Sound production mechanisms have been studied in two delphinid species - the harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena (L.), and the bottlenosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus (Montagu). It was found that, in both species, the click sound production was coupled to a considerable pressure increase in the bony nares. The maximum pressure recorded in Phocoena was approximately 54 kPa and in Tursiops close to 81 kPa; it was equal in time and amplitude in both nares. The nasal plug muscle was found to be active up to 450 ms prior to and during sound production. Sound production without such activity was not seen. The results suggest that an identical mechanism underlies click production in both species, with pressurized air being the driving force and the nasal plug muscle having some active regulating function.

Probes were inserted into the bony nares of three harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena , and one bottlenosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus , in order to record air pressure variations together with sound production. Sounds were picked up by a hydrophone manually held to the forehead of the animals. In several of the Phocoena recordings, electromyographic activity in the nasal plug muscle was also recorded.


This research intends to uncover the determinants of intra-ASEAN FDI, specifically to verify whether the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community has had any contribution to the raising intra-FDI inflow. Result from the fixed effect model with cross-section effects, which was employed to dataset of 10 ASEAN member states from 2000-2013, indicates that market size, quality of infrastructure, as well as labor productivity, were significant, and positively attracted intra-FDI inflow. Meanwhile, macroeconomic stability and degree of openness were insignificant. In addition, trade barrier was significantly proven to have negative effect on intra-FDI inflow. Unfortunately, the latest ASEAN's investment scheme was insignificant. Moreover, the country-specific effects were highly significant, proving that heterogeneity seems to have an important role in attracting intra-ASEAN FDI. Keywords : intra-regional, foreign investment, economic integration, panel data.


The development planning of deepwater oilfield directly influences production costs and benefits. However, the uncertainties of crude oil price and reservoir and the special pro duction requirements make it difficult to optimize development planning of deepwater oilfield. Although there have been a number of scholars researching on this issue, previ ous models just focused on several special working conditions and few have consid - ered energy supply of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO). In light of the normal deepwater production development cycles, in this paper, a multiscenario mixed integer linear programming (MS-MILP) method is proposed based on reservoir numer ical simulation, considering the uncertainties of reservoir and crude oil price and the constraint of energy consumption of FPSO, to obtain the globally optimal development planning of deepwater oilfield. Finally, a real example is taken as the study objective. Compared with previous researches, the method proposed in this paper is testified to be practical and reliable.


ABSTRACT Objective: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) develops from a small subpopulation of stem-like cells, which are endowed with the ability to self-renew, proliferate and give rise to progeny of multiple neuroepithelial lineages. These cells are resistant to conventional chemo- and radiotherapy and are hence also responsible for tumor recurrence. HMGA1 overexpression has been shown to correlate with proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis of GBMs and to affect self-renewal of cancer stem cells from colon cancer. The role of HMGA1 in GBM tumor stem cells is not completely understood. Research design and methods: We have investigated the role of HMGA1 in brain tumor stem cell (BTSC) self-renewal, stemness and resistance to temozolomide by shRNA- mediated HMGA1 silencing. Results: We first report that HMGA1 is overexpressed in a subset of BTSC lines from human GBMs. Then, we show that HMGA1 knockdown reduces self-renewal, sphere forming efficiency and stemness, and sensitizes BTSCs to temozolomide. Interestingly, HMGA1 silencing also leads to reduced tumor initiation ability in vivo. Conclusions: These results demonstrate a pivotal role of HMGA1 in cancer stem cell gliomagenesis and endorse HMGA1 as a suitable target for CSC-specific GBM therapy.


OBJECTIVE Tumors with cavernous sinus (CS) invasion represent a neurosurgical challenge. Increasing application of the endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) requires a thorough understanding of the CS anatomy from an endonasal perspective. In this study, the authors aimed to develop a surgical anatomy-based classification of the CS and establish its utility for preoperative surgical planning and intraoperative guidance in adenoma surgery. METHODS Twenty-five colored silicon-injected human head specimens were used for endonasal and transcranial dissections of the CS. Pre- and postoperative MRI studies of 98 patients with pituitary adenoma with intraoperatively confirmed CS invasion were analyzed. RESULTS Four CS compartments are described based on their spatial relationship with the cavernous ICA: superior, posterior, inferior, and lateral. Each compartment has distinct boundaries and dural and neurovascular relationships: the superior compartment relates to the interclinoidal ligament and oculomotor nerve, the posterior compartment bears the gulfar segment of the abducens nerve and inferior hypophyseal artery, the inferior compartment contains the sympathetic nerve and distal cavernous abducens nerve, and the lateral compartment includes all cavernous cranial nerves and the inferolateral arterial trunk. Twenty-nine patients had a single compartment invaded, and 69 had multiple compartments involved. The most commonly invaded compartment was the superior (79 patients), followed by the posterior (n = 64), inferior (n = 45), and lateral (n = 23) compartments. Residual tumor rates by compartment were 79% in lateral, 17% in posterior, 14% in superior, and 11% in inferior. CONCLUSIONS The anatomy-based classification presented here complements current imaging-based classifications and may help to identify involved compartments both preoperatively and intraoperatively.


We investigate, through simulation, the modifications to Bessel and Airy beams during propagation through atmospheric turbulence. We find that atmospheric turbulence disrupts the quasi-non-diffracting nature of Bessel and Airy beams when the transverse coherence length (Fried parameter) nears the initial aperture diameter or diagonal, respectively. The turbulence-induced transverse phase distortion limits the effectiveness of Bessel and Airy beams for applications requiring propagation over long distances in the turbulent atmosphere.


The objective of this paper was to compare health outcomes and hospital care use of very low birth weight (VLBW), and very preterm (VLGA) infants in seven European countries. Analysis was performed on linkable patient-level registry data from seven European countries between 2006 and 2008 (Finland, Hungary, Italy (the Province of Rome), the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, and Sweden). Mortality and length of stay (LoS) were adjusted for differences in gestational age (GA), sex, intrauterine growth, Apgar score at five minutes, parity and multiple births. The analysis included 16,087 infants. Both the 30-day and one-year adjusted mortality rates were lowest in the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden and Norway) and Scotland and highest in Hungary and the Netherlands. For survivors, the adjusted average LoS during the first year of life ranged from 56 days in the Netherlands and Scotland to 81 days in Hungary. There were large differences between European countries in mortality rates and LoS in VLBW and VLGA infants. Substantial data linkage problems were observed in most countries due to inadequate identification procedures at birth, which limit data validity and should be addressed by policy makers across Europe.


Inequality is rampant across the global economy, and the agro-food sector is no exception. At the top, big supermarkets and other corporate food giants dominate global food markets, allowing them to squeeze value from vast supply chains that span the globe, while at the bottom the bargaining power of small-scale farmers and workers has been steadily eroded in many of the countries from which UK supermarkets and others from around the world source. The result is widespread human suffering among the women and men producing our food. This report puts key findings of the global campaign report Ripe for Change: Ending human suffering in supermarket supply chains in a UK context.


Extractive speech summarization, with the purpose of automatically selecting a set of representative sentences from a spoken document so as to concisely express the most important theme of the document, has been an active area of research and development. A recent school of thought is to employ the language modeling (LM) approach for important sentence selection, which has proven to be effective for performing speech summarization in an unsupervised fashion. However, one of the major challenges facing the LM approach is how to formulate the sentence models and accurately estimate their parameters for each spoken document to be summarized. This paper presents a continuation of this general line of research and its contribution is two-fold. First, we propose a novel and effective recurrent neural network language modeling (RNNLM) framework for speech summarization, on top of which the deduced sentence models are able to render not only word usage cues but also long-span structural information of word co-occurrence relationships within spoken documents, getting around the need for the strict bag-of-words assumption. Second, the utilities of the method originated from our proposed framework and several widely-used unsupervised methods are analyzed and compared extensively. A series of experiments conducted on a broadcast news summarization task seem to demonstrate the performance merits of our summarization method when compared to several state-of-the-art existing unsupervised methods.


New pharmacologic targets are needed for lung cancer. One candidate pathway to target is composed of the E1-like ubiquitin-activating enzyme (UBE1L) that associates with interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), which complexes with and destabilizes cyclin D1. Ubiquitin protease 43 (UBP43/USP18) removes ISG15 from conjugated proteins. This study reports that gain of UBP43 stabilized cyclin D1, but not other D-type cyclins or cyclin E. This depended on UBP43 enzymatic activity; an enzymatically inactive UBP43 did not affect cyclin D1 stability. As expected, small interfering RNAs that reduced UBP43 expression also decreased cyclin D1 levels and increased apoptosis in a panel of lung cancer cell lines. Forced cyclin D1 expression rescued UBP43 apoptotic effects, which highlighted the importance of cyclin D1 in conferring this. Short hairpin RNA-mediated reduction of UBP43 significantly increased apoptosis and reduced murine lung cancer growth in vitro and in vivo after transplantation of these cells into syngeneic mice. These cells also exhibited increased response to all-trans-retinoic acid, interferon, or cisplatin treatments. Notably, gain of UBP43 expression antagonized these effects. Normal-malignant human lung tissue arrays were examined independently for UBP43, cyclin D1, and cyclin E immunohistochemical expression. UBP43 was significantly (P < 0.01) increased in the malignant versus normal lung. A direct relationship was found between UBP43 and cyclin D1 (but not cyclin E) expression. Differential UBP43 expression was independently detected in a normal-malignant tissue array with diverse human cancers. Taken together, these findings uncovered UBP43 as a previously unrecognized antineoplastic target. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(9); 1968–77. ©2012 AACR.


