Rab35 mediates membrane trafficking between the plasma membrane and the early endosomes at the cell surface. Our understanding of the cellular function of Rab35 reveals its role in development and diseases. In the developmental context, Rab35 has been shown to play an important role in regulating epithelial polarity, lumen opening, myoblast fusion, intercalation of epithelium, myelination, neurite outgrowth, and oocyte meiotic maturation. Disruption of recycling endosome mediated by Rab35 has been linked to several neurological diseases, including Parkinson's disease and Down syndrome. In addition, because Rab35 modulates cell migration through its interaction with various effectors, Rab35 plays an important role in cancers. Lastly, the Rab35-mediated recycling endosomal pathway and exocytosis is utilized by pathogens or hijacked by pathogens to promote their infection and survival. This review summarizes the function of Rab35 in endocytosis and focuses on the role of Rab35 in the context of development and diseases.


This article is a revised version of a paper produced as part of a review of Agency for International Development policy in communication undertaken by Stanford University's Institute for Communication Research for which Edwin Parker and the author were co-principal investigators. Others contributed heavily to earlier drafts of this paper and the background papers on which it was based (see 7, 8, 13, 14, 18). They include (in alphabetical order) Ronny Adhikarya, Eduardo Contreras-Budge, Dennis Foote, Douglas Goldschmidt, John Mayo, Emile McAnany, Jeanne Moulton, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, Edwin Parker, Everett Rogers, and Douglas Solomon. The "we" used in the text is neither royal nor editorial, but refers to some subset of the author and this list of contributors. The work was performed under contract ta-C-1472 with the Development Support Bureau (Office of Education and Human Resources) of USAID, and benefited from advice from Clifford Block, Anthony Meyer, and David Sprague of that office.


Objective: Psychiatric educators need to develop innovative strategies to attract more medical students to psychiatry. In 2008, the University of Western Australia held the inaugural Claassen Institute of Psychiatry for Medical Students. This novel program aimed to increase students' level of interest in psychiatry as a career opportunity. Method: Students completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires. Questions were rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Results: Thirty students participated. The average age was 25.5 years and 11 were male. The mean interest and knowledge in psychiatry from baseline to follow-up increased from 7.8 to 8.9 and 5.8 to 7.3, respectively. Mean interest and knowledge in neurosciences increased from 6.9 to 7.7 and 4.3 to 6.2, respectively. Paired t sample tests were significant (p<0.001). Students 'definitely considering' a career in psychiatry increased by 20% overall from baseline to follow-up. Enjoyment and organization of the week were rated highly. Conclusions: The Institute is an innovative teaching strategy targeted towards medical students. The program increased the level of interest shown by students in psychiatry as a career. The Institute may positively contribute to recruitment of students to psychiatry training programs and it is planned to run it annually.


Creativity, Law and Entrepreneurship explores the idea of creativity, its relationship to entrepreneurship, and the law's role in inhibiting and promoting it. The inquiry into law and creativity reduces to an inquiry about what people do, what activities and actions they engage in. What unites law and creativity, work and play, is their shared origins in human activity, however motivated, to whatever purpose directed. In this work contributors from the US and Europe explore the ways in which law incentivizes particular types of activity as they develop themes related to emergent theories of entrepreneurship (public, private, and social); lawyering and the creative process; creativity in a business and social context; and creativity and the construction of legal rights.


This article provides an overview of the situation of Spanish in the Irish educational system and in wider society. Spain
enjoys positive attitudes among Irish people, helped by the considerable amount of property in that country purchased by
Irish during the past few years. The Spanish language has over the years experienced mixed fortunes as regards its place in
Irish education. Recently, however, there has been a moderate increase in the numbers studying Spanish across all sectors.
Other European languages have lost students, while uptake for Spanish has increased. Numbers studying Spanish lag far
behind those studying French, however, and in fact there is a general tendency towards a decrease in the study of languages
nationally. The future is problematic, since any weakening of the requirement that those seeking admission to the
National University of Ireland must have studied foreign languages will tend to detract from their status. Another factor
that is very hard to predict is the effect of mass immigration - there are now over 100 languages spoken in Ireland - on
linguistic policy.


BACKGROUND
The instantaneous rate of change of alcohol exposure (slope) may contribute to changes in measures of brain function following administration of alcohol that are usually attributed to breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) acting alone. To test this proposition, a 2-session experiment was designed in which carefully prescribed, constant-slope trajectories of BrAC intersected at the same exposure level and time since the exposure began. This paper presents the methods and limitations of the experimental design.

METHODS
Individualized intravenous infusion rate profiles of 6% ethanol (EtOH) that achieved the constant-slope trajectories for an individual were precomputed using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model. Adjusting the parameters of the model allowed each infusion profile to account for the subject's EtOH distribution and elimination kinetics. Sessions were conducted in randomized order and made no use of feedback of BrAC measurements obtained during the session to modify the precalculated infusion profiles. In one session, an individual's time course of exposure, BrAC(t), was prescribed to rise at a constant rate of 6.0 mg% per minute until it reached 68 mg% and then descend at -1.0 mg% per minute; in the other, to rise at a rate of 3.0 mg% per minute. The 2 exposure trajectories were designed to intersect at a BrAC (t = 20 minutes) = 60 mg% at an experimental time of 20 minutes.

RESULTS
Intersection points for 54 of 61 subjects were within prescribed deviations (range of ± 3 mg% and ± 4 minutes from the nominal intersection point).

CONCLUSIONS
Results confirmed the feasibility of applying the novel methods for achieving the intended time courses of the BrAC, with technical problems limiting success to 90% of the individuals tested.


The book is written for anyone seriously interested in Plato's thought and in the history of literary theory or of rhetoric. No knowledge of Greek is required. The focus of this account is on how the resources both of persuasive myth and of formal argument, for all that Plato sets them in strong contrast, nevertheless complement and reinforce each other in his philosophy.


The adoption of smart devices in homes is rapidly advancing, and information on our daily routines and activities is collected, processed, disseminated by these devices in order to function. People have specific ideas as to which, when, why, and how information on them may be collected and used. They feel infringed in their privacy if data collection practices deviate. To address this issue, we suggest a roadmap of future directions and research methods for privacy research on smart homes. We systematically review privacy-related papers to identify research gaps, reflect on methodological choices, and propose research designs to fill these gaps. Our key conclusion is that privacy research in Smart Homes needs to be holistic and contextual.


This article examines how undocumented immigrants become politicized and evolved into a relatively powerful group in the United States. It does so by examining the evolution of day laborers from their humble beginnings in a Los Angeles suburb in the early 1990s into an important component of the national immigrant rights movement today. It addresses the issue by examining the strategic importance of the 'urban' in enabling stigmatized individuals like undocumented day laborers to overcome major barriers and establish themselves as a vocal and potent group in the public sphere. It suggests that once this group gained a foothold and a sense of itself through urban relational spaces, it experienced enhanced capacities to make rights claims in local and national political arenas. The article uses a case study of immigrant activism in Pasadena and Los Angeles, California, and draws special attention to the evolution of the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON).


Objectives - Preferences of both Alzheimer patients and their spouse caregivers are related to a willingness-to-pay (WTP) measure which is used to test for the presence of mutual (rather than the conventional one-way) altruism. Methods - Identical contingent valuation interviews were conducted in 2000 - 2002 for 126 Alzheimer patients and their caregiving spouses living in the Zurich metropolitan area (Switzerland). We elicit WTP three hypothetical treatments of the demented patient. The treatment Stabilization prevents the worsening of the disease, bringing dementia to a standstill. Cure restores patient health to its original level. In No burden, dementia takes its normal course while caregiveri?½s burden is reduced to its level before the disease. Results - Different characteristics of therapies are reflected in differences in WTP values. Accepting WTP values as expression of preferences, one finds that patients do not rank Cure higher than No burden; implying that their WTP is entirely altruistic. Caregiving spouses rank Cure before Burden, some 40 percent of their WTP reflecting an altruistic motive again. Discussion - The evidence suggests that WTP values are reliable measures of subjective preferences even in Alzheimer patients. Using this indicator, it is found that only caregivers have extra WTP for Cure, implying that curing dementia has value exclusively to them.


We present multiepoch spectra of 13 high-redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) drawn from the literature, the ESSENCE and SNLS projects, and our own separate dedicated program on the ESO Very Large Telescope. We use the Supernova Identification (SNID) code of Blondin and Tonry to determine the spectral ages in the supernova rest frame. Comparison with the observed elapsed time yields an apparent aging rate consistent with the 1/(1 + z) factor (where z is the redshift) expected in a homogeneous, isotropic, expanding universe. These measurements thus confirm the expansion hypothesis, while unambiguously excluding models that predict no time dilation, such as Zwicky's "tired light" hypothesis. We also test for power-law dependencies of the aging rate on redshift. The best-fit exponent for these models is consistent with the expected 1/(1 + z) factor.


Several optical modulation and detection schemes are compared by computing their spectral efficiencies over additive white Gaussian noise channels. The bandwidth savings of differential quadrature phase-shift keying (D-QPSK) over both direct-detection on-off keying and differential binary phase-shift keying suggest that D-QPSK can improve the reach and efficiency of wavelength-division multiplexing systems. To test the theory, Reed-Solomon and low-density parity-check forward error correction codes are designed and evaluated. The codes generally behave as expected, except that for D-QPSK the gains are hampered by the differential detector. It is further shown that neither multiple-symbol differential detection nor decision-feedback detection is attractive when using strong codes.


