The study aimed to show the changes on artrokinematic parameters of the neck and swallowing function after radiotherapy (RT) in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. The fourty patients with HNC have been evaluated before, 1 and 3 months after RT. The posture, normal joint movement, muscle strength and endurance of the neck were evaluated as artrokinematic parameters. The clinical and radiological swallowing function evaluations were also done. Mean age of patients were 53,22±10,92 years. Head anterior tilt, kyphosis and shoulder protraction were more in the 3rd month after RT in posture analysis (p< 0.001). The neck flexion, lateral flexion and rotation limitations have increased (p< 0.001), neck muscle strength and endurance have gradually decreased (p< 0,001) after RT. At the same time, swallowing phases have been adversely affected after RT with all these side effects (p< 0.001) and the severity of aspiration in all consistencies has increased gradually (p< 0.05). As a result, RT starts to show its negative effects from the early period of cancer treatment. Unlike other studies, we concluded that RT affects head and neck structures negatively and these describes how RT affects swallowing function. So it is highly important to include head and neck structure mobility, strength and endurance assessments and exercises in swallowing rehabilitation.


Almost two centuries after its publication, Frankenstein remains an indisputably classic text and Mary Shelley's finest work. This extensively revised Norton Critical Edition includes new texts and illustrative materials that convey the enduring global conversation about Frankenstein and its author. The text is that of the 1818 first edition, published in three volumes by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones. It is accompanied by an expansive new preface, explanatory annotations, a map of Geneva and its environs, and seven illustrations, five of them new to the Second Edition. Context is provided in three supporting sections: "Circumstance, Influence, Composition, Revision," "Reception, Impact, Adaptation," and "Sources, Influences, Analogues." Among the Second Edition's new inclusions are historical-cultural studies by Susan Tyler Hitchcock, William St. Clair, and Elizabeth Young; Chris Baldrick on the novel's reception; and David Pirie on the novel's many film adaptations. Related excerpts from the Bible and from John Milton's Paradise Lost are now included, as is Charles Lamb's poem "The Old Familiar Faces." "Criticism" collects sixteen major interpretations of Frankenstein, nine of them new to the Second Edition. The new contributors are Peter Brooks, Bette London, Garrett Stewart, James. A. W. Heffernan, Patrick Brantlinger, Jonathan Bate, Anne Mellor, Jane Goodall, and Christa Knellwolf. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.


In situ values of retardation factors and dispersivity were determined from a field tracer study using bromide, atrazine (2-chloro-4-ethlamino-6-isopropylamineo-s-triazine) and alachlor (2-chloro-2',6'-diethyl-N-(methoxymethyl)-acetanilide). The tracers were injected at the water table in an unconfined aquifer to evaluate how these pesticides are attenuated within the groundwater flow system in a typical alluvial valley setting in the Midwest where corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] are the dominant crops and atrazine and alachlor are the most commonly used pesticides. Water samples were collected for 49 d after tracer injection from 63 wells to establish the direction and magnitude of tracer movement. Following injection, no degradation products of atrazine were detected in any of the monitoring wells. Aquifer hydraulic properties were measured in the field prior to the test. Sorption on organic carbon (0.0009-0.0016 Mg/Mg) in the aquifer caused the transport of atrazine and alachlor to be retarded relative to bromide. At the scale of the field test, retardation factors of 6.1 and 7.1 were estimated for atrazine and alachlor, respectively, based on a one-dimensional, nonlinear least squares inversion analysis. These retardation factors are two to three times larger than retardation factors measured in laboratory batch tests using the same aquifer materials, are larger than other values reported in the literature, and are due to the relatively large fraction of organic C found in the aquifer. Dispersivity was approximately 9 cm at a distance of 1 to 2 m from the injection well and approximately 140 cm at a distance of 5 m from the injection well.


Introduction
Most agricultural operations, such as soil tillage, manuring, grazing, and irrigation, pose a serious threat to water quality. Agriculture is a heavy water user and a serious water polluter (nutrients, pesticides, salts, pathogens, heavy metals, oxygen-depleting and radioactive substances, etc.). In addition, agriculture threatens water habitats. The UN "Convention for the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes" ratified at Helsinki in 1992 obliges the signatory countries to further prevent, control and reduce water pollution from point and non-point sources. The implementation of the Convention is co-ordinated by the UN Economic Commission for Europe. In October 1999, this organisation commissioned a study aimed at assessing the status of implementation of regulatory and policy instruments to protect European waters from the consequences of agricultural practices.

Material and methods
The study (Znaor, 1999) involved nine European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania and Slovenia), as well as several regional (international) programmes, such as EU, Baltic Sea, Danube River Basin and the Black Sea programmes. The information needed to analyse the existing national and international policies and their implementation was obtained through a survey using a specially developed questionnaire. The answers were provided by a number of high governmental officials from the ministries of agriculture, environment and/or water management of the reviewed countries and the respected international organisations. The survey was complemented with information collected through a literature study. Because of its potential to reduce the water pollution caused by agricultural practices, the policy instruments to promote organic farming have been given special attention in the study.

Results and discussion
The study showed that (i) although all surveyed countries have special legislation and policy instruments on protecting water from the consequences of agricultural practices, their implementation is unsatisfactory; (ii) thirteen out of fifteen EU countries failed in complying with the EU Nitrate Directive (in mid December 1999, only Denmark and Finland entirely complied with the Directive); (iii) only four out of nine countries surveyed have specific regulations and policies to support organic agriculture; (iv) the officials contacted assess organic farming to an agricultural method with the least pollution risk. The main obstacles for carrying out the above-mentioned convention are the weak institutional arrangements and the lack of appropriate policy instruments stimulating good agricultural practices. The convention is best implemented in the countries with both well-established national co-ordination between responsible ministries and operating subsidies for "water-friendly" farming. The subsidies that are provided within the framework of the agri-environmental programme in the EU, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovenia are great tools in enhancing conversion to organic agriculture.

Conclusions
The economic policy instruments were found to be most fundamental for change to organic farming. In order to encourage farmers (voluntarily) to participate in programs that minimise water pollution, the financial incentives for these programmes have to be as stimulating as other agricultural programmes designed to encourage high-input agriculture. The experience of several countries suggests that "green taxes" on fertilisers and pesticides higher than 100% would have a better impact on conversion to organic farming than the combination of conversion subsidies and low "green taxes". This is because the "green taxes" affect 95-99% of the farmer population, while the conversion subsidies offer incentives to a few farmers who belong to the group of pioneers and early adopters. Organic agriculture can be a great help for the EU countries in complying with the Nitrate Directive. A "policy-led" development based on appropriate regulations and economic instruments are central to foster further expansion of organic agriculture throughout Europe.

References
Znaor, D. (1999). Regulatory and policy instruments to protect European waters from agricultural activities: status of their implementation. ETC, Leusden and UN Economic Commission for Europe, Geneva, 77 pp.


Bayesian networks are often proposed as a method for high-level information fusion. However, a Bayesian network relies on strong assumptions about the underlying probabilities. In many cases it is not realistic to require such precise probability assessments. We show that there exists a significant set of problems where credal networks outperform Bayesian networks, thus enabling more dependable decision making for this type of problems. A credal network is a graphical probabilistic method that utilizes sets of probability distributions, e.g., interval probabilities, for representation of belief. Such a representation allows one to properly express epistemic uncertainty, i.e., uncertainty that can be reduced if more information becomes available. Since reducing uncertainty has been proposed as one of the main goals of information fusion, the ability to represent epistemic uncertainty becomes an important aspect in all fusion applications.


Rabies Virus (RABV) is a deadly pathogen that causes disease in humans and animals. In Pennsylvania, RABV is endemic among wild animals, such as raccoons, skunks, and bats. The public health significance of this issue is in part due to the rare possibility of RABV transmission to humans, thus it is imperative that public health institutions control wild animal rabies cases. The "Raccoon Oral Rabies Vaccination (ORV) Program" is a one-week program that has taken place in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, every August since 2002. The main goal of the program is to manage wild animal rabies cases by orally vaccinating raccoons, which are the primary carriers of RABV in Pennsylvania. Since the program is planned to continue for years to come, with the goal of eventually eliminating RABV, it is essential to evaluate the implementation or process of the program. This preliminary evaluation will help gain knowledge about program activities and fine-tune existing program operations and strategies, mainly focusing on stakeholder involvement (i.e., organizers and volunteers). This evaluation may also be useful to document activities of raccoon baiting week for potential replication in other counties. Our preliminary process evaluation utilized responses to a stakeholder survey collected shortly after the program end date in August, 2016. The survey was divided into various aspects of the program, including participant details, recruitment of participants, training to bait, and general baiting experiences. Many respondents to our post-baiting survey made helpful comments and suggestions on the various aspects of the ORV baiting program. Their insight into the program was useful for documenting overall activities and providing recommendations. Although some limitations to this essay exist, the importance of evaluating the process of the ORV baiting program is more significant. We learned that there are various aspects of the program that may benefit by minor adjustment. These include recruitment strategy, scheduling methods, training plans, and overall baiting experience. By offering recommendations that refine various features of the program process, we want to continue the ORV baiting program in a more efficient and enjoyable manner for years to come.


