PURPOSE
To determine the effect of age on the outcome of autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) and/or peripheral-blood progenitor-cell (PBPC) transplantation.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A retrospective analysis was performed on 500 consecutive patients who ranged in age from 1 to 65 years (median, 40) with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), Hodgkin's disease (HD), multiple myeloma (MM), or acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (AML) who underwent autologous hematopoietic-cell transplant procedures at Stanford University Medical Center.

RESULTS
The actuarial 5-year event-free survival (EFS) rate was 44%, the relapse rate 47%, and the regimen-related mortality (RRM) rate 8.6%. Disease status at time of transplantation, categorized as either minimal or advanced disease, was the strongest predictive factor for EFS (relative risk (RR) for advanced-disease group, 1.8; P < .0003) and relapse rate (RR for advanced-disease group, 1.9; P < .0004). Patients with minimal or advanced disease had an EFS rate of 48% and 30% and relapse rates of 43% and 72%, respectively. The EFS rate of patients less than 50 years verus > or = 50 years of age was 46% versus 34% (P = .03). Cox regression analysis showed that age was predictive for EFS (RR for patients 50 to 65 years, 1.4; P = .03). The actuarial RRM rate for these age groups was 7.4% versus 12.7% (P = .07), respectively. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that age (odds ratio [OR] for patients 50 to 65 years, 1.9; P < .05) and period of transplantation (OR for most recent years [1991 to 1995], 0.6; P = .06) were the most predictive factors for RRM.

CONCLUSION
Although age greater than 50 years is associated with an inferior outcome following autologous hematopoietic-cell transplantation, it does not appear to be warranted to limit this potentially curative procedure based solely on age. The upper age limit of high-dose therapy with autologous progenitor-cell and/ or bone marrow support remains to be defined.


ABSTRACTData-domain elastic wavefield tomography is an effective method for updating multiparameter elastic models that exploits much of the information provided by observed multicomponent data. However, poor illumination of the subsurface by P- and S-waves often prevents reliable updates of the model parameters. Moreover, differences in illumination, amplitude, and wavelength between P- and S-waves can distort the intrinsic physical relationships between the reconstructed model parameters. We have developed a method for elastic isotropic wavefield tomography that explicitly constrains the relationship between P- and S-wave velocities. By incorporating a model constraint term in the objective function, we confine P- and S-velocity updates to a physical area defined by prior information, for example, by laboratory measurements or well logs. We have determined that this physical constraint yields models that are more physically plausible, compared with models obtained using only the data misfit objective fu...


The designer of lattice trusses has been traditionally encouraged to avoid extra joint bending moments by ensuring 'noding' of member centre lines. This can however cause problems in the design of RHS trusses with small (economical) branch members by causing large gaps at joints with undesirable flexibility for slender chord walls. 100% overlap joints overcome this problem while still maintaining economic single cut branch ends.

The research programme set out first to highlight the difference in behaviour of trusses with large gap noding and completely overlapping joints. Two similar trusses - one gap, the other lap - with matched sections were tested to failure. It was concluded that the gap joint truss (branch/chord width ratio = 0.4) was much less efficient than the corresponding 100% overlap truss despite the large eccentricities. The collapse load of the latter was some 35% greater, while the stiffness properties were better, and remained linear for a substantial proportion of the loading. On the other hand the gap joint truss soon became non-linear, with large overall deflections. Local connecting chord wall deflections were quite small in the lap joints while appreciable deflections occurred at gap joints under service loads.

Elastic frame analyses were carried out for all the six test trusses (one gap and five lap). For the overlap trusses, axial forces and bending moments could be predicted fairly accurately but a non-linear analysis was required for the gap jointed truss even at fairly modest loads. The effects of s ratio, chord slenderness and branch angle were all examined within the parameter range tested. The advantages of truss continuity moments as well as plastic redistribution of moments have been observed to reduce the occurrence of the local chord buckling mode of failure (L7), compared with previous isolated joint tests.

Results obtained from tests on isolated joints can give good agreement with those obtained from truss tests, both with respect to strength and failure mode. However, as the isolated joint testing cannot always reproduce the support conditions in a truss, the failure modes (and hence strengths) can differ.

The current CIDECT design strength equations and recommendations for gap and overlap joints are largely based on the results of isolated joint testing. The suitability of the CIDECT strength equations and recommendations for designing RHS lattice trusses has been reviewed. Consequently, for the 100% overlap joint trusses a simple design method has been presented in conjunction with practical design recommendations. The problems associated with the analysis and design of the gap joint truss are described in detail.


The independence of non-executive directors has long been a concern. The independent directors are not only required to be independent from management but also free from any other relationships which can interfere with their objectivity. Recently, the concern has been focused on long tenure of independent directors. Regulators seem to believe that long tenure may impair independence, hence attempts to limit the tenure have been recommended, even though it has not been made mandatory. However, theories concerning long tenure are contradictory and empirical evidences are weak. Earlier studies are based on theory-driven approach, which only examines the association between directors' tenure and proxies of financial reporting quality. This study on the other hand, proposes a different approach based on earnings response coefficient model which not only examines investors' perceptions but also their reactions. This is based on the widely accepted independence model where independence should not only be in the form of fact but also appearance. The interaction between directors' tenure and earnings performance is hypothesized to have a significant negative relationship with the cumulative abnormal return. Low perceived earnings quality in financial accounts from long tenure by investors is expected to result in lower coefficient of earnings. This study will provide additional literature and knowledge on the effect of independent directors' tenure. It can assist regulators in revising the requirement for directors' tenure.


In this paper, we propose an approach for evaluating the trade-offs inherent in different approaches used to match Current Population Survey (CPS) respondents across various CPS surveys. Because there is some measurement error in both the variables used the identify individuals over time and in the characteristics of individuals at any point in time, any procedure used to match CPS respondents has the possibility of both generating incorrect matches and failing to generate potentially valid matches. We propose using the information contained in the variable on whether an individual lived in the same house on March 1 of the previous year as a way to gauge these trade-offs. We find that as measured by reported residence one year ago, increasing the fraction of "invalid" merges that are rejected usually comes at a cost of decreasing the fraction of "valid" merges that are retained. However, there are clearly some approaches that are superior to others in the sense that they result in both a higher fraction of "invalid" merges being rejected and a higher fraction of "valid" merges being retained.


Electron paramagnetic resonance difference spectroscopy of diferric human serum transferrin indicates that certain inorganic anions alter the electronic environment of the ion centers of the protein by binding to specific anion sites. The binding of these anions (thiocyanate, perchlorate, adenosinetriphosphate, pyrophosphate, and chloride) is shown to occur pairwise with high positive cooperativity, an observation unique to nonstereospecific anion-protein interactions. It is shown that human serum transferrin has binding sites for four nonsynergistic anions, two in each domain. The association constants are reported. It is unlikely that the anions bind to a significant extent at the sites occupied by the synergistic anion since none of them facilitates iron binding in the absence of bicarbonate. It is more likely that these anions bind to positively charged amino acids or possibly to amide dipoles of the protein. The free energy of association of these anions follows the lyotropic series which is approximately the same sequence for the affinity of anions for positively charged sites on proteins. 31-P NMR spectroscopy reveals that the locus of interaction is near the iron centers and confirms that both sites are effected. In solutions containing an NTA:transferrin concentration of 4:1 no paramagnetic enhancement in the 31-P relaxation rate is observed. NTA also negates the response of the EPR spectrum to the above anions. Cooperativity in anion binding is also observed at pH 7.5 but at pH 9, no cooperativity is evident. A competitive binding study between pyrophosphate and transferrin for iron is presented. The results reveal that the thermodynamics of iron binding to transferrin is dependent on the concentration of pyrophosphate, the pH of the solution and the bicarbonate concentration.


"Type is the tie or ligature between author and reader," writes Hermann Zapf, "and it is much to be desired that readers become more critical and gradually more sensitive about the choice of type in a book. In this connection the question arises whether our modern book production shows generally that unity of content and form common, for example, among the books of the 15th and 16th and even later centuries. Why is this unity generally lost? And is it not an anachronism when Albert Einstein's relativity theory, or works by Bertrand Russell, Pasternak and other such are printed with types of historic design?...Books of historical content, books that seek to produce a certain mood or atmosphere in the reader, such books may continue to be set in historical or classical types--I do this myself in my own typographic works. On the other hand there are available so many devices expressive of our time that we ought not to banish them when we design books for our time."The designing of typographic devices and books "for our time" has been Hermann Zapf's central commitment as an artist. In this book he displays his art--he designed the book, which is set in a typeface of his own devising, Linotype Optima. The book is illustrated with type specimens from other fonts he has designed, and the text is both an autobiographical account of his artistic development and a statement of principles.First published in 1960 in a limited, numbered edition by The Typophiles, the book is now presented in a revised edition for the growing number of readers, printers, and designers who have become sensitive and sophisticated in matters of type. They will particularly be able to appreciate the author's versatility of form and graphic statement as reflected in the type styles illustrated here, including such famous faces as Palatino, Melior, Saphir, Aldus, and Optima. Other faces are also illustrated, some embodying Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic characters. There are in addition some double-page working drawings showing changes and alterations in the author's hand and several specimen page layouts.