Historical analysis remains a fundamentally important tool to interpret the words of the Fourth Amendment and no historical event is more important that James Otis' argument in the Writs of Assistance Case in 1761. The Writs case and the competing views articulated by the advocates continue to serve as a template in the never-ending struggle to accommodate individual security and governmental needs. In that case, James Otis first challenged British search and seizure practices and offered an alternative vision of proper search and seizure principles. No authority preceding Otis had articulated so completely the framework for the search and seizure requirements that were ultimately embodied in the Fourth Amendment. More fundamentally, Otis' importance then and now stems not from the particulars of his argument; instead, he played and should continue to play an inspirational role for those seeking to find the proper accommodation between individual security and governmental needs. Otis proposed a framework of search and seizure principles designed to protect individual security. James Otis, his vision, and his legacy have become largely forgotten outside a small circle of Fourth Amendment scholars. This essay is a modest attempt to recall his importance for contemporary construction of the Fourth Amendment.


Understanding of how people use space and interact among them and with the built environment is largely of a tacit nature and remains untested by empirical verification. It is very difficult to understand the benefits that a particular spatial configuration provides in terms of creating new, and developing existing, meaningful social behaviours. Organisations are particularly interested in linking the design of their buildings to their work activities. And in linking space and work one main aim is to improve the effectiveness of those work activities. This link is difficult to prove, because there are problems in trying to determine which aspects of the workplace most affect the productivity of people using it and how the productivity can be measured in a way that can be related to established business measures such as cost or output. An interesting possibility, which has very recently been introduced into the office environment with the purpose of gaining a more accurate understanding of space utilisation by organisations themselves, is that offered by location tracking technologies. We have conducted some practical research in organisations that have deployed a location tracking system, exploring the following questions: What can these technologies tell us about space and social interaction in the office environment that we can not extract with current methods and tools? And how can we make this newly acquired knowledge useful for organizations in terms of understanding productivity?


Abstract In examining demand for a product it is useful to think of consumers not as purchasing the product, but as purchasing its characteristics that provide utility. Consequently, it is important to measure the specific characteristics that consumers perceive as providing them with utility. In this article a hedonic pricing model is used to investigate the influence of different cowpea characteristics on cowpea prices in Senegal. The results provide valuable information for research institutions, producers, and traders. Cowpea plant breeders should emphasise large grain size as the main characteristic since buyers are willing to pay a premium for this characteristic. This should translate into higher returns on R&D. There exist differences between markets in terms of consumer preferences for testa colour and texture. The result is that sorting and grading of cowpeas according to these characteristics should increase profits, as there would be fewer discounts for undesired characteristics. The importance of adequate storage is also emphasized to protect seeds against insect damage. Finally, it appears that prices in different markets are not equally responsive to changes in the supply of cowpeas. Higher returns could hence be realized through more efficient sequencing of sales.


The Recursive Bayesian Net (RBN) formalism was originally developed for modelling nested causal relationships. In this paper we argue that the formalism can also be applied to modelling the hierarchical structure of mechanisms. The resulting network contains quantitative information about probabilities, as well as qualitative information about mechanistic structure and causal relations. Since information about probabilities, mechanisms and causal relations is vital for prediction, explanation and control respectively, an RBN can be applied to all these tasks. We show in particular how a simple two-level RBN can be used to model a mechanism in cancer science. The higher level of our model contains variables at the clinical level, while the lower level maps the structure of the cell's mechanism for apoptosis.


Abstract. The role of seagrass, Posidonia oceanica, meadows as a source of transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) to Mediterranean coastal waters was tested by comparing the TEP dynamics in two adjacent coastal waters in the oligotrophic NW Mediterranean Sea, one characterized by oligotrophic open-sea waters and the other accumulating seagrass leaf litter, together with an experimental examination of TEP release by seagrass litter. TEP concentrations ranged from 4.6 to 90.6 µg XG (xanthan gum) Eq L−1, with mean (±SE) values of 38.7 (± 2.02) µg XG Eq L−1 in the site devoid of seagrass litter, whereas the coastal beach site accumulating leaf litter had > 10-fold mean TEP concentrations of 487.02 (± 72.8) µg XG Eq L−1. Experimental evaluation confirmed high rates of TEP production by P. oceanica litter, allowing calculations of the associated TEP yield. We demonstrated that P. oceanica is an important source of TEPs to the Mediterranean Sea, contributing an estimated 76 Gg C as TEPs annually. TEP release by P. oceanica seagrass explains the elevated TEP concentration relative to the low chlorophyll a concentration in the Mediterranean Sea.


Everything you wanted to know about eye movement monitoring but were afraid to ask: This is a primer for researchers new to the use of eye-tracking and particularly those with an interest in language production. It summarizes the early history of eye movement monitoring in language production research, briefly reviews the relationship between visual attention and eye movements, and details the practical concerns of collecting and analyzing gaze data. In particular, the paper discusses the features and functions of available eye-tracking software and hardware systems, as well as tools for automatically processing speech. We close with a review of dependent measures that have been derived from eye movement data as well as how they were used and interpreted.


Lipoxygenases (LOXs) are non-heme iron- or manganese-containing dioxygenases that catalyze the regio- and stereospecific peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids containing at least one cis,cis-1,4-pentadiene system. In previous studies, two iron-containing LOX isozymes, CspLOX1 and CspLOX2, have been identified in Cyanothece sp. and their crystal structures have been solved. In this study, both enzymes were characterized in detail to elucidate the relationship between protein structure and function. Most interesting were thereby the N-terminal α-helical extension of CspLOX1 which is not present in other LOXs and the unusual oxygenation specificity of CspLOX2. The here described liposome binding studies with CspLOX1 revealed that the α-helical extension is crucial for binding of CspLOX1 to vesicles. This domain might thus present a new membrane targeting domain that could be involved in direct substrate acquisition from membranes. Furthermore, the structural factors of CspLOX2 that control the oxygen insertion at the middle position of the pentadiene system were analyzed. Substitution of amino acids in the core of the active site by smaller residues shifted the major products of linoleic acid from the bis-allylic 11R- to either 9R-, 9S-, 13R- or 13S-hydroperoxy octadecadienoic acid in correlation with the position of the substituted amino acid. Furthermore, in a gain of function approach, the active site of CspLOX1 was constricted by two point mutations to mimic the CspLOX2 active site. This in turn induced 11-HPODE formation in CspLOX1. Together with computational data, these results suggest that steric shielding plays an important role in the formation of the bis-allylic product. Steric shielding is probably one of the most important factors to explain the oxygenation specificity also for other LOXs.


Background: Procedure-induced dissection of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) is a rare complication of coronary catheterization, but it may have fatal results. The outcomes of stent implantation in patients with procedure-induced LMCA dissection are still unclear. Method: From April 2002 to December 2005, 4852 patients underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for coronary artery disease in this institute. During this period, 5 patients (0.1%) developed procedure-induced LMCA dissection during PCI, and they received stent implantation for this complication. Result: All of the 5 patients developed procedure-induced LMCA dissection during PCI for stenosis of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery. Procedure-induced dissection of the LMCA developed during manipulation of the guiding catheter in 1, after balloon dilatation for LAD steno sis in 1, and after stent implantation for LAD stenosis in 3 patients. Immediate success of stent implantation for LMCA dissection was achieved in all 5 patients. No major complication was noted during LM stenting. At a mean follow-up period of 43±23 months (range 9 to 66 months), four of the 5 patients (80%) underwent repeated coronary angiography due to recurrent angina. One of 4 patients received PCI for restenosis of LMCA. There were no major cardiac events, including requirement of coronary artery bypass graft surgery, myocardial infarction or death during the follow-up period. Conclusion: LMCA dissection during PCI could be successfully managed by prompt stent implantation, with acceptable immediate and long-term outcomes.


Following the 1953 flood, the Dutch delta has been shut off from the sea by a series of dams and dykes. This closing-off transformed the delta from a constantly changing estuarine environment into a freshwater body. A different way of thinking about 'nature' in the period 1970–1980 led to the policy proposal to transform the Haringvliet, one of the shut-off water bodies, back to its natural state. The intended first step was a minor change in the sluice control of the dam that separates the Haringvliet from the sea. However minor, this step was never taken and it is still an ongoing policy debate whether the sluice should be slightly opened or not. This paper presents a coevolutionary analysis of why such a seemingly small change could take so much time and effort to become actualized. We demonstrate that the course of the policy process is determined through patterns of reciprocity between the physical and societal systems. Effects of measures are unpredictable, and the desired state of this water basin greatly varies between actors and over time. It is a combination of these factors that explains why the sluice control has not been changed yet.


What will AI systems be like in the near and long terms? Basically, we'll get the AI that people are willing to pay for. Consequently, many specialized applications will appear long before AI demonstrates its "Manifest Destiny" of human-level general intelligence. The AI demonstrations and applications we're going to see in the near future will trend strongly toward "cognitive prostheses" - systems that do well things that humans do poorly or don't like to do. Both near-term and far-future systems will need to interact smoothly with humans, which will put special constraints on them. In particular, to build systems that we'll trust and want to use, we'll need to carefully consider and craft their implicit and explicit values


Abstract This paper examines Finnish (n = 464) and Iranian (n = 556) teachers' views on their competence to teach purpose. 'Purpose' is defined as a stable intention to accomplish something that is both meaningful to the self and of consequence beyond the self over time. The study revealed that all Iranian teachers evaluated their competence for teaching purpose as being high, regardless of the subject taught. In contrast, among Finnish teachers, there were statistically significant relationships between the subject taught and teachers' self-perceptions: religious education seemed to provide a subject in which Finnish teachers can guide students to consider explicitly their purpose in life and plans for the future, while science and mathematics appeared to offer the most challenging contexts for teaching purpose. Hence, the results challenge Finnish in-service and pre-service teacher education programmes to create new approaches and new cultures for mathematics and science education, which intentionally take into account the moral aspects of teaching. Moreover, regression analysis revealed that teachers' ethical sensitivity predicted their views on teaching purpose in both countries. Results indicate that improving teachers' ethical sensitivity skills in teacher education programmes could provide a significant path for supporting teachers' competence in teaching purpose.