Abstract The Late Cretaceous Itatiaia complex is made up of nepheline syenite grading to peralkaline varieties, quartz syenite and granite, emplaced in the metamorphic rocks of the Serra do Mar, SE Brazil. The nepheline syenites are characterized by assemblages with alkali feldspar, nepheline, Fe-Ti oxides, clinopyroxene, amphibole, apatite and titanite, while the peralkaline nepheline syenites have F-disilicates (rinkite, wöhlerite, hiortdahlite, låvenite), britholite and pyrophanite as the accessory phases. The silica-oversaturated rocks have alkali feldspar, plagioclase, quartz, amphibole, clinopyroxene and Fe-Ti oxides; the chevkinite-group minerals are the featured accessory phases and are found with allanite, fluorapatite, fluorite, zircon, thorite, yttrialite, zirconolite, pyrochlore and yttrocolumbite. The major- and trace-element composition of the Itatiaia rocks have variations linked to the amount of accessory phases, have smooth, enriched chondritenormalized rare-earth element (REE) distribution patterns in the least-evolved nepheline syenites and convex patterns in the most-evolved nepheline syenites. The REE distribution patterns of the quartz syenites and granites show a typical pattern caused by fractional crystallization of feldspar and amphibole, in an environment characterized by relatively high oxygen fugacity (>NiNiO buffer) and high concentrations of H2O and F, supporting the crystallization of hydrous phases, fluorite and F-disilicates. The removal of small amounts of titanite in the transition from the least-evolved to the most-evolved nepheline syenites stems from petrogenetic models involving REE, and is shown to be a common feature of the magmatic evolution of many other syenitic/ trachytic/ phonolitic complexes of the Serra do Mar and elsewhere.


The study set out to compare crash and injury patterns of Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) between a high- and a middleincome country to illustrate relative outcomes between such countries. Several analyses of crash and casualty crash patterns were undertaken using real-world crash databases from Australia and Malaysia. The factors examined included the type of vulnerable road user, the vehicle involved, the primary crash cause, age of the road user, injury outcome (fatal or casualty), crash location and single/multi-vehicle collisions. The findings from this study highlighted emerging and severe road crash problems currently not being addressed in existing safety initiatives within these countries by governments or vehicle manufacturers. A number of potential solutions to these problems were identified including engineering countermeasures for vehicles and road infrastructure, greater use of protective equipment for riders, enhanced police enforcement efforts and technologies, and improved training and licensing practices. Public policy response to this growing epidemic in low and middle-income countries has been muted at national and international levels and policy makers need to recognise this growing problem as a public health crisis and design appropriate policy responses. With growing usage of VRU transport in developing countries, this burden is expected to become even larger in the years ahead unless action is taken.


This paper presents a Bibliometric analysis of the authorship pattern in the field of Hepatitis C covered in the Journal "Gastroenterology". The literature covered for the period 2006-2010 in the Journal was considered. Citation Analysis was used for this study. Records covered in the citation from the year 1908 to 2010 were identified. This study was aimed to examine authorship pattern in the field of Hepatitis C. There were 137 articles from the source journal during the study period and these articles had a total of 5132 cited items. Hence, only authorship pattern in the field of Hepatitis C is discussed in this paper. 93.26% of the total contributions represent collaborative research. The degree of collaboration has been arrived at 0.93 during the study period. The value of Co-Authorship Index (CAI) for single author paper shows a declining trend from one block year period to another block. On the other hand, for multi authored papers, the Co-Authorship Index reveals an increasing trend.


It is demonstrated that relaxation of GaAs/InxGa1−xAs/GaAs strained-layer heterostructures can be brought about by postfabrication thermal processing. Misfit dislocations are introduced into the structure during thermal processing, even though the thickness of the strained layer is well below the critical value predicted by the Matthews–Blakeslee model. The misfit dislocations are observed to be of both 60° mixed type and 90° pure edge type. As no relaxation occurs at the lower temperatures encountered during fabrication by molecular-beam epitaxy, it can be inferred that the critical condition for the formation of misfit dislocations is not only a function of strained-layer thickness and composition, but also of temperature. This observation cannot be accounted for by differential thermal expansion or diffusion across the strained-layer interfaces, but the temperature-dependent Peierls force may offer an explanation. The high temperature required to produce relaxation of these structures suggests that the...


Neither public opinion nor evidence-based research supports the claim of some politicias and the media that immigrants take the jobs of native-born workers. Public opinion polls in six migrant-destination countries after the 2008–2009 recession show that most people believe that immigrants fill job vacancies and many believe that they create jobs and do not take jobs from native workers. This view is corroborated by evidence-based research showing that immigrants—of all skill levels—do not significantly affect native employment in the short term and boost employment in the long term.


Recently, the human fat tissue has been proposed as a microwave channel for intra-body sensor applications. In this work, we assess how disturbances can prevent reliable microwave propagation through the fat channel. Perturbants of different sizes are considered. The simulation and experimental results show that efficient communication through the fat channel is possible even in the presence of perturbants such as embedded muscle layers and blood vessels. We show that the communication channel is not affected by perturbants that are smaller than 15 mm cube.


Because of very small feature size, high integration levels, and innovative computational features, new concerns are emerging regarding the implementation of computing systems, leading to increased interest in nanoscale technology. Continued scaling of current top-down trends suggests the need for features measured in the nanometer range. As new techniques to synthesize nanostructures from the bottom up emerge, design practice will require CAD as a framework. Moreover, new tools are necessary for VLSI so that designers can assess the different capabilities for assembling devices into circuits and systems. The design of nanoscale systems is inherently complex and must consider phenomena such as statistical and probabilistic behavior, as well as reduction of parasitic effects. Tools are a necessity to ensure that emerging technologies will move into industry for full commercialization. The convergence of such issues will make CAD at the nanoscale level a vibrant, challenging topic for many years to come. This special section presents a timely account of the state of the art in this area, with emphasis on tools and related frameworks.


Abstract Kelps and other fleshy macroalgae—dominant reef-inhabiting organisms in cool seas— may have radiated extensively following late Cenozoic polar cooling, thus triggering a chain of evolutionary change in the trophic ecology of nearshore temperate ecosystems. We explore this hypothesis through an analysis of body size in the abalones (Gastropoda; Haliotidae), a widely distributed group in modern oceans that displays a broad range of body sizes and contains fossil representatives from the late Cretaceous (60–75 Ma). Geographic analysis of maximum shell length in living abalones showed that small-bodied species, while most common in the Tropics, have a cosmopolitan distribution, whereas large-bodied species occur exclusively in cold-water ecosystems dominated by kelps and other macroalgae. The phylogeography of body size evolution in extant abalones was assessed by constructing a molecular phylogeny in a mix of large and small species obtained from different regions of the world. This analysis demonstrates that small body size is the plesiomorphic state and largeness has likely arisen at least twice. Finally, we compiled data on shell length from the fossil record to determine how (slowly or suddenly) and when large body size arose in the abalones. These data indicate that large body size appears suddenly at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. Our findings support the view that fleshy-algal dominated ecosystems radiated rapidly in the coastal oceans with the onset of the most recent glacial age. We conclude with a discussion of the broader implications of this change.


Business Process Management Systems (BPMSs) are increasingly implemented in and across organizations. There is much talk on BPMSs, and software vendors and IT-consultancy companies are leveraging this. In this paper we provide an investigation on the originality of BPMSs. We identify concepts, features and characteristics of such systems, and trace them back to business and IT concepts from the past, like Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Total Quality Management (TQM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Workflow Management (WFM) systems. We conclude that much of what BPMSs entail comes from earlier business and IT innovations.
However, the combination of functionality, concepts and characteristics in BPMSs make new applications in IT possible. We end our paper with a research agenda for BPMSs.


OF DISSERTATION MODULATORY ACTIONS OF SEROTONERGIC SYSTEM IN CARDIAC FUNCTION, BEHAVIOR, AND SENSORIMOTOR CIRCUIT ACTIVITY IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER In this dissertation, I have focused on the role of serotonin (5-HT) as a modulator in heart rate, feeding and locomotion behaviors as well as sensorimotor circuit activity in Drosophila melanogaster. A general overview in the actions of the serotonergic (5-HTergic) system on the larval heart and nervous system in larvae and adults is reviewed in Chapter One. I sought to further study the actions of serotonergic system to provide additional insights into cellular and molecular underpinnings in the actions of 5-HT.In Chapter two, I present studies on mechanisms of action by 5-HT in larvae cardiac system. For this purpose, genetic and pharmacological approaches were used. The transgenic flies used expressed hM4Di receptors (designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs)) which were employed to manipulate the activity of Gαi heterotrimeric protein through activation of engineered G-protein coupled receptors hM4Di DREADD. The activation of hM4Di DREADD receptors by clozapine-N-oxide (CNO) arrested the heart beat; however, pharmacological manipulation of adenylyl cyclase activity and cAMP levels had no significant effect on heart rate. In Chapter Three the role of various 5-HT receptor subtypes that mediate 5-HT action in larval cardiac tissue is addressed. In this study, various 5-HT agonists and antagonists were employed. The pharmacological results demonstrate that a 5-HT2 agonist significantly increases the heart rate. Furthermore, 5-HT2 antagonist, markedly reduces the effect of 5-HT. In addition, I employed genetic approaches to corroborate the pharmacological results. In addition, I investigated the role of the 5-HTergic system in locomotion and feeding behaviors as well as in modulation of sensorimotor circuits. This study is delineated in Chapter Four. The 5-HT biosynthesis was dysregulated by feeding Drosophila larvae various pharmacological agents. 5-HT receptor subtypes were manipulated using RNA interference mediated knockdown and 5-HT receptor insertional mutations. Moreover, synaptic transmission at 5-HT neurons was blocked or induced in both larvae and adult flies. The results demonstrate that disruption of components within the 5-HT system significantly impairs locomotor activity and feeding behavior in larvae. In addition, acute activation of 5-HT neurons disrupts normal locomotor activity in adult flies. In Chapter Five, I addressed direct actions of fluoxetine on synaptic transmission at neuromuscular junctions (NMJs), neural properties, and cardiac function unrelated to fluoxetine's action as a selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitor using Drosophila, crayfish and primary neurons in mouse model system. Fluoxetine application blocked action potentials in crayfish axons, enhanced occurrences of spontaneous synaptic vesicle fusion events at NMJs of both Drosophila and crayfish. In rodent primary neurons, fluoxetine application resulted in increase of cytoplasmic Ca2+. I also developed teaching modules, which are presented in Chapter Seven, to guide students how to exploit a vast array of genetic tools, such as optogenetics in Drosophila to manipulate various neural circuits and to observe their effects on behavior and sensorimotor circuit activity. I also developed a module to teach college level students a hands-on experiment regarding proprioception and tension receptors in crab limb, which is detailed in Chapter Eight.


