This thesis spans the cusp of the 20 and 21 st centuries when enterprises were making the transition from the use of paper based to digitally based tools and methodologies to support the design and manufacture of new products. This transition occurred during a period when the globalisation of these activities was driven by the introduction of new, so-called "Information Technologies". During this period, software vendors introduced products to cater for the new demand for the management of increasing amounts of digital data created by computer-based tools and methods. Product Data Management systems are one such example and are the focus of this thesis. Larger enterplises have embraced these technologies and the benefits from such systems are now apparent. However, the uptake of these technologies by Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) is low by comparison. The need for data management products was driven by larger enterprises and the underlying research behind these tools and methods followed, rather than led, their introduction. As a consequence, tools and methods were proposed and implemented without due regard to the underlying concepts, nor was consideration given to how such tools and methodologies would be utilised by enterprises that varied in a multitude of ways. This area of research is important because SMEs comprise the majority of New Zealand and global enterprises. There is a need to develop suitable computer-based tools and methods to manage data to ensure SMEs can compete in an environment that is increasingly based on the creation and communication of digital data. This thesis seeks to contribute to the field of product data management in two ways; • Firstly, a fundamental conceptual model describing data classes and interactions by enterprises performing product development is developed. • Secondly, the developed model is used to underpin the design, development and implementation of a novel method for managing data created and used by SMEs. Suggestions for further development of the model and method will be made at the conclusion of the thesis.


The doctrine of genericism - under which a court may determine a previously valuable mark is or has become generic, thus losing all trademark status and value - has been under theorized since work authored by Professors Folsom and Teply in 1980. Yet in the interim, the expansion of intellectual property rights has changed the landscape of the balance between rights holders and the public. For example recent lawsuits and articles have drawn attention to a growing issue in intellectual property law, the aggressive and arguably abusive tactics of intellectual property ("IP") rights holders. Indeed in the trademark context, some maintain and there are arguments to support the idea that trademark holders bring these actions as a means of manipulating the public through direct control of the public's ability to use language. Nonetheless, if one supposes for a moment that trademark holders and their counsel are acting at some level of good faith and are rational, it may be that something else in the law itself drives this otherwise questionable behavior. This paper argues that the doctrine of genericism as it is currently applied forces the trademark holder to police her rights in this extreme manner for fear of losing her mark. Specifically, this paper investigates the theoretical and historical evolution of the doctrine and posits that current genericism doctrine has strayed far from its roots, which are in consumer understanding in the marketplace and enhancing competition, and now concerns itself with an inappropriate property type of analysis that places great weight on non-commercial and/or non-competitive trademark use contexts (e.g., dictionary entries, newspapers, noncompetitive third-party uses, etc.). This focus leads to inefficient results, i.e., trademark holders engaging in extensive advertising, letter campaigns, and litigation to try to protect the mark and prevent it from being deemed generic. As such this paper argues that the doctrine should be re-anchored to focus on the mark's ability to act as a source identifier for the consumer in commercial contexts. Re-focusing genericism on consumer contexts rather than non-consumer, expressive contexts will allow the analysis to embrace a more sophisticated, broad understanding of trademarks. This approach recognizes a term's ability to perform more than one function in language depending on the user of the term and the context of the term's use (i.e., commercial and non-commercial). In addition, this revised understanding of genericism would undermine trademark holders' ability to claim the need to engage in what would otherwise be frivolous and/or abusive enforcement strategies, because they could no longer hang their collective hat on the excuse that they were required to do so to avoid falling victim to genericism. In short, this retooling of the doctrine would allow trademark owners to enjoy the full benefits of the source identifying functions of their marks while at the same time creating a space in which the public may enjoy full use of the terms without fear of reprisal by mark owners.


ABSTRACT Background: The aim of the study was to determine the level of obstetrical ultrasound training and practice of general practitioners in the Free State private sector. Methods: In this descriptive study, questionnaires were mailed to all general practitioners in the Free State private sector. The questionnaire included demographic information about the practitioner, the ultrasound profile of the practice, and the type of machine used. Results: Four hundred and eighty-one questionnaires were sent to general practitioners and 229 (47.6%) were returned. Of the 176 practising respondents, 47 (26.8%) used ultrasound. The majority of ultrasound examinations done per month were obstetrical. Eight practitioners had relevant qualifications for using ultrasound and more than a third (18, 38.3%) had no training in ultrasound use. Less than half (19, 40.4%) of the practitioners that use ultrasound were aware of the South African Association of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (SASUOG). Conclusions: The response to the questionnaire was low and may have influenced the results. The study indicates that there are general practitioners who perform ultrasound examinations without training. As general practitioners mainly do obstetrical ultrasound, it is recommended that the SASUOG play a bigger role in their training. A diploma course in ultrasound and support from medical aid organisations to only pay full fees to doctors who can prove that they have sufficient ultrasound training and competence will be ideal.


Field dependence-independence (FDI) is a construct intensively investigated within cognitive style research, but its cognitive underpinnings are not clearly specified. We propose that performance on FDI tasks primarily reflects the operations of the visuospatial and executive components of working memory. We tested this hypothesis in a dual-task experiment with a commonly used measure of FDI, the Hidden Figures Test. The results showed that performance on this test was impaired by concurrent performance of secondary tasks that primarily tap the visuospatial component (spatial tapping) and the executive component (2-back and random number generation), but was almost unaffected by other secondary tasks (simple tapping and articulatory suppression). Moreover, an analysis of secondary task performance ruled out the possibility of strategic trade-offs and revealed an intriguing dissociation for two different sets of "randomness" indices for the random number generation task. These results support the hypothesised mapping between FDI and working memory components and suggest that the dual-task paradigm can provide a useful way to bring underspecified constructs like FDI into closer alignment with theoretical ideas developed within cognitive psychology.


This paper assesses the effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the labor supply of Americans ages 50 and older. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we estimate a dynamic programming model of retirement that accounts for both saving and uncertain medical expenses. Importantly, we model the two key channels by which health insurance rates are predicted to change: the Medicaid expansion and the subsidized private exchanges.


Subduction zones drive plate tectonics on Earth, yet subduction initiation and the related upper plate depositional and structural kinematics remain poorly understood because upper plate records are rare and often strongly overprinted by magmatism and deformation. During the late Paleozoic time, Laurentia's western margin was truncated by a sinistral strike-slip fault that transformed into a subduction zone. Thick Permian strata in the Inyo Mountains of central-eastern California record this transition. Two basins that were separated by a transpressional antiform contain sedimentary lithofacies that record distinct patterns of shoaling and deepening conditions before and during tectonism associated with subduction initiation. Sandstone petrography and lithofacies analysis show that rocks in a southeastern basin are dominated by carbonate grains derived from adjacent carbonate shelves, whereas sandstones in a northwestern basin are predominantly quartzose with likely derivation from distant ergs or underlying strata. Detrital zircon spectra from all but the youngest strata in both basins are typical of Laurentian continent spectra with prominent peaks that indicate ultimate sources in Appalachia, Grenville, Yavapai/Mazatzal, and the Wyoming or Superior cratons. The first Cordilleran arc-derived detrital zircon grains appear in the uppermost strata of the northwestern basin and record Late Permian (ca. 260 Ma) Cordilleran arc magmatism at this approximate latitude, and a possible source area is suggested by geochemical similarities between these detrital zircons and broadly coeval magmatic zircons in the El Paso Mountains to the southwest. Deformation responsible for basin partitioning is consistent with sinistrally oblique contraction in the earliest Permian time. The data presented from the Inyo Mountains shed more light on the nature of Cordilleran subduction initiation and the upper-crustal response to this transition.


We design tapered waveguide junctions for coupling between photonic crystal and traditional dielectric waveguides and evaluate their transmission efficiency. While the transmission efficiency is less than 60% using no taper, the tapered couplers have over 90% power transmission. We show that different types of couplers are needed for efficient coupling into and out of photonic crystal waveguides.


This study was a quasi-experimental pilot study designed to determine the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary team to develop improved discharge teaching and process with inclusion of early provision of discharge goals, identification of barriers, and subsequent teaching and problem-solving of the barriers to impact patient perceived readiness for discharge. Discharge goals and barriers were identified early in the hospital stay for the intervention group and the control group received usual discharge planning. A questionnaire was given to the intervention group on admission to determine patient perceived goals and barriers. Based on the goals and barriers identified by the intervention group, the interdisciplinary team formulated an intensive discharge plan to meet patients' goals and overcome barriers identified on admission. The investigator provided written goals at the bedside, planning brochure with video, and an anticipated discharge date was posted. A Perceived Readiness for Discharge Scale was administered prior to discharge to both groups, and two follow-up questionnaires post discharge were administered through follow-up phone calls. The phone calls and follow-up questionnaires were administered by an advanced practice nurse at 48-72 hours post discharge and at 10-14 days post discharge to assess any adverse events, patient satisfaction with the discharge process, and preparedness for discharge. This study contributed to knowledge present in the current literature which describes discharge planning and went further to investigate if an intensive discharge planning intervention through identification of goals and barriers early in the hospital stay improves perceived readiness for discharge. This study also looked at whether perceived readiness also influences patient satisfaction with the discharge process from hospital to home and if the concept of early identification of barriers and an intensive discharge process is associated with decreased adverse events and readmissions within 72 hours and 14 days post discharge. Discharge Planning 5 The Effects of a Discharge Planning Intervention on Perceived Readiness for Discharge


This paper investigates the aggregate and sectoral public-private remuneration pattern in South Africa from 2001:q1 to 2017:q1. Co-integration analysis confirm a stable, long-run relationship. The adjustment to the deviations from this long-run relationship is strong and significant for public-sector remuneration, while private-sector earnings neither respond to the deviations from the long-run relationship nor lagged changes of public sector remuneration. No individual public-sector remuneration is found to Granger-cause an individual private-sector remuneration. On the other hand, causal relations between private-sector remuneration and public sector remuneration cannot be rejected. A traditional "Dutch-disease†hypothesis for South Africa is rejected. Widening this analysis to individual private and public sectors confirms the results with aggregate earnings with two exceptions: 1) Earnings in financial intermediation and private road transport can be better explained including public sector earnings, and 2) Earnings in manufacturing and mining are found to be related to public sector earnings in the long run. Nevertheless, the degree of fit is low for individual private sector variables except financial intermediation and private road transport while it is high for individual public sector earnings except local authorities. Efforts to slow down the speed of the wage-price spiral should not exclude the private sector.


