Until recently, transcriptomics was limited to bulk RNA sequencing, obscuring the underlying expression patterns of individual cells in favor of a global average. Thanks to technological advances, we can now profile gene expression across thousands or millions of individual cells in parallel. This new type of data has led to the intriguing discovery that individual cell profiles can reflect the imprint of time or dynamic processes. However, synthesizing this information to reconstruct dynamic biological phenomena from data that are noisy, heterogenous, and sparse---and from processes that may unfold asynchronously---poses a complex computational and statistical challenge. Here, we develop a full generative model for probabilistically reconstructing trees of cellular differentiation from single-cell RNA-seq data. Specifically, we extend the framework of the classical Dirichlet diffusion tree to simultaneously infer branch topology and latent cell states along continuous trajectories over the full tree. In tandem, we construct a novel Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler that interleaves Metropolis-Hastings and message passing to leverage model structure for efficient inference. Finally, we demonstrate that these techniques can recover latent trajectories from simulated single-cell transcriptomes. While this work is motivated by cellular differentiation, we derive a tractable model that provides flexible densities for any data (coupled with an appropriate noise model) that arise from continuous evolution along a latent nonparametric tree.


Introduction: Accidental foreign body ingestion and impaction of food bolus present as an emergency. Pediatric population is the most vulnerable. Since the act may go unnoticed, the child may present late. However, most foreign bodies pass spontaneously in the stools. Case Capsule: Two children were brought with history of battery ingestion. In one case, an emergency gastro intestinal endoscopy had to be done for the foreign body removal which was made up of corroded battery. In the other case, no interventation was undertaken & an uncorroded battery passed per anum along with stools after 15 days of ingestion. Conclusion: Decision regarding immediate intervention or conservative approach will require consideration of the level of lodgement & type of foreign body. Prevention is possible if parents/guardians exercise control on their wards & are aware of implications of such an event.


DNA methylation is a repressive epigenetic modification that covers vertebrate genomes. Regions known as CpG islands (CGIs), which are refractory to DNA methylation, are often associated with gene promoters and play central roles in gene regulation. Yet how CGIs in their normal genomic context evade the DNA methylation machinery and whether these mechanisms are evolutionarily conserved remains enigmatic. To address these fundamental questions we exploited a transchromosomic animal model and genomic approaches to understand how the hypomethylated state is formed in vivo and to discover whether mechanisms governing CGI formation are evolutionarily conserved. Strikingly, insertion of a human chromosome into mouse revealed that promoter-associated CGIs are refractory to DNA methylation regardless of host species, demonstrating that DNA sequence plays a central role in specifying the hypomethylated state through evolutionarily conserved mechanisms. In contrast, elements distal to gene promoters exhibited more variable methylation between host species, uncovering a widespread dependence on nucleotide frequency and occupancy of DNA-binding transcription factors in shaping the DNA methylation landscape away from gene promoters. This was exemplified by young CpG rich lineage-restricted repeat sequences that evaded DNA methylation in the absence of co-evolved mechanisms targeting methylation to these sequences, and species specific DNA binding events that protected against DNA methylation in CpG poor regions. Finally, transplantation of mouse chromosomal fragments into the evolutionarily distant zebrafish uncovered the existence of a mechanistically conserved and DNA-encoded logic which shapes CGI formation across vertebrate species.


IMPORTANCE
Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of unintentional deaths of children ages 1 and older, particularly children with health care needs.

OBJECTIVE
To explore family caregivers' experiences and current practices while transporting children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

DESIGN
A concurrent nested mixed-methods approach was used to gain insight into caregiver experiences.

SETTING
Participants completed an online Qualtrics survey.

PARTICIPANTS
A convenience sample of 54 caregivers of children with ASD from 17 U.S. states.

RESULTS
Themes that emerged include sensory behaviors of children, education related to child passenger safety, and participation in the community. Statistically significant findings suggest a correlation between caregivers (n = 39) being less likely to participate in activities away from home if the child had attempted to elope (p = .013), displayed aggressive behaviors (p = .005), or demonstrated self-injurious behaviors (p = .001).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
The findings suggest a correlation between caregivers limiting the distance traveled during vehicular transportation and behavioral safety concerns. If caregivers must limit travel, they may refrain from accessing the community and engaging in leisure pursuits. What This Article Adds: The findings suggest that therapists who treat children with ASD should be familiar with child passenger safety restraints, particularly for elopement.


In this interview, Stanford University physicist and Nobel laureate Burton Richter describes his strategy for gaining broader public and political agreement on how to change US energy policy. He recommends approaching the energy debate from three different perspectives—economic, national security, and environmental—and focusing less narrowly on climate change. Richter presents himself as a pragmatic moderate, trailblazing a path between climate "deniers" and "exaggerators." He advocates replacing all coal-burning power plants with natural gas, adopting stricter fuel-efficiency standards, electrifying vehicles, building grid-scale storage for renewable energy, instituting a revenue-neutral carbon tax, and expanding nuclear power— all measures on which he sees potential for widespread agreement across political lines in the United States. Richter discusses ways to make nuclear power safer in countries that are new to it, such as requiring these countries to hire expert operators from more experienced countries for the first few years. He also shares his concerns about regulatory shortcomings in some countries. Richter remains optimistic about solving the challenges of climate change and recommends limiting future climate talks to a smaller group of nations as a way of making faster progress.


Fatty acid and amino acid compositions were determined in the fruits of Prunus spinosa subsp. dasyphylla with GC and amino acid analyser. Total oil (0.22%) and total protein (1.35%) were quantified in lower levels. Major fatty acids were palmitic (34%), oleic (20.85%) and stearic acids (16.20%), respectively. Linoleic (6.07%), eicosatrioneic (3.17%), α-linolenic (1.95%), gamma-linolenic (1.76%), myristic (1.61%), arachidic (1.17%) and lauric acids (1.10%) exhibited the lower concentrations. The other fatty acids were examined below 1%. Total percentage of the saturated fatty acids were observed higher (56.56%) compare to the unsaturated fatty acids (35.68%). Total concentration of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids were 22.73% and 12.95% respectively. Valuable ratio of linoleic: α-linolenic acid (3.103) were detected with respect to dietary reference for fatty acid intake. Amino acid concentrations ranged from 356.7 (aspartic acid) to 47.6 (threonin) (mg/100 g dry wt.). The highest values among essential amino acids were obtained in leucin (122.6), isoleucine (99.2), valine (87.8) and phenylalanin (84.7). Tyrosin (51.3) and lysine (50.6) were quantified at the lowest levels. All essential amino acids were observed in sufficient levels compared to FAO reference values for life stage groups. Investigated traits in the fruits of Prunus spinosa subsp. dasyphylla may be useful in explaining the natural product potential and taxonomical variations based on different


In this paper we introduce a novel feature augmentation approach for generating structured musical compositions comprising melodies and harmonies. The proposed method augments a connectionist generation model with count-down to song conclusion and meter markers as extra input features to study whether neural networks can learn to produce more aesthetically pleasing and structured musical output as a consequence of augmenting the input data with structural features. An RNN architecture with LSTM cells is trained on the Nottingham folk music dataset in a supervised sequence learning setup, following a Music Language Modelling approach, and then applied to generation of harmonies and melodies. Our experiments show an improved prediction performance for both types of annotation. The generated music was also subjectively evaluated using an on-line Turing style listening test which confirms a substantial improvement in the aesthetic quality and in the perceived structure of the music generated using the temporal structure.


Abstract. The global hydrological cycle is predicted to become more intense in future climates, with both larger precipitation events and longer times between events in some regions. Redistribution of precipitation may occur both within and across seasons, and the resulting wide fluctuations in soil water content (SWC) may dramatically affect plants. Though these responses remain poorly understood, recent research in this emerging field suggests the effects of redistributed precipitation may differ from predictions based on previous drought studies. We review available studies on both extreme precipitation (redistribution within seasons) and seasonal changes in precipitation (redistribution across seasons) on grasslands and forests. Extreme precipitation differentially affected above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP), depending on whether extreme precipitation led to increased or decreased SWC, which differed based on the current precipitation and aridity index of the site. Specifically, studies to date reported that extreme precipitation decreased ANPP in mesic sites, but, conversely, increased ANPP in xeric sites, suggesting that plant-available water is a key factor driving responses to extreme precipitation. Similarly, the effects of seasonal changes in precipitation on ANPP, phenology, and leaf and fruit development varied with the effect on SWC. Reductions in spring or summer generally had negative effects on plants, associated with reduced SWC, while subsequent reductions in autumn or winter had little effect on SWC or plants. Similarly, increased summer precipitation had a more dramatic impact on plants than winter increases in precipitation. The patterns of response suggest xeric biomes may respond positively to extreme precipitation, while comparatively mesic biomes may be more likely to be negatively affected. Moreover, seasonal changes in precipitation during warm or dry seasons may have larger effects than changes during cool or wet seasons. Accordingly, responses to redistributed precipitation will involve a complex interplay between plant-available water, plant functional type and resultant influences on plant phenology, growth and water relations. These results highlight the need for experiments across a range of soil types and plant functional types, critical for predicting future vegetation responses to future climates.


