OBJECTIVE
We describe a residency program in Ghana that was developed to train obstetrics/gynecologist specialists for Ghana and the subregion to promote and manage the reproductive health of women and to reduce a high maternal mortality rate.

STUDY DESIGN
The Carnegie-supported program, begun in 1989, is a 5-year residency in the two medical schools in Ghana, but with one central coordinating office. It has features that equip the graduate resident to practice in his/her environment. The fourth year of the program is unique: the resident attends a hospital management course for 3 months, goes for a clinical rotation in the United States or United Kingdom for 3 months, and moves to live and work in a rural district hospital for 6 months.

RESULTS
The success rate of the Ghanaian residents in the examination of the West African College of Surgeons has been three to four times higher than the overall pass rate. As of October 2002, the program had produced 26 specialists, all of whom are practicing in Ghana. In contrast, of 30 specialists who were trained abroad between 1960 and 1980, only 3 specialist had returned home by the end of the 1980s. The current chairpersons of the two medical schools are graduates of the program. Carnegie financial support for the program came to an end in January 2000, but the Ghana Ministry of Health has increased its support enthusiastically. The program is being sustained. Maternal mortality and morbidity rates are falling slowly in the two teaching hospitals; case fatality rates have been reduced markedly. New residents are entering the program and are progressing to completion.

CONCLUSION
The program has been an unqualified success and merits replication.


Thoracic trauma is common and may vary from simple contusions to lethal injuries. Uncommon thoracic injury is a costovertebral luxation of the first rib. Up till now only one other case report has been written in 1980. Therefore a case with this injury is presented.


This paper explores the possibility of bringing e-learning to African universities through collaborative networks of public–private partnerships. It is envisaged that this approach will solve the dual problem of infrastructural barriers and weak ICT policies. As technology is used more in education, the teachers' roles are increasingly integrated with those of support staff, administrators and technical staff. The needs of e-learning environments suggest the viability of multistakeholder networks to share expertise and resolve issues related to training needs. The paper concludes that collaboration networks that include e-learning sponsors, policy makers, telecommunication network service providers and educators are required to solve the problems of online education in Africa.


Ustilago maydis is an important model organism to study fungal pathogenicity. U. maydis can grow yeast-like and filamentous. In the latter form this fungus infects maize. In my Thesis the expression and function of hydrophobins and repellents of U. maydis were studied. Hydrophobins are produced by fungi where they fulfill a wide spectrum of functions including attachment of the fungus to a hydrophobic surface and the formation of aerial hyphae. Repellents 1-10 and Rep1-c were isolated as peptides that are involved in the formation of aerial hyphae in U. maydis. This raised the question whether repellents have (partially) replaced hydrophobins in U. maydis or function indirectly by anchoring hydrophobins to the cell wall. Using a new in situ hybridization protocol based on PNA probes it was shown that the repellent gene was expressed in filaments but not in the yeast form. In the filaments, the mRNA of this gene locates at the tip. This is also the site where the protein is expected to be secreted in the cell wall. The genome of U. maydis contains the hydrophobin genes hum2 and hum3. Deletion of hum2 only slightly reduced formation of aerial hyphae and surface hydrophobicity, while inactivation of hum3 in the wild-type or in the ?hum2 strain had no effect. In contrast, inactivation of rep1 dramatically affected surface hydrophobicity and aerial hyphae formation. Deletion of the hydrophobin genes had no effect on attachment of hyphae to a hydrophobic substrate but attachment was reduced by 50% in a cross of rep1 deletion strains. Additional deletion of either or both the hydrophobin genes did not further reduce attachment. From these data it was concluded that hydrophobins have been functionally replaced in U. maydis by repellents. Thus, repellents do not function by anchoring hydrophobins to the cell wall. Hydrophobins self-assemble into amphipathic amyloid fibrils at hydrophobic-hydrophilic interfaces. Amyloids represent an ordered fibrillar structure of proteins in a stacked b-sheet conformation. I have shown that repellents form a similar structure in the cell wall of filaments of U. maydis. This explains why repellents have hydrophobin-like properties and functions. A strain in which the repellent gene was inactivated has a slightly different expression profile when compared to the wild-type. Only 31 genes had a 2-fold change in expression. From these results it is concluded that aerial hyphae of U. maydis do not result from a differentiation process. Rather, they may represent vegetative hyphae that happen to grow in the air. Of the 31 genes with a changed gene expression in the strain in which the repellent gene was inactivated, 22 genes were up-regulated. Of these, 11 belong to the class of small secreted proteins (SSP's). Prediction programs indicate that these proteins have the tendency to form amyloid fibrils. It may thus be that the cell wall of U. maydis contains a variety of proteins with this structure. In the case of U. maydis this is a functional fold, whereas in humans amyloids have been associated with diseases like Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Creutzfeldt-Jacob's.


The aim of this thesis is to study the effects of inflation persistence due to rule-of-thumb behaviour by price setters on optimal monetary policy. We start with a canonical log-linearised New Keynesian model, which we extend by allowing a fraction of price setters to follow a rule-of-thumb when setting a new price. We consider different specifications for the rule-of-thumb. In all models, steady-state distortions are assumed to be small so to guarantee the feasibility of optimal monetary policy analysis within a linear-quadratic framework. We derive utility-based objective functions for the monetary authority and analyse a range of optimal commitment policies. We perform welfare analysis in order to rank the range of optimal commitment policies. We analytically derive the optimal steady-state inflation rates associated with each commitment policy. We show that rule-of-thumb behaviour by price setters generates an incentive for positive steady-state inflation. A type of timeless perspective commitment policy is also capable of delivering positive steady-state inflation, even in the absence of rule-of-thumb behaviour by price setters. The optimal steady-state inflation rates are directly proportional to the gap measuring the steady-state distortions and turn out to be small in magnitude.
 We depart from the assumption of small steady-state distortions and consider the case of a largely distorted steady state within a nonlinear medium-scale model, which adds both nominal rigidities and real rigidities to the basic New Keynesian model. We extend the model by allowing a fraction of price setters to follow a rule-of-thumb when posting a new price. We numerically characterise the optimal rate of inflation in the Ramsey steady state. We find that rule-of-thumb behaviour implies optimal positive inflation only in the absence of transactional frictions. We find that the gap reflecting steady-state distortions is only slightly larger than in the case of small steady-state distortions. Finally, we study Ramsey dynamics and the implementation of optimal monetary policy via simple interest-rate rules, which we expand to explore the importance of welfare-relevant output gaps.


Background: The HIV epidemic has greatly affected sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest prevalence in
the world found in Swaziland. One in three pregnant women in Swaziland has HIV. One of the PMTCT
strategies is primary prevention of HIV among women who are uninfected. Understanding the reasons
why pregnant women continue to seroconvert is the key in meeting this strategy.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the factors associated with seroconversion among
pregnant women utilizing Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in 2012.
Objectives: The objectives of this study are to: determine the proportion of HIV non-infected pregnant
women who are retested for HIV during pregnancy; determine the gestational age at which pregnant
women are retested for HIV; establish the proportion of women who were initially HIV non-infected and
seroconverted during pregnancy; and establish the factors associated with seroconversion during
pregnancy.
Methods: An observational cross-sectional study design with both descriptive and analytic components
was carried out at Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital. Systematic sampling was used for the recruitment
of 381 pregnant women who were initially HIV non-infected. An interviewer-administered questionnaire
and chart review were used to collect demographic and clinical data. The data was analyzed using
descriptive and analytic statistics.
Results: The results of the study show that demographic factors such as age and educational level are
associated with HIV seroconversion during pregnancy. The findings also highlight how partner factors
play a role in HIV seroconversion. The results indicate that sexual behaviours 333of the pregnant
women contribute greatly to HIV seroconversion.
Conclusion: Pregnant women continue to engage in risky sexual behaviours during pregnancy and there
is need to strengthen counseling on preventive measures throughout the antenatal care period. There is
also need for programs to explore possibility of providing antiretroviral drugs for pre-exposure
prophylaxis to all HIV negative women during pregnancy.


Brazilian plants with ethnomedical uses have been widely studied in recent years. Plants of the genus Ocotea have been reported to have antimicrobial properties [1,2]. Candida species are the major cause of healthcare-related bloodstream and invasive infections. The frequency of nosocomial bloodstream infections by Candida non-albicans species such as C. parapsilosis has risen dramatically in the past decade [3,4]. This increase in fungal infections is accompanied by significant excess mortality and length of hospital stays. In the present study, the antifungal property of the methanol extract (F5) of dried leaves from Ocotea odorifera was investigated. The antifungal activity was attributed to an Ellagitannin, obtained by F5 fractionation on a Sephadex LH-20 column, and identified by spectral analyses of 1H, 13C-NMR, H-H COSY, DEPT, HMQC, HMBC and LC MS/MS. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined on a C. parapsilosis strain through the broth microdilution technique. The F5 extract and Ellagitannin compound exhibited the same value of MIC=12.5µg/ml. Cytotoxicity was determined in vitro using the sulforhodamine B assay on Vero cells, showing 50% cytotoxicity concentration (CC50)=51µg/ml. Morphological alterations in hyphae of C. parapsilosis treated with Ellagitannin at MIC and sub-MIC concentrations were demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The inhibitory property makes Ellagitannin a promising phytotherapeutic agent for treatment of some fungal diseases. Acknowledgements: This study was supported through grants from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP), and PRONEX/Fundacao Araucaria. References: 1. Bruni, R. et al. (2004) Food Chemistry 85:415–421 2. Guerrini, A. et al. (2006)J. Agric. Food Chem. 54:7778–7788. 3. Safdara, A. et al. (2002) Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease 44:11–16 4. Caggiano, G. et al. (2004) Mycoses 51:121–128.