This handbook provides thorough, up-to-date information on associations concerned with the fields of librarianship, documentation, information science and archives. The second, completely revised and considerably enlarged edition contains 633 comprehensive and updated entries from over 130 countries. Over 170 new entries documenting the latest trends and developments in the field are included, and an increase of more than 7 % in the number of associations covered. The first part lists internationally active associations in alphabetical order. In the second part, national associations are arranged by country, and listed within the countries alphabetically. The volume includes indexes of names, subjects and official organs. The entries contain the following details: Name, with abbreviation and English translation where available Address with telephone, telex, fax, eMail and URL Functionaries, members of staff Languages, Year of foundation Main field of interest and goals Structure, finances Summary of members (numbers, structure, types of membership) Membership conferences, congresses, publications Activities (e.g. legislative proceedings or educational)


"Take a peek at The Peep Diaries, an erudite (but not too erudite) look at the culture that Facebook, Twitter, et al. have spawned."-Real Simple "It's a great read; it mixes frank interviews with people pushing the boundaries of voyeurism and exhibitionism, alongside a bracing critique of the social context that got us into peep culture and the forces that now exploit our participation in it."-The Globe and Mail We have entered the age of "peep culture": a tell-all, show-all, know-all digital phenomenon that is dramatically altering notions of privacy, individuality, security, and even humanity. Peep culture is reality TV, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, over-the-counter spy gear, blogs, chat rooms, amateur porn, surveillance technology, Dr. Phil, Borat, cell phone photos of your drunk friend making out with her ex-boyfriend, and more. In the age of peep, core values and rights we once took for granted are rapidly being renegotiated, often without our even noticing. With hilarious, exasperated acuity, social critic Hal Niedzviecki dives into peep, starting his own video blog, joining every social network that will have him, monitoring the movements of his toddler, selling his secrets on Craigslist, hiring a private detective to investigate him, spying on his neighbors, trying out for reality TV shows, and stripping for the pleasure of a web audience he isn't even sure exists. Part travelogue, part diary, part meditation and social history, The Peep Diaries explores a rapidly emerging digital phenomenon that is radically changing not just the entertainment landscape, but also the firmaments of our culture and society. The Peep Diaries introduces the arrival of the age of peep culture and explores its implications for entertainment, society, sex, politics, and everyday life. Mixing first-rate reporting with sociological observations culled from the latest research, this book captures the shift from pop to peep and the way technology is turning gossip into documentary and Peeping Toms into entertainment journalists. Packed with stranger-than-fiction true-life characters and scenarios, The Peep Diaries reflects the aspirations and confusions of the growing number of people willing to trade the details of their private lives for catharsis, attention, and notoriety. Hal Niedzviecki is the editor of Broken Pencil magazine and has published numerous works of social commentary and fiction, including Hello I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity.


Protozoan parasites of the genus Giardia are highly prevalent globally, and infect a wide range of vertebrate hosts including humans, with proliferation and pathology restricted to the small intestine. This narrow ecological specialization entailed extensive structural and functional adaptations during host-parasite co-evolution. An example is the streamlined mitosomal proteome with iron-sulphur protein maturation as the only biochemical pathway clearly associated with this organelle. Here, we applied techniques in microscopy and protein biochemistry to investigate the mitosomal membrane proteome in association to mitosome homeostasis. Live cell imaging revealed a highly immobilized array of 30–40 physically distinct mitosome organelles in trophozoites. We provide direct evidence for the single giardial dynamin-related protein as a contributor to mitosomal morphogenesis and homeostasis. To overcome inherent limitations that have hitherto severely hampered the characterization of these unique organelles we applied a novel interaction-based proteome discovery strategy using forward and reverse protein co-immunoprecipitation. This allowed generation of organelle proteome data strictly in a protein-protein interaction context. We built an initial Tom40-centered outer membrane interactome by co-immunoprecipitation experiments, identifying small GTPases, factors with dual mitosome and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) distribution, as well as novel matrix proteins. Through iterative expansion of this protein-protein interaction network, we were able to i) significantly extend this interaction-based mitosomal proteome to include other membrane-associated proteins with possible roles in mitosome morphogenesis and connection to other subcellular compartments, and ii) identify novel matrix proteins which may shed light on mitosome-associated metabolic functions other than Fe-S cluster biogenesis. Functional analysis also revealed conceptual conservation of protein translocation despite the massive divergence and reduction of protein import machinery in Giardia mitosomes.


In this paper, we introduce bid history and loan concepts to mitigate the shortcomings of the bidding strategy in traditional learning classifier systems (LCSs). In direct analogy with real auctions, all classifiers matching the current input compare the average bid history with their potential bid based on their current strength. The average bid history parameter gives general information about the auction (potential of competent classifiers) and determines the minimum loan amount a classifier should request. Debt and due date parameters have also been added to the traditional LCS parameter list to keep track of the transaction status, accuracy, and experience for granting or denying loan requests. The results obtained show a significant improvement on the convergence of the learning system.


Gravity observations adjustment is studied having in view to take full advantage of the modern technology of gravity measurement. We present here results of a test performed with the mathematical model proposed by our group, on the adjustment of gravity observations carried out on network design. Additionally, considering the recent improvement on instrumental technology in gravimetry, that model was modified to take into account possible nonlinear local datum scale factors, in a 1900 mGal range network, and to check its significance for microgal precision measurements. The data set of the Brazilian Fundamental Gravity Network was used as case study. With about 1900 mGal gravity range and 11 control stations the Brazilian Fundamental Gravity Network (BFGN) was used as case study. It was established mainly with the use of LaCoste & Romberg, model G, gravimeters and new additional observations with Scintrex CG-5 gravimeters. The observables involved in the model are instrumental reading, calibration functions of the gravimeters used and the absolute gravity values at the control stations. Gravity values at the gravity stations and local datum scale factors for each gravimeter were determined by least square method. The results indicate good adaptation of the tested model to network adjustments. The gravity value in the IFE-172 control station, located in Santa Maria, had the largest estimated correction of ?10.4 μGal (1 μGal = 10 nm/s2), and the largest residual for an observed reading was estimated in 0.043 reading unit. The largest correction to the calibration functions was estimated in 6.9 × 10-6mGal/reading unit.


As people age it is conceivable that illness or traumatic injury could create a scenario of dependence on others which could be further compounded by a loss of verbal communication skills; consider for example the final stages of motor neurone disease or multiple sclerosis. Traumatic injury or disease process such as stroke can in severe cases lead to 'locked-in syndrome' [1] which is the combined effect of quadriplegia, anarthria and preservation of consciousness. As services strive to support independent living and ageing in place, it can be challenging to verify that the uniqueness of the individual, their desires and wants have been grasped and understood by both informal and formal carers. The adoption of a Brain-computer interface (BCI) aim to assist and augment human cognitive and sensory processes by developing automated interfaces, which communicate directly with the brain, could assist with these challenges. The ultimate goal of BCI is to provide communication and control capacities to people with severe disabilities [2] [3].Methods:This paper presents the work undertaken as part of the BRAIN project (http://www.brain-project.org/). This European consortium is funded within the 7th Framework research programme bringing together experts from academia and industry with service users to develop a BCI system linked directly to assistive tools within the home environment to support inclusion for a range of disabled users. The user interface which support human computer interaction is a key component of a BCI system [4]. The research methods aim to support a strong user lead in terms of both design and evaluation of the prototype system whilst technically advancing a reliable, flexible and accessible system which is not only functional but brings added value to the user, in their home environment. The lead user has been a critical innovation within the consortium influencing design of methods and prototype. The vision within the project is to develop lightweight, inexpensive, non-invasive sensors and amplifiers for signal acquisition that do not require significant preparation or cleanup times, uncomfortable electrode gel, skin abrasion, exposed wires or cables, expert assistance, or laboratory conditions. Software will identify the best BCI parameters for each user and customise the operating protocol accordingly. Automated signal processing software will improve signal translation. An intuitive universal interface will enable control of a range of existing applications, including home assistive technologies, a BCI training system to enhance performance, and a communications and entertainment package. Results and Discussion:This paper presents the methods and results to date of the first year of the project. The reality of user engagement and maintaining a user centric focus within a project that is technically inspiring and innovative will be considered. The challenges and benefits of the lead user aspect to the central component will be reflected upon in relation to added value to the innovation process. The proposed architecture of the early system will be described and the particular challenge of evaluation of immature, yet sophisticated, systems developed by a geographically dispersed consortium within a real life scenario will be explored.