Since the identification of segregation on asphalt pavements has been based on visual observations around the world, it is essential to develop a quantitative method to detect the presence and severity of segregation. The nonnuclear density device was selected for the field measurements at nine test sites, and cores were taken for laboratory testing. The nonnuclear density difference between segregated and control areas was found to increase with increasing the segregation severity. For medium or heavy segregated areas, the nonnuclear density difference was more than 90 kg/m3. In medium or heavy segregated areas, the air voids increased by 20 % and the indirect tensile strength decreased by 8 % as compared to the control areas. The criterion to detect segregation was based on the statistical differences in nonnuclear measured density values with a p-value 0.05. If a statistical difference in nonnuclear density between segregated and control areas existed, the chance of aggregate gradation difference in percent passing the 3/8 in., No. 4 and No. 8 sieves for medium and heavy segregation was 78 and 64 %, respectively. In addition to the field nonnuclear density readings, the material properties of asphalt mixtures obtained from 108 cores, including texture depth and percent air voids were selected as independent variables to develop a model to predict the calibrated nonnuclear density difference between the segregated and control areas. This quantitative model holds a great promise as a tool to identify potential areas of segregation using both lab data and field nonnuclear density measurements for quality assurance purposes.


SummaryThe effect of supersedure breeding programmes (replacing each queen with her own daughter) on the maintenance of allelic diversity at the sex-determining locus of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) is analysed. In the models considered, the variances of the allele frequency change at the sex locus (close to equilibrium), and at ordinary loci, have a similar general appearance and they are inversely related to the effective population size. This suggests that supersedure breeding programmes affect genetic variation at the two types of loci qualitatively in a similar way. Quantitatively, the allele frequency changes at the sex locus are affected more strongly by selection than by breeding programmes when the number of sex alleles in the population is relatively small. Computer simulations showed that the time required to reduce the number of alleles of a polymorphic locus by one at either the sex locus or other loci is approximately proportional to the effective population size.


The initial objective of Part I was to determine the nature of
upper mantle discontinuities, the average velocities through the
mantle, and differences between mantle structure under continents
and oceans by the use of P'dP', the seismic core phase P'P' (PKPPKP)
that reflects at depth d in the mantle. In order to accomplish this,
it was found necessary to also investigate core phases themselves
and their inferences on core structure. P'dP' at both single stations
and at the LASA array in Montana indicates that the following zones
are candidates for discontinuities with varying degrees of confidence:
800-950 km, weak; 630-670 km, strongest; 500-600 km, strong but
interpretation in doubt; 350-415 km, fair; 280-300 km, strong, varying
in depth; 100-200 km, strong, varying in depth, may be the bottom of
the low-velocity zone. It is estimated that a single station cannot
easily discriminate between asymmetric P'P' and P'dP' for lead times
of about 30 sec from the main P'P' phase, but the LASA array reduces
this uncertainty range to less than 10 sec. The problems of scatter
of P'P' main-phase times, mainly due to asymmetric P'P', incorrect
identification of the branch, and lack of the proper velocity
structure at the velocity point, are avoided and the analysis shows
that one-way travel of P waves through oceanic mantle is delayed
by 0.65 to 0.95 sec relative to United States mid-continental
mantle. A new P-wave velocity core model is constructed from observed
times, dt/dΔ's, and relative amplitudes of P'; the observed times of
SKS, SKKS, and PKiKP; and a new mantle-velocity determination by
Jordan and Anderson. The new core model is smooth except for a
discontinuity at the inner-core boundary determined to be at a
radius of 1215 km. Short-period amplitude data do not require the
inner core Q to be significantly lower than that of the outer core.
Several lines of evidence show that most, if not all, of the arrivals
preceding the DF branch of P' at distances shorter than 143° are
due to scattering as proposed by Haddon and not due to spherically
symmetric discontinuities just above the inner core as previously
believed. Calculation of the travel-time distribution of scattered
phases and comparison with published data show that the strongest
scattering takes place at or near the core-mantle boundary close to
the seismic station. In Part II, the largest events in the San Fernando earthquake
series, initiated by the main shock at 14 00 41.8 GMT on February 9,
1971, were chosen for analysis from the first three months of
activity, 87 events in all. The initial rupture location coincides
with the lower, northernmost edge of the main north-dipping thrust
fault and the aftershock distribution. The best focal mechanism
fit to the main shock P-wave first motions constrains the fault
plane parameters to: strike, N 67° (± 6°) W; dip, 52° (± 3°) NE;
rake, 72° (67°-95°) left lateral. Focal mechanisms of the aftershocks
clearly outline a downstep of the western edge of the main thrust
fault surface along a northeast-trending flexure. Faulting on this
downstep is left-lateral strike-slip and dominates the strain release
of the aftershock series, which indicates that the downstep limited
the main event rupture on the west. The main thrust fault surface
dips at about 35° to the northeast at shallow depths and probably
steepens to 50° below a depth of 8 km. This steep dip at depth is a
characteristic of other thrust faults in the Transverse Ranges and
indicates the presence at depth of laterally-varying vertical
forces that are probably due to buckling or overriding that causes
some upward redirection of a dominant north-south horizontal
compression. Two sets of events exhibit normal dip-slip motion with
shallow hypocenters and correlate with areas of ground subsidence
deduced from gravity data. Several lines of evidence indicate that
a horizontal compressional stress in a north or north-northwest
direction was added to the stresses in the aftershock area 12 days
after the main shock. After this change, events were contained in
bursts along the downstep and sequencing within the bursts provides
evidence for an earthquake-triggering phenomenon that propagates
with speeds of 5 to 15 km/day. Seismicity before the San Fernando
series and the mapped structure of the area suggest that the downstep
of the main fault surface is not a localized discontinuity but is
part of a zone of weakness extending from Point Dume, near Malibu, to
Palmdale on the San Andreas fault. This zone is interpreted as a
decoupling boundary between crustal blocks that permits them to deform
separately in the prevalent crustal-shortening mode of the Transverse
Ranges region.


Covers the critical information you need to know to score higher on your 70-642 Exam! Configure IPv4 and IPv6 addressing and services Work efficiently with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Manage advanced server features such as Server Core and Hyper-V Configure routing, including RIP and OSPF-based routing Secure networks with firewalls, policies, IPSec, authentication, Network Access Protection, and the Baseline Security Analyzer Configure DNS servers, zones, records, replication, and client computer name resolution Manage remote access, from NAT and VPNs to RRAS and RADIUS services Implement secure wireless access using SSID, WEP, WPA, WPA2, and group policies Configure file and print services, including disk quotas, DFS, and EFS Establish efficient automated backups and manage restores Monitor network performance and events Streamline updates with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)CD Features MeasureUp Practice Questions!Detailed explanations of correct and incorrect answers Multiple test modes Random questions and order of answers Coverage of each 70-642 Exam objective


Austerity, a response to the aftermath of the financial crisis, continues to devastate contemporary Britain.
In The Violence of Austerity, Vickie Cooper and David Whyte bring together the voices of campaigners and academics including Danny Dorling, Mary O'Hara and Rizwaan Sabir to show that rather than stimulating economic growth, austerity policies have led to a dismantling of the social systems that operated as a buffer against economic hardship, exposing austerity to be a form of systematic violence.

Covering a range of famous cases of institutional violence in Britain, the book argues that police attacks on the homeless, violent evictions in the rented sector, the risks faced by people on workfare schemes, community violence in Northern Ireland and cuts to the regulation of social protection, are all being driven by reductions in public sector funding. The result is a shocking expose of the myriad ways in which austerity policies harm people in Britain.


The study was carried out to provide the basic histology of submandubular salivary gland in the giant pouched rat, as there is dearth of information of its microscopic architecture in available literature. This becomes more important as the possible use of this species of rodent is considered as a future laboratory animal of choice over the Winster rat because of its bigger size and possibility of the giant pouched rat domestication as a ready source of animal protein. Hence the need to understand the digestive biology to help animal nutritionist in feed formulation. The histology revealed the presence of both serous and mucus secretory acini. Some mucus cell presented serous demilumes. Myoeithelial cells were seen around secretory cells and the intercalated ducts. The serous gland region with more relatively profuse intralobular ducts was larger in size than the mucus gland region. The intralobular ducts of intercalated and striated ducts were lined by simple cuboidal and simple columnar cells respectively. The excretory duct was line by stratified cuboidal cells. The large serous glandular region reflects need for more enzymic action in the oral cavity while the mucus glands will help produce mucin that will lubricate the digestive tract. This study for the first time documents the normal histology of submandibular salivary gland in this species, hence filling the knowledge gap that will help further investigative research especially the role of myoepihelial cells in secretory glands tumours.


This book takes a completely new and innovative approach to analysing the development of EU law. Within the framework of different important areas of EU law, such as the internal market, consumer protection law, social law, investment law, environment law, migration law, legal translation and terminology, it examines the Union's approach to the regulation and management of legal risks. Over the years, the Union has come to a point where it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify its authority to regulate in various areas of law. In managing legal risks deriving from the diversity of Member States' laws, which create barriers to trade and hinder the Union's economy, the Union itself has actually produced new legal risks that now have to be addressed. This failure on the part of EU institutions to manage legal risks has contributed to legal uncertainty for actors operating on the internal market. This book intends to contribute to the Union's smoother functioning and continuing development by proposing effective concrete solutions for managing the legal risks distorting the development of various areas of EU law. It pursues an innovative and effective approach to identify legal risks, their causes at the EU level and their impacts on the functioning of the Union and its Member States. By presenting new approaches in this context, the first book on legal risk management in the EU will actively promote the improvement of the EU lawmaking process and the application of EU law in practice.