Machine learning comprises a series of techniques for automatic extraction of meaningful information from large collections of noisy data.
In many real world applications, data is naturally represented in structured form. Since traditional methods in machine learning deal with vectorial information, they require an a priori form of preprocessing. Among all the learning techniques for dealing with structured data, kernel methods are recognized to have a strong theoretical background and to be effective approaches.
They do not require an explicit vectorial representation of the data in terms of features, but rely on a measure of similarity between any pair of objects of a domain, the kernel function.
Designing fast and good kernel functions is a challenging problem. In the case of tree structured data two issues become relevant: kernel for trees should not be sparse and should be fast to compute. The sparsity problem arises when, given a dataset and a kernel function, most structures of the dataset are completely dissimilar to one another. In those cases the classifier has too few information for making correct predictions on unseen data. In fact, it tends to produce a discriminating function behaving as the nearest neighbour rule.
Sparsity is likely to arise for some standard tree kernel functions, such as the subtree and subset tree kernel, when they are applied to datasets with node labels belonging to a large domain.
A second drawback of using tree kernels is the time complexity required both in learning and classification phases. Such a complexity can sometimes prevents the kernel application in scenarios involving large amount of data.
This thesis proposes three contributions for resolving the above issues of kernel for trees.
 A first contribution aims at creating kernel functions which adapt to the statistical properties of the dataset, thus reducing its sparsity with respect to traditional tree kernel functions. Specifically, we propose to encode the input trees by an algorithm able to project the data onto a lower dimensional space with the property that similar structures are mapped similarly. By building kernel functions on the lower dimensional representation, we are able to perform inexact matchings between different inputs in the original space. A second contribution is the proposal of a novel kernel function based on the convolution kernel framework.
Convolution kernel measures the similarity of two objects in terms of the similarities of their subparts. Most convolution kernels are based on counting the number of shared substructures, partially discarding information about their position in the original structure. The kernel function we propose is, instead, especially focused on this aspect.
 A third contribution is devoted at reducing the computational burden related to the calculation of a kernel function between a tree and a forest of trees, which is a typical operation in the classification phase and, for some algorithms, also in the learning phase.
We propose a general methodology applicable to convolution kernels. Moreover, we show an instantiation of our technique when kernels such as the subtree and subset tree kernels are employed. In those cases, Direct Acyclic Graphs can be used to compactly represent shared substructures in different trees, thus reducing the computational burden and storage requirements.


Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data have revealed new details on the extent and geomorphic relations of paleodrainage in southern Egypt. Following a period of late Tertiary drainage from the Red Sea Hills south through Wadi Qena and west across the Tushka region, the Nile River as we now know it established its connections with Central Africa and the Mediterranean in the middle Pleistocene (oxygen isotope stage, OIS 7 to OIS 5). SRTM topography reveals a lake level at ∼247 m that is coincident with the elevation of middle Pleistocene fish fossils 400 km west of the Nile, and with the termination of shallow runoff channels in northern Sudan that were active during the middle Pleistocene and Holocene pluvial periods. An additional lake level at ∼190 m is based on the current elevation at Wadi Tushka, and is consistent with Paleolithic sites at Bir Kiseiba followed by Neolithic sites at lower topographic levels. Overflow of the Nile through Wadi Tushka during the wetter north African climate of the middle Pleistocene, coupled with limited local rainfall, was the likely source of water for these lakes.


We investigate the hydration dynamics of a small globular protein, hen egg-white lysozyme. Extensive simulations (two trajectories of 9 ns each) were carried out to identify the time-scales and mechanism of water attachment to this protein. The location of the surface and integral water molecules in lysozyme was also investigated. Three peculiar temporal scales of the hydration dynamics can be discerned: two among these, with sub-nanosecond mean residence time, tau(w), are characteristic of surface hydration water; the slower time-scale (tau(w) approximately 2/3 ns) is associated with buried water molecules in hydrophilic pores and in superficial clefts. The computed tau(w) values in the two independent runs fall in a similar range and are consistent with each other, thus adding extra weight to our result. The tau(w) of surface water obtained from the two independent trajectories is 20 and 24 ps. In both simulations only three water molecules are bound to lysozyme for the entire length of the trajectories, in agreement with nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion estimates. Locations other than those identified in the protein crystal are found to be possible for these long-residing water molecules. The dynamics of the hydration water molecules observed in our simulations implies that each water molecule visits a multitude of residues during the lifetime of its bound with the protein. The number of residues seen by a single water molecule increases with the time-scale of its residence time and, on average, is equal to one only for the water molecules with shorter residence time. Thus, tau(w) values obtained from inelastic neutron scattering and based on jump-diffusion models are likely not to account for the contribution of water molecules with longer residence time.


In the period between March and July 2010, I was able to conduct a study trip to the east and west coast of Canada with the kind financial support from the Centre for Sami Studies at the University of Tromso as part of my PhD program. Without their support, the travel would not have been possible and it has contributed to expanding knowledge and creating contacts in a growing field of study. Many people helped to make this trip come about as successfully as it did. Thank you to my supervisor Svein Jentoft and to Else Grete Broderstad and Stine Barlindhaug and others who kindly provided contacts in Canada. Most of all, I am grateful to Barbara Neis and Peter Armitage who hosted me in St. John's for almost two months, and also Tony Davis and his family who took me in for two weeks in Nova Scotia.
The goal of the trip was to learn more about methodologies1 and methods for documenting fisheries in indigenous and small coastal communities and applying these to the coastal Sami context and my own research on coastal Sami fisheries. I was interested in both fisheries research methods in general and methods for documenting indigenous land use and occupancy, in addition to how the different research institutions and projects in Canada address indigenous fisheries issues. This report contains the background for the research trip, an overview of travels and activities during the stay, and a more detailed report from two of the places visited during the stay, focusing on Mi'kmaq fisheries in Atlantic Canada and salmon farming issues in British Columbia. The most central people and institutions have provided feedback to the report before it was submitted to the board at the Centre for Sami Studies.


We propose a new approach called "appearance clustering" for scene analysis. The key idea in this approach is that the scene points can be clustered according to their surface normals, even when the geometry, material and lighting are all unknown. We achieve this by analyzing an image sequence of a scene as it is illuminated by a smoothly moving distant source. Each pixel thus gives rise to a "continuous appearance profile" that yields information about derivatives of the BRDF w.r.t source direction. This information is directly related to the surface normal of the scene point when the source path follows an unstructured trajectory (obtained, say, by "hand-waving"). Based on this observation, we transform the appearance profiles and propose a metric that can be used with any unsupervised clustering algorithm to obtain iso-normal clusters. We successfully demonstrate appearance clustering for complex indoor and outdoor scenes. In addition, iso-normal clusters serve as excellent priors for scene geometry and can strongly impact any vision algorithm that attempts to estimate material, geometry and/or lighting properties in a scene from images. We demonstrate this impact for applications such as diffuse and specular separation, both calibrated and uncalibrated photometric stereo of non-lambertian scenes, light source estimation and texture transfer.


textabstractHoever's dissertation investigates the conditions and processes that enable teams to develop more creative solutions and optimally use their informational resources for higher creativity. Whereas teams, especially those composed of members with different task-relevant information and perspectives, are considered a particularly viable means to the end of higher creativity, systematic research on the factors that facilitate team creativity and the processes conducive to it is sparse and its findings remain fragmented to date.

The three empirical studies included in this dissertation contribute to a more complete understanding of how teams achieve creative outcomes by addressing different aspects of this question. Hoever's findings highlight that other-focused behaviours such as perspective taking and mutual feedback between team members represent important mechanisms to bring out the potential of team diversity for team creativity. Furthermore, on the basis of an in-depth behavioural observation of the teams throughout their creative process, she was able to develop a more nuanced understanding of the processes that underlie these observed effects. This analysis yields converging evidence for the importance of information elaboration as a precursor of higher creativity in diverse teams but not for other processes frequently suggested to transmit the benefits of diversity when they occur. Finally, the reported research points to the differential impact of formal external interventions in shaping team processes and information processing mechanisms in teams with diverse informational resources.

Together, the reported research has important implications for future work on team creativity, diversity, and team processes. With regards to team creativity and diversity the results call into question the straightforward nature of the frequently proposed link between diversity and creativity and highlight a number of important moderators of this effect. Moreover, the findings indicate that the relationship between creativity and its antecedents at the team level do not fully mirror the effects observed at the individual level of analysis. Finally, they direct attention to the need to systematically investigate the extent to which diverse and homogeneous teams react differently to common managerial interventions such as feedback.


The increasing penetration level of energy generation from renewable sources is demanding for more accurate and reliable forecasting tools to support classic power grid operations (e.g., unit commitment, electricity market clearing or maintenance planning). For this purpose, many physical models have been employed, and more recently many statistical or machine learning algorithms, and data-driven methods in general, are becoming subject of intense research. While generally the power research community focuses on power forecasting at the level of single plants, in a short future horizon of time, in this time we are interested in aggregated macro-area power generation (i.e., in a territory of size greater than 100000 km2) with a future horizon of interest up to 15 days ahead. Real data are used to validate the proposed forecasting methodology on a test set of several months.