Background Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurological disorder that leads to progressive degeneration of the physical, cognitive and emotional self. A clear multidisciplinary approach is essential in maintaining quality of life for those affected by HD. Occupational Therapy (OT) has a key role to play in maximising function and quality of life for those with HD. Internationally there is a dearth of research and best practice guidelines relating to OT and HD. Research available primarily focuses on Personal Acts of Daily Living (PADLs) and community settings, not involving those in long term care. Method/intervention It was observed in practice that a number of clients on our service with HD experienced considerable difficulties initiating engagement with meaningful occupation. The Model of Human Screening Tool (MUST) was selected as the assessment tool alongside a collateral history. Clients were assigned to group programmes or 1:1 intervention as indicated. A unique 'Supporting me to Engage' document was then developed outlining individualised approaches for each client to enable consistency of approach from all staff. Outcome Enabling clients with HD to engage with meaningful occupation can improve overall occupational functioning, quality of life and reduce instances of behaviours that may prove challenging. Improvements in motivation for occupation, pattern of occupation, communication and interaction were observed. Due to the degenerative nature of HD, programmes must remain responsive to any deterioration in function. Conclusions Further research is required in this area in order to validate and support the development of OT Assessments specifically for those with HD.


Abstract. Knowledge transfer and dialogue processes in the field of climate science have captured intensive attention in recent years as being an important part of research activities. Therefore, the demand and pressure to develop a set of indicators for the evaluation of different activities in this field have increased, too. Research institutes are being asked more and more to build up structures in order to map these activities and, thus, are obliged to demonstrate the success of these efforts. This paper aims to serve as an input to stimulate further reflection on the field of evaluation of knowledge transfer and dialogue processes in the context of climate sciences. The work performed in this paper is embedded in the efforts of the German Helmholtz Association in the research field of earth and environment and is driven by the need to apply suitable indicators for knowledge transfer and dialogue processes in climate research center evaluations. We carry out a comparative analysis of three long-term activities and derive a set of indicators for measuring their output and outcome by balancing the wide diversity and range of activity contents as well as the different tools to realize them. The case examples are based on activities which are part of the regional Helmholtz Climate Initiative Regional Climate Change (REKLIM) and the Climate Office for Polar Regions and Sea Level Rise at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. Both institutional units have been working on a wide range of different knowledge transfer and dialogue processes since 2008/2009. We demonstrate that indicators for the evaluation must be based on the unique objectives of the individual activities and the framework they are embedded in (e.g., research foci which provide the background for the performed knowledge transfer and dialogue processes) but can partly be classified in a principle two-dimensional scheme. This scheme might serve as a usable basis for climate research center evaluation in the future. It, furthermore, underlines the need for further development of proper mechanisms to evaluate scientific centers, in particular with regard to knowledge transfer and dialogue processes.


Background: Tea (Camellia sinensis) being the most widely drank beverage and despite having numerous beneficial role toward health and disease, its safety evaluation during pregnancy and prenatal, postnatal developmental period need to be monitored. Objective: This study was to evaluate the toxicity of black tea extract (BTE) in experimental pregnant rats and on their pups during prenatal and postnatal developmental periods. Materials and Methods: Pregnant female (120 ± 10 g) Wister albino rats were chosen for this study. Group 1 was control group where pregnant female rats were treated with saline. Group 2 and Group 3 were pregnant female rats treated with 50 mg and 100 mg BTE/kg/day, respectively, throughout prenatal and postnatal periods. All three groups of rats were provided food and drinking water ad libitum. Animals were examined through their urinary and serum parameters, histopathological studies, and biomorphometric studies in pups. All data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation with significance between the controls and the treated groups (n = 6). Collected data were subjected to the analysis of variance and Tukey test; P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: BTE produced significant alterations in urinary calcium, creatinine, and urea during prenatal period; exhibited proteinuria, ketonuria, and histology showed nephrotoxicity during postnatal period, and BTE also showed a significant increase in serum proinflammatory cytokines and decreased anti-inflammatory cytokines level compared to control group. BTE caused significant changes in biomorphometric parameters in the pups as compared with pups of control mothers. Conclusion: This study confirmed the BTE-induced toxicity in pregnant rats and their pups. Abbreviations used: BTE: Black tea extract, IL-1α: Interleukin 1 alpha, IL-1 β: Interleukin 1 beta, IL-6: Interleukin 6, IL-10: Interleukin 10, TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor alpha.


Agricultural education programs are becoming a popular course for the inclusion of students with disabling conditions, but little research has been conducted to assess teacher confidence and knowledge regarding special education and teaching diverse populations in agricultural education classrooms and laboratories. This dissertation investigated and measured student teacher confidence in regard to teaching special education students in agricultural education classrooms and laboratories. Student teacher knowledge of common disabling conditions and special education laws were investigated.
Three hundred thirty-five student teachers located in the Southern Region as defined by American Association of Agricultural Education (AAAE) participated in the study. There were 13 states and 40 universities in the southern region. States participating in this study include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Student teachers participated by completing an on-line instrument. The instrument was divided into two sections. The first section sought to determine confidence levels related to teaching special needs students in agricultural education classroom and laboratories. Items in this section were designed to determine confidence in teaching students that possess Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) recognized disabilities. Other confidence questions focused on the participants' knowledge in special education law, providing the least restrictive environment (LRE), participating in Individual Education Program (IEP) development, and providing an appropriate and challenging curriculum for all students. Section two involved three multiple-choice questions for each IDEA recognized disability and three special education law topics. The instrument consisted of a total of 11 confidence questions, 33 multiple choice questions in knowledge, and 11 demographic questions. Data were collected in the spring of 2005 and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 12th edition.

The researcher found that relationships to total confidence and total knowledge produced no significant interaction. Student teacher demographics produced statistically significant differences with total confidence and total knowledge scores. Recommendations include continued research as well as incorporating these findings to design curriculum to address special needs issues in agricultural education classrooms and laboratories for future student teachers for the betterment of learners involved in agricultural education teacher certification programs.


ABSTRACT Geo- and palaeoecological studies focusing on the late Pleistocene require a detailed knowledge of the spatial distribution of aeolian sediments. In Germany, existing maps are either on large scales, have a regional focus or show significant inaccuracies such as artificial boundaries within different geological units. To obtain a more detailed, seamless map of the distribution of aeolian sediments and their potential source areas, we combined and reanalysed available geodata, using a Geographical Information System. The resultant maps (scale: approx. 1:2,600,000) show the link between source areas and the late Quaternary aeolian deposits in Germany and can provide one context for further work on, e.g. palaeogeographical studies. This work was compared with other already published datasets and the problems of sediment mapping at a small scale were discussed.


The Njord oil field of the mid-Norwegian continental margin comprises a hydrocarbon trap structure, which is delineated by segments of master faults with complex geometry. The Vingleia Fault Complex includes the major fault segments that delineate the Njord structure to the southeast and east. Three master fault segments with a change in strike orientation are recognized. Reflection seismic sections reveal that these segments show strong variations in fault plane geometry. The central part is characterized by a pronounced ramp–flat–ramp geometry, which diminishes both southwestward and northeastward, so that the northeastern and southwestern segments have a more listric geometry. Hence, an along-strike profile shows an antiform-like culmination in the master fault surface. To the characteristic deformation of ramp–flat–ramp faults, additional deformation in the Njord Field is obvious and marked by extensional horses, extensive roll-over folding, varying strata rotation, characteristic fault bending and variable influence of synthetic and antithetic faults. The occurrence of the style of deformation and geometrical variations in fault pattern are closely related to the structural position above the detachment fault. The following steps in the development of the Vingleia Fault Complex and the associated deformation of the hanging-wall fault block are proposed. (1) Initiation of the master faults in early Triassic. This stage was characterized by slow, extensional displacement. The positions of the master fault segments were possibly influenced by basement in homogeneities marked by a magnetic/gravity anomaly. (2) It is likely that the ramp–flat–ramp had already become established at this stage and that the master fault geometry and a proposed weak salt layer promoted this. (3) During accelerating extension in mid to late Jurassic, the master fault segments became connected by one-sided, lateral linking of fault tip and fault plane or by mutual curved linking of the fault tips. (4) Simultaneously, a roll-over anticline developed within the hanging wall of the master fault. Its relatively large amplitude is produced by a differential movement on the fault surface in combination with a dip-parallel shift of the vertical displacement maximum, which is positioned above a change in the footwall dip.