One of the most important and delicate judicial tasks in patent law is to keep the obviousness doctrine in reasonable working order. There are several reasons why the obviousness doctrine has been the subject of frequent judicial tinkering. First, patentability doctrines interact with each other, so doctrinal alterations that seem to be entirely external to the obviousness doctrine frequently have ripple effects on obviousness. The interaction between the utility and obviousness doctrines provides one good example. Second, the obviousness doctrine is internally complex. Cases in the chemical and biotechnology areas over the past several decades have amply illustrated this point. This article examines Chief Judge Rader's contributions to the task of tuning the obviousness doctrine, with particular attention to cases that have arisen after the Supreme Court's pronouncements on obviousness in KSR v. Teleflex.


Sportsmanship problems in youth sport have recently become a more prominent issue for parks and recreation professionals. Benefits-based programming is one method these professionals could use to address the issues of sportsmanship in their youth leagues. Recent studies and programs have successfully employed prosocial behavior techniques in this process as a means of improving the sportsmanship atmosphere in youth leagues. Previous research, however, has yet to compare the efficacy of such programs in comparison to a control group. Data for this study were gathered through observations of positive and negative sportsmanship behaviors youth basketball games at two local community centers. Three specific groups were involved: A control group (in which no intervention took place); PHPFPF only (in which prosocial behavior techniques were employed); and PHPFPF + refs (in which prosocial behavior techniques were employed along with referees trained in prosocial behavior). All games involved third through sixth graders and observations included players, coaches, and spectators. In addition, measures of fun were collected from participants at each game using a "fun-o-meter." Results suggest that intentional programming can be successfully employed to increase sportsmanship in youth sports. The youth sport league that did not utilize the benefits-based programming model displayed lower levels of positive sportsmanship and higher levels of negative sportsmanship for both age groups. The parks and recreation professionals at the second site, however, were able to develop a plan that enabled them to accomplish their goals by intentionally determining that sportsmanship and fun were two benefits being promoted in the league. Several lessons resulting from this study can be utilized in order to improve youth sport programs. Administrators who are hoping to create a more positive sportsmanship atmosphere may want to employ the benefits-based programming model. Furthermore, several of the prosocial behavior techniques employed in this study can be used to help professionals improve the sportsmanship in their leagues. A basic program was successfully used that was both easy and inexpensive to incorporate. An additional feature of training referees to use prosocial behavior can then be added for even greater results. By intentionally focusing their efforts on improving sportsmanship, both through increasing positive behaviors and decreasing negative ones, youth sport programs can be more fun for participants, which should lead to better overall experiences and hopefully help these youth to maintain participation in the future.


Accuracy of the object classification is depend upon the feature vector of the object. Poroscopy is the method of pattern matching of the fingerprint images based upon pores. Pores of the fingerprint image are extracted by using Marker Controlled Watershed Segmentation. The features of the pores are extracted by various methods which are rotation variant. To improve the accuracy of the pattern matching we propose an technique based upon PHT (polar harmonic transform) which is an rotation invariant transform that provide many numerical stable features. The kernel functions of PHTs consist of sinusoidal functions that are inherently computation intensive. The proposed Method will reduce the FAR and FRR.


When a liquid spontaneously spreads over a solid surface, a progressive microscopic structure, conventionally known as a van der Waals driven precursor film, develops ahead of the moving contact line. Here, we report a new class of electrostatically assisted precursors containing microscopic charged particles. This precursor manifests itself at the late stage of forced-spreading of a macroscopic dielectric film subjected to a unipolar ionic discharge in a gas containing particulate. We put a model forward to predict dynamic behaviour of this electrostatic precursor. The spreading of the precursor film is predicted to be proportional to the square root of the exposure time, which is consistent with the ellipsometric measurements.


We provide a compactness principle which is applicable to different formulations of Plateau's problem in codimension one and which is exclusively based on the theory of Radon measures and elementary comparison arguments. Exploiting some additional techniques in geometric measure theory, we can use this principle to give a different proof of a theorem by Harrison and Pugh and to answer a question raised by Guy David.


INTRODUCTION

This working paper forms a general introduction to an EPSRC CASE research project,
presenting the objectives of the research, the rationale behind the study, a summary of some of
the results obtained so far, and a plan for the remainder of the research work. The project is due
for completion in November 1996.

In other words, the project is examining:

1. The current understanding of the nature of the influence that transport has upon activity
patterns and land use. Specifically, this is making use of empirical studies of transport
impacts on land use, plus behavioural studies of the factors in location choice.

2. Whether this relationship can be adequately represented in a predictive context. This
consists of two elements. How the relationship of transport on land use can be studied and
'formalised', and secondly, the ability to use this relationship for estimation of land use
response to transport impacts. Use will be made of published modelling studies, plus some
original modelling work, using a model constructed for this research.

3. The benefits of predicting transport impacts upon land use to planners involved in strategic
land use and transport planning. This is the main objective of the research, and addresses
why transport impacts on land use appear to have a minor role in structure planning, why
model representations are seldom used, and given a model's predictions, what use will be
made of the model results. Initial results from the first round of interviews are given in this
paper.

There are several themes that underpin this research:

The nature of the 'transport on land use' relationship.

How far it can he formalised, what
we know about it, and how it is best to study it.

Strategic planning processes in the UK, how the planning system handles the transport on
land use relationship, under what circumstances the relationship is important, and the role
of model predictions in the planning process.

Whether the remit of 'planning' should examine transport impacts on land use, plus
anticipation of the impacts of local government reorganisation.

The issue of whether predictive modellmg in this context is an appropriate tool beyond the
scope of academic research.


The problems analysed in the article are connected to the legal relations between the parties of the credit agreement as well as the problems of their regulation. The article analyses in detail legal relations between the buyer and the beneficiary, the issuing bank and the advising bank as well as other legal relations that may occur on the grounds of the credit agreement. After examining foreign literature, as well as analysing the laws of the Republic of Lithuania regulating the payments by a letter of credit and opposing them to the traditions and rules applied in the international practice of banks, a suggestion is put forward of how legal relations arising on the grounds of a credit agreement should be regulated. After the analysis of the above-mentioned problems, the author makes the following conclusions. It is recommended to establish a term on the opening of the letter of credit, as an obligatory condition of a transaction. According to the author, it is useful to foresee specific conditions for the buyer's overdue opening of the letter of credit. It is suggested for the buyer to grant a right to control of how the bank is meeting the conditions of the credit agreement. A buyer might refuse to pay the bills in the period of four working days after he/she has received the documents paid according to the letter of credit, if the advising bank had breached at least one condition when paying the money to the seller. If in the time of inspection it would come out that the refusal to pay the bills was grounded, the bank would be obliged to return the sum of money to the account of the buyer. A rule like this would enhance the buyer's control in respect of the advising bank, and at the same time would increase its responsibility to properly carry out the credit order by a letter of credit and this form of payment would become more attractive to the potential clients. It has been established that the legal nature of the relation between the issuing bank and the advising bank should be considered as the debt transfer. In the author's point of view, it would be purposeful to give the issuing bank a possibility to ensure a right to check the payer's financial standing to pay the expenditure of the advising bank with the mediation of the issuing bank, by transferring the additional sum of money to the buyer's account in the issuing bank. It is recommended to establish a direct responsibility of the issuing bank to the beneficiary and to supplement part 2 of article 6.940 of the existing Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania. According to the author, it would be purposeful to foresee a preventive measure applied by the advising bank that would assist in carrying out the control of payer's actions.


Not only is it difficult to change the "publish or perish" mindset among health researchers, there are other fundamental barriers in data sharing that Pisani & AbouZahr's paper should have addressed.1 Sharing data is not only about the technical dimension such as data management, repositories and libraries; developing countries are concerned about factors that impede data sharing, in particular, fairness. Pisani & AbouZahr provide clear analyses on barriers but their proposed solutions will not be effective unless they address the fundamental problems.

From the perspective of developing countries, the goal of data sharing is beyond national interests and is for the benefit of all mankind. Without this explicit goal, data sharing more often helps scientists in developed countries get published. While these scientists may have higher analytical capacities, they have neither shared the "legwork" in collecting routine administrative data nor made intellectual contributions to designing and solving problems in conducting field work with scientists in developing countries.

Developing countries need to strengthen capacities in survey design, data management and analysis and policy use. There is clearly an unlevel playing field that impedes data sharing. Scientists from developed countries often take the following approach with researchers in developing countries: "Share your data with me, you do not have analytical capacities. I will analyse and publish papers for global public good." Instead, their approach should be: "We can analyse the data together and learn from each other for the benefit of all people." This approach would gradually create equal partnerships, a level playing field, goodwill and trust for collaborations beyond simply sharing data.2–4 International data sharing cannot be achieved through forced marriage; as shown by the defeat of the policy proposed by the Annals of Internal Medicine of a publicly accessible database as a condition for journal publication.5

The recent sharing of avian flu virus specimens by developing countries through the World Health Organization resulted in the production of avian influenza vaccines at a price of US$ 10–20 per dose. This is unaffordable in low-income countries where total health expenditure is less than US$ 30 per person. Should an avian flu pandemic occur, there would be huge death tolls in countries without access to vaccines; while rich countries' populations would be fully protected, literally from any moral obligations to countries that shared their specimens. Such unilateral benefit inhibits data sharing.