The study presented the historical analyses of the effect of Boko Haram insurgency on educational management in Northern Nigeria. Education is the key to national development in Nigeria. However, achieving quality education for all Nigerian need a safe, secured, violent free teaching and learning environment for school leaders, teachers, students and families in northern region of Nigeria. The study examined the historical overview of previous insurgent groups in Nigeria, The origin of Boko Haram insurgent group, the historical analysis of Boko Haram attacks on schools in other cities in Northern Nigeria, the effect on educational management. An important aspect of this article posited on the challenges facing school administrator, teachers and students in the region .It was therefore recommended that the federal government should show higher commitment in mobilizing the armed forces to the northern region and provide security in schools with bomb detectives' equipment. It was also recommended that the religious leaders should play active role in preaching against the killings perpetrated by Boko Haram insurgent group and a special orientation to sensitize the people on security matters in all schools and their communities.


Purpose The aim of this study was to quantitatively compare five commercial dosimetric software platforms based on the analysis of clinical datasets of patients who benefited from peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) with 177Lu‐DOTATATE (LUTATHERA®). Methods The dosimetric analysis was performed on two patients during two cycles of PRRT with 177Lu. Single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography images were acquired at 4, 24, 72, and 192 h post injection. Reconstructed images were generated using Dosimetry Toolkit® (DTK) from Xeleris™ and HybridRecon‐Oncology version_1.3_Dicom (HROD) from HERMES. Reconstructed images using DTK were analyzed using the same software to calculate time‐integrated activity coefficients (TIAC), and mean absorbed doses were estimated using OLINDA/EXM V1.0 with mass correction. Reconstructed images from HROD were uploaded into PLANET® OncoDose from DOSIsoft, STRATOS from Phillips, Hybrid Dosimetry Module™ from HERMES, and SurePlan™ MRT from MIM. Organ masses, TIACs, and mean absorbed doses were calculated from each application using their recommendations. Results The majority of organ mass estimates varied by <9.5% between all platforms. The highest variability for TIAC results between platforms was seen for the kidneys (28.2%) for the two patients and the two treatment cycles. Relative standard deviations in mean absorbed doses were slightly higher compared with those observed for TIAC, but remained of the same order of magnitude between all platforms. Conclusions When applying a similar processing approach, results obtained were of the same order of magnitude regardless of the platforms used. However, the comparison of the performances of currently available platforms is still difficult as they do not all address the same parts of the dosimetric analysis workflow. In addition, the way in which data are handled in each part of the chain from data acquisition to absorbed doses may be different, which complicates the comparison exercise. Therefore, the dissemination of commercial solutions for absorbed dose calculation calls for the development of tools and standards allowing for the comparison of the performances between dosimetric software platforms.


This study is aimed at development chemistry students' study skills through integration of visual organizers (VOs) in teaching English for Special Purposes (ESP). The research specifically examined the students' attitude toward the chemistry content of English classes and the achievement of two groups of 54 students under study. The results of the study indicated that there is a significant difference between the level of study skills in dealing with chemistry in English of the students in the experimental group before and after the experiment. The result of students' perception about visual organizers, as a strategy and approach to teaching English through chemistry, highlighted the rаtionale in this undertaking. All communicative activities and presentations used by the teacher in the class incorporating visual organizers in identified formats such word webbing, web diagram, flowcharts, concept maps, Venn diagram and pictorial graphics obtained a positive perception of chemistry information in English. Performance, on the other hand, indicated the VO's effectiveness in facilitating the learning of English and study skills development. This analysis implied that the experimental group performed significantly better than their peers in the control group. Facilitating English learning through chemistry content can be made through integrating visual organizers that help develop students' study skills. Hence, the use of visual organizers effect changes in learning chemistry content for the better. Visual organizers help students perform better and improve their attitude toward learning English for professional communication.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


Ceres is the largest and most massive body in the asteroid main belt. Observational data from the Dawn spacecraft reveal the presence of at least two impact craters about 280~km in diameter on the Ceres surface, that could have expelled a significant number of fragments. Yet, standard techniques for identifying dynamical asteroid families have not detected any Ceres family. In this work, we argue that linear secular resonances with Ceres deplete the population of objects near Ceres. Also, because of the high escape velocity from Ceres, family members are expected to be very dispersed, with a considerable fraction of km-sized fragments that should be able to reach the pristine region of the main belt, the area between the 5J:-2A and 7J:-3A mean-motion resonances, where the observed number of asteroids is low. Rather than looking for possible Ceres family members near Ceres, here we propose to search in the pristine region. We identified 156 asteroids whose taxonomy, colors, albedo could be compatible with being fragments from Ceres. Remarkably, most of these objects have inclinations near that of Ceres itself.


The issue of applying high performance computing (HPC) techniques to computation-intensive probabilistic optimal power flow has not been well discussed in literature. In this paper, the probabilistic convex AC OPF based on second order cone programming (P-SOCPF) is formulated. The application of P-SOCPF is demonstrated by accounting uncertainties of loads. To estimate the distributions of nodal prices calculated from P-SOCPF, two point estimation method (2PEM) is deployed. By comparing with Monte Carlo (MC) method, the accuracy of 2PEM is proved numerically. The computation efficiency of 2PEM outperforms MC significantly. In the context of large scale estimation, we propose to apply high performance computing (HPC) to P-SOCPF. The HPC accelerated P-SOCPF is implemented in GAMS grid computing environment. A flexible parallel management algorithm is designed to assign execution threads to different CPUs and then collect completed solutions. Numerical results from IEEE 118-bus and modified 1354pegase case network demonstrate that grid computing is effective means to speed up large scale P-SOCPF computation. The speed up of P-SOCPF computation is approximately equal to the number of cores in the computation node.


Identifying the targets of immune response after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) promises to provide relevant immune therapy candidate proteins. We used protein microarrays to serologically identify nucleolar and spindle-associated protein 1 (NuSAP1) and chromatin assembly factor 1, subunit B (p60; CHAF1b) as targets of new antibody responses that developed after allogeneic HCT. Western blots and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) validated their post-HCT recognition and enabled ELISA testing of 120 other patients with various malignancies who underwent allo-HCT. CHAF1b-specific antibodies were predominantly detected in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), whereas NuSAP1-specific antibodies were exclusively detected in patients with AML 1 year after transplantation (P < .001). Complete genomic exon sequencing failed to identify a nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for NuSAP1 and CHAF1b between the donor and recipient cells. Expression profiles and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed NuSAP1 was predominately expressed in the bone marrow CD34(+)CD90(+) hematopoietic stem cells, leukemic cell lines, and B lymphoblasts compared with other tissues or cells. Thus, NuSAP1 is recognized as an immunogenic antigen in 65% of patients with AML following allogeneic HCT and suggests a tumor antigen role.


This study has attempted to contribute to the advancement of knowledge within the domain of consumer behaviour, and more specifically, to provide a greater understanding of the influences on consumers' intention to purchase environmentally friendly (EF) products.
The impetus for this study stems from a general consensus that marketers recognise that green issues will not disappear and that the environment will continue to be a critical business issue. It is furthermore suggested that green marketing is taking shape as one of the key business strategies of the future. At the same time it is true to say that prevailing economic conditions have hindered green marketing efforts. Such findings must be balanced by reports that point out that although the popularity of environmentalism has declined, consumers are still concerned about this issue.
However studies on the subject appear to be largely descriptive and narrow in focus, i.e. propositions appear to be based on personal experiences and inductive augmentation. Furthermore, most of the literature is either simplistic in its conception or lacks clear/robust conceptual frameworks, and consequently the generalisability of the findings are in question. Therefore, there is a paucity of theoretically sound and empirically substantiated information regarding the influences on consumers' intention to buy EF products. Accordingly, the main aim of this research is the development and testing of a comprehensive model of consumers' intention to purchase EF products. In order to fulfil this aim, the research is grounded in a well established theoretical model, i.e. the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), which, including past experience, formed the core of the proposed model. The TPB has been augmented by three influences identified in extant literature, i.e. social and cultural, company and marketing and experiential.
Given the wide diversity of EF products available the scope of the study was narrowed to the clothes washing detergent product segment of the household cleaning market. Twelve hypotheses were formulated and a complex research process (comprising of four surveys and a sample of 300 members of the Co op supermarket chain) extending over a period of fourteen months was designed and undertaken to apply/test the proposed model.
Overall the research makes the following theoretical and managerial contributions to the theory and practice of consumer behaviour within the EF products domain.
Theoretical contributions: This thesis offers a comprehensive model of consumers' intention to purchase EF products. More specifically, in attempting to develop more appropriate measures of environmental consciousness (EC), this research has uncovered a more complex, than initially defined structure of this construct. In addition, existing conceptualisations of measures of EC have been expanded through the introduction of another facet, i.e. 'future environmental problems' and the boundary conditions of the TPB have been tested.
Managerial contributions: This research has provided a set of broadly defined managerial guidelines that practitioners can use to gain a better understanding of the green consumer.
Finally, it is believed that the research presented here has made an original contribution to the scholarly study and literate on consumer behaviour. More specifically, it has provided a theoretically supported model on consumers' intention to purchase EF products.


As featured in the first year set texts reading list in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an extensive introduction to the magical beasts that exist in the magical, non-Muggle world. Some of the animals featured in the A-Z you will have already met in the existing Harry Potter books: for example Hippogriff, Flobberworm, Kappa - others you certainly won't: read on to find out exactly what a Chizpurfle is, or why one should always beware of the sinister Lethifold ...As Albus Dumbledore says in his introduction, this set text book by Newt Scamander has given the perfect grounding to many a Hogwarts student. It will be helpful to all Muggles out there too ...On reading the book you will also find that Harry, Ron and (in one instance) Hermione - couldn't resist grafittiing the book, and adding their own personal hand-written opinions.