Over the past 20 years the combined effects of El Niño-induced droughts and land-use change have dramatically increased the frequency of fire in humid tropical forests. Despite the potential for rapid ecosystem alteration and the current prevalence of wildfire disturbance, the consequences of such fires for tropical forest biodiversity remain poorly understood. We provide a pan-tropical review of the current state of knowledge of these fires, and include data from a study in a seasonally dry terra firme forest of central Brazilian Amazonia. Overall, this study supports predictions that rates of tree mortality and changes in forest structure are strongly linked to burn severity. The potential consequences for biomass loss and carbon emissions are explored. Despite the paucity of data on faunal responses to tropical forest fires, some trends are becoming apparent; for example, large canopy frugivores and understorey insectivorous birds appear to be highly sensitive to changes in forest structure and composition during the first 3 years after fires. Finally, we appraise the management implications of fires and evaluate the viability of techniques and legislation that can be used to reduce forest flammability, prevent anthropogenic ignition sources from coming into contact with flammable forests and aid the post-fire recovery process.


Interfaith dialogue is indispensable to peace and tranquility globally within the context of religious pluralism. Christians and Muslims worldwide stand in need of greater intercommunication, collaboration, and interfaith dialogue for harmonious living. Leaders of these faiths concur that Christian-Muslim dialogue is imperative. However, the interaction between Pentecostal Christians and Muslims has generally been characterized by distrust, apprehension and mutual rivalry, sometimes resulting into loss of life and destruction of property. In Nairobi, features of mistrust, disharmony, and intolerance among Pentecostal churches toward Muslims have been witnessed. The study explored Christian-Muslim dialogue with particular reference to Pentecostal Christians and Muslims in Nairobi North District, Kenya. It examines Biblical and Qur'anic teaching on Christian-Muslim dialogue as well as the role of religious organizations in fostering such dialogue. The study was guided by the Integrated Inclusivism Conceptual Model of dialogue which underlines areas of convergence and divergence in order to promote constructive Christian-Muslim dialogue. Overall, the study sought to examine how Christian-Muslim dialogue becomes a practical model for both Pentecostal Christians and Muslims in Nairobi building a harmonious human community that respects each other's differences and particularities. Data for this study was gathered from both primary and secondary sources. Field research involved self-administered questionnaires and oral interviews. A non-probability sample method was used to collect data. The study purposively selected respondents from Pentecostal churches and mosques in Nairobi North District as well as the religious organizations that focus on interfaith dialogue based in Nairobi. Key respondents, focus group discussions and secondary data were utilized. Qualitative data, which reflect crosscutting issues, is thematized and grouped into similar categories for analysis. The study used SPSS in data analysis. Quantitative data is analyzed using descriptive statistics (simple statistical techniques) and these frequencies and percentages discussed and presented using tables and figures. The two categories of data are synthesized, integrated and presented thematically according to the objectives of the study. The research findings underscore that a constructive Christian-Muslim dialogue should take into consideration integrated inclusivism ideals associated with shared theological concepts and values, socio-political and economic dialogue and divergent theological concept. The study found five main recommendation areas which when applied would promote constructive interfaith dialogue between Pentecostal Christians and Muslims in Nairobi North District. These include;promoting Christian-Muslim dialogue through Biblical and Qur'anic teachings, historical perspective, overcoming interfaith hindrances, through religious organizations, religious and political leaders and integrated inclusivism ways. In conclusion, interfaith dialogue is the solutions for effective dialogue between Muslims and Pentecostal Christians in Nairobi North District.


Civil society organisations (CSOs) developed a new benchmarking exercise to assess and compare levels of budget transparency across countries in order to address a specific transparency problem: budget information may be available, but it is not useful. Since 2001, CSOs and academic institutions have implemented the Latin American Budget Transparency Index (Índice Latinomericano de Transparencia Presupuestaria LABTI) to measure not only the accessibility of budget information, but also its usefulness. As a perceptions-based exercise, LABTI innovates by surveying not only budget specialists, but also the variety of stakeholders that use budget information. An exercise like this one allows governments to assess if the information they are publishing is useful, while also promoting citizen participation and creating a budgetary culture, and giving a variety of actors a tool to push for transparency reforms. This Brief describes the distinctive features of this index, concrete changes LABTI has achieved and the key factors underpinning the tool's successful use, all in an effort to offer useful lessons learned for other contexts. SUMMArY


This is an environmental assessment for Vietnam's Transmission and Distribution Development Project, in which the Playcu-Phulam transmission line integrates small and medium power generation, such as linking hydropower in the western highlands with the rest of the country. Transmission lines will help create a reliable, economical power supply in the South. Construction activities such as cutting trees, clearing routes, digging foundation holes, transporting material, and tensioning conductors can cause soil erosion. Mitigating options include soil replacing, and tree and grass planting. To offset hunting and poaching, fences will be erected and foresty controllers will increase their supervision and inspections. To prevent fire or explosion caused by hazardous spills, construction crews will be supplied protection equipment. To reduce disease risk in construction camps, medical and hygienic measures for handling water and foodstuffs will be firmly adhered to. During the operational phase, the threat of soil erosion around the towers can be alleviated by building a foundation embankment or contouring on sloping land. Trees posing a safety hazard because they are too close to transmission lines will be cut down periodically. A resettlement action plan recommends solutions for compensation, population relocation, and household restoration.


Abstract Aims: We assessed the changes in cardiac morphology between elite endurance-trained runners (n = 42) and elite sprinters (n = 34) over a 5-year period. In addition, we studied the relationship between heart size and maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max). Methods: At the beginning of 5 consecutive seasons, all athletes underwent an incremental running test to determine VO2 max and a color-coded pulsed Doppler examination to determine baseline echocardiographic variables. We hypothesized that cardiac morphology had reached its upper limit in elite athletes, and showed only minor changes during 5 years of regular training. Results: Although all echocardiographic variables remained stable in nearly all sprinters studied, in the endurance runners (who presented higher cardiac cavity dimensions compared with sprinters), variations in heart morphology became evident from the third season, and were within established physiological limits. Conclusion: Only 6 (17%) endurance runners and 3 (9%) sprinters showed a left ventricular internal diameter of > 60 mm (the threshold pathological value) at end diastole at some point during the observational period. Moreover, no statistically significant association was detected between changes in VO2 max and changes in heart size. After 5 years of intense training, the changes of the echocardiographic variables examined remained different between endurance runners and sprinters.


Developing control methods that allow legged robots to move with skill and agility remains one of the grand challenges in robotics. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, legged robots must possess a wide repertoire of motor skills. A scalable control architecture that can represent a variety of gaits in a unified manner is therefore desirable. Inspired by the motor learning principles observed in nature, we use an optimization approach to automatically discover and fine-tune parameters for agile gaits. The success of our approach is due to the controller parameterization we employ, which is compact yet flexible, therefore lending itself well to learning through repetition. We use our method to implement a flying trot, a bound and a pronking gait for StarlETH, a fully autonomous quadrupedal robot.


Denmark applied gentle transition rules on migration from the NMS in May 2004 and further eased the access to its labour market in 2006 and 2007. We summarise the available
evidence on the extent, composition and effects of migration from the NMS to Denmark after 2004. While the inflows from the NMS increased substantially in 2006 and 2007 with respect to their initial levels, the share of the NMS workers in the Danish labour force remains
relatively low. Most migrants come from Poland and the Baltic States, are relatively young and many are employed in the construction and agricultural sectors. There is no evidence that migration from the NMS has led to any imbalances on the Danish labour market. Instead, it has helped fill labour shortages and sustain economic growth. According to the revised (29 June 2007) agreement of the transitional scheme, Denmark will introduce the Community rule of free movement without restrictions in May 2009.


P–T pseudosections were calculated in the system Na–Ca–K–Fe–Mg–Al–Si–Ti–H–O with the PERPLE_X software package for the pressure–temperature range 1–25 kbar and 150–450 °C to gain a better understanding of the phase relations and the dehydration behaviour of psammopelite and mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) during prograde metamorphism at very-low-grade and low-grade. For this purpose, the thermodynamic data set of Holland & Powell was enlarged by end-member data for Fe2+- and Fe3+-pumpellyite, Fe2+- and Mg-stilpnomelane, actinolite, and magnesioriebeckite. In addition, a three-component solid-solution model for pumpellyite, a two-component model for stilpnomelane, and four-component models for amphibole and sodic pyroxene were created. Studied metamorphosed MORB and psammopelite contain around 6 wt.% structural H2O bound in minerals at 150 °C and pressures up to 5 kbar. Prograde metamorphism causes dehydration patterns, which are, for example, important for an understanding of the formation of accretionary-wedge systems: along a relatively high geotherm of 15 °C/km, significant dehydration (1.5 wt.% H2O release) of metapsammopelite can be noted in the temperature range 220–240 °C. We believe that this process leads to softening of the sedimentary cover of oceanic crust during early subduction so that this material can be scraped off the basic crust, which then would dehydrate at higher T , to form frontal accretionary prisms. Basal accretionary prisms are generated at lower geotherms ( e.g ., 12 °C/km) by dehydration of metapsammopelite between 260 and 300 °C. Again, metabasic material would dehydrate at significantly higher T and is, therefore, only subordinately involved in accretionary wedges. Along geotherms lower than 7 °C/km, almost no water is released up to temperatures of 400 °C and more. Thus, the corresponding material is subducted to mantle depths as in the subduction/exhumation channels of collision zones. We also hypothesize that accretionary-wedge complexes of the hot subduction zones in Precambrian times should mainly have formed by frontal accretion.