Normal and hyperplastic prostate glandular epithelium does not express somatostatin receptors. Neuroendocrine prostatic cells contain bioactive secretory products such as chromogranin A, serotonin, and neuron-specific enolase. The stromal smooth muscle cells around glandular epithelium and ganglion cells of the prostatic plexus are positive for somatostatin subtype 2 receptors (sst 2).[1] In prostate cancer, however, there is nonhomogeneous distribution of sst 1. In the peritumoral veins of prostate cancer, sst 2 receptors were found by Reubi et al in 14 of 27 samples.[2]


Study to obtain the optimum condition for the production of PHAs by Alcaligenes latus was carried using liquid bean curd waste as low cost carbon source. A Response surface method with two factors i.e. the initial sucrose concentration (15 g/L, 20 g/L, and 25 g/L) and time of incubation (48 hours, 60 hours, and 72 hours) was employed. The yield was taken after the inoculation A. latus on to the liquid bean curd waste. The results obtained from the study are computed with Design expert 7.1.3. The optimum condition found were the initial sucrose concentration of 25 gr/l and time of incubation of 60 hours 18 minute which producing 2.48 gr/l PHA and the dry cell concentration was 66.56%. The functional group of the PHA granule was identified as C=O by Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR).


We suggest a universal map capable of recovering the behavior of a wide range of dynamical systems given by ODEs. The map is built as an artificial neural network whose weights encode a modeled system. We assume that ODEs are known and prepare training datasets using the equations directly without computing numerical time series. Parameter variations are taken into account in the course of training so that the network model captures bifurcation scenarios of the modeled system. The theoretical benefit from this approach is that the universal model admits applying common mathematical methods without needing to develop a unique theory for each particular dynamical equations. From the practical point of view the developed method can be considered as an alternative numerical method for solving dynamical ODEs suitable for running on contemporary neural network specific hardware. We consider the Lorenz system, the Rössler system and also the Hindmarch – Rose model. For these three examples the network model is created and its dynamics is compared with ordinary numerical solutions. A high similarity is observed for visual images of attractors, power spectra, bifurcation diagrams and Lyapunov exponents.


A Zegelin

Dr A Zegelin, Private University Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany; email@example.com

What are the experiences of people who become bedridden?

Grounded theory.

Nursing homes and personal residences in Witten, Germany.

32 people who were 62–98 years of age (59% women), had chronic illnesses, were bedridden for 2 weeks to 4 years, and had had the option during this time of being able to get up.

30-minute semistructured interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a grounded theory approach.

Phase 1: instability. All patients reported problems while walking before they became immobile (eg, "shaky," "dizzy"). Some used a walking stick or a rollator when leaving the house. Most patients only moved around inside the house, supporting themselves on furniture, and all had fallen at some stage. Phase 2: incident. All patients had a hospital stay and/or a fall, which reduced their mobility. Patients remained passive and withdrew to their beds, not knowing where else to go. Transfer situation . How patients were transferred affected how often they got up. If carers seemed weak, incompetent, or complaining or if 2 carers were needed to make the transfer, patients reduced their demands. …


INTERLEUKIN-6 LEVELS IN GENERALIZED AND LOCALIZED AGGRESSIVE PERIODONTITIS PATIENTS By Bindu Reddy, D.D.S. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at the Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2004 Major Director: Joseph V. Califano, D.D.S., Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Periodontics Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease involving the supporting structures of the dentition. Many studies have shown that there is a relationship between periodontal disease, the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and systemic disease such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this study was to measure serum Interleukin-6 levels in generalized and localized aggressive periodontitis and nonperiodontitis patients and look for relationships with measures of disease severity. We also examined variables known to have a relationship with IL-6. A total of 172 subjects, comprising three periodontal subgroups, non-periodontitis (NP=61), generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAP=77), and localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP= 34), had serum samples evaluated for IL-6 levels using a highly sensitive ELISA test. The IL6 levels were compared with clinical and demographic data including age, race, gender, number of teeth, probing depth, attachment loss, bleeding index, plaque index, gingival index, cotinine levels, smoking status, and CRP levels. Using multiple regression analysis, smoking status (p=0.0015) was the only variable found to have a significant relationship with IL-6 levels for all three groups.


Land use models play a decisive role in different domains: they allow estimating demographic trends for a given region, they enable comparisons between spatially relevant projects of public authorities, they facilitate dimensioning of public infrastructure, and they help to answer various other questions regarding possible future development of our built environment. Due to the tight interdependence between resident population (e.g. as customers or manpower) and economic activities (e.g. shops or services), location choice of firms plays an important role in comprehensive land use models. However, due to a lack of data at micro level permitting the estimation of accurate discrete choice models of firms. behaviour, there is only little research on this topic. This is especially true for location decisions of relocating firms. The aim of this thesis is to contribute in filling this gap. The presented models are based on data from the commercial registers of the Swiss cantons St. Gallen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, and Appenzell Innerrhoden. This dataset provides information on more than 54,000 individual firms and autonomous plants for the period from 1991 to 2006 and allows tracing, among other information, the location of these firms. Combined with data from the Business and Trade Register BUR, additional information on sector affiliation and size of each firm can be considered. Firstly, firmographic events such as new establishments, business closures and migrations have been analysed. The relevance of age, size, industry and location on company migration behaviour are of particular interest. In addition, the spatial distribution of business formations and closures is observed. The individual effects of these factors are tested and quantified with a logit-loglinear model. This approach allows exploring and quantifying interaction effects between the variables on business demographic behaviour. The results prove that all four fac- tors influence the firmographic behaviour of companies. But, a comparison between the influ- ence of age and size shows that age is the predominant variable on migration behaviour whereas the size of a business has a noticeable effect on the closure rate. The complementary analyses focus on destination choice of relocating firms. Effects of various variables such as local taxes, governmental business friendliness, and accessibilities have been estimated and quantified in a discrete choice model on destination choice. The results show considerable differences between sectors. For instance, residents with graduate degrees have a significant and high positive impact on location choice of business service industries. In contrast, their effect on firms in the sector of personal services is small.


Migratory paths of North American waterbirds have traditionally been evaluated by relocating birds banded as nestlings. Although over 8,000 banded Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) have been recovered in North America since 1923, the movements of wintering and breeding cormorants remain poorly understood. We initiated a satellite telemetry study to determine the annual and regional distributions of 25 cormorants (in each of two study years) captured near primary aquaculture areas in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Preliminary data suggest that cormorants generally remained near aquaculture facilities where they were captured, marked, and released. Two cormorants, however, emigrated from primary aquaculture areas prior to their spring (northward) migrations. In addition to impacts to southeastern aquaculture, cormorants may also negatively impact other fisheries, including those in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Localized breeding-colony control activities were implemented in eastern Lake Ontario in 1999 to reduce these impacts. We began a second, 2-year satellite telemetry study (n = 25 per year) to determine cormorant emigration, reproductive success, nest-site fidelity, and sitespecific foraging distribution following control activities at Little Galloo Island in western New York. Preliminary data suggest that cormorants remained near the breeding colony from MaySeptember 2000. Two groups did, however, emigrate from Little Galloo Island in July and were observed near Montreal and Oneida Lake. When completed, these studies will collectively provide abiological basis for the management of cormorant impacts to commercial and recreational fisheries.


Herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO) is a disease that occurs when the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve is impaired as a result of reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus. HZO develops in 10-20% of patients who experience reactivation of zoster in the fifth cranial nerve dermatome. The patient in this teaching case report developed neurotrophic keratitis as a result of both HZO and diabetic neuropathy of V1. This teaching case illustrates many of the classic signs and symptoms of HZO and discusses appropriate treatment, management and patient education.


Wireless networks in buildings suffer from congestion, interference, security and safety concerns, restricted propagation and poor in-door location accuracy. The Internet of Radio-Light (IoRL) project develops a safer, more secure, customizable and intelligent building network that reliably delivers increased throughput (greater than lOGbps) from access points pervasively located within buildings, whilst minimizing interference and harmful EM exposure and providing location accuracy of less than 10 cm. It thereby shows how to solve the problem of broadband wireless access in buildings and promotes the establishment of a global standard in ITU.


To leverage the full range of observed variation in patterns of violence toward the development and testing of theories of political violence, scholars need adequate conceptual foundations: what should we mean by a pattern of violence on the part of an armed organization? Scholars often distinguish degrees or levels or types of violence across organizations and conflicts, but definitions and measures vary sharply. We argue that patterns of violence are not reducible in ways often assumed in the literature: lethal violence is not a good proxy for the overall pattern, and differences in patterns are not well captured in the binary "terror" versus "restraint." To address these concerns, we provide a new conceptualization of political violence, defining an organization's pattern of violence as the configuration of repertoire, targeting, frequency, and technique in which it regularly engages. This approach adds precision to the documentation and analysis of political violence, clarifies the evaluation of rival theories, and opens up new research questions. We demonstrate its utility through an analysis of violence against civilians in Colombia, drawing on an original database of massacres, judicial proceedings, and other sources, and show that the concept of "pattern" helps bring ideology and politics back into the analysis of organized violence.