In this study, we characterized the full-length genome sequences of seven hepatitis C virus (HCV) isolates belonging to genotype 1. These represent the first complete genomes for HCV subtypes 1e, 1h, 1l, plus one novel variant that qualifies for a new but unassigned subtype. The genomes were characterized using 19-22 overlapping fragments. Each was 9400-9439 nt long and contained a single ORF encoding 3019-3020 amino acids. All viruses were isolated in the sera of seven patients residing in, or originating from, Cameroon. Predicted amino acid sequences were inspected and unique patterns of variation were noted. Phylogenetic analysis using full-length sequences provided evidence for nine genotype 1 subtypes, four of which are described for the first time here. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis of 141 partial NS5B sequences further differentiated 13 subtypes (1a-1m) and six additional unclassified lineages within genotype 1. As a result of this study, there are now seven HCV genotype 1 subtypes (1a-1c, 1e, 1g, 1h, 1l) and two unclassified genotype 1 lineages with full-length genomes characterized. Further analysis of 228 genotype 1 sequences from the HCV database with known countries is consistent with an African origin for genotype 1, and with the hypothesis of subsequent dissemination of some subtypes to Asia, Europe and the Americas.


Based on local inscriptions and from the perspective of a micro study of local communities, this research explores the historical dynamics of the social extension of a Bazi (坝子) society, which colluded with the state to maintain transportation systems between Yunnan and Burma. Some social networks overlapped on the transportation routes between the basins, because these routes had since the early Ming guaranteed the successful delivery of tributaries from exterior chieftains to different capitals, which confirmed the state's all under heaven cosmology (天下). For instance, the significance of the transportation of copper from western Yunnan mines to the Yangtze River ports had guaranteed the safety of the state financial system in the Qing dynasty. Thus, in history, the Zhaozhou Bazi has been regarded as sustaining the support of a geopolitical network by states. On the other hand, local elites such as religious masters and scholars also gradually changed their roles from nobles at the political center of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms to government officials or Confucian scholars from the Ming to the Qing. In this process, reforms of state policy on land tax, and its bound corvee for transport services, increased the burdens of local communities. As a response, pushed by the local elite, communities reorganized their common property to deal with changes in state policies, and extended their networks to search for alternative opportunities over the routes. In sum, social changes created opportunities for local agents to reform their religious beliefs, as well as extend their community-based mule caravan business. Dynamic local agency performed an active role in reconstructing a Bazi society, and projected a changed center-periphery relationship in the historical context of western Yunnan.


"Bone mineral density (BMD) decreases during lactation, therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine if exercise could slow this loss. Women were randomized to either an exercise group (EG, n=5) [aerobic (3d/wk, 45 min/d) and resistance exercise (3d/wk)] or control group (CG, n=6) (no exercise) during the 16 wk study. Body composition and BMD were measured by dual x-ray absorptiometry at lumbar spine (LS), hip, and total body. Significant differences in change from baseline between CG and EG were observed for LS bone mineral content (BMC) (-7.4 ± 2.4 vs. -2.9 ± 1.0%, p<0.01) and LS BMD (-6.9 ± 1.9 vs. -4.6 ± 1.1%, p=0.03), respectively. LS area increased by 1.8 ± 1.2% in the EG vs. a decrease of -0.6 ± 2.7% in the CG (p=0.09). No significant differences in percent change were seen in total body BMD and total hip BMD. EG women lost more fat mass (-2.1 ± 2.9 vs. -1.5 ± 1.7 kg) and less lean body mass (-1.0 ± 1.2 vs. -1.9 ± 0.8 kg), however these changes were not significant. These results suggest that resistance and aerobic exercise slow BMC loss and increase bone area of the LS resulting in less loss of BMD during lactation."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


Endorsed by academics worldwide, the Oxford Portuguese Dictionary is the most authoritative English-Portuguese / Portuguese-English dictionary ever published. Based on real modern evidence and computational analysis of hundreds of millions of words of both English (American and British) and Portuguese (Brazilian and European), the dictionary boasts more than 200,000 words and phrases and 320,000 translations. This up-to-date resource has been designed for both Portuguese and English native speakers and includes the latest vocabulary from computing, business, and the media, across both languages. The organization and layout have been designed for maximum clarity and ease of use. The most commonly used sense of each word is shown first, helping you to identify and understand the correct meaning, and more than 130,000 real-life example phrases help you interpret meaning and usage accurately. The dictionary is also packed with extra features including cultural notes throughout the text as well as Portuguese verb tables and a list of irregular English verbs. Produced using the unique dictionary resources of Oxford University Press with an international team of expert advisors, the Oxford Portuguese Dictionary is a groundbreaking work, essential for any serious student of Portuguese and English, as well as academics, professionals, business people, teachers, and translators.


Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution plans have significantly different characteristics with respect to the risks faced by employers and employees, the sensitivity of benefits to inflation, the flexibility of funding, and the importance of governmental supervision. In this paper, we examine some of the main tradeoffs involved in the choice between DB and DC plans. Our most general conclusion is that neither plan type can be said to wholly dominate the other from the perspective of employee welfare.The major advantage of DB plans is the potential they offer to provide a stable replacement rate of final income to workers. If the replacement rate is the relevant variable for worker retirement utility, then DB plans offer some degree of insurance against real wage risk. Of course, protection offered to workers is risk borne by the firm. As real wages change, funding rates must correspondingly adjust. However, to the extent that real wage risk is largely diversifiable to employers, and nondiversifiable to employees, the replacement rate stability should be viewed as an advantage of DB plans. The advantages of DC plans are most apparent during periods of inflation uncertainty. These are: the predictability of the value of pension wealth, the ability to invest in inflation-hedged portfolios rather than nominal DB annuities,and the fully-funded nature of the DC plan. Finally, the DC plan has the advantage that workers can more easily determine the true present value of the pension benefit they earn in any year, although they may have more incertainty about future pension-benefit flows at retirement. Measuring the present value of accruing defined benefits is difficult at best and imposes severe informational requirements on workers. Such difficulties could lead workers to misvalue their total compensation, and result in misinformed behavior.


We present broad-band multiwavelength observations of GRB 080310 at redshift z= 2.43. This burst was bright and long-lived, and unusual in having extensive optical and near-infrared (IR) follow-up during the prompt phase. Using these data we attempt to simultaneously model the gamma-ray, X-ray, optical and IR emission using a series of prompt pulses and an afterglow component. Initial attempts to extrapolate the high-energy model directly to lower energies for each pulse reveal that a spectral break is required between the optical regime and 0.3 keV to avoid overpredicting the optical flux. We demonstrate that afterglow emission alone is insufficient to describe all morphology seen in the optical and IR data. Allowing the prompt component to dominate the early-time optical and IR and permitting each pulse to have an independent low-energy spectral indices we produce an alternative scenario which better describes the optical light curve. This, however, does not describe the spectral shape of GRB 080310 at early times. The fit statistics for the prompt- and afterglow-dominated models are nearly identical making it difficult to favour either. However one enduring result is that both models require a low-energy spectral index consistent with self-absorption for at least some of the pulses identified in the high-energy emission model.


Climate change is expected to adversely affect agriculture in South Africa. A rise in variable and unfavourable conditions is likely to surpass the limits of current coping mechanisms of farmers, compelling them to implement more resilient adaptive measures to decrease their vulnerability to heightened risks. This study assessed the perceptions and understanding of climate change amongst livestock farmers in the semi-arid Eastern Cape Karoo and their responses to perceived changes and associated risks. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews revealed that, while commercial famers were well informed regarding global climate change, commonage farmers had little or no understanding of the phenomenon. Although changes in local climate parameters were identified by farmers, perceived changes were mostly ascribed to the expected climate variability of the region. It was found that commonage farmers are particularly vulnerable to future climate change, whereas commercial farmers, having experience in dealing with the already variable and marginal conditions of the region and facing fewer asset and informational constraints, possess a greater adaptive capacity to respond to projected changes. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that lack of funds, lack of government support and access to information on climate change and potential adaptation strategies are the main factors constraining farmers from adaptation.