NF-kappaB essential modulator (NEMO) plays an essential role in the nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) pathway as a modulator of the two other subunits of the IkappaB kinase (IKK) complex, i.e. the protein kinases, IKKalpha and IKKbeta. Previous reports all envision the IKK complex to be a static entity. Using glycerol-gradient ultracentrifugation, we observed stimulus-dependent dynamic IKK complex assembly. In wild-type fibroblasts, the kinases and a portion of cellular NEMO associate in a 350-kDa high-molecular-mass complex. In response to constitutive NF-kappaB stimulation by Tax, we observed NEMO recruitment and oligomerization to a shifted high-molecular-mass complex of 440 kDa which displayed increased IKK activity. This stimulus-dependent oligomerization of NEMO was also observed using fluorescence resonance energy transfer after a transient pulse with interleukin-1beta. In addition, fully activated, dimeric kinases not bound to NEMO were detected in these Tax-activated fibroblasts. By glycerol gradient ultracentrifugation, we also showed that: (a) in fibroblasts deficient in IKKalpha and IKKbeta, NEMO predominantly exists as a monomer; (b) in NEMO-deficient fibroblasts, IKKbeta dimers are present that are less stable than IKKalpha dimers. Intriguingly, in resting Rat-1 fibroblasts, 160-kDa IKKalpha-NEMO and IKKbeta-NEMO heterocomplexes were observed as well as a significant proportion of NEMO monomer. These results suggest that most NEMO molecules do not form a tripartite IKK complex with an IKKalpha-IKKbeta heterodimer as previously reported in the literature but, instead, NEMO is able to form a complex with the monomeric forms of IKKalpha and IKKbeta.


Background: Little is known about the causes of thyroid cancer, but insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) might play an important role in its development due to its mitogenic and antiapoptotic properties. Methods: This study prospectively investigated the association between serum IGF-I concentrations and risk of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in a case–control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. The 345 incident cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma were individually matched to 735 controls by study center, sex and age, date, time, and fasting status at blood collection, follow-up duration, and for women menopausal status, use of exogenous hormones, and phase of menstrual cycle at blood collection. Serum IGF-I concentrations were measured by immunoassay, and risk of differentiated thyroid cancer in relation to IGF-I concentration was estimated using conditional logistic regression. Results: There was a positive association between IGF-I concentrations and risk of differentiated thyroid carcinoma: the OR for a doubling in IGF-I concentration was 1.48 (95% confidence interval, 1.06–2.08; Ptrend = 0.02). The positive association with IGF-I was stable over time between blood collection and cancer diagnosis. Conclusion: These findings suggest that IGF-I concentrations may be positively associated with risk of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Impact: This study provides the first prospective evidence of a potential association between circulating IGF-I concentrations and risk of differentiated thyroid carcinoma and may prompt the further investigations needed to confirm the association. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(6); 976–85. ©2014 AACR.


Wind power is a sustainable source of energy. However, there are certain challenges to be  overcome. One of the operational challenges is the phenomenon of ice shedding. Icing happens on wind turbine blades in cold regions. When ice grows to a certain size, it separates from the wind turbine blades resulting in the phenomenon of ice shedding. This phenomenon is of significantly dangerous for equipment and personnel in the region. Ice shedding may happen either because of vibrations or bending in blades. However, it was noticed by operators at Nygardsfjell wind park, Narvik, Norway that ice shedding is more probable to happen when blades are stopped and turned back on. This observation reveals the fact that bending of blades (from loaded to unloaded positions) allows the ice to separate and hence result in ice shedding. This can be linked to the phenomenon of icing, mechanical and adhesive properties of ice. This paper reviews above in detail.


Candida biofilms have become an increasingly important clinical problem. The widespread use of antibiotics, frequent use of indwelling medical devices, and a trend towards increased patient immuno-suppression has resulted in a creation of opportunity for clinically important yeasts to form biofilms. Whilst there is growing evidence of the importance of Candida biofilms in clinical medicine, not all clinical isolates are able to form biofilms. There is therefore a fundamental gap in understanding exactly what drives biofilm formation and its clinical implications. These structures have become increasingly recognised as a significant clinical problem. One of the major reasons behind this is the impact that these have upon treatment, as antifungal therapy often fails and surgical intervention is required. This places a large financial burden on health care providers. Therefore, the discovery of alternative antifungal agents to be used in the treatment of fungal biofilms is in great demand for the management of these infections.
A panel of Candida albicans bloodstream isolates were assessed for their biofilm forming ability by using the crystal violet assay and measuring cellular surface hydrophobicity. Scanning electron microscopy was used to visualise differences in the clinical biofilms. The impact of amphotericin B (AMB) treatment was determined next by broth microdilution method to assess differences in susceptibility profiles of the clinical isolates. The virulence of these clinical isolates was evaluated in vivo using a Galleria mellonella model and transcriptional analysis used to assess the expression of various genes associated with C. albicans biofilm formation within clinical isolates. Extracellular DNA (eDNA) in clinical biofilms was quantified using a microplate fluorescence assay and chitinase activity measured using a biochemical assay. Moreover, the potential of a novel antimicrobial agent Carbohydrate-derived fulvic acid (CHD-FA) was assessed against a panel of fungal and bacterial species. The mechanism of action of CHD-FA was determined using membrane assays include ATP release, and propidium iodide fluorescence, with various inhibitors used to determine whether CHD-FA activity is affected by known resistance mechanisms. Finally, the immunomodulatory properties of CHD-FA were investigated using ELISA and PCR arrays.
The results from this study have shown C. albicans biofilm formation is differential within clinical isolates, where those with high biofilm formation (HBF) predominately consisted of hyphal cells, were more virulent in vivo and had decreased susceptibility to AMB, when compared to those with low biofilm formation (LBF). Furthermore, transcriptional analysis identified a number of genes that positively correlated with C. albicans biofilm formation. The novel agent carbohydrate-derived fulvic acid (CHD-FA) was shown to not only be highly active against C. albicans biofilms, but also against a range or orally relevant bacteria through non-specific membrane activity. Furthermore, CHD-FA was shown to down-regulate a number of pro-inflammatory mediators in an oral epithelial cell line.
In conclusion, this study has characterised C. albicans clinical isolates based on their biological characteristics, where clear difference in virulence and antifungal treatment have been shown. It may be possible to develop a panel of genetic markers that could be used as a diagnostic tool for detecting biofilm formation in clinical isolates. CHD-FA is a microbiocidal compound that may serve as a potential novel antiseptic agent for the treatment of oral candidiasis and other candidal biofilm infections, whereby the immunomodulatory properties of CHD-FA could be exploited for controlling inflammation in a number of diseases.


Looking out a second-story window of her family's quarters at the Pearl Harbor naval base on December 7, 1941, eleven-year-old Jackie Smith could see not only the Rising Sun insignias on the wings of attacking Japanese bombers, but the faces of the pilots inside. Most American children on the home front during the Second World War saw the enemy only in newsreels and the pages of Life Magazine, but from Pearl Harbor on, "the war"--with its blackouts, air raids, and government rationing--became a dramatic presence in all of their lives. Thirty million Americans relocated, 3,700,000 homemakers entered the labor force, sparking a national debate over working mothers and latchkey children, and millions of enlisted fathers and older brothers suddenly disappeared overseas or to far-off army bases. By the end of the war, 180,000 American children had lost their fathers. In "Daddy's Gone to War," William M. Tuttle, Jr., offers a fascinating and often poignant exploration of wartime America, and one of generation's odyssey from childhood to middle age. The voices of the home front children are vividly present in excerpts from the 2,500 letters Tuttle solicited from men and women across the country who are now in their fifties and sixties. From scrap-collection drives and Saturday matinees to the atomic bomb and V-J Day, here is the Second World War through the eyes of America's children. Women relive the frustration of always having to play nurses in neighborhood war games, and men remember being both afraid and eager to grow up and go to war themselves. (Not all were willing to wait. Tuttle tells of one twelve year old boy who strode into an Arizona recruiting office and declared, "I don't need my mother's consent...I'm a midget.") Former home front children recall as though it were yesterday the pain of saying good-bye, perhaps forever, to an enlisting father posted overseas and the sometimes equally unsettling experience of a long-absent father's return. A pioneering effort to reinvent the way we look at history and childhood, "Daddy's Gone to War" views the experiences of ordinary children through the lens of developmental psychology. Tuttle argues that the Second World War left an indelible imprint on the dreams and nightmares of an American generation, not only in childhood, but in adulthood as well. Drawing on his wide-ranging research, he makes the case that America's wartime belief in democracy and its rightful leadership of the Free World, as well as its assumptions about marriage and the family and the need to get ahead, remained largely unchallenged until the tumultuous years of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam and Watergate. As the hopes and expectations of the home front children changed, so did their country's. In telling the story of a generation, Tuttle provides a vital missing piece of American cultural history.


