential unions. We use administrative population register
data in our calculations covering all women born in Iceland during 1962–2013,
their childbearing and union histories. We analyse the data by means of event
history techniques and present the results as relative risks of union
dissolution. Our estimates indicate that premarital registered cohabitation in
Iceland is associated with lower risk of marital break-ups, and that this
finding is quite robust. We do not detect any changes in the relationship
during the study period (1995–2013). We interpret the Icelandic-specific
findings in support of a trial marriage hypothesis, suggesting that
semi-formalized cohabitation results in lower risks of divorce.


"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was the directive of President Clinton's 1993 military policy regarding gay and lesbian soldiers. This official silence continued a collective amnesia about the patriotic service and courageous sacrifices of homosexual troops. "Ask and Tell" recovers these lost voices, offering a rich chronicle of the history of gay and lesbian service in the U.S. military from World War II to the Iraq War. Drawing on more than 50 interviews with gay and lesbian veterans, Steve Estes charts the evolution of policy toward homosexuals in the military over the past 65 years, uncovering the ways that silence about sexuality and military service has affected the identities of gay veterans. These veteran voices - harrowing, heroic, and on the record - reveal the extraordinary stories of ordinary Americans, men and women who simply did their duty and served their country in the face of homophobia, prejudice, and enemy fire. Far from undermining national security, unit cohesion, or troop morale, Estes demonstrates, these veterans strengthened the U.S. military in times of war and peace. He also examines challenges to the ban on homosexual service, placing them in the context of the wider movement for gay rights and gay liberation. "Ask and Tell" is an important compilation of unheard voices, offering Americans a new understanding of the value of all the men and women who serve and protect them.


Renowned for its clear writing style, logical organization, level and depth of content, and excellent color illustrations, Fundamentals of Urine & Body Fluid Analysis, 3rd Edition covers the collection and analysis of urine, fecal specimens, vaginal secretions, and other body fluids such as cerebrospinal, synovial, seminal, amniotic, pleural, pericardial, and peritoneal fluids. Expert author Nancy Brunzel shares her extensive knowledge and expertise in the field, presenting key information and essential techniques and procedures, as well as easy-to-grasp explanations of how to correlate data with basic anatomy and physiology to understand pathological processes.Vaginal Fluid Analysis chapter covers vaginal wet preps, a topic not found in many other references. Case studies help you understand how key concepts apply to real-world practice. Full-color images and photomicrographs show you what you should see under the microscope. An image glossary presents 94 additional images to help you identify rare and common cells. Multiple-choice questions at the end of every chapter allow you to test your understanding of the material. A glossary at the end of the book offers quick access to key terms and definitions.NEW! Automation of Urine and Body Fluid Analysis chapter helps you understand the automated procedures being used in more and more labs. NEW! Body Fluid Analysis: Manual Hemacytometer Counts and Differential Slide Preparation chapter ensures you know how to perform manual analysis methods. UPDATED! Coverage of the latest instrumentation keeps you up to date with the technology used in today's laboratories.


Patients' use of medicines is widely recognised as sub-optimal with a high proportion of patients with a long-term condition not taking their medicines as prescribed. Research and policy guidance emphasise the importance of partnership within the patient-prescriber encounter in enhancing patients' use of medicines. There is however considerable evidence that this is not usually achieved by medical prescribers, limiting the extent to which shared decision-making occurs about prescribed medicines. There is a general assumption that nurse prescribers, who within the United Kingdom have comparable prescribing rights to medical doctors, demonstrate greater abilities in collaborative working with patients leading to an enhanced use of medicines. Research evidence is however limited, particularly in relation to the ways in which patients' use of medicines is discussed and negotiated within the patient-nurse prescriber encounter. This study focused on the management of patients' use of medicines within the patient-nurse prescriber encounter. Seven nurse prescribers, working within a number of clinical specialities in both primary and secondary care settings, were recruited to the study together with their patients who were living with one or more long-term conditions (n=21). Data collection involved the non-participant observation of out-patient consultations to examine the management of patients' use of medicines within the encounter and semi-structured interviews with both patients and prescribers. Discourse analysis was undertaken to examine underpinning assumptions, views and beliefs regarding the management of patients' use of medicines. Asymmetry was evident within the encounters with prescribers controlling the agenda for discussion and interrupting patients' attempts to demonstrate their knowledge. Patient accounts of the moral approach adopted in managing their condition in the context of their everyday lives were also ignored. Biomedical and contrasting moral discourses are examined. An interpretive framework derived from the work of Michel Foucault is used to explain the operation of disciplinary, pastoral and bio-political power within the encounter and the extent to which subjugation of patients' knowledge and resistance were evident. Foucault's concept of technologies of the self is examined to explore its potential application in enhancing patients' medicines use.


Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) is the cellular receptor for the major group of human rhinoviruses (HRVs) and the adhesion ligand of lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1. Analysis of a series of chimeric exchanges between human and murine ICAM-1 shows that two distinct epitopes recognized by monoclonal antibodies that block rhinovirus attachment and cell adhesion map to the N-terminal first domain of ICAM-1. Furthermore the specificity for HRV binding is entirely contained within the first 88 amino acids. Mutagenesis of the four sites of N-linked glycosylation within the second domain shows that carbohydrate is not involved in virus recognition. Homologue replacement mutagenesis localizes the epitopes for virus-blocking antibodies to two regions of domain 1 predicted to form beta strand D and the loop between the F and G strands of an immunoglobulin-fold structure. Analysis of virus binding to the mutants predicts a large surface of contact between HRV and ICAM-1 domain 1 but shows that the regions most important for virus binding are coincident with the monoclonal antibody epitopes.