Amyloid deposition in senile plaques and the cerebral vasculature is a marker of Alzheimer's disease. Whether amyloid itself contributes to the neurodegenerative process or is simply a by-product of that process is unknown. Pheochromocytoma (PC12) and fibroblast (NIH 3T3) cell lines were transfected with portions of the gene for the human amyloid precursor protein. Stable PC12 cell transfectants expressing a specific amyloid-containing fragment of the precursor protein gradually degenerated when induced to differentiate into neuronal cells with nerve growth factor. Conditioned medium from these cells was toxic to neurons in primary hippocampal cultures, and the toxic agent could be removed by immunoabsorption with an antibody directed against the amyloid polypeptide. Thus, a peptide derived from the amyloid precursor may be neurotoxic.


Signaling by members of the TGFbeta superfamily is thought to be transduced by Smad proteins. Here, we describe a zebrafish mutant in smad5, designated somitabun (sbn). The dominant maternal and zygotic effect of the sbntc24 mutation is caused by a change in a single amino acid in the L3 loop of Smad5 protein which transforms Smad5 into an antimorphic version, inhibiting wild-type Smad5 and related Smad proteins. sbn mutant embryos are strongly dorsalized, similarly to mutants in Bmp2b, its putative upstream signal. Double mutant analyses and RNA injection experiments show that sbn and bmp2b interact and that sbn acts downstream of Bmp2b signaling to mediate Bmp2b autoregulation during early dorsoventral (D-V) pattern formation. Comparison of early marker gene expression patterns, chimera analyses and rescue experiments involving temporally controlled misexpression of bmp or smad in mutant embryos reveal three phases of D-V patterning: an early sbn- and bmp2b-independent phase when a coarse initial D-V pattern is set up, an intermediate sbn- and bmp2b-dependent phase during which the putative morphogenetic Bmp2/4 gradient is established, and a later sbn-independent phase during gastrulation when the Bmp2/4 gradient is interpreted and cell fates are specified.


A number of formal methods exist for capturing stimulus-response requirements in a declarative form. Someone yet needs to translate the resulting declarative statements into imperative programs. The present article describes a method for specification and verification of stimulus-response requirements in the form of imperative program routines with conditionals and assertions. A program prover then checks a candidate program directly against the stated requirements. The article illustrates the approach by applying it to an ASM model of the Landing Gear System, a widely used realistic example proposed for evaluating specification and verification techniques.


This study analyses institutional, job-related, and individual antecedents of entrepreneurial activi-ties from a longitudinal perspective. We take a holistic look at the start-up process incorporating entrepreneurial gestation activities (nascent entrepreneurship) and finally business creation (entre-preneurship) by combining two waves of a survey with a time interval of three years. Focusing on researchers reporting an entrepreneurial intention in wave one we found for example that pull factors as motivation to start a business reduce the probability to give up the business idea. Furthermore having generated an invention prevents researchers with a business idea from becoming a so-called "quitter" and pushes them towards starting their own business.


One can argue that there is no philosopher who has had as much impact on organizational theory as Michel Foucault. A major role in this reception has been played by the concept of "governmentality." Thought about organization, after all, seems to imply many questions about how people are and how they are not to be governed. To organizational theorists the work of Foucault is so enchanting because he asked these kind of questions. However, these theorists have always entertained doubts about the use value of Foucault's ideas. More specifically, they have argued that the concept of "governmentality" lacks the kind of precision needed for the work that they understand themselves to be doing, that is, to analyze organizational processes and practices. The thesis put forward in this essay is that organizational theorists by and large have missed the point of Foucault's analysis. To understand Foucault's claims about governmentality, one should take into account not only the argumentative structure or literal meaning of what he has to say, but also the way in which he said it. Put differently, we will argue that it is Foucault's catachrestic style of philosophizing that organizational theorists have failed to recognize. Such a style implies that the meaning of philosophical concepts is constantly shifting. This has been a source of frustration to organizational scholars. This essay proceeds in four sections. In the first one, we will analyze the way Foucault introduces and elaborates upon the concept of governmentality. Why did he introduce this concept which he himself deems to be vague and diffuse? In the second section, some key texts in organizational theory that have addressed the problem of governmentality will be discussed. It will be argued that these texts generally try to fix the meaning of governmentality. In the third section, the concept of "catachresis" (abusio, abuse) will be briefly addressed in order to critique the way organizational theorists have treated governmentality. In the final section, an attempt will be made to show that Foucault's way of doing philosophy, his philosophical style, might be an instance of the kind of philosophical practice that Deleuze and Guattari had in mind when they claimed that philosophy is about the creation of concepts, we will not claim that all philosophy proceeds or should proceed in this way. Our rather more modest claim is that organizational theorists who struggle with Foucault might find his work even more interesting and inspiring were they to take into account his specific philosophical style. Foucault on Governmentality Vagueness and undecidability are necessary prerequisites for the analysis of the highly complicated processes in the history of our society that Foucault aims to describe. This especially pertains to the concept of governmentality. My suggestion is that Foucault deliberately uses a word that sounds familiar - the word "government," after all, rings through in "governmentality" - and then starts to undermine the apparent security that seemed to be involved. He "misuses" words in order to hammer home some points about the way power operates in our society. The result is an idiosyncratic mix of ideas and insights, but not something stable that might straightforwardly help organizational scholars with the work of analyzing organizational processes and practices. Lurking in the background is a concern about Foucault's philosophical style. About two decades ago, Hayden White wrote that the authority of Foucault's discourse does not derive from factual evidence or rigor of argument but rather from a certain style which, "privileges the trope of catachresis in its own elaboration."1 A more detailed discussion on the significance of catachresis will have to wait until the third section. At this stage, it will suffice to provide an example of this style. White refers to a few passages at the end of The Archeaology of Knowledge where Foucault makes sweeping statements about his intention "to free the history of thought from its subjection to transcendence . …


Aim: Sepsis, a systemic inflammation, mainly originated due to infectious viral, fungal, or parasitic infections. No long-term data are available which compare the procalcitonin (PCT) levels and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in different emergency conditions as well as differentiating the PCT levels in males and females in sepsis or other related condition. The main objective of this study was to evaluate PCT, a reliable biomarker, and to compare the different parameters for the diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock conditions. Materials and Methods: For this study, the samples of 74 patients were taken which were admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Max Hospital, Mohali. All the candidates fall in the age group of 05–70 years. The parameters which were used for the diagnosis and differentiating the sepsis conditions were PCT levels, CRP levels, and total leukocyte count levels. The total number of 74 patients was grouped into different groups on the basis of their gender, age and P-value. After a period of 16 weeks, subjects from different groups had great difference in their PCT values in the sepsis condition. Results and Discussion: The Gram-negative bacteria are one of the most common causative agents associated with sepsis condition which was 54.3%, whereas remaining 45.7% was other Gram-positive bacteria, fungi, and yeast. From the study, it was appeared that the prevalence of sepsis condition is found to be more prominent in males as compared to females. It will be concluded that severity of sepsis increases as serum PCT increases and similarly mortality also increased. Conclusion: Sepsis is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in ICU. Due to its low specificity of CRP in the sepsis condition and unable to differentiate between the severities of the infection, we need to look for another biomarker. Thus, PCT is more promising reliable biomarker for the diagnosis of sepsis and start to effective antibiotic and reducing the mortality.


Thanks to the ubiquitous cell phone use, we have never been so close to uncover population mobility patterns in urban area. While some researches utilize cellphone call records to mine population patterns, few works aim to depict population movement in adaptively spatial and temporal representations, i.e., from a community, a district in the city over an hour, a day to a week. In this paper, we construct a system which deciphers, transforms, queries, and visualizes the records from the millions of users in a city. In particular, we design a data structure, namely MobiHash, which collects phone call records over base stations and indexes them by utilizing a Voronoi division of the urban space. MobiHash supports responsive data queries so that users can interactively retrieve trajectories reflecting population flows in areas of interest. Moreover, population movement is represented as vector fields to reduce visual clutter and occlusions. Because of sparse moving points, a novel radiation model is proposed to interpolate population passing zones. Case studies and experts' feedback validate the utility and efficiency by comparing population moving patterns in different times by using our system.


While deportability has elicited interest as a legal predicament facing migrant workers, less attention has been given to the way in which this condition of temporal uncertainty shapes migrants' everyday encounters with state agents. Drawing on ethnography among Kyrgyzstani migrant workers in Moscow, I show that in conditions of documentary uncertainty 'legal residence' depends upon successfully enacting a right to the city and the personalization of the state. Alongside fear and suspicion, this space of legal uncertainty is characterized by a sense of abandon and awareness of the performativity of law. I explore 'living from the nerves' as an ethnographic reality for Kyrgyzstani migrant workers and as an analytic for developing a more variegated account of state power and its affective resonances in contemporary Russia.


Generating a reasonable ending for a given story context, i.e., story ending generation, is a strong indication of story comprehension. This task requires not only to understand the context clues which play an important role in planning the plot, but also to handle implicit knowledge to make a reasonable, coherent story. In this paper, we devise a novel model for story ending generation. The model adopts an incremental encoding scheme to represent context clues which are spanning in the story context. In addition, commonsense knowledge is applied through multi-source attention to facilitate story comprehension, and thus to help generate coherent and reasonable endings. Through building context clues and using implicit knowledge, the model is able to produce reasonable story endings. Automatic and manual evaluation shows that our model can generate more reasonable story endings than state-of-the-art baselines1.