The purpose of this study was to define the anatomical arrangement of the lumbar spine in the mid-body sagittal plane of a human volunteer while in three postures: a driving posture; full flexion; and full extension. Radiographic images of the lumbar spine were made of a 33-year old 50th percentile male subject seated in a comfortable driving posture. Additional radiographs were made of the lumbar spine while the subject was postured in full voluntary flexion, and full voluntary extension. Anterior and posterior mid-sagittal vertebral endplate positions were plotted on an x-y coordinate system for each posture. Anterior and posterior disk thicknesses, and the positions of the centers of each vertebra were numerically determined using information from the plots. Disk thicknesses were then graphed and comparisons made for each posture. The arrangements of the centers of vertebrae were graphed and compared for the three different postures. The arrangement of the lumbar vertebrae tended toward that of full voluntary flexion while the subject was in a normal driving posture. Anterior disk thickness was a sensitive indicator of posture, while posterior disk thickness was not. While in a driving posture, the lower back approximated a straight-line that was nearly parallel to the seat back axis. The observations support those of an earlier study. Since soft tissue spinal elements can only be damaged by applying tensile forces in excess of their tolerance, the anterior elements of the lumbar spine would not be directly threatened in low velocity frontal collisions, since anterior elements would be in relative compression. Tension injury to the anterior structures as a result of a rear-end collision would first require reversing the preimpact conditions imposed by the normal driving posture. Tension injury to the posterior spinal elements resulting from low velocity rear-end collisions would be unlikely since axial compression loading would also diminish tension stress in posterior soft tissue structures. Any compression injury to posterior elements resulting from rear-end collisions would first require reversing the pre-impact conditions imposed by the normal driving posture.


Richard Belcher Jr. is Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. Belcher engages in scholarly discussions while he demonstrates the Christocentric nature of wisdom literature, providing pastoral and practical insight and implications. The book has a brief "Series Preface" by D. A. Carson (xi-xii) and an "Author's Preface" (xiii-xiv). It starts with a journey and a question about "the problem of wisdom literature in Old Testament theology" in chapter 1 and is followed by ten chapters. The author ends the book with a bibliography, which is a valuable resource for the study of wisdom literature, and an index of authors and an index of Scripture (213–42).


Hydrogeology is now taught in a broad spectrum of departments and institutions to students with diverse backgrounds. Successful instruction in hydrogeology thus requires a variety of pedagogical approaches depending on desired learning outcomes and the background of students. We review the pedagogical literature in hydrogeology to highlight recent advances and analyze a 2005 survey among 68 hydrogeology instructors. The literature and survey results suggest there are only ~ 15 topics that are considered crucial by most hydrogeologists and > 100 other topics that are considered crucial by some hydrogeologists. The crucial topics focus on properties of aquifers and fundamentals of groundwater flow, and should likely be part of all undergraduate hydrogeology courses. Other topics can supplement and support these crucial topics, depending on desired learning outcomes. Classroom settings continue to provide a venue for emphasizing fundamental knowledge. However, recent pedagogical advances are biased towards field and laboratory instruction with a goal of bolstering experiential learning. Field methods build on the fundamentals taught in the classroom and emphasize the collection of data, data uncertainty, and the development of vocational skills. Laboratory and computer-based exercises similarly build on theory, and offer an opportunity for data analysis and integration. The literature suggests curricula at all levels should ideally balance field, laboratory, and classroom pedagogy into an iterative and integrative whole. An integrated, iterative and balanced approach leads to greater student motivation and advancement of theoretical and vocational knowledge.


This note presents an experimental study of the random lottery incentive mechanism. In the baseline treatment we observe risk behavior in a given choice problem. We show that by integrating a second, asymmetrically dominated choice problem in a random incentive mechanism risk behavior can be manipulated systematically. This implies that the isolation hypothesis is violated the random incentive mechanism does not elicit true preferences.


I study the relationship between demand similarity and foreign direct investment in the food and beverage industry. My regression specification includes a measure of similarity in income per capita to proxy for similarity in demand. Using firm-level greenfield investment data, I find a significant effect of income similarity along the intensive and extensive margin of foreign direct investment. My findings show that investment activities are more intense between countries with similar income per capita. The similarity effect is larger for the intensive margin, implying that it is not only more likely that an investment is realized between countries with similar income per capita, but also that such a project involves a considerable larger investment and creates more jobs. Although I find evidence for heterogeneity in the similarity effect, all coefficient estimates have a negative sign. Moreover, distinguishing between types of foreign direct investment, I find that the similarity effect is mainly relevant for manufacturing projects. These results show that demand for quality is an important determinant of cross-border investment activities in the food and beverage industry.


Groups of atropinized dogs (6 dogs/group) were sedated with xylazine (2.2 mg/kg of body weight, IM). At recumbency, the dogs were given IV saline solution (control groups), yohimbine (0.05, 0.1, and 0.2 mg/kg), 4-aminopyridine (4-AP; 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 mg/kg), doxapram (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 mg/kg), or the smallest dose of these antagonists in dual combinations or in triple combination. Two additional groups were sedated with an overdose of xylazine (11 mg/kg, IM). At recumbency, 1 of these groups was given saline solution IV and the other group was given yohimbine IV (0.4 mg/kg) as the antagonist. With the 2.2 mg/kg dose of xylazine, control mean arousal time (MAT) and mean walk time (MWT) were 15.5 minutes and 24.8 minutes, respectively. These values were decreased by the individual antagonists to 0.5 to 2.5 minutes and 0.9 to 7.4 minutes, respectively. Approximate equipotent doses of antagonists (mg/kg) were: yohimbine, 0.2; 4-AP, 0.6; and doxapram, 0.5. Relapses did not occur after yohimbine or 4-AP. With doxapram, muscle tremors and spasms, abnormal postures, or aggressive behavior occurred in several dogs and several dogs had partial or complete relapses. The small doses of individual antagonists were synergistic with regard to MAT, MWT, and duration of residual sedation, but the various combinations of antagonists were not more effective in these regards than were larger doses of the single antagonists. With the overdose of xylazine, control MAT and MWT were 41.5 minutes and 144.5 minutes, respectively. Yohimbine decreased these values to 2.2 minutes and 2.5 minutes, respectively. Relapses did not occur.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The article discusses family functioning characteristics from the piont of view of adolescents and their parents. Research methods and empirical research basis is presented. The methodological criteria of family functioning research instrument applied in the research and tested by empirical and statistical means indicate that psychometrical quality of the test is relatively high. Empirical research findings indicate gender differences in attitudes of adolescents and their parents towards family functioning. Girls' responses were more similar to their mothers' while boys' evaluations were more similar to their fathers'. Thus evaluating family functioning gender aspect and tendencies of convergence and divergence were revealed.


Traffic Congestion is increasing in extensive manner globally as a result of inadequate road development, increasing number of vehicles, decreasing speed, increasing in accident rate, increasing fuel consumption rate etc. It increases the necessity for the concept of intelligence transportation system (ITS) for the conventional transportation system. ITS have a major role to play in developing countries economy, increasing driver's safety, enhancing mobility and convenience, bring environmental benefit, increasing productive economic and employment growth. In this paper, comparative study of intelligent transportation system with conventional transportation system is done with the help of some analytical equations. And the impact analysis and sustainability of ITS and sustainable transportation system is done, in which different ITS is compared using some fraction unit in terms of value of time, emissions and safety values. By using urban mobility report calculations can be easily performed for emerging metropolitan cities. In this paper equations are proposed for calculating annual congestion cost, value of time benefit, value of emission savings and the safety savings.


OBJECTIVE
Research on the association between substance use and sexual risk behavior has yielded a complex pattern of findings. Such inconsistent findings may reflect method variance, including factors such as gender of the participant, nature of the sexual event, partner characteristics, and type of substance used. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between substance use and unprotected sex independently for alcohol, drugs, or combined substance use and to examine partner characteristics as a moderator of this association.

METHOD
Participants (N = 1,419; 48% women) were recruited from a publicly funded sexually transmitted disease clinic and were asked to complete an audio computer-assisted self-interview regarding their most recent sexual experience, including nature of the event, substance use, and partner characteristics.

RESULTS
Analyses showed that alcohol use was related to condom use when gender and partner type were considered; thus, for women, but not for men, partner type interacted with alcohol consumption such that condom use was less likely when alcohol consumption preceded sex with nonprimary partners (drinking was unrelated to condom use with primary partners). Subsequent analyses examining partner substance use showed that women, but not men, who reported both they and their nonprimary partners were drinking during sex were less likely to use a condom.

CONCLUSIONS
At the event level, alcohol consumption among sexually transmitted disease clinic patients is associated with condom use, but this association differs by gender and partner characteristics. Findings suggest the need to strengthen substance-use components in sexual risk reduction interventions for women and their partners.


Motion planners for autonomous vehicles often involve a two-level hierarchical structure consisting of a high-level, discrete planner and a low-level trajectory generation scheme. To ensure compatibility between these two levels of planning, we previously introduced a motion planning framework based on multiple-edge transition costs in the graph used by the discrete planner. This framework is enabled by a special local trajectory generation problem, which we address in this paper. In particular, we discuss a trajectory planner based on model predictive control for complex vehicle dynamical models. We demonstrate the efficacy of our overall motion planning approach via examples involving non-trivial vehicle models and complex environments, and we offer comparisons of our motion planner with state-of-the-art randomized sampling-based motion planners.