The hosting of sport events, especially large-scale and mega-events, is deemed to be an important component of promoting development in relation to economic and social aspects in both developed and developing contexts. South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup was significant in that it was the first time that such an event had been hosted on the African continent. The subsequent positioning of the event as an 'African World Cup' which ensured the designing of African legacy objectives geared towards achieving a continental legacy, goes beyond the scope of leveraging potential benefits of any known mega-event previously hosted. This research critically examines key components of impacts beyond the host country, South Africa, with special reference to the African Legacy Programme linked to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cameroon and Nigeria by detailing perceptions from key stakeholder groups in comparative terms. The theoretical contribution relates directly to articulating and underscoring the need to examine stakeholder perceptions across a range of groups in order to unpack the extent to which differences can be attributed to socio-economic profiles, interest in the sport, geographical location, nationality, etc. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed to collect data. In total, 758 soccer fan questionnaires were completed (390 in Cameroon and 381 in Nigeria) using the systematic stratified sampling method. The purposive sampling technique was employed in targeting 10 key informants from relevant government departments (sports, arts, culture and tourism), NGOs (linked to the FIFA Football for Hope foundation) and football officials (administrators, club presidents and owners) in Cameroon and Nigeria were targeted.
A number of significant statistical differences and similarities in relation to perceptions were observed between fans and stakeholder groups in both case study areas. The study revealed a strong support for South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in both countries mainly because of Africanism. The levels of awareness of the African legacy intentions/ objectives and understanding of mega-event legacies were generally low. Fans in both countries were largely skeptical about the event having improved the socio-economic, environmental and political condition of Africa's citizens although perceptions of legacies in relation to job creation, skills development, image enhancement, infrastructural development mainly linked to sport facilities, and improvement of football in Africa were largely positive. However, they also perceived that corruption and lack of financial support are the main challenges facing the sustainability of the African legacy projects. The key findings from the study are seen to have a wider applicability to mega-event legacy research and body of knowledge, especially in the context of Africa and the rest of the developing world. The results raise new critical questions related to mega-event legacies and inform the rethinking of theoretical constructs and…


The ability of neurons to regenerate in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) is often poor, leading to persistent deficits after injury. Failure of axon regeneration in the CNS has been attributed to the presence of an extrinsic inhibitory environment and to an intrinsic limitation to support growth. Remarkably, in adult primary sensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG), a peripheral lesion primes neurons to grow and to override the inhibitory environment. Under this condition not only their peripheral axons regrow, but also their injured central axons coursing in the spinal cord regenerate. However, the nature of the signal that is sensed by the cell upon peripheral lesion to initiate the regenerative response is poorly understood.
This study started from the hypothesis that electrical silencing caused by peripheral deafferentiation is an important signal to trigger axon regrowth in adult DRG neurons. I first examined the effect of electrical activity on axon growth of cultured DRG neurons. I found that either chronic depolarization or electrical field stimulation strongly inhibits axon outgrowth in cultured DRG neurons. The inhibitory effect depends on Ca2+ influx through L-type voltage-gated calcium channels and involves transcriptional changes. Consistently, after a peripheral lesion, L-type current is diminished and the L-type pore-forming subunit Cav1.2 is downregulated. To determine whether the lack of L-type channels is sufficient to promote axon growth, mice lacking the pore-forming subunit of L-type channel, Cav1.2, in the nervous system were generated. Neurons isolated from adult Cav1.2 knockout (KO) mice grew more extensively than those from their control littermates.
Taken together, these data provide evidence that electrical activity is a limiting factor for axon growth in adult DRG neurons and that releasing this "brake" is sufficient to induce axon growth. My results further suggest that electrical silencing might promote axon regeneration in vivo. Consequently, I have attempted to apply this knowledge to a model of spinal cord injury. However, these in vivo experiments have been so far hampered by technical limitations. Further endeavors are currently in progress.


Microorganisms are a key component of the marine food webs through the microbial loop. In previous work, we have shown that some bacteria, including Candidatus Pelagibacter spp (SAR11)—the most abundant bacterium in the ocean—can evade filtration by benthic and planktonic tunicates. Here we tested whether differential removal of microbial taxa by benthic filter-feeders can be observed in the distribution and abundance of microbial taxa from hard-bottom subtidal communities, a common coastal habitat in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea towards the open sea. The abundance of microbial groups along crosss-hore transects was measured based on combined flow cytometry and SSU rRNA gene metabarcoding. Our results show that most groups were depleted (up to 50%) over the hard-bottom compared to the open sea, but unexpectedly we did not observe a clear differential removal of different taxa, SAR 11 notably. This study indicates a strong top-down control of the abundance of pelagic microorganisms over shallow hard-bottom where suspension feeders are common.


Modern software does not stand alone; it is embedded in complex physical and sociotechnical systems. It relies on computational support from interdependent subsystems as well as non-code resources such as data, communications, sensors, and interactions with humans. Both general-purpose programming languages and mainstream programming language research focus on symbolic notations with well-defined abstractions that are intended for use by professionals to write programs that solve precisely specified problems. There is a strong emphasis on correctness of the resulting programs, preferably by formal reasoning. However, these languages, despite their careful design and formal foundations, address only a modest portion of modern software and only a minority of software developers. Several persistent myths reinforce this focus. These myths express an idealized model of software and software development. They provide a lens for examining modern software and software development practice: highly trained professionals are outnumbered by vernacular developers. Writing new code is dominated by composition of ill-specified software and non-software components. General-purpose languages may be less appropriate for a task than domain-specific languages, and functional correctness is often a less appropriate goal than overall fitness for task. Support for programming to meet a specification is of little help to people who are programming in order to understand their problems. Reasoning about software is challenged by uncertainty and nondeterminism in the execution environment and by the increasingly dominant role of data, especially with the advent of systems that rely on machine learning. The lens of our persistent myths illuminates the dissonance between our idealized view of software development and common practice, which enables us to identify emerging opportunities and challenges for programming language research.


Life-cycle funds offer an intuitive approach to retirement investing. Despite their intuitive appeal, the empirical and theoretical support for life-cycle funds is mixed. We examine life-cycle funds using dynamic optimization techniques to evaluate the optimal asset allocation over the life cycle. In our modeling we introduce a utility function that accounts for the individual's taste for bearing risk and analyze the role of human capital on allocation decisions. The simulations generally support the use of target retirement date funds once human capital is taken into account. Investment fees, however, could potentially erode any increased asset levels that life-cycle funds create. Ultimately, an appropriate asset allocation depends on individuals' objectives and the opportunities available in financial markets.


Although the first-order pressure variations in surface waves on water are known to decrease exponentially downwards, it has recently been shown theoretically that in a standing wave there should be some second-order terms which are unattenuated with depth. The present paper describes experiments which verify the existence of pressure variations of this type in waves of period 0·45 to 0·50 sec. When the motion consists of two progressive waves of equal wave-length travelling in opposite directions, the amplitude of the unattenuated pressure variations is found to be proportional to the product of the wave amplitudes. This property is used to determine the coefficient of reflexion from a sloping plane barrier.


The amount of digital data is increasing beyond any previous estimation and data stores and sources are more and more pervasive and distributed. Professionals and scientists need advanced data analysis tools and services coupled with scalable architectures to support the extraction of useful information from big data repositories. Cloud computing systems offer an effective support for addressing both the computational and data storage needs of big data mining and parallel knowledge discovery applications. In fact, complex data mining tasks involve data- and compute-intensive algorithms that require large and efficient storage facilities together with high performance processors to get results in acceptable times. In this paper we introduce the topic and the main research issues. We discuss how to make knowledge discovery services scalable and present the Data Mining Cloud Framework designed for developing and executing distributed data analytics applications as workflows of services. In this environment we use data sets, analysis tools, data mining algorithms and knowledge models that are implemented as single services that can be combined through a visual programming interface in distributed workflows to be executed on Clouds. The main features of the programming interface are described and performance evaluation of knowledge discovery applications are reported.


Machiavelli's much advertised science of politics turns out, in the long run, to falter. Machiavelli's various stratagems for controlling political outcomes are workable a small percentage of the time at best. Unpredictability works continually against the theory of practical action. A large part of Machiavelli's adaptation to this deficiency is to turn at many crucial moments, to the unambiguous and startling clarity of murder as a political instrument. It is this central position of murder that helps to account for worrying guiltiness that sticks to The Prince despite many years of efforts to soften the book's message. In the final analysis, one might even suggest that a kind of erotic fascination lurks within the book's texture of murder.


This paper is concerned with communication within a team of players trying to coordinate in response to information dispersed among them. The problem is nontrivial because they cannot communicate all information instantaneously but have to send longer or shorter sequences of messages, using coarse codes. We focus on the design of these codes and show that members may gain compatibility advantages by using identical codes and that this can support the existence of several, more or less efficient, symmetric equilibria. Asymmetric equilibria may exist only if coordination across different sets of members is of sufficiently different importance. The results are consistent with the stylized fact that firms differ even within industries and that coordination between divisions is harder than coordination inside divisions.


Content appraisal is a simple, qualitative system to identify modifications to make website material more useful to clientele. This system provides a comprehensive evaluation of content, focuses on content strategy, identifies weaknesses, and provides recommendations for improvement. The criteria examined included knowledge level, interrelatedness, relevance, usability, actionability, and differentiation. HorseQuest, a pioneer Community of Practice (CoP) for eXtension, was the first to apply a content appraisal process in an attempt to document the efficacy and impact of their web content. This appraisal system can be effectively used by other groups to help improve a website's usefulness to clientele.


By adulthood, most of us have become experts in human behavior, able to make sense of the myriad behaviors we find in environments ranging from the family home to the local mall and beyond. In philosophy of mind, our understanding of others has been largely explained in terms of knowing others' beliefs and desires; describing others' behavior in these terms is the core of what is known as folk psychology. In Do Apes Read Minds? Kristin Andrews challenges this view of folk psychology, arguing that we don't consider others' beliefs and desires when predicting most quotidian behavior, and that our explanations in these terms are often inaccurate or unhelpful. Rather than mindreading, or understanding others as receptacles for propositional attitudes, Andrews claims that folk psychologists see others first as whole persons with traits, emotions, and social relations. Drawing on research in developmental psychology, social psychology, and animal cognition, Andrews argues for a pluralistic folk psychology that employs different kinds of practices (including prediction, explanation, and justification) and different kinds of cognitive tools (including personality trait attribution, stereotype activation, inductive reasoning about past behavior, and generalization from self) that are involved in our folk psychological practices. According to this understanding of folk psychology -- which does not require the sophisticated cognitive machinery of second-order metacognition associated with having a theory of mind -- animals (including the other great apes) may be folk psychologists, too.