It is important to have evidence on the benefits that populations receive directly as a result of sharing, beyond publications by secondary users. Success in international data sharing may start with efforts at country level or through multi-country research partnerships. Undeniably, multi-country studies provide huge benefit in supporting evidence-based policy. Collaborative partnerships among a number of developed and developing countries, such as for maternal and perinatal health, are foundations for building long-term trust.6 In research partnerships, there is equitable access to and use of data sets, beyond the conventional practice of passive data sharing without partnership.

In Thailand, rules and procedures for data sharing were developed through a research funding agency and the National Statistical Office. Primary users were granted a reasonable-use period of two years after complete data collection prior to access by secondary users. Good practices are emerging. With the aim of capacity building and mutual benefit, the National Statistical Office grants approval to international secondary users to access nationally representative household data sets, on the condition that they develop partnerships with local scientists. Such engagement gradually builds trust and longer-term partnerships between scientists from developed and developing countries.


Time-lapse methodology was applied to cross-hole electrical resistivity tomography (CHERT) to investigate two groundwater contamination sites. In the first case study, resistivity profiles were used to delineate the transport direction and spatial distribution of the contaminant, which can serve as a basis for adjusting the remediation treatment by the remediation team. In the second case study, changes in electrical conductivity were used to evaluate the remediation reagent's transport direction and area of effect, and this was used to indirectly verify the effectiveness of the remediation efforts. CHERT equipment was installed simultaneously at the monitoring wells, which enhanced the benefits of the boreholes, enabling them to be even more economical. In large-scale groundwater contamination sites or sites with complex hydrogeological environments, application of CHERT techniques can result in greater amounts of data, particularly in analyzing localized preferential flow paths. This data would be greatly beneficial to the remediation of groundwater contamination sites and long-term groundwater management.


Recently, criminal justice professionals have advocated restorative justice as an alternative to traditional punitive practices. Extant research has not examined the strategic interpersonal dynamics between victims, offenders, supporters, and facilitators during restorative justice sessions. Our ethnographic study addresses this gap. Building on studies of emotion in reintegrative shaming, we explore how shaming emotions are dramaturgically mediated by the rhetorical use of victim roles. We suggest that this micropolitical shame management facilitates apparently meaningful outcomes, undermines them, or results in agreements based more on realpolitik than reintegration. Our data are derived from detailed field notes at 28 youth restorative justice sessions in a mid-sized Canadian city. Our findings reveal a different picture than the frequently idealized images of restorative justice, thus underscoring the need for further analysis in this important area of criminal justice.


In this Essay, Professors Tyler and Meares highlight the ways in which recent social science research supports the model of jurisprudence articulated by Justice Sotomayor. Her model defines building identification with political and legal institutions as an important goal for the Court. It further suggests that this goal is best achieved when the Court exercises its authority using just procedures. That perspective is consistent with research on the foundations of popular legitimacy demonstrating that perceived procedural justice of the Court most strongly shapes it. Social science findings further reveal the factors shaping popular conceptions of procedural justice.


Imagine a transnational regime with these institutional features: • Virtually free trade in goods and services, including a "mutual recognition" system whereby compliance with regulatory requirements in one jurisdiction (such as qualifications to practice law or requirements when offering securities) basically means exemption from compliance with regulations in the other jurisdiction. And for sensitive areas, such as food safety, there is a trans-national regulator. • Virtually free movement of capital, underpinned by private sector and governmental initiatives. • Free movement of people, with permanent residence available to nationals from the other jurisdiction - not tied to securing employment. • Treaties for regulatory cooperation, simple enforcement of judgments (a court ruling in one jurisdiction being treated virtually identically to a ruling of a local court), and to avoid double taxation (including a system for taxpayer-initiated arbitration among the member states). • Government commitment to harmonising business law more widely, for example for consumer and competition law. No, this is not necessarily the European Union (EU). These aspects characterise the Trans-Tasman framework built up between Australia and New Zealand, particularly over the last two decades. Sometimes this has been achieved through treaties (binding in international law), sometimes in softer ways (such as parallel legislation in each country), and sometimes even through unilateral abrogation of national sovereignty. Both countries are also now actively pursuing bilateral and now some regional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), especially in the Asia-Pacific. So can these Trans-Tasman initiatives, and perhaps even some EU developments, provide a template for true "Asia Pacific Community" (beyond what Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apparently has in mind) or an "East Asian Community" (as suggested by the new Japanese PM, Yukio Hatoyama)? More generally, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is generating a reorientation of burgeoning Asia-Pacific production chains towards exports within the region, in conjunction with a reassessment of market liberalisation policies themselves. In light also of the limited economic benefits of bilateral and even regional Free Trade Agreements, compared to multilateral initiatives, we should be looking for ways to promote additional "free but fair" movement of capital, people, services and goods throughout our region. Collaboration in regulating consumer product safety, financial markets, environmental protection, labour standards and investment regimes are only some of many possibilities explored in this paper. A more holistic, systematic and balanced approach to negotiating true Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) would assist not only Australia and New Zealand, but also partner countries that are already erecting new socio-economic regional architecture.


Starlike surfaces can be defined in spherical coordinates by a function r( theta , phi ) on the unit sphere, which can be expanded in spherical harmonics to give a consequence of smooth approximations to the surface. This method has been used to approximate the solvent-accessible surface of a molecule. The coefficients in the expansion provide a small collection of numbers that characterize the molecular shape. The resulting smooth surfaces can be rendered with random dots or smooth shading. These spherical harmonic surfaces have advantages for modeling overall molecular shape, particularly time-averaged shapes relevant to electrostatic and other intermolecular interactions.<<ETX>>


The immune system works best if the lymphoid cells have a delicately balanced intermediate level of glutathione. Even moderate changes in the intracellular glutathione level have profound effects on lymphocyte functions. Certain functions, such as the DNA synthetic response, are exquisitely sensitive to reactive oxygen intermediates and, therefore, are favoured by high levels of the antioxidant glutathione. Certain signal pathways, in contrast, are enhanced by oxidative conditions and favoured by low intracellular glutathione levels. The available evidence suggests that the lymphocytes from healthy human subjects have, on average, an optimal glutathione level. There is no indication that immunological functions such as resistance to infection or the response to vaccination may be enhanced in healthy human subjects by administration of glutathione or its precursor amino acid cysteine. However, immunological functions in diseases that are associated with a cysteine and glutathione deficiency may be significantly enhanced and potentially restored by cysteine supplementation. This factor has been studied most extensively in the case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients who were found to experience, on average, a massive loss of S equivalent to a net loss of approximately 4 g cysteine/d. Two randomized placebo-controlled trials have shown that treatment of HIV-infected patients with N-acetyl-cysteine caused in both cases a significant increase in all immunological functions under test, including an almost complete restoration of natural killer cell activity. It remains to be tested whether cysteine supplementation may be useful also in other diseases and conditions that are associated with a low mean plasma cystine level and impaired immunological functions.


The genetic basis of acid-tolerance in rhizobia is being investigated by the isolation and molecular characterisation of Tn5-induced acid-sensitive mutants. Strains of Rhizobium meliloti (the most acid-sensitive species of rhizobia) respond to increasing concentrations of calcium in the growth medium both by growing faster and by being able to grow at progressively lower pH. Two classes of acid-sensitive mutant of R. meliloti WSM419 (a relatively acid-tolerant inoculant strain) have been isolated: those that are calcium repairable and those that are not. Tn5 and flanking rhizobial DNA containing sequences involved in pH tolerance have been cloned from five acid-sensitive mutants into pUC18 or pBR322. Restriction mapping of the fragments has shown that the genes involved in acid tolerance are located on four unique EcoRI fragments. A 0.7-kb EcoRI-SalI fragment located very close to the site of insertion of Tn5 was used as a probe to help map the act206 gene region. Attempts to clone the wild-type act206 gene from WSM419 have proved unsuccessful. Preliminary hybridization studies using the 0.7-kb EcoRI-SalI probe suggest that there are sequences homologous to the act206 region present in several species of bacteria. We are also investigating the genetics of acid-tolerance in R. leguminosarum WSM710 which grows at significantly lower pH than WSM419. Two Tn5-induced acid-sensitive mutants have also been isolated from WSM710. The Tn5 and flanking sequences from these mutants have been cloned into pBR322; the two genes are on separate EcoRI fragments.


The Celtiberians are undoubtedly the people from ancient Hispania that have attracted the highest level of interest among scholars within the different disciplines (e.g. archaeologists, linguists, and historians). This critical review of the post-1998 literature on the Celtiberians has been divided into nine sections: the meaning of the word "Celtiberians", the Celtiberian language, the formation of the Celtiberian culture, population, Celtiberian migrations, economy, the study of rituals through an examination of ceramics, mortuary rituals, and Celto-mania and the Celtiberians.