The purpose of this project is to develop a toolkit for the design and construction of bridges using prefabricated materials primarily to reduce the closure time and on-site construction time of newly constructed bridges or bridges undergoing renovation. The research focuses specifically on short span bridges in Georgia (40,60,80, and 120ft spans). Areas of primary concern for this project were design, constructability, structural analysis, the use of concrete and steel girders, cost efficiency, and industry surveys. In this particular portion of the study, the surveys proved to be most effective when combined with information obtained existing research as well as published project reports by contractors and DOTs. The surveys were created by the research team and included questions regarding the engineering entity's experience with ABC, the level of acceptance of ABC techniques in their state, the number of completed projects in recent years, impediments to the use of ABC techniques, and the ongoing research on ABC topics in the entity's state. Constructability issues were given special attention, as they proved to be a major impediment to the use of ABC by other entity's which remain reluctant. Lack of general experience also played a major role. The Georgia DOT seeks to employ ABC techniques in the future, so this project will help identify what is needed to begin designing projects that utilize ABC, what further research needs to be conducted, and which design details need more attention. Thesis Mentor:__________________________


Abstract: Taiwanese enterprises are efficiently producing a great deal of goods they had no experience in at all a few years ago. Moreover, in modern economies an increased utilisation of more and more advanced technologies as well as the more intensive use of physical and human capital can be observed. In this regard, the economic development of Taiwan is considered to be a complementary process of capital accumulation, innovation and learning. This economic evo-lution primarily takes place within the corporate sector. However, in reality the real activities of enterprises cannot be separated from their financial counterpart. Therefore, it is assumed that financial general conditions influence the investment and innovation behaviour of com-panies and vice versa. Regarding the above-outlined complementarities, it seems to be appropriate to include the heterogeneity of the company sector into the analysis. Here it has to be taken into considera-tion that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute to a great deal of entrepre-neurship, innovation and learning that play a decisive role in the process of economic devel-opment. In the spirit of Schumpeter (1912) it is argued that the importance of smaller enter-prises is not adequately disclosed in statistical data. Furthermore, SMEs may have advantages as far as the implementation of new technology in general and new capital-embedded tech-nology in particular is concerned. There is evidence that Taiwanese SMEs are playing a decisive role in technology assimilation as well as in the implementation of further technological advancements because of their en-trepreneurial characteristics. However, most economic contributions consider "entrepreneur-ship" to be exogenous. Therefore, a few characteristics of the Taiwanese economy are pre-sented suggesting why entrepreneurship is so prevalent in Taiwan's economy. In this respect, the relationship between competitive environment and entrepreneurship seems to be a matter of special importance.


SUMMARY Yields from five of the plots on the Park Grass Continuous Hay experiment at Rothamsted, started in 1856, were examined to see if any long-term trends could be detected over the last 100 years. Three of the plots examined are unfertilized; two receive inorganic nutrients every year; all are harvested twice a year. In 1959 the harvesting procedure was changed: yields for the periods before and after this change were examined separately and together. On none of the three unfertilized plots was the slope of the regression of total yield (i.e. first and second cutscombined) on time significantly (P < 0·05) different from zero in either the 1891–1958 or 1960–1992 periods. On both the fertilized plots, there were significant declines in yield with time over the 1960–92 period, assuming that the effects of autocorrelation are sufficiently small to be ignored; there were no consistent changes between 1891 and 1958. There were some significant trends on the five plots when the two cuts were considered separately. A linear regression model was fitted to the data in an attempt to separate the effects of meteorological variables (rainfall and sunshine hours over selected parts of the year) on total yield from possible long-term effects brought about, for example, by the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. On four of the five plots this model accounted for between 12 and 21% of the yield variance in the pre-1959 period and between 45 and 63% after 1960. On the fifth plot, which received the highest level of N, the model accounted for 29% of the variance in the first period but only for 16% in the second period. When a linear trend with time was included in the model, this was not significant on any of the plots over the entire 1891–1992 period, although some significant trends appeared when the two periods were considered separately. The model was also fitted with the atmospheric CO2 concentration in place of the linear trend with time: again there were no consistent trends. Neither changes in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere over the last century nor increasing inputs of combined N in rainfall or in dry deposition have had any detectable effects on yield in these plots.


The article discusses the risks and effects of predicting the future. It describes the competition between two images of the future that can be found in current predictions. We discuss the question of changing our basic conceptions about the essence of human nature, the most important properties and qualities of people in connection with the onset of the current era of uncertainty, and the complexity and diversity of the human experience. We describe the context that surrounds the practice of predicting the future, namely the transition from the world of SPOD to the world of VUCA. The author reminds the designers of the future of the importance of correlating futurist programs with the expectations and motivational attitudes of the different social strata in Russian society. The author reviews current educational policy, and he describes the general features of the education reforms of recent decades and the risks created by their shortcomings. The article outlines the conditions for constructing a promising and human-centric model of 21st-century education ("the garden of dignity culture") for "complex free people."


Many of the benefits of Java, including its inherent portability, networking support, and simplicity, are of increasing importance to large-scale distributed real-time embedded (DRE) systems, but have been unavailable due to the lack of acceptable real-time performance. Recent work establishing the real-time specification for Java (RTSJ) based on Bollella et al. (2000) has led to the emergence of associated real-time Java virtual machines (RT JVMs) which promise to bridge this gap. This paper describes benchmarking results on a RT JVM in a uni-processing environment, and compares them to both C++ implementations of similar behavior and application requirements associated with large-scale avionics systems. This paper extends previously published results by Corsaro et al. (2002) and Sharp et al. (2003) by including avionics application level tests.


Aim: To assess the accuracy of RHD and RHCE genotyping by real-time PCR, through the analysis of fetal DNA in plasma samples of Rh negative pregnant women. Methods: The study consisted in the collection of two tubes of blood (each with 3 ml) from 19 RhD negative pregnant women that attended the obstetric consultation at the District Hospital of Figueira da Foz, E.P.E. One of the samples was used to perform blood typing and the other was used for fetal DNA extraction. The Rh genotype was determined by real-time PCR with specific primers and Taqman ® probes for RHD, RHC, RHE, SRY and GLO genes. Results: In 88.2% of cases (15/17) the RHD genotype was concordant with the phenotyping data, with 1 false-positive result (5.9%) and a precision of 94% (pvalue=0.001; K=76.7%). For the RHC gene, there was concordance in 60% of cases (6/10), with 4 false-negative results (40%) and a precision of 60% (pvalue=0,175; K=31%). Relatively to the RHE gene, the concordance achieved was 100% (10/10), with a precision of also 100% (pvalue=0.002; K=100%). Conclusion: The present study confirms the precision of fetal RHD and RHE genotyping in maternal plasma. Performing a similar study with a superior number of samples could allow the implementation of this non-invasive prenatal diagnostic test in laboratorial and clinical routine, in order to follow pregnancies at risk for developing Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn.


Biofouling pests can have significant economic impacts on aquaculture operations, including increased processing and production costs. An important first step towards improved biofouling management is understanding the density and distribution of the biofouling species within a growing region. In this study, biofouling communities were sampled from 73 commercial mussel farms within New Zealand's main mussel growing region, Pelorus Sound. At each farm, photoquadrats (0.08 m2, n = 6) of biofouling organisms were obtained at 2 depth ranges (3 per range) from suspended long-line droppers, both at the surface (0 to 3 m of the dropper) and bottom (9 to 24 m, depending on dropper length and water depth). Biomass samples and visual estimates of biofouling biomass were also obtained. Strong spatial variation in the structure of biofouling communities was evident, with increasing dissimilarity between communities along Pelorus Sound. Problematic taxa (e.g. the brown alga Undaria pinnatifida and calcareous tubeworm Pomatoceros sp.) were dominant near the entrance to the Sound, where annual temperature cycles are often reduced and salinity concentrations are higher. Generally, biofouling cover decreased with increasing water depth. A large proportion (48%) of biofouling biomass scores were categorised as high, equating to 121.2 ± 20 g m−2 (or 16%) of long-line for a heavily fouled farm, or 10 t for a typical 3 ha farm. Distributional patterns, such as those identified in this study, could be used by aquaculture industries to better inform the timing and placement of susceptible crop species and production stages (e.g. mussel spat). Refined monitoring methods may also facilitate industry participation in collecting long-term biofouling records.


The free movement of the Roma minority has become questioned within the European Union. This study seeks to understand why this question has reached disproportionally importance in comparison to the number of Roma migrants within the union, and to understand the great attention given to the question. Based on the Copenhagen's school of securitization, the purpose of this study is to show how this magnification of the question occurs due to the framing of the Roma migrants as a security problem. Focusing on the speech act of the securitization theory, this paper contains a study of political actor's statements concerning Roma migrants. Using a framing methodology combined with the conditions for a successful securitization, speeches and statements are analyzed to determine how the Roma migrants are framed as societal threats in politics of France, Sweden and the European Commission. The result of the study show that a securitization has taken place in French politics, similar signs of the beginning of the securitizing process can be found in the Swedish political discourse. The Commission's speech act concern the member states treatment of the Roma migrants, and especially the questioning of their right to free movement.