Perspective on the paper by de Wit et al ( see page434 )

The arguments for assessing health-related quality of life (QoL) in children undergoing medical treatment are persuasive. Consideration of QoL places the child at the centre of the assessment, and emphasises the autonomy of the family in decision-making. Over-reliance on physiological indices neglects the important question of how illness or treatment impacts on children's own ratings of their health or well-being. However, assessment of QoL, especially in paediatrics, has proved challenging, and there remain many questions about whether or not it is possible to measure a concept as subjective as QoL, and indeed what could be gained beyond the traditional assessment of outcomes. Perhaps any new undertaking is inevitably associated with considerable pain. It seems timely to assess whether the anticipated gains (increased awareness of children's views and improved communication) have been achieved. This is not a comprehensive review of the literature, but where possible, arguments are illustrated from recent publications in Archives of Disease in Childhood .

The pains involved in instituting QoL measurement alongside clinical assessment have been considerable. There has been much debate about the definition of QoL, approaches to measurement and the merits of generic or disease-specific measures. Furthermore, there have been questions about how far measures can be developed for younger children, given their cognitive and linguistic competence. One solution, to rely on proxy ratings, has not been the panacea it was hoped for. Children and parents do not necessarily agree about the child's QoL, raising questions about who is the most reliable informant.1

There have also been disappointments, to the extent that findings have not always been as expected. In particular, informal observations that treatments are associated with improved QoL have not been confirmed when formal measures are used. …


At least three distinctive cycles are preserved in the carbon-isotope patterns for the Vendian/Tommotian interval of the Siberian platform and the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco. In Siberia, an early Tommotian carbon cycle provides the first detailed test of correlations based on archaeocyathid biostratigraphy between classic sequences on the Aldan and Lena rivers, and demonstrates that the Early Cambrian zone boundaries are reasonably good time lines. The carbon signal is preserved in both limestone and dolomite and across regional faties variations. The δ^(13)C results from the late Vendian section in Morocco display a pattern similar to that found in Siberia, suggesting that carbon isotopes can be used to test stratigraphic correlations on an intercontinental scale.


This paper proposes a unified framework for addressing progressive image transmission over noisy channels based on the finite-state Markov channel (FSMC) model. FSMC models are simple yet general enough to model binary symmetric, Gilbert-Elliott, and fading channels. They allow error sequence analysis that facilitates quantifying the statistical characteristics of the embedded bitstreams transmitted over FSMC in closed form. Using a concatenation of rate-compatible puncturing convolutional code and cyclic redundancy check code for error protection, we use a concatenation of rate-compatible punctured convolutional code and cyclic redundancy check code for error protection, which results in an unequal error protection (UEP) system, and find (sub-)optimal rate allocation solutions for our setup. By mapping fading channels to FSMCs, the JSCC problem is thus solved without the burden of simulations using an image-dependent lookup table. Fast algorithms are proposed to search for the optimal UEP. Experiments on embedded image bitstreams over FSMCs confirm our analytical results.


Activation of Notch signaling by the transcriptional coactivator PGC-1α contributes to endothelial cell dysfunction in diabetes. Endothelial cell migration is required to repair damage to blood vessels or to recover from injuries that require angiogenesis, and endothelial cells are dysfunctional in individuals with diabetes. Noting that the transcriptional coactivator PGC-1α promotes angiogenesis in skeletal muscle and heart, Sawada et al. examined the role of PGC-1α in endothelial cells. The expression of the gene encoding PGC-1α was increased in endothelial cells of mice with diet-induced or genetically induced type 2 diabetes and mice with streptozotocin (STZ)–induced type 1 diabetes and in cultured endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) from diabetic patients. Endothelial cells from STZ-treated mice or db/db mice showed decreased migration, which correlated with higher mRNA abundance for PGC-1α. Endothelial cells from mice overexpressing PGC-1α showed decreased migration, an effect that also occurred in various endothelial cell types, including primary human endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs). The promigratory stimuli vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) can activate the extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) and Akt pathways through their receptors, and ECFCs overexpressing PGC-1α showed decreased activation of Akt, but not of ERK, in response to treatment with VEGF or S1P. Notch signaling results in the formation of the Notch intracellular domain (NICD), a transcriptional regulator, which is generated through the action of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and γ-secretases on the Notch receptor. Notch signaling inhibits endothelial cell migration and sprouting angiogenesis. PGC-1α overexpression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) stimulated Notch signaling, as indicated by increased NICD abundance and increased expression of Notch target genes. Capillary sprouting was reduced in aortic explants from mice overexpressing PGC-1α in endothelial cells, an effect that was rescued with a γ-secretase inhibitor. The abundance of the mRNA for the MMP ADAMTS10 was increased in heart endothelial cells from PGC-1α–overexpressing mice, lung endothelial cells from STZ-treated mice, EPCs from diabetic patients, and human dermal microvascular endothelial cells treated with high glucose. Knockdown of ADAMTS10 decreased Notch target gene expression and promoted migration in HUVECs. Endothelial cells from PGC-1α–/– mice showed increased migration, and aortic explants from these mice displayed increased capillary sprouting. Accordingly, the defective wound healing in STZ-treated mice and mice on a high-fat diet was improved by endothelial cell–specific ablation of PGC-1α and, conversely, mice that inducibly overexpressed PGC-1α in endothelial cells did not effectively heal from various forms of injury for which the repair processes require endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis. Thus, PGC-1α inhibition could attenuate endothelial cell dysfunction in diabetic individuals; however, such therapies would also block the pro-angiogenic effects of PGC-1α in skeletal muscle and heart. N. Sawada, A. Jiang, F. Takizawa, A. Safdar, A. Manika, Y. Tesmenitsky, K.-T. Kang, J. Bischoff, H. Kalwa, J. L. Sartoretto, Y. Kamei, L. E. Benjamin, H. Watada, Y. Ogawa, Y. Higashikuni, C. W. Kessinger, F. A. Jaffer, T. Michel, M. Sata, K. Croce, R. Tanaka, Z. Arany, Endothelial PGC-1α mediates vascular dysfunction in diabetes. Cell Metab. 19, 246–258 (2014). [PubMed]


Early-phase HIV cure research is conducted against a background of highly effective antiretroviral therapy, and involves risky interventions in individuals who enjoy an almost normal life expectancy. To explore perceptions of three ethical topics in the context of HIV cure research—(a) equipoise, (b) risk–benefit ratios, and (c) "otherwise healthy volunteers"—we conducted 36 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with three groups of purposively selected key informants: clinician-researchers (n = 11), policy-makers and bioethicists (n = 13), and people living with HIV (PLWHIV; n = 12). Our analysis revealed variability in perceptions of equipoise. Second, most key informants believed there was no clear measure of risk–benefit ratios in HIV cure research, due in part to the complexity of weighing (sometimes unknown) risks to participants and (sometimes speculative) benefits to science and society. Third, most clinician-researchers and policy-makers/bioethicists viewed potential HIV cure study participants as "otherwise healthy volunteers," but this perception was not shared among PLWHIV in our study.


Fear extinction refers to the ability to adapt as situations change by learning to suppress a previously learned fear. This process involves a gradual reduction in the capacity of a fear-conditioned stimulus to elicit fear by presenting the conditioned stimulus repeatedly on its own. Fear extinction is context-dependent and is generally considered to involve the establishment of inhibitory control of the prefrontal cortex over amygdala-based fear processes. In this paper, we review research progress on the neural basis of fear extinction with a focus on the role of the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. We evaluate two competing hypotheses for how the medial prefrontal cortex inhibits amygdala output. In addition, we present new findings showing that lesions of the basal amygdala do not affect fear extinction. Based on this result, we propose an updated model for integrating hippocampal-based contextual information with prefrontal-amygdala circuitry.


Wir sind uns unbekannt, wir Erkennenden, wir selbst uns selbst: das hat seinen guten Grund. Wir haben nie nach uns gesucht-wie sollte es geschehn, das wir eines Tages uns fanden? Friedrich Nietzsche During the Nurnberg trials, defendants argued that they were only following orders when they murdered and tortured their victims. In an appalling reminder that those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it, this defence of the morally indefensible has recently been used again by some of the Americans who tortured and murdered detainees in the Abu-Gharib Prison. Their attempt to deny and deflect responsibility for their actions raises important issues about individual autonomy; some of these issues were discussed by Theodor W. Adorno as early as the 1940s. If the Nurnberg judges famously deemed those who carried out the orders of their superior officers to be morally responsible for their actions, Adorno took the opposite route, charting the loss of autonomy in the West that helped to explain why so many Germans had simply followed the order to commit atrocities. He also made the disturbing observation that the authoritarian character traits prominent in Nazi Germany were visible in other Western countries as well. The Authoritarian Personality revealed that Americans were potentially fascistic to the extent that they tended blindly to submit to authority figures out of fear and resentment, engaged in stereotypical thinking, and exhibited a readiness to attack those perceived as weak whom they considered to be members of an out-group. In fascism, aggression towards the authorities one unconsciously fears is directed away from these authorities towards a substitute object (Jews, blacks, communists, etc.) defined in rigid and stereotypical terms as outcast, evil. Adorno devoted much of his work to understanding the social, political, and economic conditions that had contributed to making these authoritarian traits so alarmingly pervasive. Unfortunately, much of his analysis remains relevant today. Speaking again about totalitarian movements in his lectures on metaphysics, Adorno noted that the trademark of these movements is to monopolize "all the so-called sublime and lofty concepts," such as freedom, justice, and democracy, "while the terms they use for what they persecute and destroy-base, insect-like, filthy, subhuman and all the rest-they treat as anathema.'" Yet, he also offered a solution to this problem in the conclusion to The Authoritarian Personality when he wrote that, to counter totalitarianism, it is not only imperative to understand the damage inflicted on individuals by exchange relations, but concomitantly, to increase "people's capacity to see themselves and to be themselves."2 Believing that people "are continuously molded from above" in order to maintain "the over-all economic pattern," Adorno claims that "the amount of energy that goes into this process bears a direct relation to the amount of potential, residing within people, for moving in a different direction."3 This potential is inextricably linked to people's capacity to see themselves. To become more fully autonomous, reflection is needed on how our ideas, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours have been shaped both by the societies in which we live and by instincts and needs. Critical self-reflection may reveal the extent to which our activities and beliefs merely reflect prevailing opinions and the views of authority figures, the materialist values of our exchange-based society, and our accommodation to existing states of affairs in the interest of survival. Because self-reflection fosters the capacity to think for oneself rather than merely parroting others, it represents a form of political maturity that is essential for more substantively democratic polities.4 Given the widespread loss of autonomy and freedom in the West today-the craven submissiveness of individuals to the powers-that-be, their adaptation and adjustment to the way things are, along with their propensity simply to follow orders-it is all the more urgent to examine why Adorno recommends self-reflection as a solution. …