Genkalia digitulus (Hustedt) lange-BeRt. et kulikovskiy (≡ Navicula digitulus Hustedt) is recorded from several lakes in the northern Europe and from high altitude lakes all over Europe. Wide distribution and characteristic autecology of this species allow its use as a bioindicator of pH changes and reliable marker of environmental reconstruction. A comparison of specimens found in lakes from the Carpathian and Balkan Mountains with the type material of Genkalia digitulus (Hustedt) lange-BeRt. et kulikovskiy resulted in description of a new species - G. boreoalpina Wojtal, C.E. Wetzel, ector, ognjanova-Rumenova et Buczko. Genkalia boreoalpina is characterised by valve outline, size and parallel striae throughout most of the valve. The separation was based on light and scanning electron microscopy. Genkalia boreoalpina was the most common diatom of the genus from high mountain lakes of slightly acidic waters with a very low mineral content. The third species, Navicula subprocera Hustedt, was found in the Lake Câlcescu (Parâng Mountains) in alkaline waters and in a mountain fen in Herzegovina. The nomenclatorial combination to Genkalia was made for this species. Previously published data suggest there is a much larger diversity of species in the genus Genkalia and the cosmopolitan distribution of this group is mostly presented at the genus level.


The outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008 led to a revival of interest in fiscal policy as an instrument for counter‐cyclical stimulus. A feature of this revival was a focus on undertaking 'Green Stimulus' as a way to stimulate short‐run economic activity while also advancing long‐term environmental goals, such as tackling climate change. The thesis of this paper is that, while some elements of Green Stimulus may have met the stated dual objectives, many are likely to have been relatively ineffective as fiscal stimulus, or as green instruments, or as both. We note some general reasons to qualify the case for Green Stimulus before taking a look at the limited empirical evidence on the effectiveness of Green Stimulus, as well as at some flaws of specific Green Stimulus policy instruments adopted in many countries, for example Renewable Energy and 'Green Infrastructure'. Finally why, if green stimulus is likely to be relatively ineffective, has it garnered so much support? The answer perhaps lies in the realm of politics rather than economics, in particular the famous 'Rahm Emmanuel Doctrine' that 'you never want a serious crisis to go to waste'. WIREs Clim Change 2014, 5:15–21. doi: 10.1002/wcc.257


Elia et al. explored the mechanism by which Drosophila melanogaster photoreceptor cells maintain a low spontaneous activation rate, thereby allowing these cells to detect single photons of light. Using flies hypomorphic for Gβe and Gαq, the authors determined that decreased abundance of Gβe did not cause a decrease in the abundance of Gαq and vice versa. However, decreased abundance of Gβe decreased the fraction of Gαq attached to the plasma membrane and targeted to the phototransduction compartment, the rhabdomere. Nearly complete loss of Gαq prevented Gβγ from binding to the plasma membrane but did not disrupt targeting to the rhabdomere. Gβe was present at a concentration about 2.5 times that of Gαq, and the excess was present in the cytosol in the rhabdomere; approximately equal amounts of Gαq and Gβe were present in the membrane of dark-adapted flies. The hypomorphic Gβe alleles showed selective loss of the soluble Gβe pool. Whole-cell patch clamp analysis of the photoreceptor cells showed that cells with decreased Gβe exhibited higher spontaneous inward currents. In flies in which both Gβe and Gαq were decreased--thus restoring the proper ratio of Gβe to Gαq--spontaneous activity of the photoreceptor cells was similar to that of wild-type cells. Thus, excess Gβe in the cytosol of the rhabdomere interacting with Gαq, which translocates partially from the membrane to the cytosol during stimulation by light, appears to control the spontaneous activity of these cells. N. Elia, S. Frechter, Y. Gedi, B. Minke, Z. Selinger, Excess of Gβe over Gqαe in vivo prevents dark, spontaneous activity of Drosophila photoreceptors. J. Cell Biol. 171, 517-526 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Do people adapt to changes in income? This paper shows that there is no evidence of adaptation to income in GSOEP (1984-2015) and UKHLS (1996-2015) data. Following the empirical approach of Vendrik (2013), I arrive at this surprising answer by estimating (dynamic) life satisfaction equations, in which I simultaneously enter contemporaneous and lagged terms for a respondent's own household income and their estimated reference income. Additionally, I instrument for own income and include lags of a large set of controls. Furthermore, I find that people also do not adapt to changes in reference income. Instead, reference income effects may be subject to reinforcement over time. To explain my findings, a comprehensive account of the puzzling and often divergent results of Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Van Praag (2008), Binder and Coad (2010), Di Tella et al. (2010), and Pfaff (2013) is given. What was found to be adaptation to raw household income in these studies turns out to have been driven by reinforcement of an initially small negative effect of household size that grows large over time. Implications of this result for the estimation of equivalence scales with subjective data are discussed.


Abstract The currently ongoing deployment if the fifth generation of the wireless communication technology, the 5G technology, has reignited the health debate around the new kind of radiation that will be used/emitted by the 5G devices and networks – the millimeter-waves. The new aspect of the 5G technology, that is of concern to some of the future users, is that both, antennas and devices will be continuously in a very close proximity of the users' bodies. Skin is the only organ of the human body, besides the eyes, that will be directly exposed to the mm-waves of the 5G technology. However, the whole scientific evidence on the possible effects of millimeter-waves on skin and skin cells, currently consists of only some 99 studies. This clearly indicates that the scientific evidence concerning the possible effects of millimeter-waves on humans is insufficient to devise science-based exposure limits and to develop science-based human health policies. The sufficient research has not been done and, therefore, precautionary measures should be considered for the deployment of the 5G, before the sufficient number of quality research studies will be executed and health risk, or lack of it, scientifically established.


Successful public conservation policies at various governmental levels have increased some populations of protected species to the extent that they are causing damage to human activities. As a reaction public authorities are developing biodiversity reconciliation policies. Finland and Germany have both created reconciliation policies including a package of measures like management of population, support of technical measures and compensation for damage. All these measures are affected by European policy and law, though no special reconciliation policy has been adopted at European level. This article explores the options European legislation offers and the restrictions it imposes on member states. Based on experiences with German and Finnish biodiversity reconciliation policies, the interrelationship between European and national regulation is elaborated, leading to suggestions for better coordination of reconciliation policies between different governmental levels.


The present study investigated whether peroxynitrite (ONOO)-elicited cytotoxicity on human brain vessel smooth muscle cells (HBVSMCs) was related to alteration in programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) gene expression. Cell viability, morphological changes and apoptosis were determined by methylthiazoletetrazolium (MTT) assay, acridine orange staining and flow cytometry, respectively. Expressions of PDCD4 at both mRNA and protein levels were examined by RT-PCR and Western blot respectively. Protein expressions of caspase-3, Bcl-2 and Bax were detected by Western an increased apoptotic rate of HBVSMCs after treatment with ONOO. ONOO was able to upregulate mRNA and protein expressions of the PDCD4 gene. Moreover, protein expressions of caspase-3 and Bax were significantly increased, whereas the expression of Bcl-2 was markedly decreased in response to exposure of ONOO. This study demonstrates, for the first time, that the PDCD4 gene is involved in ONOOinduced apoptosis in HBVSMCs.


Biosecurity has become a familiar term in policymaking circles over the past few years. Its meanings, problems, and practices however have varied significantly. In Europe, for example, biosecurity has emerged primarily in relation to attempts to manage the movement of agricultural pests and diseases. The focus has been on individual farm-based practices, including emergency measures to contain outbreaks and techniques to prevent infection of livestock. In contrast, in Australasia and other places — mainly islands — where the effects of ecological colonization (the importation, often from Europe, of farming systems and species) have been most pronounced, biosecurity has figured mainly with reference to efforts to reduce the effects of so-called invasive species on "indigenous" flora and fauna. Characteristic practices here have included border controls in the form of restrictions on the importation of living (or not-long-since dead) tissues, and the attempted eradication of established but ecologically damaging "pest" species. Finally, in the United States, biosecurity has come to represent a governmental concern with the — either purposeful or inadvertent — spreading of biological agents into the human population, with particular attention given to laboratories that handle potentially hazardous organisms; possible use of pathogens in bioterrorism; and the prospect of animal-borne diseases crossing to humans (zoonoses). This has prompted various high-expenditure, technology-intensive programs (such as Project Bioshield) as well as other practices, such as anticipatory research in molecular sciences, the stockpiling of antiviral drugs, heightened regulation of laboratories, the development of real-time and near–real-time surveillance technologies, scenario planning, and the construction of information and processing centers designed to serve as command and control centers in the event of a positively identified disease event.


A search for events with two displaced vertices from long-lived particles (LLP) pairs using data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. This analysis uses 139~fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded in 2015-2018. The search employs techniques for reconstructing vertices of LLPs decaying to jets in the muon spectrometer displaced between 3 m and 14 m with respect to the primary interaction vertex. The observed numbers of events are consistent with the expected background and limits for several benchmark signals are determined. For the Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV, the paper reports the first exclusion limits for branching fractions into neutral long-lived particles below 0.1%, while branching fractions above 10% are excluded at 95% confidence level for LLP proper lifetimes ranging from 4 cm to 72.4 m. In addition, the paper present the first results for the decay of LLPs into into $t\bar{t}$ in the ATLAS muon spectrometer.