While several areas of organizational research have benefited from the use of games to study interaction between individuals, one area that has not done so is the study of organizational coordination. This is in spite of the large game-theoretic literature on coordination games and solutions to coordination problems. This paper brings the two approaches together, showing how simple games can be used to represent different problems of organizational interdependence and how game-theoretic solutions to coordination problems are related to organizational solutions.


: The mesophotic coral ecosystem (MCE) of the eastern Gulf of Mexico hosts diverse invertebrate and fish fauna across an array of hard-ground features. However, the extent of the potential MCE habitat in the region is poorly constrained. Maximum entropy modeling was used to predict the spatial extent of mesophotic azooxanthellate octocorals and antipatharians within the mesophotic area located between Mississippi (Pinnacle Trend Area) and the mid-continental shelf and upper slope of Florida, eastern Gulf of Mexico. Habitat prediction models were generated using geo-referenced, coral-presence records obtained by classifying photographic samples with co-located geophysical data, oceanographic variables, and atmospheric variables. Resulting models were used to predict the extent of suitable habitat in the study area. An independent set of presence records was used to test the model performance. Results (general and by taxon) predict that suitable areas for MCE exceed 400 km 2 and occur along carbonate mounds and paleo-shoreline ridges (hard substrata and high surface rugosity). Reduced amounts of fine sediments, surrounding waters rich in chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and downwelling currents also increased predicted suitability. The model significantly exceeded random performance and predicted that surface rugosity and CDOM are the most important variables contributing to coral habitat. Areas of hard substrate within the study area that were not identified as coral habitat by the model suggest that mesophotic sea fans and sea whips apparently depend as much on the chemical and physical conditions (e.g. currents that transport oxygen and food) as on hard substrata for settlement.


The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the experiences of firstgeneration female students at four-year private institutions of higher education. Improving student retention and degree-completion rates has been a long-standing goal of the higher education community. Despite the attention devoted to student retention since the 1970's, only half of the students who enroll in institutions of higher education obtain a degree within six years of initial enrollment. This study considers the experience of college success, interpreted as degree completion, at four-year private institutions of higher education of nine first-generation female students. The results of nine in-depth interviews illuminate the effort and commitment to success it took for this small group of women to overcome significant barriers in their personal lives and in the education systems they navigated. This research depicts the complex context created by the intersection of the personal, family, social, and economic aspects of the participants' lives. Their pathway to college, including their college search and choice process is problematic; uninformed about the differences in quality and other characteristics across institutions of higher education as well as the associated costs. The study's results highlight that our education system falls short of facilitating a successful transition from K-12 to higher education for the participants. The results also illustrate the participants' college experience as challenging, isolating, taxing, uncertain, and filled with stress. They are motivated, however, to succeed even in the face of the most daunting barriers because earning a college degree means something very significant to this group of women; it represents a way out of their uncertain and difficult life circumstances. THE SUCCESS OF FIRST-GENERATION FEMALE STUDENTS 6


This paper presents a system for high level collaboration between humans and intelligent agents in a virtual reality. The proposed system is capable of creating virtual worlds with the simulation of Newtonian physics and their visualization as interface for humans. Furthermore, with voice recognition and synthesization the human interface provides a user friendly way for conversations with intelligent agents. The proposed system is able to connect the different communication modalities allowing the human user to control the intelligens agents using the brain-in-the-loop control method. The system has a standard modular build-up in order to connect different virtual worlds to each other. Finally the capabilities of the system are demonstrated on two examples.


ABSTRACT Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) can cause acute fatal disease on all continents but was never detected in Africa. We report the first detection of LCMV RNA in a common European house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) in Africa. Phylogenetic analyses show a close relationship with North American strains. These findings suggest that there is a risk of the appearance of LCMV acute encephalitis cases. This is a perfect example of virus dissemination by its natural host that may have dramatic public health consequences.


Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, has a higher case fatality rate (CFR) in European ethnic groups than in others, especially East Asians. One explanation to this phenomenon might be TMPRSS2, a key processing enzyme essential for viral infection. Here, we analyzed the allele frequencies of two nonsynonymous variants rs12329760 (V197M) and rs75603675 (G8V) in the TMPRSS2 gene using over 200,000 present-day and ancient genomic samples. We found a significant association between the CFR of COVID-19 and the allele frequencies of the two variants. Interestingly, they had opposing effects on the CFR: inverse correlation by V197, proportional correlation by G8V. East Asians have higher V197M and lower G8V allele frequencies than Europeans, possibly endowing resistance against SARS-CoV-2. Structural and energy calculation analysis of the V197M amino acid change showed that it destabilizes the TMPRSS2 protein, possibly affecting its ACE2 and viral spike protein processing negatively, ultimately resulting in reduced SARS-CoV-2 infection efficiency and CFR in East Asian ethnic groups.


SIGNIFICANCE
Oxidative stress resulting from excessive reactive oxygen/nitrogen/electrophilic species (ROS/RNS/RES) can lead to diseases such as cancer. The health benefits of dietary fruits and vegetables with antioxidant potential have received a great deal of attention. On the other hand, marine botanicals have been less well characterized and still remain as terra incognita.

RECENT ADVANCES
In some parts of the world, appreciable quantities of seaweeds are consumed on a daily basis. Along with current globalization, cuisines using seaweeds are now being used throughout the world, sometimes considered as healthy delicacies. Thus, it is relevant to explore the medicinal and pharmacological properties of seaweeds, as well as the health ramifications of this dietary practice.

CRITICAL ISSUES
We currently review the antioxidant potential of seaweed components such as sulfated polysaccharides, phenolic compounds (phlorotannins and bromophenols), and fucoxanthins. In addition to seaweeds, the chemistry and antioxidant activities of some marine fungi and bacteria are described. Since antioxidants are considered promising cancer chemopreventive agents, the in vitro, in vivo, and clinical aspects of antioxidant marine products are presented, and potential implications are discussed.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Although some data suggest that health benefits are derived from the consumption of marine natural products, further epidemiological or clinical studies are needed to strengthen these observations. In addition, many studies have demonstrated the antioxidant effects of seaweeds with in vitro models, but further characterization of bioavailability is necessary to suggest the significance of these responses. It is also important to define the safety of some seaweeds containing inorganic arsenics.


In the present paper we are concerned with I-convergence of sequences of functions in random 2-normed spaces. Particularly, following the line of recent work of Karakaya et al. vatan , we introduce the concepts of ideal uniform convergence and ideal pointwise convergence in the topology induced by random 2-normed spaces, and give some basic properties of these concepts.


Utilization of organic material in crop farming is one of the methods to exploit the local wisdom in agricultural practice. The research was conducted from June to September 2012 in the research farm, State Islamic University of Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau. The objective of the research was to investigate the effects of organic materials and crop density ? in growth and yield on cucumber. Randomized block design with 2 factors and 4 replications was employed in this study. The first factor consists of three levels organic fertilizer treatments i.e. no fertilizer, poultry manure, and compost of oil palm empty bunch. Second factor comprises of three levels of crop density i.e. 1, 2, and 3 plants per pot).. The results showed that there was significant increase on growth and yield on cucumber with poultry manure treatment compare to that of with compost of oil palm empty bunch. Increasing crop density ? improves the number and weight of cucumber yield per pot, even though, some parameters, i.e. number of leaves, stem diameter, crop dry weight, productive number of branches, cucumber size and cucumber weight per plant were significantly decreased.


Abstract We investigated how familiarity alters music and language processing in the brain. We used fMRI to measure brain responses before and after participants were familiarized with novel music and language stimuli. To manipulate the presence of language and music in the stimuli, there were four conditions: (1) whole music (music and words together), (2) instrumental music (no words), (3) a capella music (sung words, no instruments), and (4) spoken words. To manipulate participants' familiarity with the stimuli, we used novel stimuli and a familiarization paradigm designed to mimic "natural" exposure, while controlling for autobiographical memory confounds. Participants completed two fMRI scans that were separated by a stimulus training period. Behaviorally, participants learned the stimuli over the training period. However, there were no significant neural differences between the familiar and unfamiliar stimuli in either univariate or multivariate analyses. There were differences in neural activity in frontal and temporal regions based on the presence of language in the stimuli, and these differences replicated across the two scanning sessions. These results indicate that the way we engage with music is important for creating a memory of that music, and these aspects, over and above familiarity on its own, may be responsible for the robust nature of musical memory in the presence of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease.


Designed primarily to be used alongside a standard school text of the "Antigone, "this first extensive commentary since the Jebb 1891 edition represents a new concept in text commentary. The work is built around seven selected passages specifically chosen to illustrate the poet s diction, the play s ironic structure, and the antagonists character. Grammatical notes, a comprehensive commentary on the literary, philosophical, and historical aspects of the play, and a vocabulary to all the Greek words that appear in the play are designed to acquaint the intermediate student of Greek with the peculiarities of tragic diction and vocabulary."


Although the nautical activity in Spain shows some positive conditions, it lacks a strategic and clear positioning because of the fact that there is no nautical culture and the integration of the product in the country is in an incipient phase. Until now, the economic literature, although developed in analysing efficiency, productivity and seaport competition benchmarking, has taken no care either with the strategic aspect or with the positioning of the seaports with respect to their main activity. The aim of this paper is to offer first evidence regarding the analysis of the determinants of the strategic seaport specialisation as chosen by its users. The paper uses data from a survey to 400 potential users of a Catalan seaport, estimates a multinomial logit model and offers a new benchmarking in order to obtain first evidence regarding the analysis of the determinants of the strategic seaport specialisation.