Corporate law theory and practice considers shareholder relations with companies and the implications of ownership separated from control. Yet through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout and the government's resultant shareholding, ownership and control at many companies have merged, leaving corporate theory and practice for the financial and automotive sectors in chaos. The government's $700 billion bailout is a unique historical event; not merely because of its size, but also because of a resulting ripple through corporate scholarship and practice. This Article builds on the Author's five testimonies before Congress during the financial crisis and implementation of the TARP bailout and his consultation for the Special Inspector General for TARP. It updates the six central theories of corporate law to reveal that none function adequately when considered with a controlling government shareholder that enjoys sovereign immunity from corporate and securities law. From agency theory and nexus-ofcontracts thought to the shareholder/director primacy debate, even to notions of progressive corporate law, existing theory breaks down when a government shareholder is present. After considering corporate theory, the Article offers predictions for how the Treasury Department's stock ownership reshapes the practice of corporate law. In short, TARP will result in a tectonic shift for current understanding about insider trading, securities class actions, share voting, and state corporate law fiduciary duties. The Article closes with three recommendations. First, that the Treasury take frozen options, an invention explained in the text, rather than equity. Second, that Congress pass


The nature of muscle efferent fibre activation during whole body cooling was investigated in urethane‐anaesthetized rats. Multiunit efferent activity to the gastrocnemius muscle was detected when the trunk skin was cooled by a water‐perfused jacket to below 36.0 ± 0.7°C. That efferent activity was not blocked by hexamethonium (50 mg kg−1, i.v.) and was not associated with movement or electromyographic activity. Cold‐induced efferent activity enhanced the discharge of afferent filaments from the isotonically stretched gastrocnemius muscle, demonstrating that it was fusimotor. Fusimotor neurons were activated by falls in trunk skin temperature, but that activity ceased when the skin was rewarmed, regardless of how low core temperature had fallen. While low core temperature alone was ineffective, a high core temperature could inhibit the fusimotor response to skin cooling. Fusimotor activation by skin cooling was often accompanied by desynchronization of the frontal electroencephalogram (EEG), but was not a simple consequence of cortical arousal, in that warming the scrotum desynchronized the EEG without activating fusimotor fibres. Inhibition of neurons in the rostral medullary raphé by microinjections of glycine (0.5 m, 120–180 nl) reduced the fusimotor response to skin cooling by 95 ± 3%, but did not prevent the EEG response. These results are interpreted as showing a novel thermoregulatory reflex that is triggered by cold exposure. It may underlie the increased muscle tone that precedes overt shivering, and could also serve to amplify shivering. Like several other cold‐defence responses, this reflex depends upon neurons in the rostral medullary raphé.


In today's highly competitive airline industry it is acknowledged that having a preferred corporate image may have an impact on customer loyalty towards the firm. A good corporate image also provides a powerful way of differentiating a company from its competitors and to stimulate purchases, especially in the airline industry. However, in the past, corporate image was a vague concept that was difficult to measure quantitatively. Therefore, this paper proposed a hybrid MCDM model to evaluate corporate image. Factor analysis is initially used to extract some independent common factors, and the fuzzy integral is used to integrate the performance ratings of the interdependent attributes in each common factor. Then, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is adopted to determine the relative weights linking each independent common factor. Finally, a simple additive weight (SAW) method is used to evaluate corporate image and reputation. A study of international airlines is conducted for verification. The results of this study can help airlines understand their relative positions with competitors and develop better strategies to fulfill customers' needs.


A late Pleistocene to Holocene submerged and encrusted speleothem exhibits a complex history including a meteoric phase and two marine phases. A combined study using petrography, mineralogy, and inorganic and organic geochemistry, as well as geochronology has shown that phototrophic and heterotrophic biological activity impacted carbonate precipitation during all phases of carbonate accretion. The stalactite formed ca. 30 m below modern sea level at a marginal overhang in the Blue Hole of Lighthouse Reef Atoll. Unlike purely meteoric speleothems, the Belize example consists of a meteoric core, a marine aragonite crust, and a serpulid-micrite-rich outer crust as a result of postglacial flooding of the karst cave. The core of the stalactite has a tufaceous texture, containing algal or microbial remains, and consists entirely of low-magnesium calcite, formed 19.55-10.68 kyr BP. The texture suggests that the stalactite formed at the cave entrance, and, hence, the former cave ceiling had apparently collapsed earlier during the Pleistocene. Oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotopes across the core suggest a trend towards drier conditions and reduced soil and plant cover after the last glacial maximum. The marine aragonite crust consists of stacked botryoids in which individual crystals up to 700 lm have dark terminations enriched in high-magnesium calcite. This crust accreted from 10.82 to 9.95 kyr BP in warm shallow water during the early Holocene thermal optimum. Carbonate accretion rates were considerable and averaged 125 μm/yr. The crust has a dense, laminated texture on one side and a porous, shrubby texture on the other. The presence of n-C16:1ω5, n-C17:1ω6, and 10Me-C16 fatty acids in the laminated crust suggests that sulfate-reducing bacteria contributed to aragonite formation in an environment that was less open than the formation environment of the porous crust, where these biomarkers are lacking (n-C16:1ω5,n-C17:1ω6) or are less abundant (10Me-C16). Enrichment of 34S and 18O in carbonate-associated sulfate (CAS) relative to seawater sulfate also suggests sulfate reduction during carbonate formation. The greater contribution of heterotrophic processes to aragonite precipitation in the laminated crust is also reflected in δ13C values as low as -1.3%, whereas no such depletion is observed in the aragonite of the porous crust (δ13C values as low as 0.0%). A pronounced isotopic variability and excursions to positive δ13C values as high as +3.5%0 in the inner half of the laminated crust indicate an episodic, local impact of photosynthesis on aragonite precipitation, whereas the lack of such excursions in the porous crust (δ13C values as high as +1.5%0) is again best explained by a more open environment of formation. After a ca. 5 kyr hiatus, from 4.39 kyr BP, a biogenic crust of abundant serpulids and finely crystalline, microbial and detrital carbonate, consisting of high-magnesium calcite and aragonite, accreted on the outer surface of the stalactite. Outermost crust accretion was probably influenced by the inundation of the Lighthouse Reef lagoon that started to shed abundant fine-grained carbonate sediment into the Blue Hole. The stalactite broke off the cave ceiling either before or after the formation of the outermost crust, likely due to seismic movements along the nearby plate boundary. The study demonstrates that like speleothems from the terrestrial realm, submerged stalactites may have had complex histories with great potential as paleoenvironmental archives.


Our old shoes embark on a new life in Africa. While many people believe that their used clothes donations are distributed free of charge to the needy in the Third World, the trade in second-hand clothes is actually an international business. In addition to commercial clothes collectors, sorters, and interim dealers, thousands of street dealers in Africa live off the sale of second-hand clothes and shoes.
They have to know which shoes are in fashion on the streets at the time, the various types of customers and the styles that are in demand by them, when and where these customers are most likely to be found, how to best approach them, and what they are willing to pay. This specialized expert knowledge is the basis of a successful livelihood.
The book provides ethnographic insights into the life of a group of street dealers of the Tanzanian multi-million metropolis Dar es Salaam.


Objective. To determine the efficacy and safety of neuromodulators for pain management in patients with inflammatory arthritis. Methods. A Cochrane systematic review was performed as part of the 3e Initiative on pain management in inflammatory arthritis. We searched Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central for studies to November 2010, and American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism meeting abstracts published in 2008–2009. Studies were included if they were randomized or quasirandomized controlled trials that compared any neuromodulator (excluding cannabis) to another therapy (active or placebo, including nonpharmacological therapies) for pain in patients with RA, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, or spondyloarthritis. Primary outcomes of interest were patient-reported pain relief of 30% or greater and withdrawals due to adverse events. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed methodological quality. A risk of bias assessment was performed using the methods recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration. Results. Three trials, all in RA and all at high risk of bias, were included in this review. Two placebo-controlled trials evaluated nefopam (52 participants) and one placebo-controlled trial evaluated topical capsaicin 0.025% (31 participants). Pooled analysis showed a significant reduction in pain levels favoring nefopam over placebo after 2 weeks [weighted mean difference −21.2, 95% CI −35.6 to −6.7; number needed to treat (NNT) 2, 95% CI 1.4 to 9.5]. However, nefopam was associated with significantly more adverse events (RR 4.1, 95% CI 1.6 to 10.7; number needed to harm 9, 95% CI 2 to 367), predominantly nausea and sweating. In one trial, capsaicin reduced pain more than placebo at 1 and 2 weeks (MD −23.8, 95% CI −44.8 to −2.8; NNT 3, 95% CI 2–47, and −34.4, 95% CI −54.7 to −14.14; NNT 2, 95% CI 1.4 to 6, respectively). Of those who received capsaicin, 44% developed burning at the site of application and 2% withdrew as a result. Conclusion. Based on 3 small trials, which were all at high risk of bias, there is weak evidence that nefopam and capsaicin are superior to placebo in reducing pain in patients with RA, but both are associated with a significant side effect profile. There are no available data for other types of IA or for newer agents such as gabapentin or pregabalin.