The study of topological superconductivity has been at the forefront of condensed matter physics for the past few years. Topological superconductors are predicted to have odd parity pairing and host so called Majorana fermions, which are not only of fundamental importance, but also proposed to be building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computing. In this dissertation, we use point contact spectroscopy to study the pairing symmetry of candidate topological superconducting materials. We study proximity induced superconductivity in the topological insulator Bi2Se3 by a superconducting niobium tip, and propose a model to explain its features in point contact spectra. We further study the nature of the superconductivity in highly doped superconducting topological insulators, including CuxBi2Se3 and Sn1-xInxTe, using both a normal metal gold tip and a superconducting niobium tip. For CuxBi2Se3, we observe a robust zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) in the differential conductance spectra with the gold point contact, while with the niobium point contact we find the height of the peak exhibiting unusual non-monotonic temperature dependence. We argue that both observations cannot be explained by Andreev reflection within the standard Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) model, but signify unconventional superconductivity in the material. For Sn1-xInxTe samples, we observe ZBCP in the differential conductance spectra with the gold point contact, while with the niobium point contact, the temperature dependence of ZBCP is monotonic as expected from conventional theory, leaving the nature of the superconductivity of Sn1-xInxTe still an open question.


In an email to the Small Claims Task Force, a committee appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court to investigate allegations of abuse in the Marion County Small Claims Court, an Indiana attorney claimed that collection attorneys were forum shopping in Indiana small claims court. In its subsequent report, the task force confirmed that some forum shopping is occurring in Marion County Small claims courts. This study takes that allegation a step further and looks beyond the small claims courts of Marion County to examine the forum shopping practices of collection attorneys throughout Indiana. The evidence suggests that collection firms do forum shop between courts in individual judicial districts. This article takes a closer look at forum shopping by exploring the possible motivations for the forum shopping and its implications for consumers.


Online patient portals may be effective for engaging patients with mental health conditions in their own health care. This retrospective database analysis reports patient portal use among Veterans with mental health diagnoses. Unadjusted and adjusted odds of portal feature use was calculated using logistic regressions. Having experienced military sexual trauma or having an anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or depression were associated with increased odds of portal use; bipolar, substance use, psychotic and adjustment disorders were associated with decreased odds. Future research should examine factors that influence portal use to understand diagnosis-level differences and improve engagement with such tools.


STUDY OBJECTIVE--The study aimed to reveal associations between dietary antioxidant vitamins and other personal characteristics. DESIGN--Population based, cross sectional survey. SETTING--Twenty seven rural, industrial, and semiurban communities in six different regions of Finland. PARTICIPANTS--Subjects included 5304 men and 4750 women aged 15 years or older, who were interviewed about their dietary habits at the baseline study of the Finnish Mobile Clinic Health Examination Survey, 1967-72. MAIN RESULTS--Intakes of carotenoids and vitamins A, E, and C were estimated from dietary history interviews covering the subjects' food consumption in the preceding year. In older age groups intakes of all the vitamins studied were low. Occupation had a profound effect on dietary antioxidant vitamins: intakes were highest in white collar workers and lowest in farmers; those classified as service workers, industrial workers, or housewives came in between. Current smoking was inversely associated with dietary carotenoids and vitamin C, especially in men. The vitamin intakes of ex-smokers were equal to or even slightly higher than those of never smokers. Married men had higher intakes of carotenoids and vitamin C than men living alone. Body mass index was not an important determinant of the intake of antioxidant vitamins. CONCLUSIONS--The associations of dietary antioxidant vitamins with sociodemographic characteristics and smoking were strong enough to exert a confounding or modifying effect in studies on diet and diseases.


It has been more than twenty years since Duncan Kennedy published his seminal 'Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy'. In it he called for a radical assault on the hierarchies embedded in American law schools. But that assault failed. Over the past two decades, the hierarchies of legal education have, if anything, become even more fixed, insular, and status-driven, even while the elites of the practicing bar have changed dramatically and become more open to outsiders. It is vastly easier for the graduate of a fourth-tier law school to become a partner at an elite law firm than it is to be hired as a tenure-track assistant professor at even a non-elite American law school. But law school hierarchies may be changing. Not as the result of a critical assault, but because vast changes in communications technologies have seriously eroded the control of information that is necessary for the survival of any non-functional hierarchy. In this paper, written for a symposium on blogging by lawyers and law professors, I revisit the insider world of Kennedy's 'LERH' and contrast it with the outsider-dominated changes being wrought by the Internet.


Dust continuum imaging of comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) was carried out with the Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope (SVST) on La Palma, Spain, during the period April 21–25, 1997. CCD observations were made with and filters, with band-passes excluding major cometary gaseous emissions. Images were reduced according to standard procedure, aligned, averaged, navigated and enhanced with azimuthal renormalisation, rotational and temporal derivative and unsharp masking techniques. The rotation period of the nucleus was determined to and the mean projected dust outflow velocity to measured over a radius range of . No difference in quasi-simultaneous dust morphology between the filter wavelengths was seen. Up to five shell envelopes were visible in the sun-ward side of the coma out to a radius of , separated by a projected distance of ~ and spiralling towards smaller radii in the direction of local evening. Outer boundaries of shells were more sharply defined than inner, with shell intensity maxima occurring at ~35° past the sun-comet line in the direction of rotation. Small scale inhomogeneities of size were seen at radii . Two superposed shell systems with a relative lag angle of ~55° were evident during the period of observation. The sense of rotation of dust emission features indicates that the north pole of the nucleus was directed towards the Earth. The shape of the incomplete spiral shell pattern indicates that the angle between the line-of-sight and the rotation axis of the nucleus was not very large.


Activated Ras signaling can induce a permanent growth arrest in osteosarcoma cells. Here, we report that a senescence-like growth inhibition is also achieved in human carcinoma cells upon the transduction of H-RasV12. Ras-induced tumor senescence can be recapitulated by the transduction of activated, but not wild-type, MEK. The ability for H-RasV12 to suppress tumor cell growth is drastically compromised in cells that harbor endogenous activating ras mutations. Notably, growth inhibition of tumor cells containing ras mutations can be achieved through the introduction of activated MEK. Tumor senescence induced by Ras signaling can occur in the absence of p16 or Rb and is not interrupted by the inactivation of Rb, p107, or p130 via short hairpin RNA or the transduction with HPV16 E7. In contrast, inactivation of p21 via short hairpin RNA disrupts Ras-induced tumor senescence. In summary, this study uncovers a senescence-like program activated by Ras signaling to inhibit cancer cell growth. This program appears to be intact in cancer cells that do not harbor ras mutations. Moreover, cancer cells that carry ras mutations remain susceptible to tumor senescence induced by activated MEK. These novel findings can potentially lead to the development of innovative cancer intervention.


The Forgotten Homeland gathers some of the leading homeland security experts to analyze the nation's most significant vulnerabilities and to propose strategies to reduce them. The report addresses terrorist as well as nonterrorist threats and offers ideas for strengthening all aspects of our emergency response uincluding our ability to respond to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Key topics covered include protecting transportation networks, upgrading "first response" capabilities, confronting the unconventional weapons challenge, and gaining better intelligence. Task force members include Catherine Allen (Banking Industry Technology Secretariat), Roger W. Cressey (formerly National Security Council), R. P. Eddy (Center for Policing Terrorism/Gerson Lehrman Group), Stephen E. Flynn (Council on Foreign Relations), John Gannon (formerly National Intelligence Council), General John A. Gordon (USAF, Ret.) , Juliette Kayyam (Harvard University), Lawrence Korb (Center for American Progress), Paul Kurtz (Cyber Security Industry Alliance), Jamie Metzl (formerly Council on Foreign Relations), Martin O'Malley (mayor of Baltimore), Dan Prieto (Harvard University), Alison Silverstein (formerly Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), Steven Simon (RAND Corporation), John Tritak (formerly Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office), and Lee Zeichner (Zeichner Risk Analytics). The project directors for the task force are Robert K. Knake (Good Harbor Consulting) and Steven Simon (RAND Corporation).


In this paper, we analyze the relative importance and mutual behavior of two competing base-load electricity generation options that each are capable of contributing significantly to the abatement of global CO2 emissions: nuclear energy and coal-based power production complemented with CO2 capture and storage (CCS). We also investigate how, in scenarios developed with an integrated assessment model that simulates the economics of a climate-constrained world, the prospects for nuclear energy would change if exogenous limitations on the spread of nuclear technology were relaxed. Using the climate change economics model World Induced Technical Change Hybrid, we find that until 2050 the growth rates of nuclear electricity generation capacity would become comparable to historical rates observed during the 1980s. Given that nuclear energy continues to face serious challenges and contention, we inspect how extensive the improvements of coal-based power equipped with CCS technology would need to be if our economic optimization model is to significantly scale down the construction of new nuclear power plants.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of disability in all its stages, and death in patients with moderate or severe obstruction. At present, COPD is suboptimally managed; current health is often not measured properly and hardly taken into account in management plans, and the future risk for patients with regard to health status and quality of life is not being evaluated. This review addresses the effect of COPD on the lives of patients and examines ways in which existing assessment tools meet physicians' needs for a standardized, simple method to measure consistently the full impact of COPD on patients in routine clinical practice. Current assessment of COPD severity tends to focus on airflow limitation, but this does not capture the full impact of the disease and is not well correlated with patient perception of symptoms and health-related quality of life. Qualitative studies have demonstrated that patients usually consider COPD impact in terms of frequency and severity of symptoms, and physical and emotional wellbeing. However, patients often have difficulty expressing their disease burden and physicians generally have insufficient time to collect this information. Therefore, it is important that methods are implemented to help generate a more complete understanding of the impact of COPD. This can be achieved most efficiently using a quick, reliable, and standardized measure of disease impact, such as a short questionnaire that can be applied in daily clinical practice. Questionnaires are precision instruments that contribute sensitive and specific information, and can potentially help physicians provide optimal care for patients with COPD. Two short, easy-to-use, specific measures, ie, the COPD Assessment Test and the Clinical COPD Questionnaire, enable physicians to assess patients' health status accurately and improve disease management. Such questionnaires provide important measurements that can assist primary care physicians to capture the impact of COPD on patients' daily lives and wellbeing, and improve long-term COPD management.