A drug reactions are an important cause of serious illness and death. Yet we become aware of new adverse events only very slowly, long after the drugs have been widely prescribed. Even when serious drug interactions are discovered, physicians, pharmacists and patients appear to remain unaware of them. Problems with detection arise mainly because these events are rare. It takes a surveillance system with a high degree of sensitivity to detect such problems — a tall order for a voluntary system such as Canada's. Psychological and behavioural barriers to reporting are not difficult to surmise. One might expect an adverse event to be reported only if the physician has a sufficiently strong suspicion that the reaction was caused by a drug; judges that the event is worth reporting; has time to report it; and, depending on the circumstance, is willing to admit a mistake, or to report a colleague's mistake. The physician's work setting must also support the frank reporting of adverse events. We felt compelled to take another look at what went wrong in the case of cisapride, (page 1370) a drug with known contraindications and cardiotoxic effects that has been associated with 105 deaths in Canada and the US. The cisapride story demonstrates the failure of the reporting system to adequately influence prescribing behaviour, but it also points to more diffuse reasons why postmarketing surveillance fails. Once data on a serious adverse event are collected, Health Canada makes a determination as to whether the event is causally related to a drug. The cooperation of the drug company is sought, in a relationship that is collegial more than adversarial. This is an age of "partnerships." It is the drug company, not Health Canada, that issues the Dear Doctor letter, confirming its conscientious participation in postmarketing surveillance. Conscientious it may be. But why rely on a system in which initiatives to enhance patient safety are likely to compete with the bottom line? Even within Health Canada's purview, there is an inbuilt tension between the goal of making useful drugs available as quickly as possible and the need to proceed cautiously enough to ensure that those drugs do no harm. We don't ask the airline industry and their federal regulators to investigate airline crashes: an agency independent of both undertakes this important task. Perhaps it is time to establish a parallel agency for the surveillance, investigation and dissemination of information about adverse drug reactions, one independent of pharmaceutical companies and of Health Canada. The agency would proactively investigate suspected events rather than waiting for reports to arrive, employ sophisticated bayesian causality analyses and ensure (by ongoing evaluations) that physicians and patients get and use the information. Expensive? Yes, but the problem of adverse drug reactions is also costly and is measured not just in dollars but in lives. — CMAJ


A new approach to realize high-energy and high-power stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirrors (SBS-PCMs) is described. The reflectivity of SBS-PCM is investigated under a 10-Hz repetition rate and a high energy load. The relationship between reflectivity and input energy is examined experimentally with different PCM structures, focus lengths, and medium cell structures. A medium cell with a circulating structure is designed, and its advantage is demonstrated through an experimental comparison with traditional PCM structures. The 30-cm focus lens and 150-cm collimation lens are optimized when the input energy reaches 1010 mJ at 10-Hz repetition rate. Therefore, a reflectivity of 84.7% and a higher energy load using the circulating two-cell structure are achieved.


We present a technique that identifies truly interacting subsystems of a complex system from multichannel data if the recordings are an unknown linear and instantaneous mixture of the true sources. The method is valid for arbitrary noise structure. For this, a blind source separation technique is proposed that diagonalizes antisymmetrized cross-correlation or cross-spectral matrices. The resulting decomposition finds truly interacting subsystems blindly and suppresses any spurious interaction stemming from the mixture. The usefulness of this interacting source analysis is demonstrated in simulations and for real electroencephalography data.


Faced with the prospects of losing commercial air service for up to two months, the Charleston County Aviation Authority, the Charleston Air Force Base and their engineers had to look beyond traditional construction techniques and materials to accomplish critical runway repairs at the Charleston International Airport, a joint use facility. With a desire to use concrete because of its durability, the airport's operators authorized its engineers to investigate and propose solutions using new cement technology such that repairs could be made and the runway reopened to traffic within several hours. A number of logistical problems were solved and a functional scheme using new cement materials was proposed after continuous designer and contractor input. This paper details the pavement design, the characteristics of the new cement technology, and the construction methods utilized in successfully completing the 67 day replacement of a complete runway intersection while maintaining daytime aircraft operations. Also illustrated is the relative economy in using high tech products and fast track construction when compared to facility shutdown, and the advantage of designer/contractor interaction during the design of a fast track project.


Today, the majority of laboratories are more or less automated—in the form of instrumentation and instrument data systems with LIMS being at the center. Typically, laboratories use many diverse types of software apart from LIMS. While LIMS is used to track sample lifecycle and related data management, result entry of the samples is performed through instruments interfacing. While trying to achieve "Paperless Flow" in laboratory, LIMS needs to be integrated with other enterprise software such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic notebook (ELN), the scientific data management system (SDMS), chromatographic data systems (CDS), inventory management system, the training management system, the statistical package and so on. Though the intention is to have seamless interconnectivity between all these systems, in reality, many manual operations still prevail. Most of the organizations are now trying to reduce the extent of manual operations and thereby move closer to the ideal paperless laboratory. LabIMS™ from HCL Technologies is designed to work as a comprehensive sample information management system which has built-in functionalities to integrate with various applications as indicated above, and thereby enable end users to move closer to a paperless lab. This paper tries to analyze practical problems involved in moving into a paperless lab and how LabIMS™ can help to mitigate those problems.


Quantifying economic damages caused by invasive species is crucial for cost-benefit analyses of control measures. Most studies focus on short-term damage estimates, but evaluating exclusion or prevention measures requires estimates of total anticipated damages from the time of establishment onward. The magnitude of such damages critically depends on the timing of damages relative to a species' arrival because costs are discounted back to the time of establishment. Using theoretical simulations, we illustrate how (ceteris paribus) total long-term damages, and hence the benefits of prevention efforts, are greater for species that a) have short lags between introduction and spread or between arrival at a location and initiation of damages, b) cause larger, short-lived damages (as opposed to smaller, persistent damages), and c) spread faster or earlier. We empirically estimate total long-term discounted impacts for three forest pests currently invading North America - gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), and emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) - and discuss how damage persistence, lags between introduction and spread, and spread rates affect damages. Many temporal characteristics can be predicted for new invaders and should be considered in species risk analyses and economic evaluations of quarantine and eradication programs.


Recently, banks and credit institutions have shown an increased interest in developing and implementing credit-scoring systems for taking corporate and consumer credit granting decisions. The objective of such systems is to analyze the characteristics of each applicant (firm or individual) and support the decision making process regarding the acceptance or the rejection of the credit application. This paper addresses this problem through the use of a multicriteria classification technique, the M.H.DIS method (Multi-group Hierarchical Discrimination). M.H.DIS is applied to real-world case studies regarding the assessment of corporate credit risk and the evaluation of credit card applications. The results obtained through the M.H.DIS method are compared to the results of three well-known statistical techniques, namely linear and quadratic discriminant analysis, as well as logit analysis.


The UK general election of 7 May 2015 has returned a Conservative government so that the Conservative Party's plans for reforming human rights law in the United Kingdom are likely to become reality. It is therefore important to discuss some of the legal implications a repeal of the Human Rights Act and withdrawal from the ECHR might bring. This policy paper is the product of a one-day workshop held at Edinburgh Law School on 13 February attended by Ed Bates, Christine Bell, Colm O'Cinneide, Fiona de Londras, Sir David Edward, Alan Greene, Paul Johnson, Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou and Tobias Lock.

Key findings include: Any attempt to repeal and/or replace the Human Rights Act would have to take into account the devolution settlement. A repeal of the Human Rights Act might require the consent of the devolved legislatures under the Sewel Convention. A repeal would at present run counter to the UK's international treaty obligations under the British-Irish Agreement which was incorporated in, and agreed as part of the UK-Ireland obligations under the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. A new Bill of Rights may require the consent of the devolved legislatures.

If the Human Rights Act were not replaced, individuals would still be able to rely on common law remedies, as far as they exist, as well as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in cases in which the UK has acted within the scope of EU law. Hence, in some areas repealing of the Human Rights Act without more will not lead to the 'regaining of sovereignty' anticipated by the proponents of such proposals.

A replacement of the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights would enable Parliament to provide for the protection of additional rights, such as a right to trial by jury. It would also allow Parliament to introduce certain procedural changes, such as no longer making it mandatory for courts 'to take into account' the case law of the European Court of Human Rights or to read legislation 'as far as it is possible to do so' compatibly with Convention rights. It should be noted, however, that the Supreme Court has relaxed the conditions under which courts are required to follow the European Court of Human Rights and that a removal of these requirements could result in an increased number of cases brought against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights.

A complete withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights would deprive people in the UK from the possibility of bringing their human rights complaints to the European Court of Human Rights. However, it would not relieve the UK of the duty to comply with judgments already handed down by the European Court of Human Rights, for instance on prisoner voting. The UK would also be setting a negative example so that the protection of human rights within Europe as a whole would suffer. Withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights is technically possible with six months' notice, however it would lead to wider consequences for the UK's other international commitments. Long-term membership of the Council of Europe may become impossible. A withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights may be incompatible with the UK's commitments as a member of the European Union. Withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights could also result in a substantial reduction of human rights protection for minority and vulnerable groups in the UK.


Nuclear aerosols formed during nuclear reactor accidents or explosions evolve via natural transport processes as well as under the influence of engineered safety features. These aerosols can be hazardous and may pose risk to the public if released into the environment. Computations of their evolution, movement, and distribution involve the study of various processes such as coagulation, deposition, condensation, evaporation, etc., and are influenced by factors such as particle shape, charge, radioactivity, and spatial inhomogeneity. These many processes and factors make the numerical study of nuclear aerosol evolution computationally very complicated. The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) technique was developed to elucidate the role of various phenomena that influence the evolution of nuclear aerosols. This will allow, then, for an assessment of the limitations of other methods used at present. Coagulation, deposition, and source reinforcement processes for a multicomponent, aerosol dynamics problem have been explored. As a simple verification, the DSMC results were compared with analytical results for a single-component aerosol dynamics problem with coagulation and deposition processes. In addition, the DSMC results were compared against those obtained using the sectional method for several multicomponent test problems with the same component densities. It is clear from the present results that the assumption of a single mean density is not appropriate in such problems because of the complicated effect of component densities on the aerosol processes.