New interpretations are given to stellar aberration and Sagnac effect. By strict following the wave model for light it is demonstrated that the wave motion depends on the ether-wind in one dimension only. This means that we cannot describe wave motion by the vector sum of ether-wind and wave velocity. Stellar aberration is therefore silent about the ether-wind, and the entrained ether is not ruled out. By utilizing the fact that the Sagnac effect can be locked in inside an optical fiber it is demonstrated that Sagnac effect is in reality a translational effect. The problem of synchronizing separated clocks forced Sagnac to use a rotating equipment to detect a translational effect. Together with the experiences from the Global Positioning System (GPS) we can find support for an ether that is entrained by our planet. Further confirmation can be found by detecting the ether-wind by translational equipment in a lab or in a satellite.


Abstract Does politics affect economic relations? In particular, do political tensions significantly affect consumer choices? The main objective of the paper is to study the consequences of political conflicts between Spain and Catalonia (a region of Spain) and the subsequent boycott calls on sales of Catalan sparkling wine (cava) in the Spanish market. We use data from sales of sparkling wine in supermarkets and similar outlets. To determine with precision the boycott period we use data on the number of news on the issue that appeared in the main national Spanish daily newspapers. The results of our econometric analysis indicate that the boycott calls triggered different consumers' reactions in different territories. While consumers in some Spanish regions followed them and reduced their purchases of Catalan cava, there was also an anti-boycott reaction of Catalan consumers which led them to increase their consumption of the product. As a consequence of this, the boycott calls had an insignificant impact at the Spanish aggregate level. These results can be rationalized by the predictions of theoretical models of boycotts that include both the free riding and animosity motives.


Due to the fact that perchloric acid resembles sulfuric acid in many respects without having many of the disadvantages of use possessed by the latter, the devising of a cheaper means of producing it would be well warranted by its increased use in both analytical and industrial work. The present work was undertaken with the above idea in view and consisted in studying quantitatively the reaction taking place between nitric oxide (NO), nitric acid, and ammonium perchlorate. Anhydrous perchloric acid is an unstable compound, decomposing spontaneously after a few weeks even when kept in the dark. It is a violently reacting oxidizing agent for many organic substances but aqueous solutions of the acid are not affected by light and are not active oxidizing agents. Perchloric acid solutions (60% strength being the standard commercial form of the acid) are strong, mono-basic solutions which are stable up to the 60% strength and have high boiling points. The salts which the acid forms are nearly all soluble, the potassium, rubidium, caesium and thallium perchlorates being the only ones which are only slightly soluble. This would recommend it over sulfuric acid in many cases where insoluble salts of the latter prevent its use or cause it to seriously interfere on this account in analytical determinations. Also the difference in the solubilities of the potassium and sodium salts permits an easy separation of the perchlorates of these two metals. The maximum boiling point of aqueous solutions at atmospheric pressure is 203° C., which corresponds to a constant boiling mixture having a perchloric acid content of 72.3%. Below 160°C. the distillate contains less than 1% of perchloric acid. Most perchlorates are deliquescent except ammonium, potassium, lead and mercury salts. There have been a number of processes devised for the production of perchloric acid, some of which are only of theoretical importance, but the following methods are the ones which have been used to some extent commercially: (a) The mixing of dry NaClO4 or KClO4 with H2SO4 and distilling the mixture under diminished pressure. The distillation process is a troublesome and expensive one and redistillation must take place to remove the H2SO4 and obtain a pure acid – the product containing 88-89% HClO4. HCl can be substituted for H2SO4 being precipitated from the solution. The HCl can then be distilled off from the filtrate and an approximately 95% HClO4 acid obtained. However, there are small amounts of NaClO4 still remaining which require distillation under reduced pressure to effect their removal. (b) The electrolytic oxidation of HCl in dilute solution is the method used in this country at the present time for commercial production. However the resulting liquir contains HCl, chloric acids and chlorine in addition to the HClO4. Also the acid obtained is quite dilute and must be concentrated for commercial use. The above methods are expensive to operate due to the necessity of purification and concentration of the acid resulting from the reaction used, and the use of NH4ClO4 as a source of HClO4 has been advocated as the best means of overcoming the above objections. NH4ClO4 can be obtained comparatively cheaply and when purified and the ammonium radical oxidized by oxides of nitrogen, there are no non-volatile impurities remaining in the product. All gases and volatile liquids can be easily distilled off at atmospheric pressure and any further concentration of the product can be accomplished at the same time although no such amount of concentration will be required as in (b) cited above. Investigation of the possibilities of the above method is the object of the present work which is a continuation of the work begun at the Institute in 1921 by R.W. Stenzel and continued in the following year by A.W. Knight and in 1924 by V.A. Kalichevsky.


Translation is a situated activity that involves more than simply producing target texts from source texts. In order to understand what translators actually do when they translate, their psycho-biographies as well as the social setting of the workplace and the contextual resources must be considered. In this paper, we outline how a mixed-method approach originally developed to study the newswriting processes of journalists at their workplaces can be applied in translation process research. We argue that progression analysis, which combines keystroke logging, screen recordings, eye-tracking, and cue-based retrospective verbalization, can be profitably used along with version analysis to gain insights into cognitive aspects of the translation process.


What does it mean to be a good citizen today? What are practices of citizenship? And what can we learn from the past about these practices to better engage in city life in the twenty-first century? Ancient and Modern Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West: Care of the Self is a collection of papers that examine these questions. The contributors come from a variety of different disciplines, including architecture, urbanism, philosophy, and history, and their essays make comparative examinations of the practices of citizenship from the ancient world to the present day in both the East and the West. The papers' comparative approaches, between East and West, and ancient and modern, leads to a greater understanding of the challenges facing citizens in the urbanized twenty-first century, and by looking at past examples, suggests ways of addressing them. While the book's point of departure is philosophical, its key aim is to examine how philosophy can be applied to everyday life for the betterment of citizens in cities not just in Asia and the West but everywhere.


A distributed application development methodology is necessary to define specific steps, through which the application specification can be successfully mapped to the system devices. Interoperability and real-timeliness are two major issues in distributed control application development. The main focus of this paper is a generic device model, developed to provide interoperability, and the function block allocation (FBALL) algorithm, defined to guarantee that real-time requirements are met. FBALL is a hybrid approach targeted for the nature of distributed control applications, resulting in an assignment of the application tasks to the system resources, as well as a feasible schedule that meets the real-time constraints. Based on these solutions to interoperability and real-time criticality, a methodology is presented, supporting the distributed control application specification, modeling, and implementation to heterogeneous systems.


PURPOSE
Keratoconus is a noninflammatory corneal disorder that is clinically and genetically heterogeneous. Mutations in the VSX1 (visual system homeobox 1) gene have been identified for two distinct, inherited corneal dystrophies: posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy and keratoconus. To evaluate the possible role of the VSX1 gene in a series of Italian patients, 80 keratoconus-affected subjects were screened for mutations.

METHODS
The diagnosis of keratoconus was made on the basis of clinical examination and corneal topography. The whole coding region and the exon-intron junctions of the VSX1 gene were analyzed by direct sequencing.

RESULTS
Three already-described changes, D144E, G160D, and P247R, and a novel L17P mutation were found in 7 of 80 unrelated patients (8.7%). Two undescribed intronic polymorphisms are also reported.

CONCLUSIONS
Mutational analysis of the VSX1 gene in a series of Italian patients revealed one novel mutation and confirmed an important role played by this gene in a significant proportion of patients affected by keratoconus, when it is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait with variable expressivity and incomplete penetrance.


One of the main objectives of European Commission related to climate and energy is the well-known 20-20-20 targets to be achieved in 2020: Europe has to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of at least 20% below 1990 levels, 20% of EU energy consumption has to come from renewable resources and, finally, a 20% reduction in primary energy use compared with projected levels, has to be achieved by improving energy efficiency. In order to reach these objectives, it is necessary to reduce the overall emissions, mainly in transport (reducing CO2, NOx and other pollutants), and to increase the penetration of the intermittent renewable energy. A high deployment of battery electric (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), with a low-cost source of energy storage, could help to achieve both targets. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) use a combination of a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) with one (or more) electric motor. There are different grades of hybridation from micro-hybrids with start-stop capability, mild hybrids (with kinetic energy recovery), medium hybrids (mild hybrids plus energy assist) and full hybrids (medium hybrids plus electric launch capability). These last types of vehicles use a typical battery capacity around 1-2 kWh. Plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) use larger battery capacities to achieve limited electric-only driving range. These vehicles are charged by on-board electricity generation or either plugging into electric outlets. Typical battery capacity is around 10 kWh. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are only driven by electric power and their typical battery capacity is around 15-20 kWh. One type of PHEV, the Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV), operates as a BEV until its plug-in battery capacity is depleted; at which point its gasoline engine powers an electric generator to extend the vehicle's range. The charging of PHEVs (including EREVs) and BEVs will have different impacts to the electric grid, depending on the number of vehicles and the start time for charging. Initially, the lecture will start analyzing the electrical power requirements for charging PHEVs-BEVs in Flanders region (Belgium) under different charging scenarios. Secondly and based on an activity-based microsimulation mobility model, an efficient method to reduce this impact will be presented.