A very important reading task in professional life is "reading to assess": professionals have to form judgements on the basis of documents. Hitherto, the research into reading-to-assess tasks has been very fragmentary and incoherent. To develop a comprehensive theory of reading to assess, I present descriptions of 20 reading-to-assess processes of Dutch parliamentarians reading policy documents. All subjects read their document while thinking aloud. The thinking-aloud comments and the observations of their behavior resulted in different styles for the three aspects that constitute reading to assess: information selection, information processing and reading goals. These styles make it possible to characterize individual reading-to-assess processes, and to distinguish reading-to-assess from other reading tasks in the realization qualities of the task.


The field of paleomagnetism attempts to understand in detail the the processes of the Earth by studying naturally occurring magnetic samples. These samples are quite unlike those fabricated in the laboratory. They have irregular shapes; they have been squeezed and stretched, heated and cooled and subjected to oxidation. However micromagnetic modelling allows us to simulate such samples and gain some understanding of how a paleomagnetic signal is acquired and how it is retained. Micromagnetics provides a theory for understanding how the domain structure of a magnetic sample alters subject to what it is made from and the environment that it is in. It furnishes the mathematics that describe the energy of a given domain structure and how that domain structure evolves in time. Combining micromagnetics and ever increasing computer power, it has been possible to produce simulations of small to medium size grains within the so-called single to pseudo single domain state range. However processors are no longer built with increasing speed but with increasing parallelism and it is this that must be exploited to model larger and larger paleomagnetic samples. The purpose of the work presented here is twofold. Firstly a micromagnetics code that is parallel and scalable is presented. This code is based on FEniCS, an existing finite element framework, and is shown to run on ARCHER the UK's national supercomputing service. The strategy of using existing libraries and frameworks allow future extension and inclusion of new science in the code base. In order to achieve scalability, a spatial mapping technique is used to calculate the demagnetising field the most computationally intensive part of micromagnetic calculations. This allows grain geometries to be partitioned in such a way that no global communication is required between parallel processes the source of iv favourable scaling behaviour. The second part of the theses presents an exploration of domain state evolution in increasing sizes of magnetite grains. This simulation, whilst a first approximation that excludes magneto-elastic effects, is the first attempt to map out the transition from pseudo-single domain states to multi domain states using a full micromagnetic simulation.


The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlined in its Fourth Assessment Report (2007) various consequences of continuing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. The effects include the loss of land and property, health and ecological damages, threats to human security and potential human casualties. The question which this article seeks to address is whether and how international law is equipped to deal with complex global challenges such as climate change. Special focus is given to the law on state responsibility and its capacity to deal with damages that are caused by a changing climate. In this context, the following legal issues will be examined: Can states be held responsible under international law for current or future climate change damages? Is there an obligation under public international law to prevent and to compensate for such damages? Especially the determination of a primary obligation to prevent harm, acting with due diligence, the question of causality and the determination of legal consequences are considered. As the examples given by the IPCC show, there will be an increasing need to address the issue of compensation for climate damages. Justice, fairness and international, national and human security require international law to adjust and live up to these challenges.


Abstract The amount of information that can be gathered for contaminated site assessment is often limited by the cost of making measurements. Effective decisions on site management rely heavily on this information. Lower cost measurements or more effective use of the diverse information already available should increase the quality of these decisions, provided that final data quality is not compromised. However, fundamental problems can arise from interpreting the reliability, uncertainty and significance of the raw measurements or other indicators. Such problems are paralleled in Environmental Impact Assessment and Life Cycle Analysis methodologies. Drawing on the work undertaken within these disciplines may help clarify the solution for site assessment. Scoring, ranking and valuation techniques have been used successfully in providing decision support for the design of sampling strategies for contaminated sites through maximizing the use of desk study data and site reconnaissance observations.


Recent biographies by Gary Kates and Nina Rattner Gelbart of two eighteenth-century figures, a transgendered officer and diplomat--the Chevalier d'Eon--and a state-sponsored midwife named Mme du Coudray, offer unexpected insights into the themes of gender, Enlightenment, and revolution when considered in tandem. Jeffrey S. Ravel notes that in the context of the last decade's emphasis on the role of gendered thought and behavior in the onset of revolution, it is striking that these two life stories do not necessarily conform to our historiographical expectations. Although both du Coudray and d'Eon adopted unconventional positions in relation to Old Regime standards, their life stories were thoroughly fashioned by the possibilities and limitations of existence in an absolutist polity. Lisa Forman Cody, however, argues that the lives of d'Eon and du Coudray also display characteristics that foreshadow a more modern sense of self. Du Coudray's mission, Cody suggests, hints at future republican projects that harness maternity to the cause of national regeneration, while d'Eon's legal troubles in England generate modern conceptions of bodies and selves as separate and self-possessed. Kates, in his contribution to the forum, discusses how his encounter with d'Eon across two centuries changed his own ideas about gender. His research, and meetings with contemporary transgendered individuals, led him to rethink his gender assumptions and question the feminism he had inherited from the 1970s. Gelbart, in turn, found herself locked in a struggle with her subject to unveil the private feelings and emotions that du Coudray had so carefully hidden in the written record. In her essay, she openly reflects on the biographical process in the tale of the king's midwife. Finally, Elizabeth Colwill takes note of the historiographical and methodological issues that the biographical genre raises for historians. Both Kates and Gelbart, she suggests, were attracted to "the hidden motivations of their 'secretive subjects,'" leaving some reviewers uneasy with the "accuracy" of their work. Colwill, however, argues that "fact vs. fiction" may be a false construction, because the art of interpretation is not at odds with careful archival reconstruction.


Abstract

Resveratrol is a polyphenol derived from a variety of food and beverages, which has been reported to possess diverse pharmacological activities. An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) method was established to figure out the metabolic profiles of resveratrol in rat biological samples after oral administration. According to the results, 21 resveratrol-related metabolites in rat biosamples were found after oral administration. As far as we know, 14 of these metabolites (M3 to M10, M13, M16, M17 and M21) have not been reported previously. Furthermore, glucuronide conjugation, sulfate conjugation, methylation, hydroxylation and reduction were the main metabolic pathways. Besides, the hydroxylated product was also detected in rat liver microsome. The results may be conducive to a better understanding the metabolic mechanism of resveratrol and provide helpful chemical information for further pharmacological and action mechanism studies of resveratrol.


SHRIMP and conventional zircon dating place temporal constraints on the evolution of the Cretaceous Volcanic Arc system in central Cuba. The arc has a consistent stratigraphy across strike, with the oldest and deepest rocks in the south (in tectonic contact with the ∼5–10-km-wide Mabujina Amphibolite Complex [MAC]) and younger rocks in the north. The MAC is thought to represent the deepest exposed section of the Cretaceous Volcanic Arc and its oceanic basement in Cuba. We undertook a single zircon geochronological study of five gneisses and two amphibolites from the MAC and seven rocks from the Manicaragua Batholith, which intrudes both the MAC and the Cretaceous Volcanic Arc. A SHRIMP zircon age of Ma for a trondhjemitic orthogneiss (MAC) from the Jicaya River dates the oldest phase of granitoid magmatism in this area and the entire Caribbean (Antillean) region. A tonalitic gneiss collected near the previous sample yielded an age of Ma, and a further tonalitic gneiss had an age of Ma, with one inherited zircon at Ma. Two trondhjemitic orthogneisses from the central part of the MAC yielded ages of and Ma, whereas two amphibolites from the eastern part of the complex provided similar ages of ca. 93 Ma and zircon inheritance at 315, 471, 903, and 1059 Ma. Two weakly foliated Manicaragua granitoids from the eastern part of the massif provided ages of and Ma, whereas five unfoliated granitoid samples from the central and eastern part of the massif yielded ages of , , , , and Ma. Our age data support the view that the Mabujina Protholiths are exotic and formed somewhere NNW along strike of the nonmetamorphosed Cuban arc since pre–Middle Hauterivian time (before ∼133 Ma). The MAC became part of the Cuban Volcanic Arc during the Turonian (ca. 90–93 Ma), when it was intruded by plutonic rocks of the Manicaragua Batholith (Turonian-Campanian; ca. 89–83 Ma). The geology and geochronology of central Cuba do not support the idea of a polarity reversal event at any stage of the Cretaceous Arc–building process. Because most of our dated samples come from the narrow Mabujina Belt, the polarity reversal model would imply that the axis of a newly developing arc (with opposite polarity) would spatially coincide with the older arc, which appears unlikely. Inherited Precambrian and Palaeozoic zircons in the MAC granitic rocks (similar to inherited zircon populations in the Guerrero terrane from central-western Mexico) suggest a Neocomian proximal setting close to a cratonic area (probably SW Mexico/Maya Block) for the protolith of the MAC relative to the synchronous Primitive Island Arc of central Cuba.