Malnutrition remains widespread and serious in Indonesia. It is almost halve of the Indonesian population suffer from several malnutrition forms and nearly 40% preschool children  are  stunted.  Malnutrition  influences  a  huge  economic  burden,  investing  in nutrition  program  is  important  for  human  development.  However,  Indonesia  seems investing nutrition only as an intervention in health, agriculture, or social protection and not as an outcome measure of development. Nutrition is one of the most sensitive overall  measures  of  poverty  reduction,  where  this  is  defined  as  improving  human development.  This  article  analyzed  secondary  available  data  from  National  SocioEconomic Survey (SUSENAS) to present the evidence of missing opportunity in human development improvement program indicated by nutrition situation stays at the same figures even the prevalence of underweight tend to increased for the last 5 years. The assessment also showed that politically the government has committed to give more money to nutrition; however this commitment should be followed by bringing the involved stakeholders on nutrition to improve the quality of intervention in order to reach the targeted impact. It is recommended that Indonesia should start preparing complete information for reviewing strategy that will  benefit to the community, provide policy analysis, as well as improving program management.


Phakopsora pachyrhizi, the causal organism of soybean rust, was first found in the continental United States in 2004 and has been found on soybean, kudzu, Florida beggarweed, and three Phaseolus species in the field. The pathogen has been reported to occur on more than 90 legume species worldwide and it is likely to infect native and introduced legume species in the United States. The objective of this study was to determine if 176 species representing 57 genera of legumes, the majority of which are either native or naturalized to soybean-growing areas of the United States, could be hosts of P. pachyrhizi. Between one and three accessions of each species, a total of 264 accessions, were inoculated with a mixture of four isolates of P. pachyrhizi. Severity and sporulation were rated on a 1-to-5 scale at 14 and 28 days after inoculation. P. pachyrhizi was confirmed by the presence of sporulating uredinia and/or immunological assay on 65 new species in 25 genera; 12 of these genera have not been reported previously as hosts. Many of the newly identified hosts grow in the southern United States, and like kudzu, could serve as overwintering hosts for P. pachyrhizi.


This paper presents how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the course of the mobile robotics market, showing the status of mobile robots in three stages: before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. By analyzing these stages, it is possible to estimate what awaits this market in the future. From the many applications of mobile robots found during the COVID-19 pandemic, as will be shown later, it is clear that mobile robots will be an important part of the future influencing the accelerated growth of their market and development.


Abstract The prevalence of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) has increased during the past 10 years. Its detection is frequently difficult, because they do not always show a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value for carbapenems in the resistance range. Both broth microdilution and agar dilution methods are more sensitive than disk diffusion method, Etest and automated systems. Studies on antimicrobial treatment are based on a limited number of patients; therefore, the optimal treatment is not well established. Combination therapy with two active drugs appears to be more effective than monotherapy. Combination of a carbapenem with another active agent — preferentially an aminoglycoside or colistin — could lower mortality provided that the MIC is ≤4 mg/l and probably ≤8 mg/l, and is administered in a higher-dose/prolonged-infusion regimen. An aggressive infection control and prevention strategy is recommended, including reinforcement of hand hygiene, using contact precautions and early detection of CPE through use of targeted surveillance.


Amongst all the issues of financial management, the issue of routine capital management is critical one. The reason is; it always elucidates a direction to help out a firm to acquire energy in short run. In broader sense, working capital is the sum of those items exposed on firm's balance sheet as short term assets i.e. cash, marketable securities, account receivables and inventories. The central point of this research study is to critically discuss the impact of working capital management on financial outcomes of Pharmaceutical Sector in Pakistan. To attain this land mark researcher also observed the affiliation between independent variables utilized to gauge working capital and profitability measured by return on investment and return on equity of the firm. The present study used secondary data for the analysis. The data utilized in this study is extracted from the annual reports of Pharmaceutical companies quoted in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). The current research used different statistical tests to examine the impact of working capital management on profitability. According to the results of regression analysis, the null hypothesis of the study is rejected because all the variables related to working capital negatively affect the profitability of Pharmaceutical firms measured in terms of ROI and ROE. Results of correlation analysis indicate that there is negative relationship between working capital and profitability which is significant at 1% level. Findings of present work suggest that mangers can increase the profitability of the firm by keeping the cash conversion cycle to an optimum level.


Dynamic Conformal Arc Therapy (DCAT) is an external beam radiation therapy technique in which the cancer target is treated with the gantry head of the medical linear accelerator rotating around the patient while conforming the radiation beam to the target shape at each gantry angle. A modern implementation of DCAT (mDCAT) has recently been released, in which the dose rate can be varied and the beam can be modulated moderately. In this study, mDCAT was characterized, and its potential advantages over the most commonly used treatment techniques, namely 3DCRT and VMAT, were evaluated in terms of efficiency, quality, and robustness. Results show that plan optimization with mDCAT is two to three times more efficient than VMAT. mDCAT plan quality is midway between 3DCRT and VMAT for large targets, and is very comparable to VMAT for small targets. mDCAT and VMAT are equally robust against typical machine and patient uncertainties.


Battery consumption in mobile applications development is a very important aspect and has to be considered by all the developers in their applications. This study will present an analysis of different relevant concepts and parameters that may have an impact on energy consumption of Windows Phone applications. This operating system was chosen because limited research related thereto has been conducted, even though there are related studies for Android and iOS operating systems. Furthermore, another reason is the increasing number of Windows Phone users. The objective of this research is to categorise the energy consumption parameters (e.g. use of one thread or several threads for the same output). The result for each group of experiments will be analysed and a rule will be derived. The set of derived rules will serve as a guide for developers who intend to develop energy efficient Windows Phone applications. For each experiment, one application is created for each concept and the results are presented in two ways; a table and a chart. The table presents the duration of the experiment, the battery consumed in the experiment, the expected battery lifetime, and the energy consumption, while the charts display the energy distribution based on the main threads: UI thread, application thread, and network thread.


Water in permafrost areas is available to the organisms during a short time and in a restricted space. Models of soil water occurrence and flow are applicated as basis for analysis of moisture in the environment of organisms. Soil moisture, available for the transpiration process, has been calculated as to soil in permafrost. The seasonal variation of soil moisture is shown.


INTRODUCTION
Vietnamese American men have smoking prevalence rates higher than the general population. We analyzed Vietnamese American smoking behavior by demographic and health-related factors, including some specific to Vietnamese, in the largest tobacco-specific survey yet targeting the Vietnamese population.

METHODS
Using a statewide surname probability sample and computer-assisted telephone interviewing, we surveyed 1,101 Vietnamese men and 1,078 Vietnamese women in California (63.5% participation among successfully contacted eligible individuals) in 2007-2008. We conducted multivariate regression models to analyze the association between Vietnamese male smoking status and demographic and health-related factors.

RESULTS
Among women, <1% were current smokers and <2% were former smokers. Among men, 25% were current and 24% were former smokers. Regression models for Vietnamese men delineated factors associated with both current and former smoking (vs. never smoking): being married, being employed, having lower educational attainment, and consuming alcohol. Other factors associated with current smoking (vs. never smoking) were having no health insurance, having seen a Vietnamese doctor or no doctor visit in the past year, having Vietnamese military or Vietnamese reeducation camp experience, having less knowledge about the harms of smoking, and reporting higher depression symptoms. Increasing age and not being Buddhist were associated with former (vs. never) smoking.

DISCUSSION
Smoking patterns of Vietnamese women and Vietnamese men are significantly different from the general California population. Tobacco control efforts targeting Vietnamese men should include community outreach since current smokers have low health care access, utilization, and knowledge.


Does the provision of livestock insurance raise the unintended consequence of stimulating excessive herd accumulation and less environmentally-sustainable herd movement patterns? The impact of insurance is theoretically ambiguous: if precautionary savings motives for holding livestock assets dominate, then we would expect to see households that receive index insurance reduce herd sizes and move less intensively. However if risk-adjusted investment motives dominate then we would expect them to build herds and move more. "Behavioural" or norm-based responses are also possible. To test between these theoretical possibilities we use the randomized provision of livestock insurance paired with novel, high frequency data collection. The results suggest that in the presence of insurance pastoralists accumulate larger herds, and move more intensively. This has implications for the potential ecological impacts scaling up of index insurance programs on the pastoralist rangelands, and for microinsurance and pastoralism more broadly.


