Stroke is the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide, second to heart disease and cancer, and is the leading cause of acquired adult long-term disability. Despite substantial advancement in the understanding of the pathogenesis of ischaemic stroke, development of treatments for stroke patients has been largely unsuccessful. As a result, administration of the thrombolytic, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA), in the acute stages following onset of ischaemia, remains the only clinically approved therapy. However, the 4.5 h "door-to-needle" time window observed with ischaemic stroke in addition to rt-PA's potential haemorrhage risk, results in only 2 – 5 % of all stroke patients receiving this therapy. Stroke is therefore a disease with largely unmet clinical needs.
Following its discovery in 2000, neuroglobin (Ngb) has been reported to mediate neuroprotection via a number of different pathways in both in vitro models of hypoxia ± reoxygenation and pre-clinical in vivo models of stroke, when upregulated from endogenous levels. c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) is a well-documented downstream mediator of apoptosis. Inhibition of JNK, by a number of different strategies, has been reported to be neuroprotective following hypoxia ± reoxygenation in vitro and ischaemia ± reperfusion in vivo. Although a regularly utilised strategy in the treatment of other cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancers, combination therapy is not currently employed in the treatment of stroke. Therefore it was the aim of this PhD to assess the effect of gene delivery-mediated upregulation of Ngb in combination with pharmacological pan-inhibition of JNK, using SP600125. The benefit of these therapies would first be assessed in an in vitro model of hypoxia / reoxygenation to provide the proof-of-concept required to perform a comprehensive in vivo study. In vivo analysis would include randomised and blinded assessment of neurological deficit longitudinally across a recovery period of 14 days and final lesion size in a rat strain exhibiting a number of the co-morbidities of CVD, the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP).
It was first necessary to determine the optimal viral vector for use in both the in vitro and in vivo intervention studies. Canine adenovirus serotype 2 (CAV2) had been reported to travel with great efficiency from the injection site following stereotactic injection into the striatum, with substantial reporter-gene expression observed in afferent structures such as the cortex. As the cortex is widely accepted as the location of the penumbra following ischaemia / reperfusion in the present middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model, the level of cortical expression was of significant importance and as such compared following both striatal and cortical injection of CAV2-GFP 7 days post-injection in male SHRSPs. Significantly greater cortical transduction was observed following direct injection into the cortex with 3 x 109 vp CAV2-GFP in comparison to striatal injection. To ensure CAV2 was the best possible viral vector for use in this study, an additional comparative analysis with a GFP-expressing lentivirus was assessed. 4 x 107 vp lenti-GFP was administered stereotactically into the cortex over two injection sites, spanning the perceived region of penumbral tissue - owing to its previously reported inefficient transduction from injection site. Analysis at 7 days post-injection demonstrated a significantly reduced level of transduction in comparison to CAV2-GFP. Therefore a Ngb-expression CAV2 was generated. In vitro analysis of CAV2 demonstrated an inability to transduce the B50 rat neuronal cell line being utilised for the in vitro model. Therefore, a Ngb-expressing lentivirus was generated to mediate Ngb overexpression in the in vitro model with CAV2-Ngb utilised in vivo.
The effect of pre-treatment with MOI 5 vp / cell lenti-Ngb in combination with 20 µM SP600125 was examined in an in vitro model of 9 h hypoxia and serum deprivation with 24 h reoxygenation in complete medium using B50 rat neuronal cells. The results showed that pre-treatment with lenti-Ngb in combination with SP600125 lowered levels of oxidative stress and apoptosis to that equivalent of normoxic control cells, assessed all across four assays of cell viability. The four assays included two oxidative stress assays [Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) to assess superoxide (SO) production and a bioluminescent malondialdehyde (MDA) assay as a marker of lipid peroxidation], and two apoptosis assays (a cell death ELISA and caspase-3 immunocytochemistry). Interestingly, although it had initially been perceived to act as an anti-oxidant, Ngb upregulation was shown to significantly mediate neuroprotection through both anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic parameters. Additionally, SP600125 pre-treatment alone was shown to have no effect on SO levels but potentiated Ngb's action when administered in combination, assessed by EPR. Furthermore, the anti-apoptotic agent, SP600125, completely abolished levels of lipid peroxidation, used as a marker of oxidative stress, when administered alone.
A pilot in vivo study of 45 min transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO), using the intraluminal thread model, with 14 days recovery was performed in 12 SHRSP in order to assess the reproducibility of infarct in addition to assessing the sensitivity of the desired neurological tests. Results demonstrated a substantial variation in infarct size between animals, with 4 out of 12 animals being excluded from the study as they did not exhibit an infarct. Average results from neurological tests in remaining animals were not significantly different from baseline at day 14. Additionally, one neurological test (the cylinder test) was discontinued mid-study as animals at baseline and post-tMCAO failed to rear onto hind legs at any point making analysis impossible. This pilot in vivo study allowed for procedural surgical issues to be 'flagged' and for refinement of technique prior to initiation of the intervention study. In addition, the pilot study allowed for experience to be gained in outcome assessments including neurological scoring and ex vivo infarct analysis, to ensure minimal user variation following initiation of the intervention study.
Further methodological refinement for the tMCAO model was implemented as a result of high mortality rates observed within control animals following initiation of the in vivo intervention study. It was observed that following stereotactic administration of control virus (CAV2-GFP), although there was no significant difference in neurological score between CAV2-GFP and control animals, mortality was significantly reduced in CAV2-GFP treated animals. Subsequent analysis determined no significant difference in lesion size between control animals and CAV2-GFP treated animal. This led to the hypothesis that the administration of a small (1 mm diameter) craniectomy (although immediately sealed with dental cement following injection) and subsequent piercing of the dura attributed to the stereotactic procedure perhaps allowed for a reduction in intracranial pressure in the acute stages following tMCAO improving survival. Additionally, it has been reported that pre-conditioning animals to isoflurane may mediate neuroprotection, as is observed in the present study to carry out a pre-tMCAO surgical procedure. However, although it is likely this would have been reflected in final lesion size, the present study may be weighted to only observe animals exhibiting a lesion within a certain threshold.
Finally, an in vivo intervention study was performed to determine the effect of pre-treatment with 3 x 109 vp CAV2-Ngb in combination with 1 mg / kg SP600125 in a model of tMCAO in male SHRSP with 14 days recovery. CAV2-Ngb or CAV2-GFP was administered into the cortex in a total of 2 µl 5 days prior to tMCAO, and SP600125 was administered i.v. 15 min pre- and 3 h post-tMCAO onset. Results of the intervention study showed that combined treatment of CAV2-Ngb and SP600125 reduced final infarct greater than either therapy alone, by 58 % in comparison to untreated controls. Treatment with SP600125 alone reduced infarct by 36 % and CAV2-Ngb treatment resulted in a reduction of 38 %. This was reflected in neurological outcome where combined treatment mediated an improvement in neurological recovery assessed by 32-point neurological (where a healthy animal scores 32) from 18 in control animals to 26 in those receiving the combined intervention at day 14. Treatment with either SP600125 or CAV2-Ngb alone improved 32-point neurological score to 20 at day 14. Additionally, percentage footfalls were significantly improved from 45 % of all steps taken in control animals to ~ 28 % in animals administered with either single or combined treatment at day 14, no further improvement was noted with combined treatment assessed by this outcome.
This study represents the first anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic combination study of cerebral ischaemia and additionally the first time a CAV2 vector has been utilised in a model of experimental stroke. In conclusion, research presented in this thesis demonstrates the combined neuroprotective action of Ngb upregulation in combination with JNK inhibition in an in vitro model of hypoxia / reoxygenation improves neuronal cell viability greater than either therapy alone. Subsequently, a robust pre-clinical in vivo model of tMCAO utilising the SHRSP, demonstrated a substantial reduction in lesion size and improvement neurological score, mediated by combined therapy greater than singular treatment.