Relevance. The educational institutions of tomorrow will have to prepare young human "sprouts" for life in the third millennium, about which little or nothing is known. The solution to this problem entirely falls on the shoulders of the teacher, who must see real life and foresee how it will change by the time of the maturity of his/her today's students. In this regard, the society needs a fundamentally new type of school and university teachers. The research problem is the following: a teacher of the third millennium will have to realize and accept that a new historical period, which outlines its development with increasing clearness, requires shifting the vector of the entire educational policy to the future. In this regard, the school / university teacher's activities will have to be aimed at endowing citizens, primarily children and youth, with a sense of the future. The aim of the study is to define the personal and professional qualities intrinsic to the teacher of the Future School, his/her skills and abilities; to outline the algorithm of the contours of his/her activity. The methodological basis of the research was formed by the professional development theory; the concept of forecasting the near and distant prospects of the educational sphere; project-based, personality-oriented and convergent approaches; the principles of integrity and consistency; united diversity; interrelation between the general, the particular and the singular; objectivity; combination of retrospection and development prospects. Results and discussion. Comparing the two types of the pedagogical process, the author shows the difference in the organization and content of the "Yesterday" school and the emerging School of the Future. The article reveals the conditions favouring the professional viability of the teacher who represents the school of the third millennium. Attention is focused on his/her skills and abilities, personal and professional qualities. This is especially important considering the fact that the Future School will employ a teacher who realizes that nurturing must fulfill a "regental" (leading) function in the pedagogical process. The most heated debates were about the organization and content of training teachers for work in the Future School and the conditions underlying the formation and development of the teacher of the third millennium. Conclusion. The article distinguishes the organizational and content peculiarities of two types of schools: the current one and the emerging School of the Future. It also determines the prerequisites for the effectiveness of a fundamentally new teacher: his/her personal and professional qualities, skills and abilities, means of pedagogical influence and other conditions.


The United States' debate of civil right to counsel has been shaped by the constraints of domestic law. The public discussion of the proposed civil right to counsel in the U.S. has typically treated the issue as one of basic fairness. The racial impact of the lack of civil counsel -- an issue that does not raise constitutional concerns absent evidence of discriminatory intent -- often remains unarticulated. Yet international law continues to recognize such racial disparities, intentional or not, as human rights violations, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ("ICERD") requires scrutiny of the racial impacts of the lack of a right to civil counsel. This Article examines the ways in which the ICERD standards could influence the domestic civil counsel debate within the United States, requiring more rigorous examination of the ways in which lack of civil counsel compounds existing racial disparities. Part I examines the existing data demonstrating racial disparities in access to counsel, and sets out the relevant provisions of ICERD. Part II highlights the continued gaps in knowledge of the racial dynamics of this issue. Part III probes the ways in which the results of the 2007 ICERD review were used by domestic advocates, revealing that, despite the CERD Committee's strong statements, the CERD Committee conclusions were rarely invoked in domestic advocacy. Part IV suggests possible avenues for strengthening the connections between the CERD Committee's work and U.S. advocacy on the civil right to counsel. The Article concludes that ICERD has an important role to play in providing a legal framework for addressing the racial impacts of the lack of civil counsel -- a framework that is lacking in domestic law. However, ICERD will not have significant domestic influence until both U.S. human rights advocates and the CERD Committee thoughtfully tailor their work to the U.S. context, with a view toward shoring up the domestic impact of international law.


This article is concerned with the application of the program extraction technique to a new class of problems: the synthesis of decision procedures for the classical satisfiability problem that are correct by construction. To this end, we formalize a completeness proof for the DPLL proof system and extract a SAT solver from it. When applied to a propositional formula in conjunctive normal form the program produces either a satisfying assignment or a DPLL derivation showing its unsatisfiability. We use non-computational quantifiers to remove redundant computational content from the extracted program and translate it into Haskell to improve performance. We also prove the equivalence between the resolution proof system and the DPLL proof system with a bound on the size of the resulting resolution proof. This demonstrates that it is possible to capture quantitative information about the extracted program on the proof level. The formalization is carried out in the interactive proof assistant Minlog.


The photorefractive properties of 4% mol magnesium oxide doped lithium niobate have been investigated at room temperature. The recording and erasing time constants were measured as a function of intensity and analyzed by using the two active species (electron-hole) model. The results were used to compute the exposure schedule for multiple hologram recording. We have recorded grating of five holograms by angular multiplexing at room temperature and fixed them by means of a thermal cycling procedure. The highest diffraction efficiency of a fixed grating is up to 50% of an unfixed one.


[ 1 ] The Pacific Northwest (PNW) has a complex tectonic history and over the past (cid:1) 17 Ma has played host to several major episodes of intraplate volcanism. These events include the Steens/Columbia River flood basalts (CRB) and the striking spatiotemporal trends of the Yellowstone/Snake River Plain (Y/SRP) and High Lava Plains (HLP) regions. Several different models have been proposed to explain these features, which variously invoke the putative Yellowstone plume, rollback and steepening of the Cascadia slab, extensional processes in the lithosphere, or a combination of these. Here we integrate seismologic, geody-namic, geochemical, and petrologic results from the multidisciplinary HLP project and associated analyses of EarthScope USArray seismic data to propose a conceptual model for post-20 Ma mantle dynamics beneath the PNW and the relationships between mantle flow and surface tectonomagmatic activity. This model invokes rollback subduction as the main driver for mantle flow beneath the PNW beginning at (cid:1) 20 Ma. A major pulse of upwelling due to slab rollback and upper plate extension and consequent melting produced the Steens/CRB volcanism, and continuing trench migration enabled mantle upwelling and hot, shallow melting beneath the HLP. An additional buoyant mantle upwelling is required to explain the Y/SRP volcanism, but subduction-related processes may well have played a primary role in controlling its timing and location, and this upwelling likely continues today in some form. This conceptual model makes predictions that are broadly consistent with seismic observations, geodynamic modeling experiments, and petrologic and geochemical constraints.


Most genes have multiple polyadenylation sites (PAS), which are often selected in a tissue-specific manner, altering protein products and affecting mRNA stability, subcellular localization and/or translability. Here we studied the polyadenylation mechanisms associated to the beta-adducin gene (Add2). We have previously shown that the Add2 gene has a very tight regulation of alternative polyadenylation, using proximal PAS in erythroid tissues, and a distal one in brain. Using chimeric minigenes and cell transfections we identified the core elements responsible for polyadenylation at the distal PAS. Deletion of either the hexanucleotide motif (Hm) or the downstream element (DSE) resulted in reduction of mature mRNA levels and activation of cryptic PAS, suggesting an important role for the DSE in polyadenylation of the distal Add2 PAS. Point mutation of the UG repeats present in the DSE, located immediately after the cleavage site, resulted in a reduction of processed mRNA and in the activation of the same cryptic site. RNA-EMSA showed that this region is active in forming RNA-protein complexes. Competition experiments showed that RNA lacking the DSE was not able to compete the RNA-protein complexes, supporting the hypothesis of an essential important role for the DSE. Next, using a RNA-pull down approach we identified some of the proteins bound to the DSE. Among these proteins we found PTB, TDP-43, FBP1 and FBP2, nucleolin, RNA helicase A and vigilin. All these proteins have a role in RNA metabolism, but only PTB has a reported function in polyadenylation. Additional experiments are needed to determine the precise functional role of these proteins in Add2 polyadenylation.


This article analyzes the techniques by which the kings of the early Sasanian dynasty engaged the past and shaped the experience of future generations. I concentrate on the innovations and legacy of the first two kings of kings of the dynasty, Ardashir I (r. 224–239/40 C.E.) and his son Shapur I (239/40–270/2 C.E.). These sovereigns fashioned a new and politically useful vision of the past to establish their dynasty's primacy in Persia and the wider Iranian world, eclipsing their Seleucid, Fratarakid, and Arsacid predecessors. I identify and examine the artistic, architectural, and ritual means by which the early Sasanians conformed the built and natural environment of their homeland to their grand new vision of the past. I argue that the Achaemenid patrimony of the province of Pars played an important role in these efforts, serving as inspirations and anchors for the Sasanians' new creations.


The title, borrowed from Paul Henry Lang9s description of Haydn9s op. 20 string quartets in Music in Western Civilization, characterizes Haydn9s endeavor to create more independent partwriting in the string quartet. First, Haydn9s fugal practice is noteworthy particularly for the construction of the fugal exposition and his treatment of multiple subjects, the question of what constitutes a regular countersubject, and the treatment of redundant entries. Second, the chief strategy in these movements is the invention of invertible counterpoint in three voices. Haydn writes a double fugue (with a regular countersubject), as well as a triple and quadruple fugue, in which the principal issue is the ability of each subject (including the double fugue9s countersubject) to serve as any voice——top, middle or bottom——in a texture of invertible counterpoint. The expertise he attained with these works then allows him to exploit the technique in later quartets, principally in the development sections of sonata-form movements. There, he uses invertible counterpoint to establish the independence of each voice, and to create longer passages unarticulated by cadences, sections distinct from the more clearly articulated periodic expositions and recapitulations. The three fugal finales of op. 20, therefore, constitute Haydn9s advanced study not so much in fugal procedure as in the practice of invertible counterpoint.


Business enterprise produces goods and services through the orchestration of factors of production defined in essence by human consumption behaviour. The production and consumption of goods and services are also associated with environmental problems. These socially constructed problems, regardless of the implied incontrovertibility of their dangers, have drawn attention to the importance of sustainable development models as a means of minimising ecological risk. As a consequence of the ecological aspects of business enterprise and its interrelations between the social and physical environment the firm and corporate management have become focus points of attempts to ameliorate environmental change.

The ecological orientation of companies can be defined through their internal, social and economic characteristics as well as psychological factors, which are germane to corporate objectives. The development of corporate ecological orientations is on one hand dependent upon actual or anticipated external changes acting upon the operating frameworks of a firm and on the other hand the existence of relevant management values and intentions expressed through their strategic planning process.