A field experiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of palm oil mill effluent (POME) as a soil of ameliorant for the production of food crops. The POME was incorporated into the top 0-30 cm of Batang Merbau soil (Typic Kandiudult) prior to seeding with maize. Following maize, groundnut was grown. POME was applied at 0, 5, 10, 20, and 40 t ha-1, both in the presence and absence of 2 tdolomitic limestone ha-1. Exchhangeable Ca, Mg, and Al, pH (0.01 M CaCl2) in the topsoil prior to application of the treatments were 0.36, 0.19, 1.50 cmol kg-1. and 4.1, respectively. The average fresh cob yield of maize was 1.7 t ha-1, and did not increase with application of POME at rates of up to 10 t ha-1. Increasing the rate of POME to 20 and 40 t ha-1 resulted in fresh cob yield > 2.2 t ha-1. The increase in yield was attributed to improvement in the soil conditions for plant growth. Fresh cob yield in the presence of lime were > 2.2 t ha-1 at all rates of application of POME. Maize yield was significantly correlated with the exchangeable Al and Ca in the soil. Average pod yield for the first crop of groundnut was 3 t ha-1. Groundnut yield was not correlated with the exchangeable Al, Ca or Mg in the soil.


This paper proposes a trip chain order model for simulating retailer restocking within urban and metropolitan area. It is part of the general modelling system developed by the authors for simulating urban freight demand which considers both demand and logistic sub-systems. The former allows us to obtain the freight Origin-Destination (OD) matrices in quantities and deliveries per transport service type, time slice and vehicle type. The latter allows us to obtain the vehicle OD matrices according to the journey characteristics (i.e. number and sequence of delivery points) in order to restock economic activities located within the study area. This approach, known in literature as tour-based approach, aims at reproducing the choice structure of the restocking process and the sequence of delivery points (stops) for vehicle journeys, considering dependences existing among subsequent trips of the same journey. It implies that each destination zone to be delivered is chosen depending on the previous and the next destination ones. The logistic subsystem of the proposed modelling system can be divided in two parts: the first which defines the trip chain order (i.e. the number of deliveries made during a tour); the second one which considers the choice of the stop locations. This paper focuses on the specification and calibration of a trip chain order model using data collected in the city centre of Rome.


Objectives: To capture information on clinical practice using the CO2 LASER within the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT). Design: A 21 item structured questionnaire survey was sent to consultant-only ENT UK members over a 2-month period between March and May 2017 Main Outcome Measures: Variation in CO2 LASER practice with reference to subspecialty, clinical setting, LASER type, power settings, operating modes and tissue exposure modes. Results: 57 responses were received from consultants working in hospitals across the UK. The commonest indication for transoral LASER surgery (TOLS) was excision of cancer (57.1%) and the most common area of surgery performed was within the larynx (60.4%). See Figure 1 for variation in LASER operating modes. Over 95% of hospitals carry out LASER safety practices. Conclusion: A wide variation in the use of CO2 LASER exists amongst UK Otolaryngologists. The development of new guidelines may promote effective use and minimise avoidable trauma or complications.


This article reports on a nationwide study investigating public responses to humanitarian communications. Based on focus group data with members of the UK public, the paper discusses two key models through which NGOs identities and activities are understood and judged, both positively and negatively: the Good Samaritan and the Marketer. Thematic analysis of the focus groups extracts exposes the salience of these models in people's thinking, how they speak to each other and how they inform and affect the relationship between NGOs and public. The paper discusses the themes in relation to current debates on organisations' image and trust and confidence in nonprofit organisations and humanitarian NGOs. The data show deep public disillusionment and disappointment deriving from the recognition of the Marketer model being applied to and employed within the realm of humanitarianism. This suggests that NGOs' moving away from traditional notions of charity might be counterproductive and in the long-term risky.


This thesis investigates and critically evaluates
Trading Standards (TS) delivery in Wales. TS enforces law to promote fair
trading. It is delivered through local government in Great Britain. Successful
enforcement protects legitimate business and consumers from economic and other
detriment. Although not taken forward, the catalyst for the thesis was a 2011 Welsh
Labour Party National Assembly for Wales (NAW) general election pledge to 'seek
to establish a national [TS] service' for Wales.

Chapter 1 explains the thesis' rationale. Chapter
2 considers the research strategy, design and implementation. Chapter 3 places
TS in a critical theoretical framework, which includes reference to the rule of
law, human rights and justice, and, in Wales, the promotion of well-being.
Chapters 4 to 9 constitute the Literature Review. Chapter 10 presents interview findings; six overarching themes emerged (including low TS profile and the damaging effects of reduced resourcing). Chapter 11 presents the surveys' findings; overall TS has low-profile and its recognition was confined to consumer protection. Chapter 12 findings concern the specific Wales TS issue and, again, suggest that TS has low profile.In Chapter 13 it is argued that there are significant failings in TS delivery and that, although not devolved, TS can contribute to devolved government. As TS is not devolved, Welsh Government can only undertake a limited review of TS delivery; undertaking such a review is the first recommendation. The UK Government is not so restricted and there is a second recommendation that it undertakes a fundamental review of TS (including considering whether the TS classification should be retained and, if not, how the constituent parts should be divided), with a further recommendation for a consequential review dependant on the fundamental review outcome.Requisite ethics approval was obtained for primary
research; this involved semi-structured interviews, surveys of candidates
standing at two sets of elections (to the NAW and the office of police and
crime commissioner), and Freedom of Information Act requests to local
authorities in Wales concerning a TS specific issue.


The composition of tax revenue in Ireland had changed dramatically over the past decade, with indirect taxes accounting for a large share of total tax revenue. This shift towards indirect taxation more than direct taxation tends to put excessive burden on the poor, thereby raising the concern about equity implications of the Irish indirect tax systems. In this paper, we utilize Consumption Dominance curve techniques to analyse the impact of marginal indirect tax changes on poverty in Ireland , using the Irish Household Budget Survey data of 1999 and 2005 periods. Using this technique, which is based on the theory of stochastic dominance, we examined the pairwise comparison of different combinations of commodities for both the overall population and the subgroups of population. The technique helps us to identify the directions of indirect marginal tax changes which will reduce poverty for some selected commodities over a broad class of poverty measures and poverty lines.


Objectives of this study were to evaluate synchronization, conception, and pregnancy rates of heifers synchronized with melengestrol acetate (MGA)-prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α,), Select Synch, or Select Synch preceded by MGA (MGA-Select Synch). Heifers in the MGA-PGF2α group (n = 209; BW = 378 kg) received MGA (0.5 mg/ d per heifer) for 14 d and PGF2α (25 mg) 19 d later. Select Synch heifers (n = 213; BW = 374 kg) received gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH; 100 μg) followed by PGF2α (25 mg) 7 d later. The MGA-Select Synch heifers (n = 210; BW = 373 kg) were fed MGA (0.5 mg/d per heifer) for 7 d, GnRH (100 μg) the day following the last MGA feeding, and PGF2α (25 mg) 7 d after GnRH. More (P<0.01) heifers were in estrus 1 to 4 d before PGF2a administration in both the Select Synch (20%) and MGA-Select Synch (24%) groups than in the MGA-PGF2α (4%) group. Pregnancy rates for heifers in estrus early (d 1 to 4 before PGF2α) were greater (P<0.05) for both Select Synch (55%) and MGA-Select Synch (63%) compared with MGA-PGF2α heifers (18%). Synchronization rate (detected after PGF2α) was greater (P<0.01) for MGA-PGF2α heifers (86%) compared with Select Synch (66%) and MGA-Select Synch (68%) heifers; however, conception rate did not differ (P=0.13) and averaged 72, 63, and 62% for MGA-PGF2α, Select Synch, and MGA-Select Synch heifers, respectively. Select Synch (52%), MGA-Select Synch (58%), and MGA-PGF2α protocols (61%) provided similar (P=0.18) overall AI pregnancy rates; however, more heifers were in estrus before PGF2α administration in protocols using GnRH.


This article examines the impact of the ongoing (2008–13) economic crisis on Greek and Portuguese welfare state reforms in a comparative perspective with a particular focus on the public sector, labour markets and social protection. It is argued that the recent crisis caused 'shock and awe' in Greece and Portugal resulting in an unprecedented wave of cuts, tax rises and labour market reforms. In particular, public sector remuneration and jobs were cut, pensions were significantly curtailed and pension rights significantly restricted, successive tax hikes were implemented and welfare benefits became less generous and more conditional. It is argued that these reforms constitute a critical juncture and a considerable effort towards welfare retrenchment, which is which is implemented before converging with the more advanced welfare states of the EU15. Both countries appeared to be significantly more vulnerable to the crisis than the richer countries of Northern Europe (e.g. Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands) and their larger Southern counterparts (Italy and Spain). Yet, the latter had to implement similar measures, albeit in a less abrupt and extensive fashion. In other words, it may be that size is less important than economic and political power for coping with the effects of the current crisis.


Redox homeostasis is essential for cell function and its disruption is associated with cancer, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. Redox balance is largely regulated by the relative concentrations of reduced and oxidized glutathione. In eukaryotes, this ratio is different in each cell compartment, and disruption of the mitochondrial redox balance has been specifically linked to pathologies such as obesity and type II diabetes. Although reduced glutathione can be scavenged using electrophiles, there is a lack of probes that can produce it. In this study, we report an organellespecific reducing agent based on tributylphosphine that selectively reduces oxidized glutathione in mitochondria. This probe is activated by endogenous nitroreductases and subsequently releases tributylphosphine, as well as a fluorescent reporter, within the organelle. Confocal imaging and biological assays in human cells revealed that, counterintuitively, increased reduced glutathione induced oxidative stress through accumulation of superoxide. Transcriptomic analysis was used to establish that mitochondrial redox stress activates a cellular response orchestrated by transcription factor ATF4, which upregulates genes involved in glutathione metabolism.