Sleep deprivation has adverse consequences for a variety of cognitive functions. The exact effects of sleep deprivation, though, are dependent upon the cognitive process examined. Within working memory, for example, some component processes are more vulnerable to sleep deprivation than others. Additionally, the differential impacts on cognition of different types of sleep deprivation have not been well studied. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of one night of total sleep deprivation and 4 nights of partial sleep deprivation (4 hours in bed/night) on two components of visual working memory: capacity and filtering efficiency. Forty-four healthy young adults were randomly assigned to one of the two sleep deprivation conditions. All participants were studied: 1) in a well-rested condition (following 6 nights of 9 hours in bed/night); and 2) following sleep deprivation, in a counter-balanced order. Visual working memory testing consisted of two related tasks. The first measured visual working memory capacity and the second measured the ability to ignore distractor stimuli in a visual scene (filtering efficiency). Results showed neither type of sleep deprivation reduced visual working memory capacity. Partial sleep deprivation also generally did not change filtering efficiency. Total sleep deprivation, on the other hand, did impair performance in the filtering task. These results suggest components of visual working memory are differentially vulnerable to the effects of sleep deprivation, and different types of sleep deprivation impact visual working memory to different degrees. Such findings have implications for operational settings where individuals may need to perform with inadequate sleep and whose jobs involve receiving an array of visual information and discriminating the relevant from the irrelevant prior to making decisions or taking actions (e.g., baggage screeners, air traffic controllers, military personnel, health care providers).


Water is the limiting factor for plant production. From "black" soil, soil without plants, there is almost no evaporation. All plants are using water for growth and when the soil is covered by plants, no matter whether it is crops or weeds, it is consuming up to 5 litres of water per m per day. When the soil is cultivated under dry conditions, an evaporation of 15 litres per m of water can be expected. Weed control and soil tillage are key factors in water management. To avoid unnecessary evaporation, the weeds must be controlled from harvest, before harvest if possible, until a new crop is to be planted. And the weeds must be controlled in the early growth stages of the crops, to secure water, neutrinos and light for the crop. To minimise the evaporation, the soil tillage and the working depth by tillage must be reduced to a minimum. By new technologies no tillage and strip tillage are possible to reduce the evaporation, machine costs, and diesel and labour costs. To reduce the temperature of the soil, the speed of the wind and a better penetration of the precipitation, between 30-50 per cent of the straw and stubbles are recommended to be kept on the top of the soil. The water which is available for the crops depends on the precipitation, loss of water and crop rotation. Wheat grown after rapeseed, barley or wheat has about 120-150 more litres of water available per m than wheat grown after maize or sun flower, if good water management is practiced.


Digital Preservation: Context & Content
In 1994 Paul Saffo wrote in Wired magazine, that "It is not content but context that will matter most a decade or so from now."
Over 15 years later we can see that in many ways Saffo's prognostication rings true. However, even if context is king, libraries deal in content. That said, librarians should not lose perspective about the context in which they function. Many academic libraries that are implementing institutional repositories, especially those in the United States, are focusing on scholarly content and access to information, possibly missing the context of what the mission and meaning of an academic library is. There are two main areas that this could be happening in: 1) The functionality of digital repository systems and 2) The type of content that many librarians are trying to gather.
Libraries have well-earned and deserved reputation for preserving and archiving information but many institutional repositories have not been built with preservation in mind and the amount of discussion about preservation has been limited in digital repository circles. For example, the abstracts of the SPARC Digital Repositories meeting held in November 2010 [1] does not mention "preservation" or "preserve"
even a single time. When academic libraries are approaching scholars for academic content, there is an implicit implication, based on the context of the role of an academic library within a university, that the content is going to be preserved. Libraries need to take this context seriously if they are going to succeed in building successful digital repositories.
Are some librarians focusing on the wrong type of content? Is the push to gather faculty output, ignoring the role that university libraries and archives have to preserve institutional memory? Would libraries be better off going after the low hanging fruit of campus newsletters, course catalogs, and other born digital information on campus that may be in far great risk of loss then scholarly articles?
This session will look at how one academic library is implementing a state of the art Digital Preservation system, both in terms of technology and in terms of content. Binghamton University Libraries is the first academic library to purchase the Rosetta, a digital archive and preservation system created by Ex Libris. The technological challenge of implementing a system originally designed for national libraries in a mid-sized academic library with limited systems staff will be discussed. Project management and collection development issues will also be explored.
[1] http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/dr10/drabstracts/index.shtml
Edward M. Corrado

In 1994 Paul Saffo wrote in Wired magazine, that "It is not content but context that will matter most a decade or so from now."

Over 15 years later we can see that in many ways Saffo's prognostication rings true. However, even if context is king, libraries deal in content. That said, librarians should not lose perspective about the context in which they function. Many academic libraries that are implementing institutional repositories, especially those in the United States, are focusing on scholarly content and access to information, possibly missing the context of what the mission and meaning of an academic library is. There are two main areas that this could be happening in: 1) The functionality of digital repository systems and 2) The type of content that many librarians are trying to gather.

Libraries have well-earned and deserved reputation for preserving and archiving information but many institutional repositories have not been built with preservation in mind and the amount of discussion about preservation has been limited in digital repository circles. For example, the abstracts of the SPARC Digital Repositories meeting held in November 2010 [1] does not mention "preservation" or "preserve" even a single time. When academic libraries are approaching scholars for academic content, there is an implicit implication, based on the context of the role of an academic library within a university, that the content is going to be preserved. Libraries need to take this context seriously if they are going to succeed in building successful digital repositories.

Are some librarians focusing on the wrong type of content? Is the push to gather faculty output, ignoring the role that university libraries and archives have to preserve institutional memory? Would libraries be better off going after the low hanging fruit of campus newsletters, course catalogs, and other born digital information on campus that may be in far great risk of loss then scholarly articles?

This session will look at how one academic library is implementing a state of the art Digital Preservation system, both in terms of technology and in terms of content. Binghamton University Libraries is the first academic library to purchase the Rosetta, a digital archive and preservation system created by Ex Libris. The technological challenge of implementing a system originally designed for national libraries in a mid-sized academic library with limited systems staff will be discussed. Project management and collection development issues will also be explored.

[1] http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/dr10/drabstracts/index.shtml


This research's objective was to study the efficiency in the usage of phosphorus by rice cultivars in highland soils in the South of Tocantins State. The experiments evaluated six commercial cultivars of rice (BRS-Bonanca BRS-Caiapo, BRS-Sertaneja, BRSMG-Curinga, BRSMG-Conai and BRS-Primavera), grown in areas with high and low phosphorus application: 20 and 120 kg ha-1 of P2O5. The experiments were carried out in a completely randomized blocks design, with four replicates. Based on grain yield, cultivars were classified in respect to the efficiency and response to phosphorus fertilization. The cultivar BRS-Bonanca presented the highest phosphorus use efficiency and was the most responsive.


Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) is a relatively stiffer hydraulic cement concrete mixture than regular concrete when fresh. Similar to regular concrete, RCC is a mixture of aggregate, cementitious materials, and water, but it is placed using asphalt pavers and compacted by vibratory rollers, and it hardens into concrete. RCC contains a low amount of water, exhibits no slump, and requires asphalt paving equipment for placement rather than expensive slip-form paving equipment. It does not contain reinforcement, tie-bars, or dowels. RCC can be placed and opened to traffic in a short period of time. All of these factors combined make it a relatively low-cost material for roadways compared to asphalt or conventional concrete pavements. However, RCC may lack the smoothness required for high-speed roadways and can undergo raveling and/or cracking; an asphalt overlay may remedy the smoothness and raveling issues. Although cracks might occur in the RCC and potentially reflect through the asphalt layer, such cracks should stay tight because of the low shrinkage of RCC. A composite pavement with RCC and an asphalt overlay has the potential to be a cost-effective long-lasting pavement system. The purpose of this study was to document the construction procedures and provide lessons learned for a RCC project recently completed by the Virginia Department of Transportation that covered about 134,000 ft2, equivalent to 2 lane-miles, at the Park & Ride lot in Stafford County, Virginia. About one-third of the RCC was used to rehabilitate the existing Staffordboro Boulevard (Route 684). The mixture used had 15% fly ash to provide improved durability and sustainability. Batches of the RCC mixture fluctuated in moisture content, and delays in placement sometimes occurred that also resulted in wet and dry mixtures. The compaction, surface smoothness, and road profile were affected by the fluctuations in moisture content. RCC cylinders prepared using a vibratory hammer usually exceeded compressive strengths of 1,600 psi and 4,000 psi at 12 hours and 28 days, respectively. Only a few early cracks were observed in the pavement. Opening to traffic at an early age for a section, i.e., within 5 to 6 hours of placement, did not result in any visual damage to the pavement; most sections were opened in less than 48 hours. RCC overlaid with 2 in of asphalt is performing well after two winters and 18 months of traffic for one section and after one winter and 8 months of traffic for the rest. Based on the observations in this study, for successful construction of RCC, proper compaction and mixing equipment are essential. Achieving the proper level of compaction in the field is key to attaining quality RCC. To avoid early cracks, joints need to be cut deeper than one-fourth depth of the pavement and continuous curing is essential. A continuous paving operation is needed to avoid unplanned and poor-performing cold joints. The Virginia Department of Transportation should consider RCC in future field trials, particularly for applications where fast construction of rigid (concrete) or composite pavement is needed.