Abstract In today's increasingly fast-paced societies, undergoing reformation in the aging schooling systems in order to prepare children to subdue the high amounts of pressure and stress and lead productive lives seems to be moving slowly, compared to the unexpected rhythms of the socio-economic changes. In that context a programme has been created at the School of Primary Education, based on the belief that art shouldn't rest only in the frame, but become itself a frame of the children's experiences, a means for self-exploration, enhancing at the same time social learning and cultural responsiveness in schools. At current stage we explore whether and how artists as inviting personalities can become an example to children for building their own identity, while opening widely the borders of relating effectively to others or to life's varied phenomena, as they learn how to communicate the subtleties of who they really are and what they believe in ways that words usually fail to fully capture. Children are asked to choose as a self-companion through their school year an artist, who greatly benefited from the arts' unique power as a tool for shedding light on his/her self-knowledge and for overcoming difficulties as well as a means of fostering meaningful connections with his/her social and cultural environment. Curricular goals and learning units are approached by adapting innovative and effective teaching practices through the arts, based on the life and work of the artists children have chosen.


This research investigated New Zealand adolescents' (aged 11 to 13, N = 361) perceptions of wellbeing from a prototype perspective. Specifically, three studies examined what constitutes and promotes wellbeing, whether adolescents' perspectives are aligned with adults' conceptualizations and academic models of wellbeing, whether socioeconomic status influences adolescents' conceptualization, and whether wellbeing is prototypically organized. Results showed that wellbeing is prototypically organized as some components are more central to the concept of wellbeing and others more peripheral. Contrary to lay adults' conceptualizations and popular wellbeing models, adolescents consider enjoyment/having fun, feeling safe, and being kind/helpful as central components of wellbeing, and sense of satisfaction as a peripheral component of wellbeing. Furthermore, low socio-economic status adolescents consider comfort/being wealthy, being focused, good physical health, good values, and success/achievements as more central for wellbeing than high-socioeconomic status adolescents. Consistent with the current literature, positive family relationships, positive friendships, and physical activity/sport were the most frequently reported pathways to wellbeing among adolescents. Overall, researchers and practitioners should consider adolescents' understanding of wellbeing in the development of wellbeing assessments and interventions.


Polar lows are intense maritime mesoscale cyclones developing in both hemispheres poleward of the main polar front. These rapidly developing severe storms are accompanied by strong winds, heavy precipitation (hail and snow), and rough sea states. Polar lows can have significant socio-economic impact by disrupting human activities in the maritime polar regions, such as tourism, fisheries, transportation, research activities, and exploration of natural resources. Upon landfall, they quickly decay, but their blustery winds and substantial snowfall affect the local communities in coastal regions, resulting in airport-closure, transportation breakdown and increased avalanche risk.
 Polar lows are primarily a winter phenomenon and tend to develop during excursions of polar air masses, originating from ice-covered areas, over the adjacent open ocean. These so-called cold-air outbreaks are driven by the synoptic scale atmospheric configuration, and polar lows usually develop along air-mass boundaries associated with these cold-air outbreaks. Local orographic features and the sea-ice configuration also play prominent roles in pre-conditioning the environment for polar low development. Proposed dynamical pathways for polar low development include moist baroclinic instability, symmetric convective instability, and frontal instability, but verification of these mechanisms is limited due to sparse observations and insufficient resolution of reanalysis data.
 Maritime areas with a frequent polar low presence are climatologically important regions for the global ocean circulation, hence local changes in energy exchange between the atmosphere and ocean in these regions potentially impacts the global climate system. Recent research indicates that the enhanced heat and momentum exchange by mesoscale cyclones likely has a pronounced impact on ocean heat transport by triggering deep water formation in the ocean and by modifying horizontal mixing in the atmosphere. Since the beginning of the satellite-era a steady decline of sea-ice cover in the Northern Hemisphere has expanded the ice-free polar regions, and thus the areas for polar low development, yet the number of polar lows is projected to decline under future climate scenarios.


A large body of evidence demonstrates the benefits of breastfeeding for child survival growth and development. An estimated 1.30-1.45 million child deaths could be prevented each year with improved breastfeeding practices. Community-based breastfeeding promotion and support is one of the key components of a comprehensive programme to improve breastfeeding practices as outlined in the WHO / UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF). Learning from Large-scale Community-based Programmes to Improve Breastfeeding shares the experiences and lessons from community-based approaches so that others can use the information to strengthen existing programmes and design new ones. The paper will be of particular value to individuals who are interested in studying different models and the results and lessons emerging from them and assessing their applicability in a new setting. The paper is not a "how to" guide. Rather it is the story of vision innovations partnerships trials and errors and results. An annex lists manuals training materials and other resources for those wanting guidance on programme design and implementation.


The limitation of paraxial condition of paraboloid refracting system in performing fractional Fourier transform acts like an aperture, which makes the system different from ideal systems. With aperture expanded as the sum of finite complex Gaussian terms, a more practical approximate analytical solution of fractional Fourier transform of Gaussian beam in an apertured paraboloid refracting system is obtained and also numerical investigation is presented. Complicated and practical fractional Fourier transform systems can be constructed by cascading several apertured paraboloid refracting systems which are the simplest and the most basic units for performing more precise transform.


In three separate experiments it is shown that (i) heterochromatic additivity failures for foveally viewed trichromatic lights can be predicted using a vector model derived from bichromatic additivity data, (ii) near-threshold bichromatic additivity failures are not qualitatively different from threshold-level failures, and (iii) foveal spectral sensitivities obtained by direct brightness matching and threshold methods are greater in the long- and short-wavelength ends of the spectrum than sensitivities obtained by flicker photometry. A new opponent-colors model that is appropriate for threshold-level color vision is expressed as a transformation of the CIE standard observer. The model allows the derivation of a light unit that correlates with signal detectability and predicts (a) confusion lines for deuteranopic and tritanopic vision, (b) spectral sensitivity as measured by flicker photometry (i.e., a sensitivity function much like the CIE Vλ function), (c) spectral sensitivity as measured by threshold (or direct-matching) techniques, (d) threshold-level heterochromatic additivity failures, (e) the apparent saturation of a threshold-level spectrum, (f) wavelength discrimination for a near-threshold spectrum, (g) loci of constant lightness-to-luminance ratios within the CIE chromaticity diagram, and (h) the essential quantitative differences between threshold and near-threshold heterochromatic additivity failures.


ABSTRACT Decapod crustaceans from the Mesozoic of Madagascar have been studied by a number of authors during the last century. One of the largest sets of specimens was collected by the French General Maurice Collignon between 1930 and 1950; this was subsequently studied by Secrétan (1964) who described numerous species of macrurans, brachyurans, and axiideans. These crustaceans originate from the Upper Jurassic and the Upper Cretaceous of the Mahajanga Basin (NW Madagascar) and, especially, from the Morondava Basin (central-SW Madagascar). The purpose of the present study is twofold: to furnish an update of the stratigraphy and geology of the studied areas and, above all, to revise the Secrétan's species, employing current systematic nomenclature, supplying for each detailed geographic and stratigraphic data since such were either cursory or incomplete in previous papers. The present revision considers 13 species recorded by Secrétan as valid, namely: Enoploclytia collignoni Secrétan, 1964, Eryma granuliferum Secrétan, 1964, Pustulina spinulata (Secrétan, 1964) (all Erymidae Van Straelen, 1925); Hoploparia collignoni (Van Straelen, 1949), H. pusilla Secrétan, 1964 (both Nephropidae Dana, 1852 sensu Tshudy & Babcock 1997); Ctenocheles madagascariensis Secrétan, 1964 (Ctenochelidae Manning & Felder, 1991); Schlueteria menabensis Secrétan, 1964 (Axiidae Huxley, 1879); Linuparus bererensis Secrétan, 1964 (Palinuridae Latreille, 1802); Dromiopsis pulchella Secrétan, 1964 (Dynomenidae Ortmann, 1892); Caloxanthus simplex (Secrétan, 1964) (Etyidae Guinot & Tavares, 2001); "Xanthosia" robertsi Secrétan, 1982 (nomen novum pro Xanthosia elegans Secrétan, 1964, non Roberts, 1962), Titanocarcinus mamillatus Secrétan, 1964 (both Xanthoidea incertae sedis); and Secretanella arcuata (Secrétan, 1964) (indeterminate family). The three species described by Secrétan (1964) as belonging to the raninid genus Notopocorystes McCoy, 1849, N. bituberculatus, N. australis and N. denisae will be revised in a forthcoming paper. Our comparative studies have also revealed a number of synonymous taxa, as follows: Eryma granuliferum Secrétan, 1964 (junior synonym: E. madagascariensis Secrétan, 1964); Linuparus bererensis Secrétan, 1964 (junior synonym: L. bererensis multispinosus Secrétan, 1964); Hoploparia collignoni (Van Straelen, 1949) (junior synonym: H. intermedia Secrétan, 1964 and H. sculpta Secrétan, 1964); Schlueteria menabensis Secrétan, 1964 (junior synonym: S. tuberculosa Secrétan, 1964). Lastly, we have doubts about the systematic validity of Enoploclytia armata Secrétan, 1964, Eryma australe (Secrétan, 1964), and Coleia incerta Secrétan, 1964, because of the absence of main diagnostic features, useful for their systematic ascription.