Importance
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common chronic blood-borne pathogen in the US and a leading cause of complications from chronic liver disease. HCV is associated with more deaths than the top 60 other reportable infectious diseases combined, including HIV. Cases of acute HCV infection have increased approximately 3.8-fold over the last decade because of increasing injection drug use and improved surveillance.

Objective
To update its 2013 recommendation, the USPSTF commissioned a review of the evidence on screening for HCV infection in adolescents and adults.

Population
This recommendation applies to all asymptomatic adults aged 18 to 79 years without known liver disease.

Evidence Assessment
The USPSTF concludes with moderate certainty that screening for HCV infection in adults aged 18 to 79 years has substantial net benefit.

Recommendation
The USPSTF recommends screening for HCV infection in adults aged 18 to 79 years. (B recommendation).


This article adopts a sociocultural perspective, based on a Designerly version of Activity Theory, to propose a coherent framework in response to the challenges of assessing collaborative design.

In reaction to the transforming requirements of professional designers, educational establishments need to adapt their pedagogical strategies and offer students collaborative projects during their training as this approach is now a widely-spread practice for innovative companies. Many authors conclude that efforts are needed to ensure its proper integration and successful unfolding for the learners. An important challenge to the comprehensive integration of collaborative design in learning situations resides in its proper, fair and coherent assessment. A number of gaps between the intention and the implantation of collaboration are identified. First of all, a gap is noted between the conditions of social learning and those of individual assessment. This raises interrogations about the conflicting paradigms guiding traditional assessment practices and contemporary socio-constructivist learning strategies. Secondly, another gap is found when assessing the value of a final team product over the complexity of the collaborative design process. While design is a social process (Bucciarelli, 1988), the assessment of a single final stage is puzzling.

Referring to the authors' previous studies, Activity Theory (AT) propose unexplored avenues towards the coherent assessment of collaborative design. The theory brings to light the operative components of an activity and the tensions persisting amongst its components (Engestrom, 1999). In harmony with collaborative dynamics, AT seeks the active participation of actors in reaching systemic comprehension of sociocultural and organizational issues to propose coherent solutions. The sociocultural perspective is based on the concept of mediation according to which an interaction is never direct, but always mediated by a third component of the model. In a team assessment context, mediation allows the 're-socialisation' of the object being assessed (Morissette, 2009), encouraging the emergence of a discussion space between the assessor and the team. AT recognize the benefits of such formative interventions through the concept of "knotworking", defined as a form of collaboration emerging from a shared object: from unorganized collaborative efforts toward an expanded object – in our case assessment (Sannino & Ellis, 2014; Engestrom, 2015). Formative interventions allow to revise incomplete or invalid knowledge and enhance learning by motivating reflective and critical thinking within the educational activity. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, this article will seek to investigate the following questions: What should be the object of assessment emerging from the re-socialisation process of a collaborative project? And, how should it be assessed? The introduction of the new Designerly interpretation of Activity Theory (d.AT), will allow to frame an assessment strategy on its strong theoretical foundations. In brief, the strategy aims at actively involving teams of learners to assess collaborative design in a coherent manner according to the emerging distinctiveness of these complex learning situations. The assessment strategy evolved around the 13 components of the d.AT model. The article will propose clear definitions of each of the components in order to propose ways to implement those within the design project-based learning pedagogy.


Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a translation-dependent mRNA surveillance pathway that eliminates transcripts with premature termination codons. Several studies have tried defined the features governing which transcripts are targeted to NMD. However, these approaches often rely on inhibiting core NMD factors, which often have roles in non-NMD processes within the cell. Based on reports that NMD-targeted transcripts are often bound by a single ribosome, we analyzed RNA-Seq data from a polysome fractionation experiment (TrlP-Seq) to characterize the features of NMD-targeted transcripts in human cells. This approach alleviates the need to inhibit the NMD pathway. We found that the exon junction complex (EJC) model, wherein an exon-exon junction located ≥50 nucleotides downstream of a stop codon is predicted to elicit NMD, was a powerful predictor of transcripts with high abundance in the monosome fraction (bound by a single ribosome). This was also true for the presence of an upstream open reading frame. In contrast, as 3' UTR lengths increase, the proportion of transcripts that are most abundant in the monosome fraction does not increase. This suggests that either longer 3' UTRs do not consistently act as potent triggers of NMD or that the degradation of these transcripts is mechanistically different to other NMD-targeted transcripts. Of the ribosome-associated transcripts annotated as "non-coding", we find that a majority are bound by a single ribosome. Many of these transcripts increase in response to NMD inhibition, including the oncogenic SHNG15, suggesting many might be NMD targets. Finally, we found that retained intron transcripts without a premature termination codon are over-represented in the monosome fraction, suggesting an alternative mechanism is responsible for the low level of translation of these transcripts. In summary, our analysis finds that the EJC model is a powerful predictor of NMD-targeted transcripts, while the presence of a long 3' UTR is not.


Glycoluril dimers 4a and 4b were prepared and successfully transformed to glycoluril dimeric clips 7a and 7b. 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to reveal that the dimeric clip 7b with methyl substituents in its structure exists as a mixture of two distinct conformers in D2O at ambient temperature, while 7a possesses only one stable conformer under the same conditions due to its bulky phenyl substituents. The coalescence temperatures for 7b and its precursor 5b were determined. Both dimeric clips 7a and 7b formed complexes with methylviologen in D2O in which each of two clip-binding sites was occupied by one molecule of the guest. Thus, this study uncovers possible use of glycoluril dimers 4a and 4b as general building blocks for glycoluril-based supramolecular host molecules with two binding sites in their structure.


A correlation-enhanced similarity matching framework for medical image retrieval is presented in a local concept-based feature space. In this framework, images are presented by vectors of concepts that comprise of local color and texture patches of image regions in a multi-dimensional feature space. To generate the concept vocabularies and represent the images, statistical models are built using a probabilistic multi-class support vector machine (SVM). For the similarity search, the concept correlations in the collection as a whole are analyzed as a global thesaurus-like structure and incorporated in a similarity matching function. The proposed scheme overcomes some limitations of the "bag of concepts" model, such as the assumption of feature independence. A systematic evaluation of image retrieval on a biomedical image collection of different modalities demonstrates the advantages of the proposed retrieval framework in terms of precision-recall.


This paper focuses on load management in loosely-coupled federated distributed systems. We present a distributed mechanism for moving load between autonomous participants using bilateral contracts that are negotiated offline and that set bounded prices for moving load. We show that our mechanism has good incentive properties, efficiently redistributes excess load, and has a low overhead in practice.

Our load management mechanism is especially well-suited for distributed stream-processing applications, an emerging class of data-intensive applications that employ a "continuous query processing" model. In this model, streams of data are processed and composed continuously as they arrive rather than after they are indexed and stored. We have implemented the mechanism in the Medusa distributed stream processing system, and we demonstrate its properties using simulations and experiments.


The effect of soft and softer handoffs on code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system capacity is evaluated for unsectorized and sectorized hexagonal cells according to an average bit energy-to-interference power spectral density, which corresponds to a bit-error rate (BER) of 10/sup -3/. The effect of imperfect sectorization on sectorization efficiency is also considered. On the reverse link, there is no capacity loss as no extra channels are needed to perform soft handoff, while the macrodiversity provided by soft handoff can improve the reverse-link quality and extend the cell coverage. On the forward link, when soft handoff is employed in unsectorized cells, the capacity loss due to two traffic channels assigned to a user in the handoff zone is 0.2% or 1.1% for a voice activity factor of 3/8 or 1/2, respectively. As the forward-link capacity is higher than that of the reverse link, this small capacity loss does not affect the system capacity. For sectorized cells having three sectors per cell, there are overlapping coverage areas between sectors, where mobiles in these areas are subjected to an increase in cochannel interference. For an overlapping angle of 5/spl deg/, the sectorization efficiency is 0.96 and 0.7 for the reverse-link and forward-link systems, respectively. When soft and softer handoffs are employed, the forward-link sectorization efficiency is improved to 0.97. We find the application of soft and softer handoff improves not only the forward-link capacity, but also the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) for mobiles near the cell and sector boundaries.