This early career research paper has its origins in a wider study on younger children's perceptions of internet safety and how the child's voice can be included to potentially help inform current policy and practice surrounding child internet safety. The paper starts with acknowledging research paucity surrounding younger children's understanding of digital environments (Holloway, Green & Livingstone, 2013), proposing that this paucity of research may reflect assumed difficulties in research involving younger children (Olfasson, Livingstone, & Haddon, 2013). The paper goes on to identify that research with children is desirable to research on children and that giving children a voice enables them to become active participants, causing a cultural shift where children are the subjects involved within the research as opposed to the objects (Pinter, Kuchah & Smith, 2013). Research aimed at empowering children's digital engagement often lacks the experiences and perspective of children (Chaudron, 2015). To ensure that younger children are not passive participants, this paper will propose and discuss two creative and innovative research methods to ensure the child's voice is heard within the research environment. The research environment will be two primary schools within the same local authority within West Yorkshire. The first method will include engaging with age appropriate story books regarding child internet safety, which will be used to gather the young children's perceptions of internet safety, risk, trust and danger. Next, to encourage a more child-centred, holistic approach to data collection, a role play area based on the stories will be created to further consider younger children's perceptions of internet safety and assist in determining any potential influences from adopting creative and innovative research methodologies with children. The paper will acknowledge the different viewpoints on research with young children, including relevance, reliability, validity and ethics, making links with the methodological approaches to capitalise on children's social interaction to encourage the collection of reliable and valid data (Pinter et al., 2013). This paper thus seeks to examine how, encouragement of the child's voice potentially identifies the differences in adults and children's perspectives, providing insights into how best to support child internet safety (Morgan, Gibbs, Maxwell & Britten, 2002).


The Supreme Court's decision in Johnson Controls is the culmination of a long legal campaign by labor, women's rights, and workplace safety advocates to invalidate restrictions on women's employment based on pregnancy. This campaign powerfully demonstrates the use of amicus briefs as opportunities to link the efforts of groups with overlapping agendas and to shape the Supreme Court's understanding of the surrounding empirical, social and political context. But Johnson Controls also provides important lessons about the narrowing effects and fragility of litigation-centered mobilization. The case affirmed an important anti-discrimination principle but ironically left women (and men) with the right to work in unsafe workplaces. The national coalition that had organized in support of the Johnson Controls plaintiffs did not stay together to address these complex issues after the case was won. Instead, the coalition disbanded and its members moved on to pursue diverse and separate agendas. The Johnson Controls story poses important questions about social justice advocacy in the current legal and political environment. What does a litigation-centered mobilization mean for how problems are defined and addressed? How does it determine who participates in and influences the course of advocacy? Can a national law reform campaign sustain public attention to problems not addressed by a legal claim? Can it maintain crucial alliances when litigation ends? How do political realities shape legal advocacy? This Law Stories chapter addresses these questions by comparing the national legal mobilization strategy in Johnson Controls with an analogous strategy adopted by advocates in California in the 1980s and 1990s to address reproductive workplace hazards. In contrast to the national coalition's focus on establishing a legal principle, the state strategy embraced a problem-oriented approach to reproductive hazards in the workplace, using litigation and the sex discrimination framework as only one component of a long-term strategy that involved public education and outreach, legislative advocacy, and regulatory reform. As today's federal courts become less available as a site for advancing rights, these problem-oriented approaches to advocacy become more salient and provide important models for public interest lawyers seeking ways to use law to mobilize change.


We present the final statistical sample of lensed quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Lens Search (SQLS). The well-defined statistical lens sample consists of 26 lensed quasars brighter than i = 19.1 and in the redshift range of 0.6 < z < 2.2 selected from 50,826 spectroscopically confirmed quasars in the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7), where we restrict the image separation range to 1″ < θ < 20″ and the i-band magnitude differences in two images to be smaller than 1.25 mag. The SDSS DR7 quasar catalog also contains 36 additional lenses identified with various techniques. In addition to these lensed quasars, we have identified 81 pairs of quasars from follow-up spectroscopy, 26 of which are physically associated binary quasars. The statistical lens sample covers a wide range of image separations, redshifts, and magnitudes, and therefore is suitable for systematic studies of cosmological parameters and surveys of the structure and evolution of galaxies and quasars.


Selectively inducing cancer cells to death is the goal of cancer therapy. The discovery of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family members regulating apoptotic cell death of cancer cells revealed new targets for cancer therapy. Bcl-2 family members can be classified into pro-apoptotic members and anti-apoptotic members among which myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1) plays unique roles in regulating cell death and survival in cancer cells. Mcl-1 has a short half-life due to its degradation by multiple E3 ubiquitin-ligases. Under hypoxic conditions, Mcl-1 is up-regulated by activation of growth factor receptor, EGFR promoting cell survival whereas, prolonged/severe hypoxia leads to deactivation of EGFR and Mcl-1 degradation by E3 ubiquitin -ligase FBW7 contributing to cell death. Furthermore, cancer cells upregulated Mcl-1 contributing resistance to chemotherapeutic treatment such as by inhibitors of other antiapoptotic Bcl-2 members Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Bcl-w. Therefore, Mcl- 1 might be the key player in pro-survival Bcl-2 family members in regulating cancer cell death. This encourages the on-going active development of Mcl-1 specific inhibitors for cancer treatment.