We propose an approach to fair classification that enforces independence between the classifier outputs and sensitive information by minimizing Wasserstein-1 distances. The approach has desirable theoretical properties and is robust to specific choices of the threshold used to obtain class predictions from model outputs. We introduce different methods that enable hiding sensitive information at test time or have a simple and fast implementation. We show empirical performance against different fairness baselines on several benchmark fairness datasets.


This research explores two separate but related lines of enquiry - the business value of individual applications and the social and organisational impact of information systems. From this research it is clear that information systems have immense potential to change organisations. The conventional view focuses on the value that organisations can obtain through greater efficiency or new activities made possible by specific applications. But experience suggests that many organisations fail to gain the value expected. This research was started with the aim of attaining a greater understanding of the business value that information systems could offer organisations and finding ways by which organisations could assess and realise this value. The research has adopted a variety of methodological approaches and this integrating paper assesses the choices made and locates the papersin relation to the literature on information systems research methodology. The nine research papers taken together demonstrate that is business value is a complex concept and difficult to measure in practice. The research finds that the business and organisational environments are key factors in achieving the business value to be reaped from the range of benefits that each type of IS application offers. The research also demonstrates why IS evaluation practice continues to pose problems for researchers and practitioners. This integrating paper situates the work within the relevant literature on information systems research, assesses the contribution of the research papers to information systems research and concludes with a discussion of future research that flows from this work.


When corporate governance is effective, it helps safeguard shareholders, customers, and employees without hindering appropriate risk-taking. But when it is ineffective, it can have a disastrous impact on these key stakeholders and on the long-term viability of the enterprise. This year's Conference on Bank Structure and Competition brought some of the nation's top policymakers and bankers together to discuss corporate governance reform and the role of financial firms and regulators.


The multifractal analysis is applied to the study of geomechanical monitoring time series. Estimation of singularity spectra parameters within moving time window for this monitoring time series provides a possibility for splitting the history of observations into few adjacent fragments which could reflect e.g. hidden different states of the rock massif in the vicinity of measuring station. In this contribution, analysis of time series of measured distances is presented. A laser distance meter is used for measuring the height of a large chamber in the medieval Jeroným Mine (Czech Republic). This time series separation into individual segments using singularity spectra parameters is important for possible comprehensive analysis of data in individual time periods and/or between individual time periods.


A direct Z-scheme BiOI–CdS photocatalyst has been successfully synthesized by an electrostatic interaction mechanism and used for selective photoelectrochemical sensing of Cu2+. The BiOI–CdS photocatalyst shows higher photocatalytic activity and photoelectrochemical performance than pure CdS and BiOI. The photocurrent intensity generated by the BiOI–CdS-3 electrode is about 62 and 10 times of those induced by BiOI and CdS under visible-light irradiation, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is attributed to the formation of a hierarchical direct Z-scheme BiOI–CdS photocatalyst and its high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area, which benefit the efficient spatial separation of charge and capture of visible-light. Moreover, a photoelectrochemical sensor is developed based on the selective replacement reaction between Cu2+ and CdS. The photoelectrochemical sensor is easily fabricated and presents good selectivity, acceptable detection range (0.1–100 μM) and detection limit (0.02 μM). It has been applied to the detection of Cu2+ ions in drinking water with a satisfactory result.


The activity of deoxycytidine aminohydrolase in the liver of various species including man was investigated. An enormously high activity was found in human liver. This fact explains the extraordinarily low level of deoxycytidine in human urine in comparison with that of other tested species. The suitability of deoxycitidinuria as a biochemical indicator of postirradiation damage in man remains, therefore, an open question.


Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy deteriorates significantly in dense urban areas and it is almost unavailable inside buildings. Thus, an alternative accurate navigation system for such GPS-denied systems is of great importance. In this paper, the popular IEEE 802.11 WLAN (WiFi) is utilized along with a MEMS-based reduced inertial sensors system (RISS) to provide an accurate and smooth positioning system for wheeled vehicles inside buildings based on WiFi received signal strength (RSS). The WiFi/RISS integration is performed based on a fast version of Mixture Particle Filter (PF) which is a nonlinear non-Gaussian filtering algorithm that handles well the complex MEMS inertial sensors and WiFi stochastic nature. The proposed system was physically implemented on an embedded system on an OMAP 600 MHz processor board and tested on a mobile robot. Results show that drifts of RISS are greatly removed and the scattered noisy WiFi positioning is significantly smoothed. Experiments show that the integrated system can provide smooth indoor positioning of 2m accuracy 60% of time.


ISO/DIS 1996-2.2 (2005) "Acoustics — Description, assessment and measurement of environmental noise — Determination of environmental noise levels" contains guidelines on assessing the uncertainties of the determined sound pressure levels. This depends on the sound source, measurement time interval, weather conditions, distance from the source, measurement method and instrumentation. Guidelines on estimating the measurement uncertainty are given. Four main sources of uncertainty (reproducibility, operating conditions, weather and ground conditions, and residual sound) are combined to determine the overall uncertainty. Reproducibility represents the influence of the operator, equipment at the same place under constant conditions. A value for IEC 61672-1 "Electroacoustics – Sound level meters – Part 1: Specifications" class 1 instrumentation is given. Operating conditions are determined from minimum 3, preferably 5, measurements under repeatable conditions and at a position where variations in meteorological conditions have little influence on results. Uncertainty due to weather and ground conditions depends upon the measurement distance and the prevailing meteorology. A method using a simplified meteo window is provided. Uncertainty due to residual sound varies depending on the difference between measured total values and the residual sound but no more specific guidelines on determining the uncertainty due to residual sound have been developed. This paper proposes a method compliant with ISO 1996 and shows initial results of investigations to determine the effects of instrumentation class. It will be shown that the choice of instrumentation greatly affects the uncertainty due to residual sound as this approaches the specific sound, and thus is an important influence on overall uncertainty.


The drainage of a thin liquid film with an insoluble monolayer down a vertical wall is studied. Lubrication theory is used to develop a model where the film is pinned at the top with a given thickness and the film drains into a bath at the bottom. A nonlinear equation of state is used for the surface tension and the surface viscosity is a nonlinear function of the surfactant concentration; these are appropriate for some aqueous systems. The three partial differential equations are solved via discretization in space and then the resulting differential algebraic system is solved. Results are described for a wide range of parameters, and the conditions under which the free surface is immobilized are discussed.


Every two-variable rational inner function on the bidisk has a special representation called a unitary transfer function realization. It is well known and related to important ideas in operator theory that this does not extend to three or more variables on the polydisk. We study the class of rational inner functions on the polydisk which do possess a unitary realization (the Schur-Agler class) and investigate minimality in their representations. Schur-Agler class rational inner functions in three or more variables cannot be represented in a way that is as minimal as two variables might suggest.


The recent and rapid enhancement in power conversion efficiencies of organic-based, bulk-heterojunction solar cells has been a consequence of both improved materials design and better understanding of the underlying physical processes involved in photocurrent generation. In this Perspective, we first present an overview of the application of quantum-chemical techniques to study the intrinsic material properties and molecular- and nano-scale processes involved in device operation. In the second part, these quantum-chemical tools are applied to an oligomer-based study on a collection of donor–acceptor copolymers that have been used in the highest-efficiency solar cell devices reported to date. The quantum-chemical results are found to be in good agreement with the empirical data related to the electronic and optical properties. In particular, they provide insight into the natures of the electronic excitations responsible for the near-infrared/visible absorption profiles, as well as into the energetics of the low-lying singlet and triplet states. These results lead to a better understanding of the inherent differences among the materials, and highlight the usefulness of quantum chemistry as an instrument for material design. Importantly, the results also point to the need to continue the development of integrated, multiscale modeling approaches to provide a thorough understanding of the materials properties.


Objective: Cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, inhalants and cocaine are the most commonly used substances among high school students in Jamaica. However, there is limited evidence on their co-use and whether the use of one drug predicts the use of the others (multiple substance use). This study aimed to determine whether cannabis use predicts the co-use of the other substances. Methods: We analysed data from the National Secondary School Survey 2013, Jamaica, using inferential statistics to determine associations. Results: Lifetime cannabis use was significantly associated with lifetime cigarette use for males (X2 = 282.72, p = 0.000) and females (X2 = 434.32, p = 0.000). Similarly, it was significantly associated with: (a) lifetime use of alcohol for males (X2 = 88.62, p = 0.000) and females (X2 = 99.48, p = 0.000); (b) lifetime use of inhalants for males (X2 = 13.28, p = 0.00) and females (X2 = 49.56, p = 0.00); and (c) lifetime cocaine use for males (X2 = 9.78, p = 0.00) and females (X2 = 64.54, p = 0.00). Past-month (recent) use of cannabis was significantly associated with past-month use of cigarettes and alcohol, but not inhalants, for males and females. Logistic regression results showed that lifetime cannabis use was a risk factor for lifetime use of cigarettes (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 11.38; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.02, 14.37) and alcohol (AOR: 5.84; 95% CI: 4.11, 8.30), but a strong protective factor against lifetime use of inhalants and cocaine. Past-month use of cannabis was a strong protective factor against pastmonth use of cigarettes and alcohol. Conclusion: Lifetime cannabis use was significantly associated with multiple substance use and was shown to be a risk factor for lifetime use of cigarettes and of alcohol. However, adolescents who reported recent (past-month) use of cannabis were less likely to report recent use of alcohol and cigarettes. These findings suggest the need for research to further explore the role cannabis plays in multiple drug use and offer more concrete explanations for its role.