SUMMARY Chitosan is known to have antimicrobial properties against a range of microbes. In this study, three different molecular weight (MW) chitosan preparations were used: low (LMW), medium (MMW), and coarse (CMW), in acetic acid (AA) as carrier to elucidate antimicrobial effects. Broiler cecal contents were inoculated with 105 CFU of S. Typhimurium and cultured anaerobically at 40°C with AA, LMW, MMW, or CMW. The population effects of chitosan preparations on cecal bacteria and S. Typhimurium were assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Sequencing revealed zero prevalence of Salmonella spp. in the AA and the CMW groups. The AA and CMW groups had also lower bacterial diversity and species richness. However, PCoA plots revealed no significant differences in microbial diversity among the different treatment groups. Kruskal‐Wallis test analysis of treatment effects on taxonomic distribution of bacteria revealed no differences (P > 0.05) in the percentages of bacteria among the different groups. In conclusion, culturing the cecal contents in the presence of AA and CMW treatments suppressed bacterial growth and within sample bacterial diversity. Both LMW and MMW chitosan preparations had no effect on either S. Typhimurium or bacterial growth and diversity.


OBJECTIVES: To describe outcome after treatment of severe head injury within an integrated trauma system. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of all patients with severe head injury admitted to the Royal London Hospital by the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) between 1991 and 1994. Type of injury was defined on initial computed tomography of the head and outcomes assessed 12 months after injury using the Glasgow outcome score. RESULTS: 6.5% of HEMS patients had long term severe disability (severe disability or persistent vegetative state on the outcome score); 34.5% made a good recovery. CONCLUSIONS: The concern that a large number of severely disabled long term survivors might result as a consequence of this system of trauma management is not confirmed. The case mix of severity of extracranial injuries in these patients makes comparison with other published series difficult, but these data fit the hypothesis that pre-hospital correction of hypoxia and hypotension after head injury improves outcome.


Abstract The relationship between conservation and poverty has received extensive attention recently, and the impacts of protected areas on the welfare of communities surrounding them has been debated. I seek to contribute to this debate by using a unique sub-national database of infant mortality rates for an analysis of such mortality surrounding protected areas in developing countries. The paper tests the hypotheses that poverty rates in regions surrounding protected areas in developing countries are higher than national averages and that poverty rates are highest around large and strictly protected areas. Preliminary evidence suggests that infant mortality rates surrounding protected areas, and even those surrounding the most strictly protected areas, are not very different from national rates. Infant mortality rates are significantly higher among populations surrounding larger protected areas but the causal relationship is uncertain. Data limitations and other problems related to this kind of global analysis are discussed. Information of the kind presented in this paper can assist management authorities to assess the relative poverty surrounding protected areas in their countries so as to set priorities for poverty alleviation interventions, and may serve as a useful sampling frame for local case studies and long-term monitoring.


The role carbon emissions play in contributing to climate change makes clear the necessity for a global reconsideration of current modes of energy production. In recent years, as concerns over the threats of climate change (CC) have become more acute, four technologies have notably risen to the forefront of academic and public discourse: nuclear power, carbon capture and storage (CCS), wind power, and geoengineering. The particular interest of these four approaches lies in the fact that they reflect both energy production and climate control technologies, are often socially controversial, and present complex challenges of governance. Nuclear and wind power both deserve an important place among the variety of low‐carbon energy options. In countries where public acceptance is evaluated, although, support for nuclear energy appears to be conditional upon simultaneous development of other renewable energies alongside a feasible plan to address the disposal of nuclear waste. The Fukushima accident sharply increased public concern about the safety and vulnerability of nuclear reactors. While wind power receives general public support, issues of accommodation can arise when it comes to siting wind farms. Persistent dependency upon carbon‐producing energy has made favorable the option of CCS. However, in addition to technical and geological factors, social resistance to the placement of carbon storage units remains a key obstacle. Geoengineering offers the technological capacity to directly act on the climate should levels of atmospheric CO2 become dangerously high. Public perception regarding the risk of climate change can be labile, and the alternatives reviewed here share the characteristic that their technical and political dimensions are intertwined. The variety of options for combining and implementing these technologies, coupled with the inherently time‐sensitive nature of CC, underscore the complexity of the endeavor. In order to bridge these various levels of analysis and decision making, and to better understand and integrate people's involvement, exercises in risk governance could be developed at both the national and international levels. WIREs Clim Change 2011 2 712–727 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.134


The article is devoted to the description of the modernization of a multihull process centrifugal compressor for synthesis gas. The main reason for the revamp was the desire to adapt the conventional machine (45 years of operation) for newer operational requirements: the decrease of compressor discharge pressure to the level of 140 bar from the level of 211 bar with the corresponding alteration of the mass flow rate. The scheme accepted as a final modernization conception required the manufacturing of three completely new rotor and casing assemblies. Major design modifications concerned the impellers' geometry, introduction of vaneless diffusers and the abradable labyrinth seals. Most of the stages were "optimized" using the in-house semi-empirical 1D code and ANSYS CFX commercial code. The performance of a single optimized stage was tested experimentally. The paper reveals the main results of these measurements and their comparison to numerical simulations results. The start-up tests of the modernized assembly showed its almost 100% conformity to the requirements in the output and the efficiency rise of about 5%.


Federalism is generally seen as a formidable mechanism for managing plural societies. Little wonder that Nigerias struggle for sustainable democracy has so far been pursued within the federalist logic, though under conditions of perverse practices especially under successive military regimes. Scholars have made remarkable contributions in this regard. But despite these advances, very little is known as regards the role of certain key constitutional imperatives to the survival of a federal democracy. The process and mode of making the constitution, as one of the preconditions for constitutionalism, or the lack of it, as well as its contents especially with regard to power sharing among the federating units, through an essentially open, transparent and participatory process, are some of these core issues. What has the situation been like in the Nigerian context under the fledging fourth republic? This paper critically engages this question and argues that the 1999 constitution upon which the fledging fourth republic is anchored is highly defective and to that extent incapable of guaranteeing a federal democracy. Not only is the constitution divorced from, and above the society it is intended to govern, but also lopsided in its decentralisation of powers, responsibilities and resources in favour of the centre but to the detriment of the lower levels of governance. These constitutional anomalies, the article contends, must be remedied in order to sustain Nigerias federal democracy but requires more than the constitution offers.


In order to obtain the adhesion force of fiber in a paper sheet easily, the relationships between internal bonding strength (IBS) and surface lignin content of masson pine CTMP treated with peracetic acid (PAA) have been investigated with XPS technique, and the surface morphology of fibers was also imaged by AFM. The results showed that the extent of lignin covered on the fiber surface was two times as high as that of whole pulp lignin, and the IBS was inversely proportional to surface lignin. The relationship between IBS and lignin coverage was formulated based on the experimental data. The mutual adhesion forces, cellulose-to-cellulose and lignin-to-lignin, were calculated using these equations, and the results were 28.69 mN/m and 2.487mN/m, respectively.


Sequence optimization, where the items in a list are ordered to maximize some reward has many applications such as web advertisement placement, search, and control libraries in robotics. Previous work in sequence optimization produces a static ordering that does not take any features of the item or context of the problem into account. In this work, we propose a general approach to order the items within the sequence based on the context (e.g., perceptual information, environment description, and goals). We take a simple, efficient, reduction-based approach where the choice and order of the items is established by repeatedly learning simple classifiers or regressors for each "slot" in the sequence. Our approach leverages recent work on submodular function maximization to provide a formal regret reduction from submodular sequence optimization to simple cost-sensitive prediction. We apply our contextual sequence prediction algorithm to optimize control libraries and demonstrate results on two robotics problems: manipulator trajectory prediction and mobile robot path planning.


Anthropogenic nitrogen loads to shallow coastal waters have been linked to shifts from seagrass- to algae-dominated communities in many regions of the world, yet the influence that these shifts have on the structure of nearshore food webs remains unclear. We used stable C and N isotope ratios to assess the relative importance of phytoplankton, macroalgae, and eelgrass Zostera marina as food sources to consumers in estuaries of Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts, USA, that receive low versus high nitrogen loads from their surrounding watersheds. We found that, in general, the diets of herbi- vores, suspension feeders, and detritlvores (collectively referred to as primary consumers) in the Waquoit Bay estuaries are influenced by the dominant forms of production that they are exposed to. Phytoplankton and macroalgae are the major food sources of primary consumers under both low and high N loading conditions, but eelgrass is also an important food so'urce where N loading is low Most of the primary consumers at the estuary with low N loading have between 10 and 16 % eelgrass in their diets. Some species, however, appear to have no eelgrass in their diets, while others have diets consist- ing of as much as 31 % eelgrass. Eelgrass C and N are passed on to benthic as well as pelagic secondary consumers. With losses of eelgrass as a consequence of nitrogen loading, an important pathway through which land-derived nitrogen enters food webs in the Waquoit Bay estuaries is eliminated. This fundamental change probably affects the rate at which land-derived nitrogen is cycled within estuar- ies, as well as its ultimate fate.


JVRB, 5(2008), no. 11. - In this paper we propose a simple model for the coupling
behavior of the human spine for an inverse kinematics
framework. Our spine model exhibits anatomically correct
motions of the vertebrae of virtual mannequins by
coupling standard swing and revolute joint models. The
adjustement of the joints is made with several simple
(in)equality constraints, resulting in a reduction of the
solution space dimensionality for the inverse kinematics
solver. By reducing the solution space dimensionality to
feasible spine shapes, we prevent the inverse kinematics
algorithm from providing infeasible postures for the spine.In this paper, we exploit how to apply these simple
 constraints to the human spine by a strict decoupling of
 the swing and torsion motion of the vertebrae. We
 demonstrate the validity of our approach on various
 experiments.