In recent years nanotechnology has become an enabling technology for the development and fabrication of new innovative products. The growth of micro- and nano-manufacturing lies in the ability of converting micro- and nano-fabrication techniques into mass-production industrial processes, where small-scale products can be economically manufactured in a short period of time. When dealing with nano-scale objects and industrial processes it is necessary to take into account the physics acting at this level of precision. Phenomena such as friction, heat transfer, and adhesion forces have far more dramatic effects on the deformation of the robot geometry at the nano-scale than at macro- and micro-scales, thus affecting the industrial process that the robot will perform. The development of micro- and nano-fabrication techniques thus requires a thorough understanding of the physics behind nanorobotics. Specifically, to enable sub-micrometer accuracy for ultra-high-precision robots it is necessary to acquire a complete knowledge of how all sources of inaccuracy deform the robots at nano-scale. Furthermore, a way to compensate for such effects to maintain an acceptable level of accuracy has to be found. In this thesis we fulfill these needs by proposing a new calibration procedure specifically designed for industrial nano-systems working in a thermally unstable environment, a method to evaluate and compensate for external forces acting on ultra-high-precision robots and a method to relate the calibration of several robots working together. This is done by measuring how each source of inaccuracy deforms the robot, modeling this effect and compensating it in real-time. To allow this modus operandi, we propose a new calibration procedure summarized in the following six steps: Step 0 A judicious design of the robot that takes into account the calibration problem and the pose measurement, Step 1 Study of the sources of inaccuracy linked to the robot and the industrial process that it will perform, Step 2 Measurement of several end-effector poses, Step 3 Identification of a function that describes the robot geometry and its behavior when subjected to the sources of inaccuracy identified in Step 1, Step 4 Implementation of the model found in Step 3 into the robot controller, Step 5 Validation and potential return to Step 1 or Step 0. The effectiveness of this calibration procedure is proven by testing it on three case studies, examined in order of complexity: A 1 DOF (degree(s)-of-freedom) ultra-high-precision linear axis was calibrated while thermal effects were deforming it. The 3 DOF ultra-high-precision parallel robot Agietron Micro-Nano was calibrated while thermal effects and an external force were acting on it. An ultra-high-precision 2-robot system was calibrated while thermal effects were acting on it. Thus, an exhaustive study on relating the references of the two robots was carried out. For each case we developed an appropriate ultra-high-precision measuring system used to acquire the pose of the robot end-effector. We measured the end-effector position throughout the workspace while the sources of inaccuracy were acting on the robot to map how they affect the robot geometry. We used the Stepwise Regression algorithm to identify a mathematical model able to describe the geometric features of the robot while all the sources of inaccuracy are acting on it. The model is then implemented in the robot controller and a validation of the calibration accuracy is performed. For every ultra-high-precision robot considered in this work we reached an absolute accuracy of ±100 nm. We finished the coverage of this thesis by analyzing the nano-indentation process as a calibration confirmation tool and as an industrial process. Furthermore, we describe how to use a multiple ultra-high-precision concurrent system of robots. This work was financed by the FNS (Swiss National Foundation for research).


Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) cultivar were investigate for growth, fruit yield and its component characters at All India Coordinated Research Project on Vegetable Crop at Horticultural Research cum Instructional Farm, Department of vegetable Science, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.) during the rabi season of 2016-17. The study revealed that highly significant differences were observed for all the traits. Selection of suitable parents is an important criterion for success of crop improvement programme. Superior genotypes in terms of highest marketable fruit yield per hectare (q) was observed in 2016/BRLVAR-3 (663.07 q) followed by 2014/BRLVAR-1 (567.00 q) and 2014/BRLVAR-4 (545.10 q). The maximum fruit yield per plant was found in 2016/BRLVAR-3 (3.73 kg) followed by 2014/BRLVAR-1 (3.19 kg), 2014/BRLVAR-4 (3.07 kg). The highest plant height was observed in 2014/BRLVAR-4 (90.5 cm) followed by 2016/BRLVAR2 (69.74 csm). The maximum number of primary branches per plant was observed in 2016/BRLVAR-4 (6.67) followed by 2016/BRLVAR-8 (5.80), The earliest flowering was observed for 2016/BRLVAR-8 (30.33 days) followed by 2016/BRLVAR-2 (32.67 days). The minimum number of days to 50% flowering was found in 2016/BRLVAR – 8 (50.00) it and 2016/BRLVAR-1 followed by 2016/BRLVAR2 (51.00). The maximum number of flower per cluster was observed in Punjab Sadabahar (4.06) followed by 2016/BRLVAR-4 (3.96). The maximum number of fruits per cluster was observed in Kashi Taru (3.50) followed by 2016/BRLVAR-4 (3.46). The maximum average fruits per cluster was observed in 2015/BRLVAR-1 (3.36), and 2016/BRLVAR-9 (3.26), while the minimum fruit per cluster was observed in 2015/BRLVAR-2 (2.04). Minimum number of day to maturity is found in 2015/BRLVAR-5 (65.34 days) followed by 2015/BRLVAR-2 (68.00 days), Maximum number of fruits per plant was found in 2015/BRLVAR-1 (15.06) followed by 2016/BRLVAR-3 (14.80). K e y w o r d s


In open-chest dogs, right- and left-sided cardiac nerves were stimulated to determine their effect on heart rate, rhythm, and pacemaker location. The majority of the nerves produced chronotropic changes; 72% of the induced rhythms originated from within the atrial pacemaker complex. Ten percent of the stimulations produced an atrio-ventricular (AV) nodal rhythm; most of the time this was induced by the left posterior and anterior ansae and ventrolateral nerves. The dominance of a lateral right atrial pacemaker was observed in 8% of the stimulations; the dorsal cardiac and innominate nerves induced this rhythm the majority of the time. The general trend was for a cranial shift in the location of the pacemaker within the pacemaker complex with sympathetic stimulation and a caudal shift with parasympathetic stimulation. Exceptions to the pattern may be explained by the preferential effect of the nerves on the pacemakers in the right atrium. The study demonstrates, in the canine model, that in addition to the sinus and AV nodes, there is a system of pacemakers controlled by the cardiac nerves.


Background Combined pelvic floor electromyography (EMG) and videocystourethrography (VCUG) during urodynamic investigation are the most acceptable and widely agreed methods for diagnosing detrusor external sphincter dyssynergia (DESD). Theoretically, external urethral sphincter pressure (EUSP) measurement would provide enough information for the diagnosis of DESD and could simplify the urodynamic investigation replacing combined pelvic floor EMG and VCUG. Thus, we evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of EUSP measurement for DESD. Patients & Methods A consecutive series of 72 patients (36 women, 36 men) with neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction able to void spontaneously was prospectively evaluated at a single university spinal cord injury center. Diagnosis of DESD using EUSP measurement (index test) versus combined pelvic floor EMG and VCUG (reference standard) was assessed according to the recommendations of the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Initiative. Results Using EUSP measurement (index test) and combined pelvic floor EMG and VCUR (reference standard), DESD was diagnosed in 10 (14%) and in 41 (57%) patients, respectively. More than half of the patients presented discordant diagnosis between the index test and the reference standard. Among 41 patients with DESD diagnosed by combined pelvic floor EMG and VCUR, EUSP measurement identified only 6 patients. EUSP measurement had a sensitivity of 15% (95% CI 5%–25%), specificity of 87% (95% CI 76%–98%), positive predictive value of 60% (95% CI 30%–90%), and negative predictive value of 56% (95% CI 44%–68%) for the diagnosis of DESD. Conclusions For diagnosis of DESD, EUSP measurement is inaccurate and cannot replace combined pelvic floor EMG and VCUR.


An experimental study has been made of transition to turbulence in the free convective flows on a heated plate. Observations have been made with the plate vertical and inclined at angles up to about 50° to the vertical, both above and below the plate. A fibre anemometer was used to survey the region of intermittent turbulence. Information has thus been obtained about the range of Grashof numbers over which transition takes place. Even when the plate is vertical the region of intermittent turbulence is long. When it is inclined, this region becomes still longer in the flow below the plate as a result of the stabilizing stratification, a Richardson number effect. It is possible to have a whole flow such that it should be described as transitional, not laminar or turbulent. It was noticed that in this flow and the vertical plate one, the velocity during the laminar periods could be either of two characteristic values, one of them close to zero. The behaviour above an inclined plate could be interpreted largely as a trend towards the behaviour described in a preceding paper. The observations on the stably stratified flow help to explain a feature of glacier winds.


Thwarting HIV Multiple genome-wide association studies have revealed that human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes of the major histocompatibility complex locus have the strongest impact on HIV. In particular, a single-nucleotide polymorphism 35 base pairs upstream of HLA-C shows significant association with viral load and protection against HIV. How HLA-C mediates these effects is unknown. Apps et al. (p. 87) now demonstrate that increasing surface expression of HLA-C is associated with reduced viral load and reduced rate of progression to low CD4+ T cell counts in African and European Americans. High HLA-C expression likely promoted improved HIV control through a more effective cytotoxic CD8+ T cell response. In contrast to HIV infection, high HLA-C expression was associated with a higher risk of the inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease. Increased levels of human leukocyte antigen C are associated with control of HIV infection but increased susceptibility to Crohn's disease. A variant upstream of human leukocyte antigen C (HLA-C) shows the most significant genome-wide effect on HIV control in European Americans and is also associated with the level of HLA-C expression. We characterized the differential cell surface expression levels of all common HLA-C allotypes and tested directly for effects of HLA-C expression on outcomes of HIV infection in 5243 individuals. Increasing HLA-C expression was associated with protection against multiple outcomes independently of individual HLA allelic effects in both African and European Americans, regardless of their distinct HLA-C frequencies and linkage relationships with HLA-B and HLA-A. Higher HLA-C expression was correlated with increased likelihood of cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses and frequency of viral escape mutation. In contrast, high HLA-C expression had a deleterious effect in Crohn's disease, suggesting a broader influence of HLA expression levels in human disease.