Due to familiarity, short half-life, ease of monitoring, and the availability of a reversal agent, heparin remains the anticoagulant of choice for cardiac operations requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). However, occasionally patients require CPB but should not receive heparin, most often because of acute or subacute heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT). In these cases, if it is not feasible to wait for the disappearance of HIT antibodies, an alternative anticoagulant must be selected. A number of non-heparin anticoagulant options have been explored. However, current recommendations suggest the use of a direct thrombin inhibitor such as bivalirudin. This review describes the use of heparin alternatives for the conduct of CPB with a focus on the direct thrombin inhibitors.


Introduction: Myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with increased oxidative stress and reduced antioxidants. Some studies have shown that exercise training increases the serum level antioxidants. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of rehabilitation training on antioxidant status in patients with myocardial infarction. Materials and methods: In this study, 20 patients with myocardial infarction were selected and randomly assigned to training group (n=10) or control group (n=10). Training program included 3 sessions of concurrent training per week for eight consecutive weeks. To measure the values of malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonylation (PC) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC), 10 ml of blood were taken preand post-training in each patient. The t-test was used to analyze the data. P<0.05 was considered significant in all tests. Results: The data showed that 8 weeks of rehabilitation training significantly reduces MDA (2.37±0.59 μM and 3.74±1.34 μM in training and control groups, respectively; P=0.000) and PC (9.15±1.77 nmol/mg protein and 11.48±1.60 nmol/mg protein in training and control groups, respectively; P=0.006) levels and significantly increases TAC (10.09±1.70 U/ml and 8.34±1.56 U/ml in training and control groups, respectively; P=0.031). Conclusion: Since the findings of the present study show a reduction in oxidative stress markers (MDA, PC) and an increase in total antioxidants capacity, it seems that eight weeks of concurrent training may improve the antioxidant capacity in patients after myocardial infarction.


Objective: Exploring urinary continence (UC) assessment and management practices in Australian nursing homes. Design: Mixed method using a questionnaire and interviews. Setting: Five nursing homes in Australian metropolitan cities. Subjects: Participants 121 staff: mostly female (91%) with a range of roles including personal care assistants (PCAs) (63%), enrolled nurses (ENs) (11%), registered nurses (RNs) (20%) and managers (4%). Main outcomes measure(s): Compliance with and perceptions about UC assessment and management. Results: 77% (n=71) of care staff (PCAs, ENs and RNs) were compliant with the UC management protocol of checking for wetness every 2 to 2.5 hours. Toileting time and frequency of changing continence aids varied between nursing homes. Perceptions about the accuracy of UC assessments and knowledge of an older person following UC assessment also differed between nursing homes. Conclusion: Areas where UC assessment and management in nursing homes could be improved include identifying the voiding times of older people, compliance with care plans in management practice, and caregiver ability to assess the capacity of continence aids to absorb urine. Training for effective continence care in nursing homes needs to be enhanced.


Purpose: The development of a risk-focused performance management system (PMS)planning framework for organisations undergoing externally-driven regulatory change within
a constrained operating environment.

Methodology/Approach: This study focuses on New Zealand electricity generators and retailers (gentailers). It utilises a multiple theory framework drawing on elements of neoinstitutional and contingency theory and secondary data to predict PMS change implications, due the altered business risk exposure potential of the proposed emissions trading regime (ETS) and the associated carbon constraints this regulatory change imposes on these organisations' operating environment.

Findings: The risk-focused PMS planning framework developed in this study identifies the drivers and attributes that, due to the ETS adoption potentially have significant negative business risks for some gentailers. These risks not only influence organisational-level PMS design, function, and operation needs but also have economic consequences at sectoral and national levels.

Implications: The paper provides insights into an organization's potential internal adjustments in response to increases in internal and external business risks due to the introduction of the ETS and changing societal views. Theory implications relate to the role and use of risk in extending the application of contingency and institutional theories. Consequently, the findings of this study will be of potential interest to academics, managers, accountants, other professionals, governments, and policy-makers.

Originality/Value: The value of the study is in the way it views regulatory interventions and their associated business risks as drivers of changes in an organization's strategies and PMS. Further, it is amongst the first to explore the implications of an ETS environment on an
organization.


Business transactions involve multiple partners coordinating and interacting with each other. These transactions have hierarchies of activities which need to be orchestrated. Usual database approaches (e.g.,checkpoint, rollback) are not applicable to handle faults in a long running transaction due to interaction with multiple partners. The compensation mechanism handles faults that can arise in a long running transaction. Based on the framework of Hoare's CSP process algebra, Butler et al introduced Compensating CSP (cCSP), a language to model long-running transactions. The language introduces a method to declare a transaction as a process and it has constructs for orchestration of compensation. Butler et al also defines a trace semantics for cCSP. In this thesis, the semantic models of compensating CSP are extended by defining an operational semantics, describing how the state of a program changes during its execution. The semantics is encoded into Prolog to animate the specification. The semantic models are further extended to define the synchronisation of processes. The notion of partial behaviour is defined to model the behaviour of deadlock that arises during process synchronisation. A correspondence relationship is then defined between the semantic models and proved by using structural induction. Proving the correspondence means that any of the presentation can be accepted as a primary definition of the meaning of the language and each definition can be used correctly at different times, and for different purposes. The semantic models and their relationships are mechanised by using the theorem prover PVS. The semantic models are embedded in PVS by using Shallow embedding. The relationships between semantic models are proved by mutual structural induction. The mechanisation overcomes the problems in hand proofs and improves the scalability of the approach.


Proudly Scottish and from a sheep-farming family boasting a distinguished lineage, William Archibald Murray settled in Otago with his brothers in 1858 and acquired a large estate. A successful farmer, he was elected to parliament in 1871 and held his seat until losing it in 1881, becoming infamous as a parliamentarian because of his highly opinionated but tedious speeches. He advocated a wide range of ways to assist the development of New Zealand, but was accused of using his position to attempt to benefit himself and his family. Acquiring a large estate in the Piako district in the 1870s, this undeveloped land became a successful farm. On the basis of his experience, he advised others how to farm successfully, and criticized government and council policies affecting farmers, producing alternative ideas, which once more would benefit himself. He invested in Te Aroha mining in a small and unprofitable way, again urging both council and government to assist the field. Because of his land dealings at Te Aroha and Waiorongomai he was accused of being a land shark. He continued to produce fertile ideas on how to benefit the district, none of which would have been to his personal disadvantage. In his desire to encourage settlement he sought ways to separate Maori from their land, and despite arguing that the state should not interfere in people's lives and should leave them to make their fortunes without being taxed heavily, in practice he wanted state support for a variety of proposals. Despite determined efforts to express his views through his many letters and occasional speeches, he failed to be elected to the county council or to parliament in 1891. In addition, Murray produced and publicized several inventions, mostly to help farmers. His last years were spent pioneering another district, named Glen Murray after his family, and his ill health, caused, it was argued, by the exertions involved in breaking in new land, meant he did not inflict so many of his views on the community. A compulsive self-promoter, he managed to annoy many of those he claimed to want to help.


As populations continue to increase, society produces more and more waste. Yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to build new landfills, and the existing landfills are causing significant environmental damage. Finding solutions is not simple; the problem is enormous in size, vital in terms of its impact on the environment, and complex in scope. This book provides a vast look at solid waste management in North America and seeks solutions to the waste crisis. It describes the magnitude and complexity of the problem, focusing on municipal wastes and placing them in the perspective of other wastes such as hazardous, biochemical, and radioactive debris. It describes the components of an integrated waste management program, including recycling, composting, landfills, and waste incinerators, and it presents in detail the scientific and engineering principles underlying these technologies. To illustrate both the problems and solutions of waste management programs, the authors provide seven case histories, among them the Fresh Kills (Staten Island, New York), the East Carbon Landfill (Utah), and the Lancaster County Municipal Waste Incinerator (Pennsylvania). The Waste Crisis is unique in its attempt to analyse waste management in a broader societal context and to propose solutions based on basic principles. And by doing so, it encourages readers to challenge commonly held perceptions and to seek new and better ways of dealing with waste. As such, this book deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone who deals with or feels the need to confront the growing problems of waste management.