Supply chain management (SCM) research has tended to focus on the planning and management of a broad range of activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and management of logistics. However, the domain is increasingly recognising the importance of coordination and collaboration between channel partners. As such, there is a need to better understand how channel partners make decisions; and in particular, whether there is an alignment in the expectations of these partners. In this study we use a form of discrete choice analyses to explore the relative importance of various supply chain components for buyers of a third party logistics services. Our research approach overcomes many of the limitations seen in previous studies that rely on simple rankings by survey respondents. The findings suggest that suppliers need to better understand the preference structures of their customers.


Defective control of T cell apoptosis is considered to be one of the pathogenetic mechanisms in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Oestrogen has been known to predispose women to SLE and also to exacerbate activity of SLE; however, the role of oestrogen in the apoptosis of SLE T cells has not yet been documented. In this study, we investigated the direct effect of oestrogen on the activation‐induced cell death of T cells in SLE patients. The results demonstrated that oestradiol decreased the apoptosis of SLE T cells stimulated with phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA) plus ionomycin in a dose‐dependent manner. In addition, oestradiol down‐regulated the expression of Fas ligand (FasL) in activated SLE T cells at the both protein and mRNA levels. In contrast, testosterone increased FasL expression dose‐dependently in SLE T cells stimulated with PMA plus ionomycin. The inhibitory effect of oestradiol on FasL expression was mediated through binding to its receptor, as co‐treatment of tamoxifen, an oestrogen receptor inhibitor, completely nullified the oestradiol‐induced decrease in FasL mRNA expression. Moreover, pre‐treatment of FasL‐transfected L5178Y cells with either oestradiol or anti‐FasL antibody inhibited significantly the apoptosis of Fas‐sensitive Hela cells when two types of cells were co‐cultured. These data suggest that oestrogen inhibits activation‐induced apoptosis of SLE T cells by down‐regulating the expression of FasL. Oestrogen inhibition of T cell apoptosis may allow for the persistence of autoreactive T cells, thereby exhibiting the detrimental action of oestrogen on SLE activity.


We utilize spectroscopically derived model atmosphere parameters and the Li i λ6104 subordinate line and the λ6708 doublet to derive lithium abundances for 12 members of the Upper Centaurus Lupus and Lower Centaurus Crux subgroups of the Scorpius–Centaurus OB Association. The results indicate any intrinsic Li scatter in our 0.9–1.4 M☉ stars is limited to ∼0.15 dex, consistent with the lack of dispersion in ⩾1.0 M☉ stars in the 100 Myr Pleiades and 30–50 Myr IC 2391 and 2602 clusters. Both ab initio uncertainty estimates and the derived abundances themselves indicate that the λ6104 line yields abundances with equivalent or less scatter than is found from the λ6708 doublet as a result of lower uncertainties for the subordinate feature, a result of low sensitivity to broadening in the subordinate feature. Because non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) corrections are less susceptible to changes in surface gravity and/or metallicity for the 6104 Å line, the subordinate Li feature is preferred for deriving lithium abundances in young Li-rich stellar association stars with Teff ⩾ 5200 K. At these temperatures, we find no difference between the Li abundances derived from the two Li i lines. For cooler stars, having temperatures at which main-sequence dwarfs show abundance patterns indicating overexcitation and overionization, the λ6104-based Li abundances are ∼0.4 dex lower than those derived from the λ6708 doublet. The trends of the abundances from each feature with Teff suggest that this difference is due to (near)UV photoionization, which in NLTE preferentially ionizes Li atoms in the subordinate 2p state relative to the 2s resonance line state due to opacity effects. Consequently, this overionization of Li in the 2p state, apparently not adequately accounted for in NLTE corrections, weakens the λ6104 feature in cooler stars. Accordingly, the λ6708-based abundances may give more reliable estimates of the mean Li abundance in cool young stars. Our mean Li abundance, log N(Li) =3.50 ± 0.07 is ∼0.2 dex larger than the meteoritic value. While stellar models suggest that Li depletion of at least 0.4 dex, and possibly much larger, should have occurred in our lowest mass star(s), our Li abundances show no decline with decreasing mass indicative of such depletion.


This paper examines the extent of international consumption risk sharing for a group of 50 industrial and developing countries. The analysis is based on the empirical implementation of a model of partial consumption insurance whose parameters have the natural interpretation of coefficients of partial risk sharing even when the null hypothesis of perfect risk sharing is rejected. Estimation results show that rich countries exhibit higher degrees of risk sharing than developing countries, and that the gap between both country groups appears to have widened over the period of financial globalization. Moreover, the pattern of consumption risk sharing is related to the degree of financial openness: countries with larger stocks of foreign assets or liabilities exhibit larger degrees of risk sharing. Furthermore, countries whose foreign asset stocks are more tilted towards foreign direct investment assets also show higher degrees of consumption risk sharing.


Whereas MHC proteins present peptides to T cells, the CD1 family of proteins, comprising CD1a through CD1e, is thought to present lipids (foreign and self) to T cells. Park and Bendelac review the recent advances in solving the enigma of CD1 functions. Evidence suggests that CD1-lipid-binding specificity is conferred by the lipid polar head group and perhaps up to four branched carbohydrate chains. Although each CD1 family member appears to bind different lipids (e.g., CD1b recognizes phosphatidylinositolmannosides, and CD1c recognizes hexose-1-phosphoisoprenoids), in some cases, different CD1 proteins can overlap with regard to binding specificity--ceramide-incorporating lipids are bound by CD1b and CD1d. CD1 proteins apparently localize to different parts of the endocytic pathway; proper cycling of these proteins to the plasma membrane requires a COOH-terminal tyrosine. Park and Bendelac also discuss the potential use of CD1 proteins as receptors for lipid vehicle vaccines. Park, S.-H., and Bendelac, A. (2000) CD1-restricted T-cell responses and microbial infection. Nature 406: 788-792. [Online Journal]


The criminal defendant's right to a jury trial is enshrined within the U.S. Constitution as a protection for the defendant against arbitrary and harsh convictions and punishments. The jury trial has been praised throughout U.S. history for allowing the community to democratically participate in the criminal justice system and for insulating criminal defendants from government oppression. This Article asks whether the jury selection process is consistent with the defendant-protection justification for the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. Currently, the prosecution and defense share equal control over jury selection. Looking to the literal text of the Sixth Amendment, the landmark case on the right to a jury trial, and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure for guidance, this Article explains that jury selection procedures undermine the defendant-protection rationale for the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. Because the Sixth Amendment grants this right personally to the defendant and the Supreme Court has construed this right as intending to protect the defendant from governmental overreach, the prosecution should not be entitled to select the very jury that is supposed to serve as a check against its power. After concluding that symmetrical power in jury selection undermines the constitutional purpose of the jury trial, this Article proposes two possible remedies.


This study focuses on the risk of automation and its interaction with training and the use of skills at work. Building on the expert assessment carried out by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne in 2013, the paper estimates the risk of automation for individual jobs based on the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The analysis improves on other international estimates of the individual risk of automation by using a more disaggregated occupational classification and identifying the same automation bottlenecks emerging from the experts' discussion. Hence, it more closely aligns to the initial assessment of the potential automation deriving from the development of Machine Learning. Furthermore, this study investigates the same methodology using national data from Germany and United Kingdom, providing insights into the robustness of the results.The risk of automation is estimated for the 32 OECD countries that have participated in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) so far. Beyond the share of jobs likely to be significantly disrupted by automation of production and services, the accent is put on characteristics of these jobs and the characteristics of the workers who hold them. The risk is also assessed against the use of ICT at work and the role of training in helping workers transit to new career opportunities.


According to hitherto available data, health expenditures in Pakistan are relatively low in international comparison. Data1F published by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the year 2005 shows a lack of Pakistani health expenditures in most indicators, compared to other low-income countries (LIC). To answer the question whether these results reflect the real situation in Pakistan or whether they exist due to statistical problems, Pakistan, for the first time, developed its National Health Accounts (NHA) in 2009. Only the availability of good estimates of health expenditures allows for evidence-based policy-making and therefore good governance.The results clearly indicate that the situation in Pakistan is better than what was earlier estimated; however, the total health expenditure (THE) is still low compared to neighboring countries and other LIC. As a result, it is clear that the WHO health expenditure figures for Pakistan are understated, because they mainly comprise public and household out-of-pocket expenditures on health. Expenditures of many other entities, like military, cantonment boards, autonomous bodies, private hospitals, and so on, have not been taken into account in earlier estimations. Therefore, expenditure figures of NHA Pakistan are higher than those of WHO. Overall, the official NHA results show that THE is 27 percent higher than the WHO figure.Furthermore, this paper cross-checks NHA results with other already available data sources on household expenditure. This comparison includes preliminary results of the Family Budget Survey (FBS), which also includes health items as well as National Accounts (NA) data. In line with this comparison, we calculate a raising factor that can be used for the adjustment of NHA results according to NA. The raised NHA result shows 102 percent higher out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on health; this would result in OOP health expenditures of $25.15 USD per capita (compared to only $12.45 USD per capita in the NHA estimation). This result, based on the NA figure with $33 USD THE per capita, leads to a different evaluation in international comparison, since it nearly reaches the level of India, with $37.5 USD and more than the average of all LIC with $27 USD.