Sustained H2 photoproduction is demonstrated in green algae under a train of strong white light pulses interrupted by longer dark phases. The devised protocol relies on the presence of the [FeFe]-hydrogenase in algal chloroplasts, which is activated within a few seconds after the establishment of anaerobiosis. H2 photoproduction proceeds for up to 3 days with the maximum rate occurring in the first 6 hours.


With advancements in device and communication technologies, there has been a great revolution in development of net gadgets and communication technologies like 4G, 5G etc., In parallel, there has also been a widespread increase in ways to illegally hack data available over the internet and tamper the services offered to the customer. Common attacks include spoofing, Phishing, fraudulent extraction of transaction information and customer details. There have been attacks to cause traffic congestion over the network by introducing artificial infection packets over the internet. Hence, there is a great necessity in research for defence mechanism against these attacks to ensure smooth and safe provision of services to customers. This paper investigates and elaborates the different types of attacks that may be incident on a system or a network, their features and attack mechanisms which provide useful insights into developing an attack resistant system. Almost all types of attacks have been discussed systematically in this research paper with special emphasis on distributed denial of service attacks.


Efficient electrocatalysts for both the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are critical components of various energy conversion devices such as regenerative fuel cells and metal–air batteries. Herein, we report bifunctional transition-metal-doped carbon/nitrogen (M/C/N) materials that simultaneously electrocatalyze the ORR and OER. The OER potential of the Fe/C/N catalyst at a current density of 10 mA cm–2 was 1.59 VRHE, and its ORR half-wave potential was 0.83 VRHE. Significantly, the Fe/C/N catalyst provided a potential gap of 0.76 V between the OER potential (at 10 mA cm–2) and the ORR half-wave potential; this is the highest activity reported to date for a non-precious-metal catalyst. Two types of active center, the transition metal and a nitrogen atom, are likely responsible for the oxygen bifunctional activity.


Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. Vitamin D directly influences the body's immunological response to tuberculosis by modulating the production of certain antimicrobial peptides and the release of cytokines. Vitamin D deficiency has been extensively described in patients with tuberculosis. Currently, it is a recognised risk factor for tuberculosis. Genetic polymorphisms of the vitamin D receptor may influence host susceptibility to tuberculosis and response to antituberculosis therapy. This review article explores the close association between tuberculosis and vitamin D, with the aim of forming a strong basis for further interventional and genetic studies on patients with active tuberculosis.


There are currently no well-established Futures practitioners working full-time in the People's Republic of China, although certain futurists visit China regularly. This paper addresses the conditions, including political, social and economic, which futurists looking to set up in China are likely to face. It is argued that the time is now right for a range of types of futures practitioners to work permanently in China, or at least have China as a major focus. Conditions are sufficiently permissive, and with an increasing range of major issues and problems facing China in the next decade, the tools and methods of Futures Studies could potentially play an important role in the development of China. Finally, the paper outlines some suggested steps that can be taken to begin to more fully establish a healthy discourse for Futures Studies in China.


The Fourth R: Conflicts over Religion in America's Public Schools. By Joan DelFattore. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 2004. Pp. x, 342. $29.95.) The Fourth R is a significant contribution to the ongoing discourse and debate regarding religion and the public schools. In this important work, Joan DelFattore traces the often bitter history of disputes over religion in the public schools. Her writing style is entertaining and accessible, but this does not take away from the scholarly depth and breadth of the book. DelFattore points out that both sides in the culture wars, and specifically in the current debate over religion in the public schools, have tended to oversimplify the relevant issues and facts. Moreover, each side tends to demonize the other. This has led to a skewing in the public consciousness of the issues involved in cases involving religion in the public schools and to a tendency for members of the public to see issues through a specific lens. Thus for many people issues regarding religion in the public schools are connected to a broader social agenda, and as a result the factual and contextual differences between different issues are glossed over or ignored. The debate over religious expression in the public schools is a debate about law and constitutional norms, but it is also a debate about history, society, power, cultural trends, and theology. DelFattore navigates this complex area adeptly, including a somewhat detailed discussion of the role anti-Catholicism played in the debate.The role of anti-Catholicism in debates over religion in the schools can be traced back to the pan-Protestant common schools in the early nineteenth century and the response of the predominantly Protestant culture to Catholic immigration. Of course, the Protestant-Catholic dynamic is simply one of a number of overlapping social dynamics involved in the broader debate that DelFattore writes about. I will focus mostly on this aspect of the book because of its relevance to this journal and because Delfattore's (as well as other authors') discussion of the role of anti-Catholicism in the church/state debate raises interesting questions about the current state of Supreme Court jurisprudence in this area. A number of Supreme Court Justices have touted the role of original intent and the "traditions" of our nation in interpreting the religion clauses.This focus on tradition has commanded a majority or plurality of the Court in a number of decisions, most recently in Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005) (Plurality) (upholding the display of a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas state capitol grounds). In his dissenting opinion in a sister case, McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky, 545 U.S. 844 (2005) (holding Ten Commandments display in county courthouses unconstitutional), Justice Scalia goes so far as to suggest that the traditions of our nation and the intent of the framers' would allow the government to favor monotheistic religious symbols. As DelFattore and a number of other authors have pointed out, one of the nation's strongest religious traditions in the public school context is, unfortunately, anti-Catholicism. In fact, given the "religious traditions" so happily touted by Justice Scalia, it is highly unlikely he would have been able to sit on any federal court, let alone the Supreme Court. …


Physical inactivity contributes to a myriad of poor health conditions. Physical inactivity in childhood predicts inactivity throughout the lifespan. As a result it is important to foster participation in physical activity during childhood. The current study examined the relationship of confidence, motivation, and physical literacy to daily physical activity levels on weekends and weekdays. Participants were 86 boys and girls, grades 4-7, Mage = 10.28 years; SD = 1.20. Confidence and motivation were assessed via an online version of the Children's Self-Perceptions of Adequacy in and Predilection for Physical Activity (Hay, 1992), physical literacy was assessed using the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy as per Longmuir (2013), and pedometer step counts were used to measure daily physical activity levels. Results indicated a significant difference between number of steps taken on weekdays (M = 14600; SD = 10124) compared to weekends (M = 10996; SD = 7304); the children took significantly more steps on weekdays than they did on weekend days; t(85) = -3.02, p = .003. Motivation and confidence were not significant predictors of number of daily steps. Physical literacy score (with pedometer steps component score removed) did not predict number of daily steps on weekends or weekdays. Previous research has established a link between parent involvement and child participation in physical activity; school age children typically spend weekends with their parents. Given these relationships interventions to increase parent involvement and opportunities for physical activity on weekends should be emphasized. Acknowledgments: Research funding was provided by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute through the RBC Learn to Play project, delivered in partnership with ParticipACTION and the Public Health Agency of Canada


Spinels constitute an advanced group of materials with great technologial appeal, being able to be applied as magnetic materials, semiconductors, pigments, catalysts, refractories and electronic ceramics. In this paper, we reported the preparation of NiAl2O4 spinels by low temperature combustion technique using glycine and urea as fuels. The resulting powder was chracterized by XRD, particle size analysis and SEM. The XRD patterns show that the combustion technique was excellent to prepare single - phased cubic NiAl2O4 particles and the crystallite sizes were found to be around 14 nm. From the particle size analysis, it was found that the 50 % of the particles lie below 30 µm. The micrographs show the formation of fluffy agglomerates composed of fine particles.


This third volume of EU Energy Law and Policy Issues presents an overview of some of the most recent developments taking place in the EU energy sector at a time when the Third Energy Package is likely to be or has been implemented in the EU Member States. In this respect, the reader will find a number of contributions which offer detailed and critical views on some of the main issues tackled by the Third Energy Package. Aside from this, the relationship between sector specific regulation and the rules of general competition law is examined in the second section of the book. This part also contains particular contributions on access regimes in gas and electricity markets as well as an innovating analysis on the methods for allocating allowances under the EU Emissions trading scheme and the interaction of such methods with EU state aid rules. Just like the previous volumes of the book, section III offers a deep insight into the external aspects of EU energy policy. Accordingly, the role of the Lisbon Treaty in promoting EU energy policy in the international arena is scrutinized in addition to the most recent evolutions on the topical issue of the Energy Charter Treaty. This section is completed with a daring contribution about the need to adopt a comprehensive theory of legal harmonization between the EU and third partners, which is presented using the specific case of the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue. Last but not least, some fundamental issues regarding the environmental aspects of EU Energy policy undergo an in-depth study in the final section of the book. Not only is the legal regime of energy efficiency in energy-related products examined, but also the issue of carbon constraining policies under WTO law. Finally, the electricity's industry viewpoint on the 2020 targets rounds off this third volume of EU Energy Law and Policy Issues with judicious comments. This book will surely prove to be an essential piece of reading for lawyers, legal advisers, academics or students engaged in the field of energy law. With contributions by Nicole Ahner, Daniel Behn, Andrei Belyi, Henrik Bjornebye, Jakub Handrlica, Adrien de Hauteclocque, Thomas Deruytter, Wouter Geldhof, Silke Goldberg, Michael Hunt, Britta Lewendel, Tom Maes, Kathleen Mertens, Cecile Musialski, Christian Pielow, Nicola Rega, Tatiana Romanova, Kim Talus, Caroline Van den bergh and Frederik Vandendriessche.