I. WITTERS AS PRECEDENT A. The First Amendment B. The Limits of Federalism II. WASHINGTON'S VISION AS NATIONAL STANDARD A. The Washington Constitution B. Relevant Litigation III. DEFINING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM A. The Secular Court B. A Matter of Fairness CONCLUSION On December 2, 2003 the United States Supreme Court heard a Ninth Circuit case involving a man whose state-supported college scholarship was rescinded because he sought to use it to study for the ministry. (1) The case centers on Washington State's Promise Scholarship Program, which the state created to encourage low- and middle-income students with excellent high school academic records to attend college. Under the program, scholarship money is available during the students' first two years of college ($1125 in the first year, $1542 in the second) that can be spent on any education-related expenses. (2) Joshua Davey received such an award in 1999 and subsequently enrolled at Northwest College, an accredited Christian school in Kirkland, Washington. When he informed state authorities that he intended to major in pastoral ministries (with a second major in business administration), however, the scholarship was withdrawn. The Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) based its action against Davey on a provision in the state that disqualifies students who are pursuing a administrative code that disqualifies students who are pursuing a degree in theology, (3) and a broader prohibition within the state constitution against public support for religion, religious instruction, or religious institutions. (4) The action by HECB was upheld by a federal district court when Davey sought a preliminary injunction pursuant to claims that the state had violated his constitutional rights pertaining to religion, speech, assembly, and equal protection. (5) A Ninth Circuit panel reversed this decision in a 2-1 ruling, which held that HECB's policy lacks neutrality and discriminates on the basis of religion. (6) In a long dissent, Judge M. Margaret McKeown contended that the majority had failed to appreciate the state of Washington's "vision of religious freedom" formed more than one hundred years ago, in 1889, when a constitutional convention first adopted the state charter. (7) Such an historical examination is indeed worthwhile, but, contrary to what Judge McKeown suggests, it shows that the original intent behind the framing of the Washington Constitution was to flout protections then believed to be contained within the First Amendment. The state constitutional provision was conceived in a climate polluted by religious bigotry, launched by nativist Republicans against Catholic immigrants who were developing a political stronghold in American cities. It is directly traceable to an attempt by Congressman James G. Blaine of Maine to enact an amendment to the federal Constitution banning aid to religious schools and a later move by Senator James Blair of New Hampshire to incorporate a similar provision in the legislation that permitted Washington and other territories to apply for statehood. More importantly, Washington's existing legal restriction is at odds with federal constitutional standards that have been defined by more contemporary case law. The Davey case presents the United States Supreme Court with an opportunity to correct a serious disparity between fundamental federal rights and state law provisions that undermine those rights. Because such restrictions are found in the great majority of state constitutions operative today, the Davey ruling could prove to be a landmark for defining religious liberty into the twenty-first century. To do justice to the questions presented in the Davey case, however, the Court must reassess its prior ruling in Witters, (8) a similar case that aided in perpetuating the dissonance between federal and state constitutional standards. On the one hand, Witters furnished legal grounding for a more accommodationist First Amendment jurisprudence that has evolved over the last two decades, culminating with Zelman. …


With global freshwater supplies under pressure, viable water reuse methods are being examined to assist in improving water supplies. Municipal effluent is an ideal source for water reclamation as it is consistent in quality and quantity. The health aspects of water reuse have been identified as an issue of concern, in particular the potential presence of enteric viruses. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is a method that can aid water reclamation by recharging water such as treated effluent into a suitable aquifer. Research into the removal of pathogenic contaminants by natural processes within aquifers, namely the action of autochthonous bacteria, has led to the consideration that MAR could be used to assist in the removal of microbial pathogens. Pathogens have been demonstrated to be removed during residence in groundwater, but the presence of active autochthonous groundwater bacteria are required for significant removal rates to occur.
The aim of this research was to investigate the interaction between autochthonous groundwater bacteria (AGB) and the enteroviruses Poliovirus type 1, Coxsackievirus B3 and Adenovirus B41. It was established that these viruses decrease in number in the presence of AGB but the mechanisms causing this decrease are poorly understood. Experiments were designed to examine how the individual AGB caused decay of the viruses.
In this study AGB were isolated and tested for their ability in increase the decay of the viruses. It was determined that 27 % (17/63) of the isolated AGB influenced viral decay. The AGB isolates varied in their influence with only 3 out of 17 isolates being able to cause of the decay of both poliovirus and coxsackievirus. Similar variations in decay were observed for adenovirus. Decay times for all three viruses varied amongst the AGB and between the viruses.
Experiments were undertaken to characterise the mechanism causing the antiviral activity of four groundwater isolates (1G, 3A, 4B and 9G) under varying conditions and treatments to give insight into the compounds or mechanisms responsible for viral decay. This would indicate whether compounds produced by the AGB responsible for viral decay were closely associated to bacterial cells (perhaps membrane bound), independent of metabolic activity, heat labile or were enzymatic in nature.
The influence of enzyme inhibiters and heat treatment indicated that viral degradation is caused by compounds that are enzymatic in nature. As viral numbers were monitored by nucleic acid copy numbers rather than via infectivity assays, the viral protein coats must be the first step in degradation followed by the removal of the viral nucleic acid. This two step process would require both protease and nuclease enzymes to result in loss of viral numbers as measured by RT-PCR/PCR.
Further characterisation and identification of these four bacterial isolates was also carried out. Three out of the four isolates were sequenced and analysed using partial 16S rRNA gene sequences to determine their phylogenetic relationships compared to related organisms. Isolate 3A was placed in the order Burkholderiales. Isolate 4B was placed in the family Xanthomonadaceae. Isolate 9G was placed in the family Rhizobiaceae. Isolate 1G was only partially sequenced and preliminary identification placed it in the phylum Bacteriodetes.
Understanding of the processes carried out by AGB within an aquifer during MAR using reclaimed waters will aid in increasing the viability of this water reuse process. If important natural processes could be utilised to remediate any potential pathogens, the health concerns with reclaimed waters could be addressed and solved simply through prescribed retention times within the aquifer. Key species of AGB may even be utilised as markers to assess the suitability of an aquifer for MAR.


Locked in antagonistic rivalry with neighbouring powers, North Korea has staked its future on the development of nuclear weapons, to the outrage of the international community. The Kim family's dominance of the DPRK since 1948 has confounded its critics and frustrated its allies in equal measure. Despite its dependence on economic aid from the former USSR and China, and later the USA, it pursues its nuclear ambitions at all costs. The regime has reneged on its nuclear and non-proliferation commitments, apparently only returning to the table to buy time to carry on building and testing weapons technologies. But what motivates Pyongyang to disregard UN censure and circumvent its sanctions, selling weapons and technology to fund its nuclear programme? Why does it remain one of the world's most militaristic societies, through years of economic penury and hardship? And after two nuclear tests and repeated incidents between the forces of the ROK and the DPRK, what are the prospects for peace and stability on the peninsula? In this account of the regime, the Kims' deep investment in nationalism is analysed in the context of the great political upheavals of the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR and the rise of China. This Adelphi looks at the events and ideas that shaped North Korean identity, as well as the factors influencing the great powers' reactions.


When parts of the states in a goal POMDP are fully observable and some actions are deterministic it is possible to take advantage of these properties to efficiently generate approximate solutions. Actions that deterministically affect the fully observable component of the world state can be abstracted away and combined into macro actions, permitting a planner to converge more quickly. This processing can be separated from the main search procedure, allowing us to leverage existing POMDP solvers. Theoretical results show how a POMDP can be analyzed to identify the exploitable properties and formal guarantees are provided showing that the use of macro actions preserves solvability. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated with examples when used in combination with existing POMDP solvers.


In 2007, Philippe Horvath and his colleagues explained how bacteria protect themselves against viruses at Danisco, a Danish food company, in Dangé-Saint-Romain, France. Horvath and his team worked to improve the lifespan of bacteria cultures for manufacturing yogurt and ice cream. Specifically, they focused on bacteria's resistance to bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria. Horvath and his colleagues found that the bacteria used to culture yogurt, Streptococcus thermophilus [2], has an adaptive immune system that can target specific viruses that have previously infected the bacteria. The immune system is called the CRISPR/cas system, or the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR associated protein system. Horvath and his colleagues explained how bacteria use CRISPR/cas as an immune system to target viruses and protect themselves from infection. The discovery informed the development of CRISPR/cas as a gene editing tool to modify bacterial, animal, and human genomes.


China has a bifurcated land system, with clear distinctions between urban and rural land use rights. While state-owned land in urban areas has become commercially transferable, rural land cannot be transferred. This discrepancy has been exploited by property developers, investors, village heads and local governments, which has caused wide-spread, large-scale malpractice in relation to expropriation of land. Thus, conflict over expropriation of land has been, and continues to be, a simmering hotpot of social unrest in China. It has been claimed that land disputes over expropriation is one of the most common ways of provoking grassroots resistance and undermining public confidence in the government. How should the grievances suffered by the rural farmers be redressed, and how should the Chinese government draw the fine line between economic development and individual property rights? In order to answer these questions, this paper addresses the root causes of land disputes both from a legal perspective, evaluating the most recent statutory changes, and from the policy perspective, analyzing the national strategy of integrating urban and rural areas (城乡一体化), including the recent local experiments on transforming the inalienability of rural land use rights.


Chronic excess of dietary intake combined with reduced energy expenditure increase the positive energy balance. This transition in behaviour contributes significantly to prevalence of obesity, impairment of health, reduction in quality of life and increases health-care costs. While obesity has turned into a public health threat, with the government failing to reverse this growing trend, good number of people is undertaking fad diets with the hope to lose weight fast and easy. Furthermore, media and peers contribute to the popularity of fad diets as they put pressure to individuals who desire a certain body image, which leads to low self-esteem and perhaps eating disorders. Despite the fact that fad diets may appeal as simple way to lose weight, recent studies have shown that such diets in the long term are unsustainable and can bring adverse side effects to health. Consideration of the reviewed literature suggests that long-life changes in diet and lifestyle might be the best approaches to maintain a healthy weight in the long term. Overweight individuals should consult nutrition professions before adopting any fad diets to minimise the health risks and psychological impacts.