This paper proposes a small-scale agile wall-climbing robot, which is able to climb on smooth vertical surfaces using flat adhesive elastomer materials for attachment. Using two actuated legs with rotary motion and two passive revolute joints at each foot, this robot can climb and steer in any orientation. Due to its compact design, a high degree of miniaturization is possible. It has onboard power, computing, and wireless communication, which allow for semiautonomous operation. Various aspects of a functioning prototype design and performance are discussed in detail, including leg and foot design and gait dynamics. A model for the adhesion requirements and performance is developed and verified through experiments. Using an adhesive elastomer (Vytaflex 10), the current prototype can climb 90deg slopes at a speed of up to 6 cm/s and steer to any angle reliably on a smooth acrylic surface as well as transition from floor walking to wall climbing. This robot is intended for inspection and surveillance applications, and ultimately, for space missions.


It is vital to have an exclusive modification in semiconductor production process because of meeting differentiated customer demands in dynamic and competitive global minuscule semiconductor technology market and the highly complex fabrication process. In this paper, we propose a control system based on the dynamic mixed-effect least-square support vector regression (LS-SVR) control system for overlay error compensation with stochastic metrology delay to minimize the misalignment of the patterning process. Moreover, for the stability of the control system in the presence of metrology delay and to deal with nonlinearity among the overlay factors, the novel Lyapunov-based kernel function is merged with the LS-SVR controller. The proposed controller's operation has been validated and implemented by a major semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan. The experiments are verified that mixed-effect LS-SVR controller has the higher validity and higher efficiency in comparison with the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) and threaded EWMA controllers which had been previously implemented at the company or applied in similar studies. Note to Practitioners—Due to high production complexity in semiconductor manufacturing process, a meticulous and intelligent process control is needed to achieve higher throughput and customer satisfaction. Monitoring a complex system is challenging because the process components and variables operate autonomously and interoperate with other manufacturing segments. This paper proposes a novel run-to-run (R2R) control system to compensate the overlay error during the photolithography process that efficiently deals with the high-mixed manufacturing environment and metrology delay.


When the FIFA executive committee voted for South Africa in 2004 to host the soccer world cup in 2010, it marked a new era in South African soccer. Prior to that all-important FIFA vote, some sections of local soccer were already achieving growth on a commercial front. But over the years there has been an outcry that local football, despite being the most popular sport in the country, is still undervalued in terms of the number of sponsors coming on board and what the few that are coming are willing to put on the table. Without a doubt, obtaining the rights to host the first ever soccer world cup in Africa presented a new era for South African soccer and an opportunity to take this product to another level.


The maritagium, or marriage portion, was the gift of land or rents given by a father on the occasion of his daughter's marriage. Using the evidence of the
surviving charters, printed and archival, which detail the terms and conditions of this grant, in combination with those charters made by the donees or their heirs
which refer to the maritagium, and other evidence such as law suits and administrative records (again printed and manuscript), my thesis examined the actual grant and enjoyment of the maritagium in England. It will be shown that the custom of the maritagium was widespread, if not universal, and penetrated all ranks of society. Furthermore maritagia seem to have been given to more than one daughter, and even, on occasion to illegitimate daughters, when the family could afford to do so. This indicates that medieval society, in this period, did not concentrate its resources in the hands of one heir but distributed land within the family, in contrast to previous work which has emphasised the growing concentration of land in the hands of the male heir. The mechanism and method of granting the portion remained remarkably similar over time, varying only in the amount of land, or rent, given as a portion.

In particular the thesis examines the maritagium in relation to the lives of women; the charter and legal evidence had strongly indicated that the maritagium was accounted part of the lands of a woman. Examining the
maritagia charters it was evident that the charter language changed over the period to reflect this fact, changing from a gift made from a man to a man with a woman, to a gift made to a couple. This change occurred over the course of the twelfth century but, regardless of who the donee was in the original charter, or what the language used seemed to signify, from the earliest period widows were found in control of their maritagium lands. This fact had important ramifications for the position of women within society; for those women who were not heiresses marriage gave a claim to lands which they could utilise in their widowhoods. Furthermore, and unlike dower, the maritagium resembled
inherited land in that it could be permanently alienated by a widow if she so desired. These findings were reinforced by the customs to be found written in the works attributed to Glanvill and Bracton, and by the surviving law suits
recorded at the eyres of medieval England. In these cases the rights of women to their maritagia were asserted by widows and reinforced by the courts. In this period the ability to own and alienate land conferred power, and the maritagium gave many women the right to lands and powers which they would otherwise have lacked. This was the case until the enactment of the statute De Donis in 1285 which barred both men and women from alienating the maritagium away from their heirs, or from preventing the reversion to the donor's heirs should they prove childless. This statute, which forms the upper date limit of my thesis, thus
had a major impact on the rights of women over their property, and also on the customary arrangements made by families with regard to their lands.

The maritagium was not, however, only of relevance to women. It did form an important part of the lands of women who were not heiresses, indeed the practice was linked to female inheritance customs, but during marriage the maritagium was controlled and utilised by the husband. In this way men also participated in the gift. In addition because the maritagium involved the passing of land from
one family to another the maritagium enabled marriage to be used as a means of dispute settlement or alliance, political, social or economic. By making prudent
marriages a family could also accumulate land near the centre of the patrimony whilst disposing of outlying land as maritagia in turn. The maritagium gift thus played a major role in medieval society.


The paper investigates the differences between small, medium-sized and large firms regarding their performance in the introduction of new products and processes. After a review of the relevant literature, two models are proposed and tested in search for different business strategies and innovation inputs connected to product and process innovations. The empirical analysis uses innovation survey (CIS 2) data at the industry level for 22 manufacturing sectors, broken down in three firm size classes, for eight European countries. Special attention is devoted to tackling the issues of possible endogeneity of the regressors and of unobserved sectoral heterogeneity. The results strengthening the findings of previous studies show that product and process innovations, though having some complementarities, are associated to different innovative inputs and strategies pursued by firms. Systematic differences also emerge between the behaviour of large firms and SMEs. JEL codes: L11, O31, O33


Quirky, attractive knitted flowers, fringes, lattice edgings, and other embellishments can add style and flair to handmade knitted garments, store-bought sweaters, household items and more. This book contains hundreds of ideas and instructions for using knitted appliques, borders, cords, embroidery, and enchancements such as fringes, tassels, pom-poms, and ties. Step-by-step instructions, line drawings, and hcarts present over 350 patterns for all types of embellishments. A special section includes techniques on how to incorporate these patterns into projects. Photographs of knitted samples provide guidance and inspirations to novice and expert knitters alike.


The ability and ease for users to create and publish content has provided vast amount of online product reviews. However, the amount of data is overwhelmingly large and unstructured, making information difficult to quantify. This creates challenge in understanding how online reviews affect consumers' purchase decisions. In my dissertation, I explore the structural, stylistic and semantic content of online reviews. Firstly, I present a measurement that quantifies sentiments with respect to a multi-point scale and conduct a systematic study on the impact of online reviews on product sales. Using the sentiment metrics generated, I estimate the weight that customers place on each segment of the review and examine how these segments affect the sales for a given product. The results empirically verified that sentiments influence sales, of which ratings alone do not capture. Secondly, I propose a method to detect online review manipulation using writing style analysis and assess how consumers respond to such manipulation. Finally, I find that societal norms have influence on posting behavior and significant differences do exist across cultures. Users should therefore exercise care in interpreting the information from online reviews. This dissertation advances our understanding on the consumer decision making process and shed insight on the relevance of online review ratings and sentiments over a sequential decision making process. Having tapped into the abundant supply of online review data, the results in this work are based on largescale datasets which extend beyond the scale of traditional word-of-mouth research.


Most massive stars end their lives in core-collapse supernova explosions and enrich the interstellar medium with explosively nucleosynthesized elements. Following core collapse, the explosion is subject to instabilities as the shock propagates outwards through the progenitor star. Observations of the composition and structure of the innermost regions of a core-collapse supernova provide a direct probe of the instabilities and nucleosynthetic products. SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is one of very few supernovae for which the inner ejecta can be spatially resolved but are not yet strongly affected by interaction with the surroundings. Our observations of SN 1987A with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) are of the highest resolution to date and reveal the detailed morphology of cold molecular gas in the innermost regions of the remnant. The 3D distributions of carbon and silicon monoxide (CO and SiO) emission differ, but both have a central deficit, or torus-like distribution, possibly a result of radioactive heating during the first weeks ("nickel heating"). The size scales of the clumpy distribution are compared quantitatively to models, demonstrating how progenitor and explosion physics can be constrained.


This paper stems from a study of 45 secondary schools and colleges in England during 2007/08. Using documentary analysis, interviews with staff, students and parents, surveys of staff and students, and official statistics, we look at a number of potential outcomes related to citizenship. These include voting behaviour, charity work, and preparation for later life. In contrast to standard school effectiveness and improvement studies, we find that student/family background and institution-levels factors are relatively minor determinants of citizenship outcomes. If accepted this suggests that improvements here can come easier than in more traditional school outcomes, since they appear to be more sensitive to teacher and students experiences. In particular, we propose further investigation of the promise of student autonomy, staff prioritisation of student aspirations, and mutual respect between all actors in education.