Multi-species and ecosystem modelling are increasingly touted as essential approaches in the future of fisheries management. These methodologies can involve the amalgamation of data on the landings, biomass, consumption, production, and diets of many species or species groups in current time, the future and in the re-examination of the past. The Ecopath approach was used to construct two mass balance ecosystem models for the southern Labrador Shelf, Northeast Newfoundland Shelf and Grand Bank in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) Divisions 2J+ 3KLNO the first for the time period 1954-1956 and the second for 1968-1970. Our models increased the temporal resolution of ecosystem models developed by The Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia. The start (1950s) and rapid expansion (1960s) of industrial harvesting by factory freezer trawlers during these time periods resulted in massive increases in fishing effort, the total catch increased by 30%, and there was extensive spatial intensification and expansion, particularly on the Labrador Shelf. Biomass declines in adult and juvenile Atlantic cod, harp seals, and their main prey species capelin and sandlance were evident. A change in predator/prey relationships between the two time periods was expected, but not found. An increase in the biomass of some invertebrate species groups was expected, but not evident, possibly due to sparse historical data. System ratios and indicators pointed to the latter ecosystem as nearer to a state of being 'fished down', perhaps indicating the onset of the trophic shift evident in the late 1980s and 1990s.


X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS) is a congenital progressive inherited retinal disease that affects the entire retina and is one of the more common causes of vision loss from retinal degeneration affecting young men,. The progression is variable but seems to be relatively stationary in the ages 6 to 25 years. Patients with XLRS lack a functional retinoschisin protein in the eye, because of mutation in the RS1 gene, and are more prone to retinal detachment compared to the general population. To explore the influence of RS1-protein in human retinal detachment, we compared, vitreal RS1 protein levels in eyes with or without detachment and found altered levels. This finding demonstrates a possible role of RS1 protein in retinal detachment and may be of interest in the choice of surgical technique for the treatment of retinal detachment. We generated a mouse model, Rs1-KO, deficient in Rs1 gene, to determine the role of RS1 protein, retinoschisin, in retinal structure and function. The knockout mouse mimics structural features of human X-linked juvenile retinoschisis with progressive rod and cone degeneration, cystic dissection through, and disorganization of, multiple retinal layers. The Rs1-KO mouse functional deficit results in an electronegative ERG waveform that is characteristic of human retinoschisis disease and that implicates a synaptic transmission deficit in the absence of retinoschisin protein. To explore the viable use of gene replacement therapy as treatment for XLRS, we delivered an AAV serotype 2 vector containing the mouse Rs1 cDNA under the control of CMV promoter AAV(2/2)-CMV-Rs1 into the vitreous space in the Rs1-KO mice. A few months after delivery, we saw staining of retinoschisin in all retinal layers of Rs1-KO mice including an intense staining in the photoreceptors inner segment mimicking retinoschisin distribution in WT retina. The electroretinography recordings showed reversal of the electronegative waveform and restoration of the normal positive b-wave. In paper II, we treated the mice at an earlier time point, 14 days, and followed them out to 14 months. We demonstrated both structural and functional long term rescue in the Rs1-KO mouse retina. We also studied the effect of transient subretinal detachments and conclude that large short-term detachments in Rs1-KO mice, followed by a period of reattachment may cause a slight increase in photoreceptor cell death, but detachments do not accentuate the gliosis and neurite sprouting. These findings suggest that performing subretinal injections to deliver therapeutic agents may be a viable option in the treatment of patients with x-linked retinoschisis without causing significant cellular damage to the retina but may be problematic for other reasons e.g. only small geographically delivery of the RS1 gene. This thesis signifies that gene replacement therapy through intravitreal delivery is a feasible strategy of therapeutic intervention both early and in the post-developmental adult stage of XLRS disease (Less)


Poor Ellie is horrified when Tuffy drags a dead bird into the house. Then a mouse. But Tuffy can't understand what all the fuss is about. Who on earth will be the next victim to arrive through the cat-flap? Can soft-hearted Ellie manage to get her beloved pet to change his wild, wild ways before he ends up in even deeper trouble? The hilarious antics of Tuffy and his family are told by the killer cat himself.


In last decades, oil spill pollution has become an important issue of concern due to its serious environmental impacts; therefore, necessary actions should be taken to prevent or reduce these types of pollution and their environmental consequences. Natural organic sorbents are emerging as proper choices for oil spill cleanup due to their availability, eco-friendliness, and low cost. In this study, phragmites australis, sugarcane leaves straw, and sugarcane bagasse were used for crude oil sorption in dry (only oil) systems. The results indicated that sugarcane bagasse had a higher oil sorption capacity compared to the others. Therefore, sugarcane bagasse was selected as the preferred sorbent and the effects of sorbent contact time and its particle size on oil adsorption capacity were evaluated for the systems of dry and crude oil layer on water. The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of raw sugarcane bagasse for dry system and crude oil layer system was about 8 and 6.6 gram crude oil per gram sorbent respectively.


Ab s t r Ac t Background: Adverse drug reactions are a significant burden on the health system across the world. Paradoxically, a considerable chunk of ADRs is missed or not reported on account of avoidable reasons, resulting in bottlenecks in carrying out the proper management. This problem is much more evident in India and other resource-limited communities than in the prosperous countries of the West. Aim and objective: To provide a state-of-the-art update on pharmacovigilance with special reference to perspectives in India and make appropriate recommendations for improving ADR reporting. Design: The contents are based on a review of English medical literature augmented with the author's first-hand experience in the field over the past more than a decade. Results: Well-organized pharmacovigilance started in India with the launching of the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India in 2010. Despite it making a perceptible improvement in ADR reporting, high underreporting of ADRs still prevails. The yet greater thrust on inculcating awareness comprising knowledge attitudes and practices among the healthcare professionals is likely to lead to further improvement in ADR reporting, resulting in augmentation of the safe use of drugs. Conclusion: Pharmacovigilance, a mandatory drug safety activity, needs to be propagated with yet greater vigor among healthcare professionals in India.


The purpose of this professional project is to address the practical implications of decentralized greywater usage in the City of Arroyo Grande. This professional project consists of two products: a brief greywater guide for the City and a background report. The greywater guide is intended for city planners to use for general information about greywater systems. The guide addresses Arroyo Grande's potable water shortage; what greywater is; advantages and concerns about greywater use; plants that are tolerant and intolerant of greywater irrigation; appropriate detergents to use with a greywater system; and a summary of California greywater law. The background report discusses the City of Arroyo Grande's potable water conditions and how water supply will be affected by growth projections for 2030. It is estimated that by the year 2030, Arroyo Grande's water demand will outgrow its water supply by 283 acre feet. Future water shortages are a concern at a local level and also on a global level. Three case studies examine how water scarcity has prompted the successful use of greywater. These studies examine the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; the Casa del Agua project in Arizona; and a local study in Santa Barbara, California. The report concludes with California greywater law, and how the recent change in August, 2009 has greatly increased the legal accessibility of greywater reuse as an obtainable method of water conservation. In combination with education and outreach among city officials and residents, greywater has potential to play a main role in water conservation in Arroyo Grande.


Abstract. This paper provides an overview of state-of-the-art technology and sensor for the inventory of industrial archaeology. As an object of study, a historical copper shaft the Quincy Mine in Michigan State Upper Peninsula was chosen. This shaft was operated for nearly 100 years from 1846 to 1945 and today, what remains of the shaft is a part of the Keweenaw National Historical Park. The main sensor for data acquisition that was used is a 3D camera Matterport. In given research, the results of the above ground scanning using of Matterport are presented. Before scanning a calibration of Matterport camera was performed. The calibration was done by comparison of coordinates of targets determined by FARO Scanner. It was found out that the camera has significant systematic errors which have to be accounted during data processing. Because of the specific data structure of Matterport camera, only the scale factor was calculated and then applied to point clouds. Field works comprised historical and archive data collection and analysis, reconnaissance and scanning of the Quincy Mine interior. As a final result of the research 3D model of the Quincy Mine interior was constructed. Further, this model is going to be used for the Quincy Mine Museum virtual tours. There are many advantages to using Matterport. First of all, such a technology does not need dense geodetic support, average working time at station equals to 2–3 minutes. Cost of Matteroprt equipment is competitive to the cheapest terrestrial laser scanners.


Dynamic evolution of distributed component-based systems (DCS) is an important task in software engineering. Several challenges are posed in this process. For example, how to preserve consistency during evolution and how to reflect the abstract evolution specification in the concrete reconfiguration implementation. Having observed the generality of software architecture, researchers have proposed various architectural description languages (ADLs), enabling evolution techniques, etc. to investigate the problem. These approaches typically employ the formal semantics of dynamic ADLs at the incremental levels of refinement in the design phase or the explicit maintenance of software architecture at runtime. However, different ADLs usually address different concerns and the lack of runtime support for the causal relation between ADLs and the running system easily leads to the mismatch between them, thus inevitably sacrifices their usability. We propose an approach based on a runtime architecture which is visually generated from an attributed type graph meta-model, exists through the lifecycle of DCS, establishes the causal relation between architectural topology and system configuration, and directs the dynamic evolution. A Runtime Architecture-Based Approach for the Dynamic Evolution of Distributed Component-Based Systems Yu Zhou State Key Lab. for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, China s.e.a.l, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland firstname.lastname@example.com