Due to the ever-increasing amounts under management and their unregulated and opaque nature, hedge funds have emerged as a key concern for policymakers. While until now, hedge funds have been left essentially unregulated, we are seeing increasing calls for regulation for both microprudential and macroprudential reasons. In our view, most calls for the regulation of hedge funds are based on a misperception of the effectiveness of financial regulations, perhaps coupled with a lack of understanding of the positive contribution of hedge funds to the financial system. There are real concerns about consumer protection following from the expansion of the consumer base. However, it would be misguided to relax accreditation criteria. A more important issue is the investment of regulated institutions, in particular pension funds, in hedge funds. Since such institutions to enjoy direct or indirect government protection, the investment in hedge funds has to be regulated. However, such regulations are best implemented on the demand side by the pension fund regulator, rather than by directly regulating the hedge fund advisors themselves. Hedge funds provide considerable benefits, not only to their investors and advisors, but more importantly to the economy at large by facilitating price discovery, market efficiency, diversifi cation, and by being potentially able to put a floor under a crisis, a function not easily implemented by regulated institutions due to a minimum capital ratios, relative performance evaluation and other considerations. It would however be imprudent to leave hedge fund advisors completely unregulated since the failure of a systematically important hedge fund has the potential to create such uncertainty as to impede trading and in a worst case scenario cause significant damage to the real economy. These issues cannot be addressed by standard regulatory methodology such as disclosure and activity restrictions. Indeed, supervisors would be well advised to leave the hedge fund sector unregulated in their normal day-to-day activities. However, the regulator needs to have the power to resolve the informational uncertainty caused by the failure of a systematically important hedge funds. Prime brokers and other client banks would in such a scenario have a de facto or a de jure obligation to participate in the expedient removal of the uncertainty. To this end targeted consultation and contingency planning is essential.


Objective The objective of the study was to characterize pancreatic serous cystadenomas on dual-phase multidetector computed tomography in a surgical series. Materials and Methods This is a retrospective review of preoperative dual-phase multidetector computed tomographic scans from 68 patients with surgically resected and pathologically confirmed pancreatic serous cystadenomas. Results Pancreatic serous cystadenomas were most commonly found in the tail (39%). The mean (SD) axial dimension was 4.5 (2.7) cm. A total of 36% contained internal calcifications. Dilatation of the main pancreatic duct (14%) and pancreatic parenchymal atrophy (11%) were uncommon. The mean (SD) attenuation of components with the highest attenuation was 49.1 (35.0) Hounsfield units on the arterial phase and 48.5 (33.4) Hounsfield units on the portal venous phase. Only 20% of neoplasms demonstrated "classic" morphology, as defined by multiple thin nonenhancing septations, calcifications, as well as the absence of main pancreatic duct dilatation and vascular involvement. Conclusions Only 20% of surgically resected serous cystadenomas fulfilled classic morphology. Attenuation was helpful in differentiating serous cystadenomas from insulinomas and other cystic pancreatic masses, but it was not helpful in differentiation from pancreatic adenocarcinomas. Morphologic features were more helpful in differentiating serous cystadenomas from malignant masses.


The first edition of the report The Lighting Fixtures Market in Africa offers a comprehensive analysis of the market for lighting fixtures and lamps in 23 African countries (Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda). For each country, it provides figures for consumption and production in 2013, and trade flows (imports and exports, specified for lighting fixtures and lamps) from 2009 to 2013. The Report is divided in two parts. In the first part, there is an analysis of basic data for production, consumption and international trade in 2013, with total market shares and market value. There is then an analysis of activity trends between 2009 and 2013, as well as an analysis of the competitive system, detailing the leading local and foreign players present in the market, and presenting short profiles for almost 80 companies, distinguished by geographical region and the country in which they operate. To conclude the first part, demand drivers offer the main macroeconomic variables necessary to put the market in context and analyse recent economic trends in Africa. The second part of the Report offers an in-depth analysis for each of the 23 countries covered by this study. For each of them, data about lighting fixtures and lamps consumption, production, international trade, and major macroeconomic indicators, including access to electricity, urban population, paved roads, international tourism, population and business climate indicators, are provided. Among the considered products: Residential lighting, Commercial lighting, Industrial lighting, Outdoor lighting, as well as Incandescent lighting, Fluorescent lighting, LED lighting, Gas discharge and Metal Halide lighting.


Instead of confining the player to a single role, the active participator model positions the player in a more flexible position towards the fictional gameworld: involved and immersed in its various events without being limited to one role. The research project Common Tales explores this model in a serial game structure that stages the flexible relationship between the two game heroes. Players can change controls from one character to the other, guiding them through their adventures, and shaping their relationship with each other. Enabled through interactive functionality and expressed though cinematic mediation and spatial organisation, the character-driven gameworld engages the player as the central addressee and originator at the same time.


Recent progress in periodontology intended to reduce the risk represented by periodontal disease for systemic disorders and general human health condition. In this chapter, we overview the advantages and limitations of current techniques based on occlusive mem- branes for periodontal regeneration. Special emphasis is paid to advanced techniques using stem cells from dental pulp for the regeneration of bone defects caused by the chronic periodontal disease. Stem cells isolation, in vitro expansion and characterization techniques are presented. Therapeutic strategies of stem cells delivery using natural polymeric carri- ers are discussed. Stem cell-scaffold constructs application in bone tissue engineering is proposed, taking into account the marked decline of healing, and regenerative processes in elderly individuals. Future researchers envisage multiple effects of engineered constructs with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and regenerative activity for periodontal treatment. μl) reagent microplate pla


Abstract:This essay outlines a research agenda the authors call "Third World Historical," combining reflections from Ethiopia and Iran to query the legacies of revolutionary politics in our present. Third world activists from the 1960s and 1970s engaged revolutionary talk to pose questions about the particularities of their immediate contexts, and they posed new concepts of revolution along the way. Congealed manifestations of the term revolution can preclude our effort to think the event as experience. If revolution signals the disruption of existing categories, can we in turn disrupt congealed categories to rethink revolution? What could it mean to reposition the question of revolution in the specificity of the third world, against the tendency to map revolutions as models, patterns, and stages?


BACKGROUND
Self-monitoring of blood glucose is controversial in the management of type 2 diabetes. Some research suggests that self-monitoring improves glycaemic control, whereas other research is sceptical about its value for people with type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin. Although blood glucose meters are widely available and used by this group, patients' own views are absent from the debate.

AIM
To explore the pros and cons of glucose monitoring from the patients' perspectives.

DESIGN OF STUDY
Qualitative repeat-interview study.

SETTING
Patients were recruited from 16 general practices and three hospital clinics within four local healthcare cooperatives in Lothian, Scotland.

METHOD
Interview data from 40 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the previous 6 months were analysed using thematic analysis informed by grounded theory. We report findings from round 1 and round 2 interviews.

RESULTS
Glucose monitoring can heighten patients' awareness of the impact of lifestyle; for example, dietary choices, on blood glucose levels. Glucose monitoring amplifies a sense of 'success' or 'failure' about self-management, often resulting in anxiety and self-blame if glucose readings remain consistently high. Moreover, monitoring can negatively effect patients' self-management when readings are counter-intuitive.

CONCLUSION
Our analysis highlights the importance of understanding the meanings that newly diagnosed patients attach to glucose self-monitoring. To maximise the positive effects of self-monitoring, health professionals should ensure that patients understand the purpose of monitoring and should clarify with patients how readings should be interpreted.


This new list of hepatics for the Lapland State Nature Biosphere Reserve (LSNBR), one of the largest reserves in European Russia, consists of 173 species. Here are summarized all available data on the diversity of liverworts of LSNBR, including approximately 2500 specimens collected by the author. The liverwort flora is the richest amongst those of large State Nature Reserves of the European part of Russia. Eight taxa of liverworts are known in Murmansk Province from the LSNBR only: Frullania tamarisci, Lejeunea cavifolia, Lophoziopsis excisa var. elegans, Mannia triandra, Reboulia hemisphaerica, Oleolophozia perssonii, Nowellia curvifolia, Scapania calcicola. The liverwort diversity varies slightly between different LSNBR Mountains: in Salnye Tundry Mts there were recorded 139 species, in Chuna-tundra Mts – 133, in Monche-tundra Mts – 124, in Nyavka-tundra – 112. The territory gives a good representation for protection and sustainable development of rare hepatic species – fifteen species are red-listed in Europe, four liverworts are included in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation and thirty one taxa are protected in Murmansk Province.