We replicate a flagship randomised control trial carried out in rural Morocco that showed substantial and significant impacts of microcredit on the assets, the outputs, the expenses and the profits of self-employment activities. The original results rely primarily on trimming, which is the exclusion of observation with the highest values on some variables. However, the applied trimming procedures are inconsistent between the baseline and the endline. Using identical specifications as the original paper reveals large and significant imbalances at the baseline and, at the endline, impacts on implausible outcomes, like household head gender, language or education. This calls into question the reliability of the data and the integrity of the experiment protocol. We find a series of coding, measurement and sampling errors. Correcting the identified errors lead to different results. After rectifying identified errors, we still find substantial imbalances at baseline and implausible impacts at the endline. Our re-analysis focused on the lack of internal validity of this experiment, but several of the identified issues also raise concerns about its external validity.


CONTEXT
Neonatal diabetes is a rare disorder with an incidence of 1 in 215,000-500,000 live births with 50% of them having permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus.

CASE REPORT
We present a case of permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus due to a C96Y (c.287G>A; p.Cys96Tyr) heterozygous mutation in the insulin (INS) gene. Both the patient and his father (who had childhood-onset insulin-requiring diabetes) were found to be carriers of a heterozygous missense mutation C96Y in exon 3 of the INS gene. It has been hypothesized that these mutations disrupt the folding of the proinsulin molecule and result in a misfolded protein or retention of the protein in the endoplasmic reticulum, resulting in endoplasmic reticulum stress and beta cell apoptosis. Subjects with this form of diabetes will need lifelong insulin therapy.

CONCLUSION
Insulin gene mutations appear to be an important cause of neonatal diabetes worldwide. This is the first report of a case from the Indian subcontinent. It is important to carry out genetic tests for mutations linked to pancreatic beta cell dysfunction in all patients with persistent neonatal diabetes mellitus in order to decide on therapy.


AIM: Diet is a natural source of butyrate through the fermentation of non-digestive fiber, such as acemannan in Aloe vera gel, is a strong appearing target for health and quality of life as an immune modulation and colorectal cancer prevention in aged people. In our earlier research on fermentation by endophytic bacteria in Aloe vera gel, butyric acid was identified by GC/MSD analysis. Present investigation aims the identification of the microbiota. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The endophytic microbiota of Aloe vera gel in the fermented media were examined by use of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The following microbiota were identified: Bacillus cereus, B. licheniformis, Lactobacillus paralimentarium, Yeast: Clavispora lusitaniae. The safety pattern of the prepared Aloe vera gel was tested on normal non-cancerous cells and indicated the absence of any significant possible toxicity on the cells. Also, the extracted gels showed abilities to regulate the inflammatory responses in the inflammation cell models via the reduction in the amount of induced reactive oxygen species and both COX 1 and 2 enzymes. DISCUSSIOIN: Identification of butyrate-producing endophytic microbiota in Aloe vera gel fermentation and finding of inflamatory as well as antioxidant activities of butyrate in the fermented gel may help explain the known beneficial effects of butyrate in intestinal colon and on colitis. An innovative concept of symbiotics: a combination of Aloe vera gel juice and microbiota: Bacillus cereus, B.licheniformis. Lactobacillus paralimentarium and Clavispora lusitaniae, is a perspective on alleviation of cancer disease and improvement of gastrointestinal health by butyrate fermentation.


Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Identifying new oncogenic drivers and developing efficient inhibitors through molecular targeting approaches are crucial for improving therapies. The aim of this study was to investigate whether targeting fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) with ponatinib inhibits the cell growth in both established and primary lung cancer cells overexpressing FGFR1. Eighty-eight non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and paired normal tissue specimens were analyzed by real-time RT-PCR for FGFR1 gene expression. We identified four cell lines and two newly established primary lung cancer cultures that showed high FGFR1 expression levels, and evaluated the effect of the novel FGFR1 inhibitor ponatinib on cell growth. Approximately 50% (30 out of 59) NSCLC specimens expressed FGFR1>2-fold compared with their adjacent normal counterparts using quantitative RT-PCR. Ponatinib treatment of established NSCLC cell lines expressing higher levels of FGFR1 resulted in marked cell growth inhibition and suppression of clonogenicity. This growth inhibition was associated with inactivation of FGFR1 and its downstream targets. FGFR1 knockdown by shRNA achieved similar results when compared to treatment with ponatinib. Furthermore, ponatinib was able to significantly inhibit the growth of primary lung cancer cultures in vitro. Our data indicate that pharmacological inhibition of FGFR1 kinase activity with ponatinib may be effective for the treatment of lung cancer patients whose tumors overexpress FGFR1.


We formulate clustering aggregation as a special instance of Maximum-Weight Independent Set (MWIS) problem. For a given dataset, an attributed graph is constructed from the union of the input clusterings generated by different underlying clustering algorithms with different parameters. The vertices, which represent the distinct clusters, are weighted by an internal index measuring both cohesion and separation. The edges connect the vertices whose corresponding clusters overlap. Intuitively, an optimal aggregated clustering can be obtained by selecting an optimal subset of non-overlapping clusters partitioning the dataset together. We formalize this intuition as the MWIS problem on the attributed graph, i.e., finding the heaviest subset of mutually non-adjacent vertices.

This MWIS problem exhibits a special structure. Since the clusters of each input clustering form a partition of the dataset, the vertices corresponding to each clustering form a maximal independent set (MIS) in the attributed graph. We propose a variant of simulated annealing method that takes advantage of this special structure. Our algorithm starts from each MIS, which is close to a distinct local optimum of the MWIS problem, and utilizes a local search heuristic to explore its neighborhood in order to find the MWIS. Extensive experiments on many challenging datasets show that: 1. our approach to clustering aggregation automatically decides the optimal number of clusters; 2. it does not require any parameter tuning for the underlying clustering algorithms; 3. it can combine the advantages of different underlying clustering algorithms to achieve superior performance; 4. it is robust against moderate or even bad input clusterings.


This paper presents a novel human-like learning controller
to interact with unknown environments. Strictly derived
from the minimization of instability, motion error, and effort, the
controller compensates for the disturbance in the environment in
interaction tasks by adapting feedforward force and impedance. In
contrast with conventional learning controllers, the new controller
can deal with unstable situations that are typical of tool use and
gradually acquire a desired stabilitymargin. Simulations showthat
this controller is a good model of humanmotor adaptation.Robotic
implementations further demonstrate its capabilities to optimally
adapt interaction with dynamic environments and humans in joint
torque controlled robots and variable impedance actuators, without
requiring interaction force sensing.


Flash animation, music and videos, virtual reality 3D, and more-in a PDF? Yes! Acrobat documents "converged" with audio, video, and interactive content- it's the wave of the future and it's called rich media. Do you want to get your video and audio content out into the world in a more convenient way than on the Web? Are you looking for a way to share rich-media content with the broadest possible range of readers? Print publishers, advertisers, educators, and anyone else who's ready to leverage the power of PDF and Adobe Reader can benefit from learning about the possibilities of this new convergence technology. In the first book of its kind, rich-media PDF pioneer Bob Connolly presents an eye-opening overview of the world of PDFs that contain video, audio, and interactive elements. Dozens of case studies illustrate the nearly limitless potential of rich media. And the best part about the book is that it practices what it preaches, with a fully interactive rich-media version of the book on the accompanying CDROM. Readers can experience first-hand the power of rich-media PDFs through interactive animation, videos, and audio. Walk through the process of constructing rich-media PDFs on the fly using a Web server Learn which applications work together for building rich-media PDFs-and which don't See how some of the world's most forward-thinking artists and designers are pushing the boundaries with rich-media PDFs Learn why PDF documents are more compelling than Web sites for reaching your target audience Understand how best to translate print material into online PDF documents


Organic agriculture world-wide offers the promise of a future to produce and distribute food and other farm products in a healthy, ecologically sound, truly sustainable and fair way. The full benefits of organic agriculture are just now being realized—from ecosystem services to the provision of healthier food - yet, to reach its full potential organic farming needs to address many challenges. While organic agriculture has grown in strength and is in the most favorable position it has ever been in with respect to market conditions, government policies and international institutional support, it still does not have adequate resources to continue its expansion.
The Technology Innovation Platform of IFOAM (TIPI) has developed a vision and an agenda to advance organic agriculture through research, development, innovation and technology transfer.
TIPI's vision recognizes that current technologies based on heavy use of external inputs that are toxic and pollute the environment come with a price. Investments in ecosystem services and the development of technologies that are productive, stable, adaptable, resilient, and fairly shared are much more likely to sustain the world's population in a rapidly changing environment.
Sustainable pathways to innovation will require engagement of all stakeholders in a science driven multi-disciplinary approach. Such an approach seeks to
(1) Empower rural areas,
(2) Provide eco-functional intensification that produces food and ecosystem services, and
(3) Provide food for the health and well-being available to all.
Organic agriculture must build the capacity to fulfill the world's food needs for the entire population if it is to fulfill its mission.
The new paradigm proposed by TIPI is founded upon a whole systems approach, the engagement of farmers, researchers and other practitioners in a co-innovative approach; and open access technologies that are readily adapted to local conditions. While there are barriers and bottlenecks that will need to be overcome for this vision to be realized, TIPI calls upon the organic community to support its 14 point action plan to advance organic agriculture in a forward-thinking and innovative way.