In this research key features of the notion of environmental consciousness are identified and employed to investigate the corporate environmental consciousness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the United Kingdom and Germany. Environmental consciousness comprises cognitive, affective and conative aspects. Accordingly, the research involves an empirical examination of corporate values, attitudes towards environmental commitments and environmental action within firms. The examination is contextualised by socio-economic factors in which business enterprise is conducted in selected industry sectors within the United Kingdom and Germany. The study concludes with a synthesis of the research findings on environmental management practice and experiences of SMEs in each country.


We present SOSELETO (SOurce SELEction for Target Optimization), a new method for exploiting a source dataset to solve a classification problem on a target dataset. SOSELETO is based on the following simple intuition: some source examples are more informative than others for the target problem. To capture this intuition, source samples are each given weights; these weights are solved for jointly with the source and target classification problems via a bilevel optimization scheme. The target therefore gets to choose the source samples which are most informative for its own classification task. Furthermore, the bilevel nature of the optimization acts as a kind of regularization on the target, mitigating overfitting. SOSELETO may be applied to both classic transfer learning, as well as the problem of training on datasets with noisy labels; we show state of the art results on both of these problems.


On 12-14 July 2015, Women in International Security (WIIS) conducted a three-day data-gathering workshop with over twenty women from the U.S. Special Operations Command's Cultural Support Team (CST) program—the all-female teams that deployed with U.S. Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan from 2010 until 2014. Approximately 200 women participated in this program over 5 years. In addition to the workshop, we surveyed over 25 CST members from various years and several men whose teams the CSTs supported. Following is a report of the initial findings from the workshop.


The results from the REF 2014 were announced in the first minute of the 18th of december 2014. For information about the REF please click on the URL below this description text. Two main hashtags have been used to refer to it on Twitter; #REF and the more popular #REF2014. Approximately 31,855 #REF2014 Tweets were collected over 12 days between 8/12/2014 and 20/12/2014 GMT. Approximately 4,207 #REF Tweets were also collected over the same 12-day period but due to the ambiguity of the term a significant number were non-relevant to the topic (the UK Research Excellence Framework) and have not been included in this file. This file contains approximately 31,855 Tweets published publicly and tagged with #REF2014 for 12 days between 08/12/2014 11:18 and 20/12/2014 10:13 GMT This file was created and shared by Ernesto Priego (Centre for Information Science, City University London) with a Creative Commons- Attribution license (CC-BY) for academic research and educational use. The Tweets contained in this file were collected using Martin Hawksey's TAGS 6.0. This is a.xlsx file that contains 3 sheets. Only users with at least 2 followers were included in the archive. Retweets have been included. An initial automatic deduplication was performed but data might require further deduplication. Please note that both research and experience show that the Twitter search API isn't 100% reliable. Large tweet volumes affect the search collection process. The API might "over-represent the more central users", not offering "an accurate picture of peripheral activity" (Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra, et al. 2012). It is not guaranteed this file contains each and every Tweet tagged with the archived hashtag during the indicated period, and is shared for comparative and indicative educational and research purposes only. Please note the data in this file is likely to require further refining and even deduplication. The data is shared as is. This dataset is shared to encourage open research into scholarly activity on Twitter. If you use or refer to this data in any way please cite and link back using the citation information above.


The article explores how a notorious case of Second World War atrocities in Ukraine – the Babi Yar massacres of 1941-1943 – is represented and interpreted on Wikipedia. Using qualitative content analysis, it examines what frames and content features are used in different language versions of Wikipedia to transcribe the traumatic narrative of Babi Yar as an online encyclopedia entry. It also investigates how these frames are constructed by scrutinising the process of collaborative frame-building on discussion pages of Wikipedia and exploring how Wikipedia users employ different power play strategies to promote their vision of the events at Babi Yar.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the feasibility of achieving image-guided drug delivery in bone by using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-controlled focused ultrasound hyperthermia and temperature-sensitive liposomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Experiments were approved by the institutional animal care committee. Hyperthermia (43°C, 20 minutes) was generated in 10-mm-diameter regions at a muscle-bone interface in nine rabbit thighs by using focused ultrasound under closed-loop temperature control with MR thermometry. Thermosensitive liposomal doxorubicin was administered systemically during heating. Heating uniformity and drug delivery were evaluated for control strategies with the temperature control image centered 10 mm (four rabbits) or 0 mm (five rabbits) from the bone. Simulations estimated temperature elevations in bone. Drug delivery was quantified by using the fluorescence of doxorubicin extracted from bone marrow and muscle and was compared between treated and untreated thighs by using the one-sided Wilcoxon signed rank test.

RESULTS
With ultrasound focus and MR temperature control plane 0 mm and 10 mm from the bone interface, average target region temperatures were 43.1°C and 43.3°C, respectively; numerically estimated bone temperatures were 46.8°C and 78.1°C. The 10-mm offset resulted in thermal ablation; numerically estimated muscle temperature was 66.1°C at the bone interface. Significant increases in doxorubicin concentration occurred in heated versus unheated marrow (8.2-fold, P = .002) and muscle (16.8-fold, P = .002). Enhancement occurred for 0- and 10-mm offsets, which suggests localized drug delivery in bone is possible with both hyperthermia and thermal ablation.

CONCLUSION
MR imaging-controlled focused ultrasound can achieve localized hyperthermia in bone for image-guided drug delivery in bone with temperature-sensitive drug carriers.


Initial results of the palynostratigraphical research in the Triassic of northeast Libya indicate the presence of Middle Triassic in several deep-wells. There is some evidence that the uppermost part of the Early Triassic (Late Scythian) as well as the early part of the Late Triassic (Karnian) may also be present. Additional palynological samples will need to be studied to confirm this view. Most Triassic assemblages in northeast Libya show a striking dominance of the monolete lycopodiophytic miospore Aratrisporites; this genus is represented by a large number of species (A. centratus, A. parvispinosus, A. strigosus, A. saturni, A. paenulatus, A. tenuispinosus, A. ovatus). A similar development is known to occur in the Middle Triassic of Australia and Pakistan. Bisaccate pollen is commonly present in the assemblages. Representatives of Triadispora and Lunatisporites are also frequently recorded. On the basis of a few additional forms, two palynologically distinctive intervals may be recognized within the Middle Triassic: Anisian interval. On the basis of Stellapollenites thiergartii, Strotersporites n. sp. of Visscher and Brugman 1981 (not illustrated) and Angustisulcites grandis, an Anisian age for the lower interval is indicated. The latter two species suggest the Early Anisian. The assemblages can be compared with similar assemblages from the Alpine Anisian in Europe (Visscher & Brugman, 1981; Brugman, in prep) and the Salt Range, Pakistan (Brugman & Baud, in prep). Ladinian interval. The upper part of the Libyan Middle Triassic is characterised by the absence of characteristic Anisian elements, and the incoming of rare representatives of the Circumpolles-group . . .


Biobanks are bioresources of human samples linked to relevant personal and health data of the participants, which are collected, processed and stored in an organised system. Their primary purpose is to provide biospecimens for researchers to help improve knowledge on human health and diseases, while appropriately protecting the interests, rights and privacy of the participants.

The biobanking community poses a variety of legal, ethical, social and regulatory challenges, particularly involved in genetic diseases, to be overcome because of the sensitive data they store. A crucial avenue for a biobank to build and maintain public trust is therefore through the development of governance mechanisms ensuring that, in pursuing its remit, the biobank acts in compliance with the applicable laws and regulations of the country in which it is located, as well as the international regulations in order to ease the cross-border sample exchange and the international cooperation of biobanks.

Key Concepts

Biobanks are collections of human samples linked to relevant personal and health data of the participants, organised and managed in a systematic way.
Primary purpose of biobanks is to help improve knowledge on human health and diseases.
Biobanking poses a variety of challenges including ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI).
Because of the preciousness of the samples and the sensitive nature of the data stored in biobanks, proper governance is essential to protecting confidentiality, choices and rights of participants.
As critical components in the field of clinical practice and basic research, biobanks develop standard operating procedures devoted to collect, process, store, retrieve and transfer to researchers a set of biospecimens and associated information.
In the field of rare diseases (RDs), collectively affecting 6–8% of the population, international cooperation among RD-biobanks is fundamental for sharing and achieving a critical mass of samples and data for basic, translational and clinical research.
To ease an international cooperation, biobanks also need to act in compliance with international regulations.

Keywords:

biobanking;
rare genetic diseases;
networking;
harmonisation and standardisation;
ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI);
IT structure;
genetic data;
privacy protection;
governance;
sustainability


Panhuyzen-Goedkoop and Smeets1 provide an important primer at the intersection of cardiac disorders, decision-making and legal risk in sports medicine. The authors accurately flag the relevant issues and offer concrete suggestions. The purpose of this reply is to elaborate on one of the authors' key findings and qualify another point through a more textured discussion.