School vandalism has negative economic, psychological, and educational implications for education. On the other hand, well-cared for school facilities, furniture and equipment, as well as clean toilets, are conducive to a healthy teaching and learning environment. Because learners have the right to be taught in tidy, clean school buildings, the aim of this research was to investigate the perceptions of a group of educators regarding aspects of school vandalism. It was evident from the research that vandalism is a learned phenomenon in schools and adjoining residential areas. Learners, particularly boys between the ages of 14 and 19, are the most important vandals. However, it is clear that schools are regularly vandalised by herdsmen, gangsters, drop-outs, ex-learners, and learners from neighbouring schools. The research indicated that juridical, economic, drug and alcohol, as well as learner-related, problems are considered important causes of school vandalism. On the other hand, it was found that educator and school management practices are less important causes of learner vandalism. South African Journal of Education Vol.24(3) 2004: 206-211


Copper is widely known as a very important material due to its applications in our daily life, such as electrical devices and heating appliances. It is not so common knowledge that copper is not found in its metallic form, but mixed with other metals and elements like sulphur and oxygen. The process to obtain pure copper nowadays implies a strong impact on the environment.
Regarding copper sulphides, its reduction to metallic copper is based in the oxidation of the ore products which forms sulphur dioxide (SO2), amongst others. Although SO2 is sent to sulphuric acid production, there are still emissions to the environment. Since the reduction of contaminant emissions has become of a primary concern, several alternatives have been studied to replace the current process.
One of the alternatives that is gaining strength is the leaching or bioleaching, where poor ores are treated with solvents (chemical leaching) or with bacteria (bioleaching). The advantages of this process is that low pressures and temperatures are needed, but long times are required. However, a high pressure and temperature version exists to reduce the leaching retention time.
Another option is the so – called mechanochemical reactions. These are based in applying high energy by grinding and milling a small amount of the sample. The main disadvantages are that the reaction is slow and small amounts can be treated at a time. This choice is taken where tiny particle size is required, since copper of nano size can be prepared. In addition, it is used as a pre – treatment for the leaching/bioleaching process, because the milling activates the reactivity of the solid and shortens the leaching times.
The process that has attracted more attention is the reduction with hydrogen (H2) gas. If feasible, a similar system as it exists nowadays could be adapted to the H2 flow. Regarding the particular case of copper sulphides, several authors have already investigated the reaction. Among their conclusions, the reaction is not thermodynamically favourable unless another material is added to capture the hydrogen sulphide (H2S) produced in the reducing reaction. Numerous studies have based the good conversion results of this reaction by the addition of a considerable amount of another substance, practically in all cases, lime, i.e. calcium oxide. The role of this compound is to react with the H2S produced in the reduction, forcing the reaction to the production of metallic copper.
The purpose of this thesis was to provide more information about this particular case, the H2 reduction, because it seems to generate more interest due to its good results. This process can apply to both copper oxides and sulphides; however, this project was focused only in the reduction of copper (I) sulphide (Cu2S), commonly known as chalcocite. In addition, a new attempt to improve the bare reaction is made by mixing metallic copper on one set of experiments and copper (II) oxide (CuO) in another. Moreover, the modelling of the process was approached basing the mathematical solution on the development made by H. Y. Sohn for reactions between porous solids and gases.
The materials used to perform the experiments were Cu2S, metallic copper and CuO, and the reactant gas was a mixture of 4% H2 and 96% argon (Ar). The rate of conversion was measured by weight loss in a conventional thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) set up for the bare reduction reaction. In this particular set up, experiments with loose powder at different reaction temperatures were carried out, as well as experiments in the pellet form and mixtures with copper. These last cases were performed only at a concrete isotherm.
A differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) set up was used to perform the same experiments as in the TGA set up, but in pellet shape, to confirm that no oxidation was affecting the results. The experiments mixing CuO were only completed in this set up.
The results from the loose powder experiments gave low sulphur removal conversions, at a low partial pressure of reactant gas (H2 partial pressure is 0.04 MPa). The isotherm values showed different mechanisms for the high (750 – 850oC) and the low (600 – 700oC) temperature range studies. An attempt to determinate the kinetics of the chemical reaction was done taking the very first values of the reaction, where diffusion was not playing an important role. The findings were that the kinetics followed the shrinkage core model in the whole range, while the activation energy for the reaction was 61 kJ/mol for the low range and 8 kJ/mol for the high temperature range.
Diffusion became strong quite fast after the chemical reaction stage. Its effect was studied by means of performing the exact same experiment in pellet shape. Since the porosity of the pellet is lower, diffusion was expected to be harder and lead to a lower value, but instead the sulphur removal from became higher. The action of compressing the powder introduced defects into the powder, making it more active which could explain this discrepancy.
A step forward to previous experiments in the field was to add a certain amount of metallic copper with the idea of set nucleation spots for the copper production. All mixture conversions turned out to be lower than that for the simple Cu2S reduction, which might be due to a thicker product layer and faster shrinkage of the copper formed, which prevents the reactant gas to go further.
Another approach was to produce the copper spots for nucleation in situ, with the reduction of CuO by H2 before the main reduction. In the test conditions, the experiment with lower CuO content (1 wt %) generated noticeably better overall conversion results than the normal reduction. On the contrary, mixtures with a higher content (e.g. 10 CuO wt %), in the test conditions, were not able to reduce the CuO completely before heading to the isothermal conditions of the main reduction, which lead to the production of SO2. As a result, the improvement in the conversion cannot be taken into account.
An important part of the project is focused on the application of the model developed by H. Y. Sohn et al to describe the experimental results obtained from the isotherms. A first attempt considering only chemical reaction and diffusion effects fairly represented the conversion values in the intermediate region. The first stage is clearly controlled by chemical reaction, while flat slope of the latest period indicated the effects of mass transfer. The second attempt was to add the resistance of the gas film surrounding the pellet to the model. The new conversion curves were closer to the slope at the end of the experimental results, but differed deeply from the inital values.
As main conclusions, it was seen that the temperature affected extremely to the mechanism of the reaction. The shrinkage core model described fairly well the chemical reaction controlled part, while the addition of diffusion or mass transfer gives better approximations to the latest stages of the process. The addition of metallic copper turned out to be badly for the sulphur removal because the product sinters faster, while the addition of CuO seems to improve the reaction, although more experiments should be done regarding the latter.


The accumulation of
corrosive and radioactive wastes in the primary system, including nuclear fuel
assembly, significantly increases workers' exposure to radiation. Zinc
injection from 5 to 40 ppb into the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) of Pressurized
Water Reactors (PWRs) has been known as an effective method to decrease the
radiation fields and Primary Water Stress Corrosion Cracking (PWSCC). Zinc
injection affects both corrosion product concentrations and characteristics of
the deposited crud on oxide layers, because zinc is incorporated into the oxide
films by displacing nickel, cobalt, and iron in primary systems. Radiation
fields and corrosion might be mitigated as radioactive products, such as Co,
which are removed by zinc injection. However, the zinc injection effects on
fuel assembly in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) have not been much reported yet,
even though some lab tests were carried out in USA and France. In this paper,
we studied effects of zinc injection on the fuel assemblies in the Ulchin 1
NPP. The chemical and radiation analysis of radioactive corrosion products was
performed to evaluate zinc injection effects on the fuel assembly in the Ulchin
1 NPP. Gamma spectroscopy was used to analyze crud samples for radioisotope
contents. The Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES)
was used to analyze crud samples for elemental contents. The concentration of
radioisotope Co-58
was decreased after zinc injection to 1/22 times that before the zinc
injection. 1% - 2% wt% of zinc was incorporated
through the substitution of Ni in the crud oxide layer. The Ni/Fe ratio was decreased
to 0.69 from 1.12 after the injection, due to the Ni substitution by zinc. It
was found that NiO and NiFe2O4 were converted to ZnO and
ZnFe2O4, respectively. In conclusion, zinc injecttion was
found to be an essential method to reduce the amount of radioactive Co-58 in the fuel assemblies of primary systems in
NPPs.


GIV regulates both heterotrimeric and monomeric G protein signaling at the Golgi. Most heterotrimeric G protein activation occurs at the plasma membrane in response to ligand binding to G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) that function as guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) for the α subunit of the Gαβγ heterotrimer. However, some G proteins have been found associated with the Golgi, an intracellular network of membranes that receives proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and acts as a processing and sorting hub for these proteins before they are trafficked to their destination. Proteins are transported to the Golgi from ER in vesicles coated with COPI, and fusion of these vesicles with the Golgi requires the small monomeric guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) Arf1 and its GEFs and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs). Lo et al. identified Gα-interacting vesicle-associated protein (GIV, also known as Girdin), which is not GPCR, as a GEF for Gαi at the Golgi. In COS7 cells, endogenous GIV and a tagged form of Gαi3 colocalized to the Golgi, and knockdown of GIV prevented the dissociation of tagged Gαi1 from Gβγ at the Golgi. Endogenous GIV cofractionated with COPI-positive membranes in COS7 cells, and tagged GIV coimmunoprecipitated with the COPI subunit β-COP from HeLa cell extracts. Golgi structure was altered, trafficking through the Golgi was impaired, and COPI vesicles accumulated in GIV-depleted cells or in cells expressing a GEF-defective GIV mutant, suggesting that the GEF activity of GIV was required for COPI vesicle uncoating. GIV-depleted cells also had increased amounts of GTP-bound (active) Arf1 and less ArfGAP3 associated with COPI vesicles. GIV bound to ArfGAPs 2 and 3 in pull-down assays, suggesting that GIV may stimulate the GTPase cycle of Arf1 by recruiting ArfGAP3 to COPI vesicles. Experiments using a peptide that binds Gβγ, which would both increase the amount of active Gα and sequester Gβγ, indicated that the GIV-mediated activation of the heterotrimeric G protein was important for GIV-mediated down-regulation of Arf1 activity, vesicle transport, and maintenance of Golgi architecture. An N-terminal region of GIV mediated binding to GTP-bound Arf1. These findings suggest that GTP-bound Arf1 recruits GIV to COPI vesicles and that GIV-mediated recruitment of ArfGAPs to COPI vesicles and activation of Gi at the Golgi surface inhibits Arf1 to stimulate vesicle uncoating and fusion with the Golgi membrane. Thus, GIV links heterotrimeric G proteins to the monomeric G protein Arf1 and provides evidence for Gαi activation at a site other than the plasma membrane. I. -C. Lo, V. Gupta, K. K. Midde, V. Taupin, I. Lopez-Sanchez, I. Kufareva, R. Abagyan, P. A. Randazzo, M. G. Farquhar, P. Ghosh, Activation of Gαi at the Golgi by GIV/Girdin imposes finiteness in Arf1 signaling. Dev. Cell. 33, 189–203 (2015). [PubMed]