In this study, the effect of activator ZnO and heating time at 190°C on foaming, gelation, and dehydrochlorination of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastisol was investigated. For this purpose, a PVC plastisol was prepared by mixing PVC, dioctyl phthalate (DOP), azodicarbonamide (ADC), ZnO, and the heat stabilizers calcium stearate (CaSt2) and zinc stearate(ZnSt2). PVC plastisol films were heated for 3, 6, 12, and 24 min periods at 190°C to see the effect of heating time on the gelation and foaming processes of the PVC foam. The time of 12 min was determined to be optimum for the completion of gelation and foaming processes without thermal degradation of PVC. No foaming was observed under the same conditions for the samples without ZnO. ZnO had a significant catalytic effect on ADC decomposition, accelerating the foaming of the films. Average porosity measurement showed a consistent increase in porosity with heating time up to 76% and the average density decreased from 1.17 to 0.29 g/cm3 on foaming. Tensile tests showed that the tensile strength and tensile strain both increased considerably up to 0.98 MPa and 207%, respectively, with heating time and the elastic modulus was seen to gradually decrease from 4.7 to 0.7 MPa with heating time. Films without ZnO had higher tensile strength since there were no pores. PVC thermomat tests showed that ZnO lowered the stability time of plastigel film with azodicarbonamide. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012


The current study uses affective disposition theory and the schema-triggered affect model to examine the process of forming affiliations with media characters. In the current study, disposition formation was examined within the nonfiction context of sports news. Individual levels of sports fanship and religiosity were used to examine associations between existing cognitive schema and the disposition toward an unknown athlete and the appreciation of a sports news story. A sample of 195 individuals read a sports magazine article in which a fictitious athlete either expressed a religious affiliation or no religious affiliation. Respondents evaluated the article containing statements of religious affiliation more positively than the similar article containing no expression of religious affiliation. Compared to general and specific sport interest, religiosity was the best predictor of disposition formation toward the athlete and appreciation of the article. This study expands the disposition literature by examining media coverage surrounding sports events and extending our knowledge of how cognitive constructs are related to disposition formation and enjoyment.


ABSTRACT Herein we have developed and implemented a TD-DFT-based surface-hopping dynamics simulation method with a recently proposed numerical algorithm capable of efficiently computing nonadiabatic couplings, a semiclassical spectrum simulation method, and an excited-state character analysis method based on one-electron transition density matrix. With the use of these developed methods, we have studied the spectroscopic properties, excited-state characters, and photoinduced relaxation dynamics of three silicon nanoclusters capped with different chromophores (Cl@SiQD, Car@SiQD, Azo@SiQD). Spectroscopically, the main absorption peak is visibly red-shifted from Cl@SiQD via Car@SiQD to Azo@SiQD. In contrast to Cl@SiQD and Car@SiQD, there are two peaks observed in Azo@SiQD. Mechanistically, the excited-state relaxation to the lowest S1 excited singlet state is ultrafast in Cl@SiQD, which is less than 190 fs and without involving excited-state trapping. In comparison, there are clear excited-state trappings in Car@SiQD and Azo@SiQD. In the former, the S2 state is trapped more than 300 fs; in the latter, the S3 excited-state trapping is more than 615 fs. These results demonstrate that the interfacial interaction has significant influences on the spectroscopic properties and excited-state relaxation dynamics. The knowledge gained in this work could be helpful for the design of silicon nanoclusters with better photoluminescence performance.


YARA is the industry standard to search for patterns in malware data sets. Malware analysts heavily rely on YARA rules to identify specific threats, e.g., by scanning unknown malware samples for patterns that are characteristic for a certain malware strain. While YARA is tremendously useful to inspect individual files, its run time grows linearly with the number of input files, resulting in prohibitive performance penalties in large malware corpora. We present YARIX, a methodology to efficiently reveal files matching arbitrary YARA rules. In order to scale to large malware corpora, YARIX uses an inverted n-gram index that maps fixed-length byte sequences to lists of files in which they appear. To efficiently query such corpora, YARIX optimizes YARA searches by transforming YARA rules into index lookups to obtain a set of candidate files that potentially match the rule. Given the storage demands that arise when indexing binary files, YARIX compresses the disk footprint with variable byte delta encoding, abstracts from file offsets, and leverages a novel grouping-based compression methodology. This completeness-preserving approximation will then be scanned using YARA to get the actual set of matching files. Using 32M malware samples and 1404 YARA rules, we show that YARIX scales in both disk footprint and search performance. The index requires just ≈74% of the space required for storing the malware samples. Querying YARIX with a YARA rule in our test setup is five orders of magnitude faster than using standard sequential YARA scans.


Ultrasound transmission tomography usually generates low-resolution breast images. We improve sound-speed reconstructions using ultrasound waveform tomography with both transmission and reflection data. We validate the improvement using computer-generated synthetic-aperture ultrasound transmission and reflection data for numerical breast phantoms. Our tomography results demonstrate that using both transmission and reflection data in ultrasound waveform tomography greatly enhances the resolution and accuracy of tomographic reconstructions compared to ultrasound waveform tomography using either transmission data or reflection data alone. To verify the capability of our novel ultrasound waveform tomography, we design and manufacture a new synthetic-aperture breast ultrasound tomography system with two parallel transducer arrays for clinical studies. The distance of the two transducer arrays is adjustable for accommodating different sizes of the breast. The parallel transducer arrays also allow us to easily scan the axillary region to evaluate the status of axillary lymph nodes and detect breast cancer in the axillary region. However, synthetic-aperture ultrasound reflection data acquired by firing each transducer element sequentially are usually much weaker than transmission data, and have much lower signal-to-noise ratios than the latter. We develop a numerical virtual-point-source method to enhance ultrasound reflection data using synthetic-aperture ultrasound data acquired by firing each transducer element sequentially. Synthetic-aperture ultrasound reflection data for a breast phantom obtained using our numerical virtual-point-source method reveals many coherent ultrasound reflection waveforms that are weak or invisible in the original synthetic-aperture ultrasound data. Ultrasound waveform tomography using both transmission and reflection data together with numerical virtual-point-source method has great potential to produce high-resolution tomographic reconstructions in clinical studies of breast ultrasound tomography.


The paper presents a new feature the CILEA supercomputing portal has been provided with. The feature aims at enhancing the portal user-profiling skills. It adds to other Artificial Intelligence features the portal is already endowed with. The feature consists in the capability of interviewing users about their work activities in order to collect fine grained profile data. The need of this feature is motivated by the following problem. Very often it happens that some initially acquired (from the user) information is not sufficient to infer the user interests with low uncertainty. So the portal has to ask the user further questions, questions whose answers may require a certain mental effort from the user. These questions cannot therefore be asked all and indistinctly at the same time. In fact, given that each question entails a trade-off between expected benefit and expected disturb effect, the problem of sequential asking, driven by the criterion of the most opportune question, arises. The new portal feature represents a solution to such a problem. The framework of the Value of Information Theory based on Shannon's Entropy underlies the adopted solution.


Karawang Regency is an area of rice production center which will be a model for supply chain studies in this research. This study aims to determine the condition of the rice supply chain, determine the performance of the rice supply chain, and formulate efforts to improve the performance of the rice supply chain. The method used is the Food Supply Chain Network (FSCN) and Supply Chain Operation Network (SCOR) approaches. Based on the results of research members of the rice supply chain starts from farmers, traders, and rice mills. The value of performance metrics for farmers that are still not in line with expectations include the metric for orders delivered in full, perfect conditions, production costs, ranges of debt and receivables payments. Obtained several factors causing ineffective and inefficient performance of the rice supply chain in Karawang regency in each supply chain actor. Factors affecting farmers are the high cost of farming and the long range of payment of receivables can be overcome by increasing knowledge and application of technological developments and agricultural machinery, and strengthening the function of farmer groups. Factors affecting collecting traders are the low value of suitability of procurement flexibility. Factors affecting the low performance of rice milling are procurement flexibility and shipping flexibility.
Keywords: effort to improve the performance, paddy, performance measurement, SCOR, supply chain


Cash transfers and index insurance have become popular interventions by development agencies worldwide, yet surprisingly little is known about these programs' comparative impacts on participant behavior or well-being. This paper exploits exogenous variation in program participation and panel data from Kenya to compare the causal impacts of a cash transfer program (HSNP) and an index-based insurance product (IBLI), which were implemented contemporaneously among the same population. We find that both programs benefit clients. HSNP improves child health, as measured by mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), and helps households maintain their mobility-dependent livestock production strategies. Households with IBLI coverage make productivity increasing investments, reduce distress sales of livestock during droughts, and see a marked increase in income per adult equivalent. Estimating the impacts per total program costs reveals that the two programs perform comparably on average, while IBLI's impacts per unit marginal cost are considerably larger than HSNP's.