The twin concern of false positives and false negatives permeates the authors' article. Such an emphasis is well placed. The concern is particularly vexing in the context of cardiac disorders. It was illustrated in the tragic death and legal aftermath involving National Basketball Association player Reggie Lewis, a widely covered event that was recently marked by its 20th anniversary. The past two decades have left a 'sports law legacy'2—one that all physicians practising in this area should be aware of. …


Have Framework, Will Travel: Extending the Frameworks into Transnational Higher Education Dr. A.M. Salaz, Teresa MacGregor Introduction [A] The future scholar will require a range of skills, habits, and knowledge to be able to competently participate in an increasingly digital, globalized world. The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and National Writing Program (NWP) Frameworks (ACRL 2015; CWPA, NCTE, and NWP 2011) both recognize this in their articulation of trends in information literacy, postsecondary writing, critical thinking, and higher education more broadly. The ACRL Framework characterizes the "rapidly changing higher education environment" as one where students play a larger part in the creation of new knowledge, while the WPA Framework articulates the "21st-century-skills" critical for college success, emphasizing the rise of digital technologies. However, it is the increasingly globalized nature of information and scholarship which draws our attention in the context of transnational higher education (TNHE), a higher education setting where these American frameworks are frequently being deployed to non-American students outside of America. This chapter introduces TNHE, provides background regarding the use of the Frameworks outside of the United States, and offers an important look into the application of the Frameworks in this unique, challenging, and increasingly common environment. Additionally, we highlight ways in which practitioners in both domestic and TNHE settings can learn from one another.


In a number of publications Abdulkarim Soroush has sought to propound and defend a thesis, 'the evolution and devolution of religious knowledge' (EDRK), according to which a religion (such as Islam) may be divine and unchanging, but our understanding of religion remains in a continuous flux and a totally human endeavor; he calls this view "Islamic Humanism". In this essay, I shall argue that the thesis of Islamic humanism collapses in the end into one of the various forms of religious nonrealism that have their origins in the works of some well-known contemporary Christian theologians. Keywords: Islamic Humanism; Abdulkarim Soroush's evolution and devolution of religious knowledge; religious nonrealism; Islam and modernity; liberal Islam; religious thought. ********** "It may well be that no one is injured when you fire your shotgun, but it would, at the very least, cause your neighbor's pigeons to shed some feathers." Jalal Al-e-Ahmad The Argument The theoretical underpinnings of the thesis called "evolution and devolution of religious knowledge (EDRK) by Abdulkarim Soroush constitute an argument which appears in almost all of his works on this topic. (1) Because of its centrality, we may call it the Argument. In this section, I shall first expound and then criticize the Argument. Having challenged some of the cases that Soroush takes to support his thesis in the section that follows, I shall eventually show how it actually leads to nonrealism. The Argument is, in fact, quite simple and can be thought of as having the following structure: (a) Observation is theory-laden (p. 245). (premise) (b) Meaning (interpretation) is theory-laden (p. 247). (from 'a') (c) Presuppositions (background theories) are age-bound, and are, thus, in flux (p. 245). (premise) EDRK: Religious knowledge (science of religion) is in continuous flux. (from 'b' and 'c') It is rather difficult to make sense of the Argument, for as it turns out, it is both invalid and based on false premises. Nonetheless, we should try to be charitable when it comes to understanding its underlying motivation. Let us start with validity. The argument is manifestly invalid as there is no way that (b) can be derived from (a). Even assuming that "observation" is theory-laden, this can hardly result in any conclusion about "meaning". Observation, broadly understood, involves various forms of sensory contact with our environment. The resulting process, viz. perception, is what provides us with knowledge about the world. It is however a major issue in philosophy to understand how perception, as a type of cognitive process, works. At an abstract level, a cognitive process can be thought of as a function relating mental input to cognitive or behavioral output. For example, in the case of visual perception, input consists of stimulation of the retina which is then combined with various operations occurring in the visual cortex. The output would be the perception of whatever object that caused the stimulation. Accordingly, visual perception can be seen as a process that transforms sensory input into output that consists of a perception. It is nowadays (as in Cognitive Science) customary to try to understand cognitive processes by breaking them down into simpler sub-functions (as in Marr's computational theory of vision (2)) and finding out how the latter are accomplished. Another major question in the case of perception is whether the phenomenal character of an experience is detachable from its content and whether the latter has a conceptual or non-conceptual character. Meaning, however, is a completely different animal. It is, generally speaking, what turns sounds or inscriptions into means of communication and understanding. Sometimes meaning is used in connection with what a speaker intends to communicate by a particular utterance (broadly understood). …


Miscanthus, a C4 perennial grass native to Eastern Asia, is being bred to provide biomass for bioenergy and biorenewable products. Commercial expansion with the clonal hybrid M. × giganteus is limited by low multiplication rates, high establishment costs and drought sensitivity. These limitations can be overcome by breeding more resilient Miscanthus hybrids propagated by seed. Naturally occurring fast growing indigenous Miscanthus species are found in diverse environments across Eastern Asia. The natural diversity provides for plant breeders, the genetic resources to improve yield, quality, and resilience for a wide range of climates and adverse abiotic stresses. The challenge for Miscanthus breeding is to harness the diversity through selections of outstanding wild types, parents, and progenies over a short time frame to deploy hybrids that make a significant contribution to a world less dependent on fossil resources. Here are described the strategies taken by the Miscanthus breeding programme at Aberystwyth, UK and its partners. The programme built up one of the largest Miscanthus germplasm collections outside Asia. We describe the initial strategies to exploit the available genetic diversity to develop varieties. We illustrate the success of combining diverse Miscanthus germplasm and the selection criteria applied across different environments to identify promising hybrids and to develop these into commercial varieties. We discuss the potential for molecular selections to streamline the breeding process.


SEX, LOVE, AND BLACK LIVES Mack Curry IV Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Professor Timothy Seibles The title of my thesis is Sex, Love, and Black Lives. This title embodies the three prominent aspects of my life: intimacy, relationships, and being black in America. These subjects are important to me because they influence a lot of my writing. They have also made played a key role in shaping me into the person I am today. Section one will focus on my sexual experiences, section two will focus on romantic and platonic relationships I've had, and section three will focus on my perspective of being black in America. Writing about my various thoughts and opinions allowed me to express myself in a way that I did not do with my parents. Writing about my sexual experiences also allows me to reflect on how each respective encounter has impacted emotionally. I like to write about sex in relation to love because I have had trouble connecting the two. I also use my poems to elaborate on certain actions and thoughts that occur when I'm with a significant other. Writing a stanza or two here and there helps me to verbalize my feelings, filter them, and effectively communicate them when the time comes. After sex and relationships will come a section on being black in America. Sensitive as this topic may be, it is one that needs to be addressed. With everything going on in the media about hate crimes and police brutality toward African Americans, I felt that the view of the 21 century young black male needs to be expressed. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. SEX


Geopolitics as a multidisciplinary view has been defined most succinctly as the relation of international political power to geographical setting, This definition has three principle conceptual components, the international system of states, political power and geography each of which has a significant relation to technology , this notion is initially based on the study of effects of geography on politics especially in an international scale, witnessed a post structural orientation with the idea –called critical geopoliticsthat nation-states are not the only legitimate units of geopolitical analysis. But new technologies with their capabilities provided for states in shaping and reshaping the geographical environment and changing it into a dominant discourse, reveal as a pro classical geopolitics challenging the critical approach in this regard.


Owen J. Wister, M.D. (1825–1896) acquired one of the busiest "outdoor" practices in nineteenth-century Philadelphia, conducted throughout the city's large northwest district. Through letters, he described events in his daily rounds to his wife, the writer Sarah Butler Wister, when she was traveling to restore her own health. Wister's practice was filled with the mundane details of any general doctor's existence but also with confrontations with sudden and overpowering disease, and sometimes the grisly deaths of friends and family. Often he worked from early morning until late evening, seeing as many as thirty or forty patients scattered over a thirty-mile range. He endured as well frequent calls at night for real or imagined emergencies and maternity cases. In 1869 he collapsed from overwork and was able to resume his career only after a three-year respite. This lecture describes Wister's practice and his emotional responses to it, as inscribed in the letters. In addition, I explore what attributes he had as a physician and as a man that accounted for his popularity and why the social environment of his practice made it virtually impossible for him to control its demands, even at the cost of his own well-being.


December 2009: the first American edition of J. M. Coetzee's Summertime: Fiction (hereafter Summertime) appears. My personal curiosity is piqued. Here, it would seem from the publicity, is a fictionalized autobiography that covers the period in which I had overlapped with Coetzee at the University of Cape Town. I do not expect to feature in this "fiction" - why should I? - but I am curious about ways in which my own recall of those years may or may not coincide with Coetzee's fictionalized ones.
I receive a complimentary copy of the book from Viking, with a signed card from Coetzee. Is it a gift or a message? Both? I want to thank him. His University of Adelaide electronic mailbox is full. I send an actual letter, on paper. He replies in an email, "What a pleasure to receive an old-fashioned letter." I read the book. In it, the author John Coetzee has died in Australia. We are being given some materials of a posthumous biography in preparation by a literary biographer.
These materials include a small number of dated notebook entries and some "undated fragments" written, we must believe, by Coetzee between 1972 and 1975. The full time span covered by the book is not, however, wholly clear. Most of the book consists of contemporary "interviews" conducted by the biographer assembling the book. These are interviews with people, all women with one exception, with whom Coetzee is evidently known to have had relationships. The John Coetzee of Summertime will thus be a function of heterogeneous memories dating back as much as thirty years.


A novel technique is presented for obtaining concurrent measurements of the linear and circular birefringence properties of an optical sample by using a rotating-wave-plate Stokes polarimeter to extract the 2x2 central elements of the corresponding Mueller matrix via two linearly polarized probe lights. For a compound sample comprising a half-wave plate in series with a quarter-wave plate, the measured values of the principal angle and retardance of the quarter-wave plate are found to have average normalized errors of 0.56% and 1.16%, respectively, while the measured value of the rotation angle of the half-wave plate has an error of just 0.39%. When analyzing glucose solutions with concentrations ranging from 0-1.2 g/dl positioned in front of a half-wave plate, the average normalized errors in the principal axis angle and retardance measurements of the half-wave plate are 0.69% and 2.65%, respectively, while the error in the rotation angle measurements of the glucose solutions is 2.13%. The correlation coefficient between the measured rotation angle and the concentration of the glucose solution is determined to be 0.99985, while the standard deviation is just 0.0022 deg. Overall the experimental results demonstrate the ability of the proposed system to obtain highly accurate measurements of the linear and circular birefringence properties of an optical sample and to decouple the relationship between the principal axis angle and the rotation angle.


Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthropod-borne alphavirus that causes an acute febrile illness, chikungunya fever. CHIKV virus is geographically distributed in Africa, India, and South-East Asia. Chikungunya fever outbreaks have been reported from India since 2006. The incubation period is 3-7 days, and the disease is characterized by sudden onset of high fever and severe arthralgia. Other symptoms can be rash, headache, fatigue, nausea-vomiting, and myalgias. Here, we report the first Chikungunya case imported from India, New-Delhi to Ankara, Turkey. In December 2010, a 55-year-old female Turkish government employee living in urban area of New Delhi for the last 3 years had sudden onset fever up to 38.4°C for 2 days. Itching rash and arthralgia also developed. Symptomatic treatment was given to patient in New Delhi. She returned to Turkey and was admitted to Hacettepe University Medical Faculty, Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases Unit, since arthralgia has continued on the 26th day of her complaints. Hepatomegaly and tenosynovitis were detected in her physical examination. Serum sample sent to Refik Saydam National Public Health Agency, Virology Reference and Research Laboratory, yielded negative results for specific IgM and IgG antibodies against Hantavirus and Dengue virus types 1-4; however, the results were positive for CHIKV specific IgM and IgG antibodies by commercial immunofluorescence method (Euroimmun, Germany). CHIKV RNA which was searched by in-house real-time RT-PCR was negative. The second serum sample obtained three weeks later also found positive for CHIKV specific IgM and IgG antibodies. This was the first laboratory confirmed imported Chikungunya case in Turkey. There are predictions regarding the presence of Aedes species mosquitos that can transmit this virus in Turkey. This case report will be an alarming signal for the clinicians in our country to consider Chikungunya fever in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with fever, arthralgia and rash.


The impact of human behavior on vehicle efficiency has been vastly explored for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. However, human behavioral impacts on vehicle efficiency have not yet transitioned to include battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Understanding the impact of human behavior that achieves BEV efficiency is essential globally, as BEVs begin to retain a significant portion of the automotive market share. BEV sales trends in the US have seen consistent growth since 2010, amounting to over 200,000 units sold by 2015. Globally, the total amount of BEVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) is expected to be 40-70 million by 2025. In light of the growth estimates, defining behavior that induces efficient energy consumption when driving BEVs is essential as these vehicles have a traveling distance constrained to 60-120 miles and can require 1-8 hours to attain a fully charged battery at commercial charging stations. With firm traveling distances and long charging times, defining human behavioral impacts on BEV efficiency will allow drivers to get the most range out of their vehicle. In order to develop categories of BEV drivers in terms of efficiency, an empirical experiment was conducted to determine if clustering drivers on their energy consumption profiles invokes significant categories. The driving attributes that defined the clusters were extracted to compare whether or not efficient BEV driving is similar to eco-driving in ICE vehicles. Furthermore, BEV drivers can suffer from anxiety that stems from limited traveling distance, a phenomenon known as range anxiety. However, there exist other sources of anxiety-related human driving behavior, three of which can be measured using the driving behavior survey (DBS). The three anxiety measures from the DBS were contrasted against the BEV efficiency clusters found from this research, to determine if the anxiety factors defined by the DBS were responsible for efficient BEV driving. The results from this research found two significantly different clusters of BEV driving efficiency, which were defined as efficient and inefficient BEV driving. In comparison to eco-driving in ICE vehicles, both aggressive speed and acceleration were found to be contributing factors to BEV efficiency. The results from the DBS proved that anxiety was not a contributing factor to BEV efficiency, as both clusters had similar answers. The information accumulated through this research can be used to guide new BEV drivers to adopt sustainable driving behaviors, which can help maximize their traveling distance on a single charge. Behavioral contributions to efficiency stemmed mostly from reduction of traveling speed; however, consumption based on elevation and road class selection were also quantified. Drivers can use this information to plan their driving routes to minimize energy usage. Modeling techniques that assume a single rate of energy consumption for the population should include behavioral rates defined by this research. Defining behavioral classes of BEV efficiency is essential as BEV sales are on the rise and drivers and manufactures can both use this information to improve efficiency of these vehicles.


35 Army personnel trained and equipped for conventional warfare find themselves at a disadvantage when deployed for sub-conventional operations. The advancement in technology, changing warfare concepts, induction of sophisticated weapons and support equipments and need to handle far too many variables demand deliberate efforts in ensuring recruitment of desired human resource and their training in the army to suit the requirements of conventional as well as sub-conventional warfare. This is essential since possibility of conventional war can not be totally ruled out and at the same time relevance of sub-conventional operations in today's scenario can no longer be ignored. This paper is an attempt to evolve a suitable human resource development strategy for capacity building in Army for coping stress in subconventional warfare.


Background: Sea lettuce is a kind green alga with scientific name "Ulva lactuca", has many uses in many countries. With Notice to the presence of this alga in the coasts of Bushehr and its ease of propagation and cultivation, we can take advantage of beneficial interest. The objectives of this current study was to determine the amount of total fat, survey the quality and quantity of some physicochemical parameters and the profile of fatty acids in its oil. Materials and Methods: After samples collecting of sea lettuce (Sea lettuce) from Bushehr coasts, sample preparation and extraction of fat, quantity of some physicochemical parameters according to AOAC method; and fatty acid profile were analyzed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID). Results: The acidity index in extracted oil in Shoraye-shahr, Bandargah and Naftkesh regions were, 0.73, 0.73 and 0.72 respectively, and the peroxide value was 0.75, 0.74 and 0.75 respectively. The refractive index and average oil contents for all areas were reported 3 % and 1412, respectively. In the three mentioned regions, sixteen fatty acids including (C6), (C10), (C12), (C13), (C14), (C15), (C16), (C17), (C18), (C19), (C20), (C21), (C18: 1), (C18: 2), (C18: 3) were identified with different amounts. Palmitic acid had the highest levels in all three regions. Conclusion: Sea lettuce contains different fatty acids that each of them has different applications in food industry, medicine and cosmetics. The favorable amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the sea lettuce oil increase their nutritional importance. Caltivating of this beneficial alga is suggested due to the appropriate geographic climate of Bushehr.


A fermentor consisting of two compartments (called inner and outer) separated by a dialysis
membrane was developed for studying the digestion pattern in vitro of rumen microorganisms of
sheep fed a molasses-urea based diet. A bout 35 ml of strained rumen liquor withdrawn from Merino
weathers adapted to a molasses-urea diet (100 g oaten chaff and molasses containing 3% urea and
0.135% mineral mix fed ad libitum) was used as the initial fermenting inoculum in the inner compartment.
Molasses-urea substrate (8.333% molasses and 0.277% urea, w/v) prepared in artificial
saliva was infused at 3 ml h -I into the fermenting medium and artificial saliva at 30 ml h - I into the
outer compartment. Incubation was carried out in a specially constructed water bath maintained at
39°C and filled with CO gas. With these flow rates, pH of fermenting fluids was maintained within
2 •physiological range with volatile fatty acids (VFA) production at 30 - 40 J.J.mole ml- 1 h -I. Using the
fermentor, the effect of partial substitution of tryptone for urea as a nitrogen source on rumen
microorganisms adapted to a molasses-urea based diet was studied with infusion solution consisting of
8.333% molasses, 0.208% urea and 0.202% tryptone (w/v) prepared in artificial saliva. Factors
related to cell yield studied were, VFA and ammonia (NH) productions, dry matter (DM) and CP
yields. However, no positive effects of protein supplementation (when compared to molasses-urea
substrate) were observed in VFA productions, DM and CP yields. Only NH 3 levels of fermentors
infused with molasses-urea substrate were significantly higher (P<0.05) than protein supplemented
fermentors.


Synopsis-This paper is a condensed survey of the interactions between water and cellulose materials . It is introduced by some general remarks about the interaction of water with solids, with special attention to hydrogen bonds, solutions and gels, then about the chemical and physical properties of cellulose fibres . The main discussion is devoted to the interaction ofwater below and above the saturation point, dimensional changes and restricted swelling, drying and hysteresis and, finally, the quantitative measurements of the absorbed water .


We define a modified dimensional-regularization technique that overcomes several difficulties of the ordinary technique, and is specially designed to work efficiently in chiral and parity violating quantum field theories, in arbitrary dimensions greater than 2. When the dimension of spacetime is continued to complex values, spinors, vectors and tensors keep the components they have in the physical dimension, therefore the $\gamma $ matrices are the standard ones. Propagators are regularized with the help of evanescent higher-derivative kinetic terms, which are of the Majorana type in the case of chiral fermions. If the new terms are organized in a clever way, weighted power counting provides an efficient control on the renormalization of the theory, and allows us to show that the resulting chiral dimensional regularization is consistent to all orders. The new technique considerably simplifies the proofs of properties that hold to all orders, and makes them suitable to be generalized to wider classes of models. Typical examples are the renormalizability of chiral gauge theories and the Adler-Bardeen theorem. The difficulty of explicit computations, on the other hand, may increase.