This paper re-evaluates existing theories of immersion and related concepts in the medium-specific context of digital-born fiction. In the context of our AHRC-funded "Reading Digital Fiction" project (2014-17) (Ref: AH/K004174/1), we carried out an empirical reader response study of One to One Development Trust's immersive three-dimensional (3D) digital fiction installation, WALLPAPER (2015). Working with reading groups in the Sheffield area (UK), we used methods of discourse analysis to examine readers' verbal responses to experiencing the installation, paying particular attention to how participants described experiences pertaining to different types of immersion explicitly and implicitly. We explain our findings by proposing the idea of a switchboard metaphor for immersive experiences, comprising layers and dynamic elements of convergence and divergence. Resulting from our analysis, we describe immersion as a complex, hybrid, and dynamic phenomenon. We flag the need for a more discriminating treatment of specific types of immersion in medium-specific contexts, including a distinction between literary and narrative immersion, and collaborative and social immersion (Thon 2008). We argue that literary immersion is needed as a separate immersive category because it differs from narrative immersion, and is far more linked to the activity of cognitive word processing. Similarly, we introduce collaborative immersion as an additional immersive category to reflect attention shifts towards site-specific, human interactions. Finally, our data shows the importance of site-, situation-, and person-specific constraints influencing reader-players' ongoing ability to establish and retain immersion in the storyworld.


Sensitive statistics are often collected across sets of users, with repeated collection of reports done over time. For example, trends in users' private preferences or software usage may be monitored via such reports. We study the collection of such statistics in the local differential privacy (LDP) model, and describe an algorithm whose privacy cost is polylogarithmic in the number of changes to a user's value.

More fundamentally---by building on anonymity of the users' reports---we also demonstrate how the privacy cost of our LDP algorithm can actually be much lower when viewed in the central model of differential privacy. We show, via a new and general privacy amplification technique, that any permutation-invariant algorithm satisfying e-local differential privacy will satisfy [MATH HERE]-central differential privacy. By this, we explain how the high noise and [MATH HERE] overhead of LDP protocols is a consequence of them being significantly more private in the central model. As a practical corollary, our results imply that several LDP-based industrial deployments may have much lower privacy cost than their advertised e would indicate---at least if reports are anonymized.


This Article builds upon Philip C. Jessup's revolutionary scholarship to pave new pathways for interdisciplinary research and expand the normative constitutional framework of universal human problems. To that end, this Article ties American constitutional theory to the new era of international globalization and provides context that facilitates the discussion of racial and ethnic diversity in education from a domestic and international perspective. By arguing for compelling treatment of diversity in elementary and secondary learning institutions, this Article introduces a new theory of constitutional interpretation vis-a-vis international law. This theory, called metanationalism, rejects Harold Koh's theory of transnationalism and demonstrates that nationalism and transnationalism are not two mutually exclusive concepts at opposite ends of a linear spectrum of constitutional theory. Contrary to Koh's postulate, metanationalism conceptualizes these two theories as components in a multidimensional paradigm where such theories exist to broaden and enrich legal analysis. Applying metanationalism, this Article argues that existing literature overlooks diversity's role in the global education-rights movement and focuses on India as a case study. Lastly, this Article analyzes a recent trend in U.S. constitutional law to advocate revisiting the current Equal Protection landscape.


Monoclonal antibody 1-12-3 reactive against scup (Stenotomus chrysops) cytochrome P450 E (a teleost CYP IA1) has been used to immunohistochemically localize CYP IA1 within hepatocytes and presumably sinusoidal endothelial and biliary epithelial cells of scup and trout. The goal of the present study was to extend immunohistochemical studies to the ultrastructural level determining intracellular locations of CYP IA1 in fish liver. Juvenile trout (5-10 g) were given i.p. injections once (50 micrograms/g b beta-naphthoflavone in cod liver oil; 0.5-ml injectate volume). After 5 days, livers were fixed (0.25% glutaraldehyde) via vascular in situ perfusion, removed, cut in 100-microns slices, infiltrated, and embedded in LR White monomer. Ultrathin sections of exposed livers were incubated in monoclonal antibody 1-12-3, rabbit anti-mouse IgG, and protein G colloidal gold. Membranes of granular endoplasmic reticulum in perinuclear regions of hepatocytes were consistently labeled. In addition, hepatocyte plasma membrane, particularly microvilli at bile canaliculi, was labeled. Biliary epithelial cells were labeled on luminal plasma membrane surrounding biliary passageway. Plasma membrane facing sinusoid and immediately subjacent cytoplasm was labeled in endothelial cells. Presence of CYP IA1 in sinusoidal endothelium could contribute to detoxication and/or bioactivation of blood borne chemicals. Granular endoplasmic reticulum was not uniformly labeled in hepatocytes. Rather, distribution seemed sequestered within highly specific regions and not dispersed along all membrane surfaces. Localization within biliary epithelial cells could signify potential of this cell type to bioactivate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and may explain the common finding of biliary as well as hepatocytic tumors of trout liver.


Pulmonary surfactant dysfunction may significantly contribute to small airway obstruction during the asthmatic response, but neither its exact role nor its regulation is clear. Surfactant function and composition was studied in an Aspergillus fumigatus (Af)-induced late-phase allergic airway response in sensitized BALB/c mice. The peak of Af-induced airway hyperresponsiveness in sensitized and challenged mice 24 h after allergen provocation coincided with a significant fall in surface activity of the pulmonary surfactant. The underlying changes included time-dependent elaboration of eotaxin and IL-5 followed by eosinophil influx into the airways. The height of airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness was preceded by release of IL-4 and marked reductions in surfactant protein (SP)-B, a hydrophobic surfactant protein responsible for maintaining low surface tension of the lining fluid of distal air spaces. Furthermore, intratracheal administration of IL-4 significantly inhibited SP-B, indicating a regulatory role of this cytokine in the surfactant biophysical changes. Thus surfactant dysfunction induced by an IL-4-driven SP-B deficiency after allergen provocation may be an important part of the late asthmatic airway response.


Measurements of the total burden and of the concentration versus altitude profiles of ozone have been made with a ground-based heterodyne radiometer at Pasadena, California. The measurements were made in the 9.5-micrometer wavelength region, where a strong ozone infrared absorption band exists. The radiometer measured solar absorption at selected wavelengths, with a spectral resolution of 0.001 reciprocal centimeter, equivalent to the half-width of an ozone absorption line at the 10-millibar altitude level. A carbon dioxide laser served as the local oscillator. This technique can be used to gather important data on both tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, which are not readily accessible with other remote-sensing techniques.


Plasmonic nanostructures are of considerable interest due to their unique
mechanism for light interaction and the considerable number of applications that result
from, or are enhanced by, these interactions. Extensive work has been reported on the
synthesis, modeling, and utilization of various morphologies of plasmonic structures. As
such, there is an increasing need to better define the optical properties of these materials
to better understand and refine current theories in order to adapt to future applications.
Herein the synthesis of Ag:SiO2:Ag core:spacer:shell (CSS) nanoparticles of varying
geometries is reported. CSS synthesis utilizes an adaptation of the hydrogen reduction
method and results in highly crystalline particles free of surface-modifying groups. This
is advantageous as any molecule on the surface of the particle will influence the
plasmonic properties. Extinction efficiencies of the composite CSS particles as well as
the effect of varying shell and spacer thicknesses on the relative ratio of the scattering and absorptive plasmon relaxation modes are reported. Likewise, the relationship
between CSS particle geometry and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)
enhancement factor is explored.


Energy efficiency plays a major role in policies to mitigate climate change and to secure future energy supply. Understanding energy use behaviour and appliance energy use is vital to policy design. The drivers of energy use in household sector are complex. Households use energy for comfort, health and entertainment in contrast to, the uses of energy for making a profit in industrial and commercial sectors. As a part of this study a model was developed identifying the major drivers of household energy use. Household income and behaviour, house size, appliance technology and appliance energy efficiency are few factors that can influence household energy consumption patterns. Many OECD countries have managed to restrain traditional household energy end-uses such as space and water heating. However, IEA studies have indicated energy used by information, communication and entertainment appliances continue to increase. Television energy use was chosen for this study because it is widely used and operates together with many other associated appliances. This analysis draws from the New Zealand Television Energy Usage and Purchasing Survey to understand the current trends and patterns of television usage. The survey suggests television and associated appliance ownership and usage is increasing. Analysis draws from the survey to quantify TV energy use in New Zealand. This study illustrates how household behaviour, technology and size affects household energy use. The survey also demonstrate how households associate energy use with environmental impact. Some OECD data on household energy was used to analyse and contrast New Zealand's patterns in a wider context.


By the aid of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and the colloid probe technique, the interaction forces between bovine serum albumin (BSA) layers adsorbed on different substrates (silica and polystyrene) have been measured directly as a function of pH and salt concentration. Electrostatic and steric forces dominate the interactions at low salt concentrations. At high salt concentrations, when electrostatic interactions are screened, a very strange behaviour is found as a function of pH. The behaviour around the i.e.p. of the protein is also very striking: the interaction is attractive at low salt concentration, but it is repulsive at high salt concentration. These results could be explained if the presence of hydration forces is assumed. Theoretical predictions including a hydration term in the DLVO theory fit the experimental results satisfactorily.