Coral reefs support an abundance of organisms despite being surrounded by oceanic waters characterized by low nutrient levels. Over more than a century of research, scientists have debated whether life on coral reefs is self-sustaining or whether reef organisms extract nutrients from the open ocean that in turn subsidize organic production within the reef system. This dissertation focuses on one guild of coral reef consumers - fish that feed on zooplankton from the water column. Pairing two independent metrics of fish diet - gut content analysis and stable isotope analysis followed by a mass- balance mixing model - I provide direct evidence that zooplankton from the open ocean comprise a significant proportion of the diet of fish inhabiting both offshore and nearshore reefs. In a study of feeding behavior of the planktivorous fish Dascyllus flavicaudus, I document that this species feeds selectively on certain taxa within the zooplankton assemblage. Oceanic copepods (Oncaeidae and Corycaeidae) were over-represented in fish gut contents relative to their abundance in environmental zooplankton samples. Non-random feeding by D. flavicaudus resulted in a 2 to 6-fold increase in the contribution of oceanic prey to fish diet beyond that expected under random feeding. The natural spatial variability in the zooplankton assemblage on coral reefs has the potential to affect not only fish diet but fish growth. I examined the relationship between zooplankton abundance, fish feeding and fish growth using a field experiment where juvenile fish were transplanted to reef habitats spanning a range of ambient zooplankton densities. The resulting spatial patterns in fish growth support the hypothesis that spatial variability in the abundance of zooplankton prey can significantly affect fish growth. Fish transplanted to locations with turbid waters exhibited low growth rates, suggesting that changes in land use practices which alter water quality may have deleterious effects on planktivorous reef fishes and that factors such as turbidity can act to de-couple fish growth from zooplankton abundance. This dissertation provides a landscape-scale perspective of planktivorous fish as links between oceanic and coral reef food webs and highlights the effects of fish behavior and reef habitat on cross- ecosystem exchange


Monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP) in acute liver failure (ALF) is controversial as a result of the reported complication risk (∼20%) and limited therapeutic options for intracranial hypertension. Using prospectively collected information from 332 patients with ALF and severe encephalopathy, we evaluated a recent experience with ICP monitoring in the 24 centers constituting the U.S. ALF Study Group. Special attention was given to the rate of complications, changes in management, and outcome after liver transplantation (LT). ICP monitoring was used in 92 patients (28% of the cohort), but the frequency of monitoring differed between centers (P < 0.001). ICP monitoring was strongly associated with the indication of LT (P < 0.001). A survey performed in a subset of 58 patients with ICP monitoring revealed intracranial hemorrhage in 10.3% of the cohort, half of the complications being incidental radiological findings. However, intracranial bleeding could have contributed to the demise of 2 patients. In subjects listed for LT, ICP monitoring was associated with a higher proportion of subjects receiving vasopressors and ICP‐related medications. The 30‐day survival post‐LT was similar in both monitored and nonmonitored groups (85% vs. 85%). In conclusion, the risk of intracranial hemorrhage following ICP monitoring may have decreased in the last decade, but major complications are still present. In the absence of ICP monitoring, however, patients listed for LT appear to be treated less aggressively for intracranial hypertension. In view of the high 30‐day survival rate after LT, future studies of the impact of intracranial hypertension should also focus on long‐term neurological recovery from ALF. (Liver Transpl 2005;11:1581–1589.)


Abstract. It is well known that lightning produces NOx as a result of the high temperatures in discharge channels. Since most viable proposed electrification mechanisms involve ice crystals, it is reasonable to assume that lightning discharge channels frequently pass through fields of ice particles of various kinds. We address the question of whether ice crystals may serve as catalysts for the production of NOx by lightning discharges. If so, and if the effect is large, it would need to be taken into account in estimates of global NOx production by lightning. In this theoretical study, we make a series of plausible assumptions about the temperature and concentration of reactant species in the environment of discharges and we postulate a mechanism by which ice crystals are able to adsorb nitrogen atoms. We then compare production rates between uncatalyzed and catalyzed reactions at 2000 K, 3000 K, and 4000 K, which are reasonable temperatures in lightning channels as they cool down. Ice crystal catalysis is expected to produce 2.7 times more NO than if ice crystals were not present. Catalyzed NO production rates are greater at 2000 K, whereas uncatalyzed production rates are greater at 4000 K. Thus, temperatures that favor rapid NO production without ice crystals adsorbing nitrogen atoms are unfavorable for NO production in the presence of ice crystals, and vice versa. The density of atmospheric ice crystals is much larger at 10 km where intracloud (IC) flashes peak than at 5 km where cloud to ground (CG) flashes peak, thus catalytic processes are expected to be more important for IC flashes than CG flashes, perhaps explaining a portion of the discrepancy in IC and CG production rates.


This study examined the effect of taxation on Domestic Investment in Nigeria; using time series data from 1995 to 2017. Data for the study was sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and National Bureau of Statistics. The estimation technique adopted in the study was the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Technique. The results of the estimates showed that: Taxation has long run relationship with Domestic investment in Nigeria; Personal income tax and Gross domestic product have non significant negative effects on Domestic investment in the long run, while company income tax has a significant positive effect on Domestic Investment. Value added tax has a non significant positive relationship with Domestic investment in the long run. In conclusion, the study finds a mixed result. Based on findings of the study, the following recommendation was made; Government should use money derived from taxation in providing adequate infrastructures like good roads, water and electricity. This will lower the cost of doing business in Nigeria.


A rotating random-phase-screen diffuser is sometimes employed on synchrotron x-ray imaging beamlines to ameliorate field-of-view inhomogeneities due to electron-beam instabilities and beamline optics phase artifacts. The ideal result is a broader, more uniformly illuminated beam intensity for cleaner coherent x-ray images. The spinning diffuser may be modeled as an ensemble of transversely random thin phase screens, with the resulting set of intensity maps over the detector plane being incoherently averaged over the ensemble. Whilst the coherence width associated with the source is unaffected by the diffuser, the magnitude of the complex degree of second-order coherence may be significantly reduced [K. S. Morgan, S. C. Irvine, Y. Suzuki, K. Uesugi, A. Takeuchi, D. M. Paganin, and K. K. W. Siu, Opt. Commun. 283, 216 (2010)]. Through use of a computational model and experimental data obtained on x-ray beamline BL20XU at SPring-8, Japan, we investigate the effects of such a diffuser on the quality of Fresnel diffraction fringes in propagation-based x-ray phase contrast imaging. We show that careful choice of diffuser characteristics such as thickness and fiber size, together with appropriate placement of the diffuser, can result in the ideal scenario of negligible reduction in fringe contrast whilst the desired diffusing properties are retained.


This thesis analyses alternative models for the provision of micro-credit, with a particular focus on the role of solidarity. It produces a critique of the lending model developed by the Grameen Bank and copied in many parts of the world. The critique focuses on the claim that such schemes are well suited for delivering micro-credit in a sustainable, ie self-financing manner. I argue group solidarity is not an essential component of successful micro-credit schemes, and that lending to individuals can be at least as efficient. I argue that solidarity groups do not perform economic exchange on the basis of ad hoc contracts, as existing literature implies. Rather, solidarity groups are institutions; as such, they are costly. Groups, therefore, require resource input from their members as well as regulations. These findings are shown to be relevant both for informal rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) and solidarity groups of formal micro-lenders. A case study of a South African, Grameen-type lender illustrates that the staff- intensive group interaction implies a cost structure that cannot be supported by the interest income from its micro-credit portfolio. A second case study of a microlender giving credit to individuals finds that sustainability has been achieved with innovative lending technology. Self-selection and cost-saving measures are shown to be effective. The importance of innovation, finding its expression in reduced unit costs rather than enhanced solidarity, leads to a particular perspective on micro-finance: rather than viewing micro-finance as an issue for donor-funded, isolated development projects, micro-finance is seen as part of the financial system. The thesis concludes by pointing out that these findings may be relevant in other fields of development practice. Participatory project design involves costs, not only in micro-credit. However, such costs depend on the specific social environment and may well be justified if they contribute to desirable social processes which are not adequately captured by criteria of self-sustainability.


The widespread and long-lived failings of academic economics are due to an over-reliance on largely inappropriate mathematical methods of analysis. This is an assessment I have long maintained. Many heterodox economists, however, appear to hold instead that the central problem is a form of political-economic ideology. Specifically, it is widely contended in heterodox circles that the discipline goes astray just because so many economists are committed to a portrayal of the market economy as a smoothly or efficiently functioning system or some such, a portrayal that, whether sincerely held or otherwise, is inconsistent with the workings of social reality. Here I critically examine the contention that a form of political-economic ideology of this sort is the primary problem and assess its explanatory power. I conclude that the contention does not fare very well. I do not, though, deny that ideology of some sort has a major impact on the output of the modern economics academy. However it is of a different nature to the form typically discussed, and works in somewhat indirect and complex ways. Having raised the question of the impact of ideology I take the opportunity to explore its play in the economics academy more generally.