Robotic rehabilitation devices are more frequently used for the physical therapy of people with upper limb weakness, which is the most common type of stroke-induced disability. Rehabilitation robots can provide customized, prolonged, intensive, and repetitive training sessions for patients with neurological impairments. In most cases, the robotic exoskeletons have to be aligned with the human joints and provide natural arm movements. This is a challenging task to achieve for one of the most biomechanically complex joints of human body, i.e., the shoulder. Therefore, specific considerations have been made in the development of various existing robotic shoulder rehabilitation orthoses. Different types of actuation, degrees of freedom (DOFs), and control strategies have been utilized for the development of these shoulder rehabilitation orthoses. This paper presents a comprehensive review of these shoulder rehabilitation orthoses. Recent advancements in the mechanism design, their advantages and disadvantages, overview of hardware, actuation system, and power transmission are discussed in detail with the emphasis on the assisted DOFs for shoulder motion. A brief overview of control techniques and clinical studies conducted with the developed robotic shoulder orthoses is also presented. Finally, current challenges and directions of future development for robotic shoulder rehabilitation orthoses are provided at the end of this paper.


Optimal coordination of traffic signals requires proper activation of timing plans to match current traffic conditions. One of the greatest challenges in configuring a traffic responsive plan selection control mode is how to select only n number of timing plans (restricted by traffic controller memory limitations) to address possibly all traffic conditions/states that can be encountered in the field, for a specific site, but most importantly, how to associate each of these traffic conditions to one of the n timing plans stored in the traffic controller. This paper uses a multiobjective nondominated sorting genetic algorithm to (1) select the best n timing plans to be stored in the controller and (2) group traffic states into m number of clusters, and associate each of the m clusters with one of the stored timing plans. A new performance measure, degree of detachment, developed by the writers to address the clustering requirements, is described in this paper.


This article argues that accounts that envisage rupture in penality tend to overplay the coherence of 'modern' punishment and underplay the inconsistency of current developments. It suggests that this problem stems in large part from a failure to appreciate the 'braided' nature of modern liberal punishment, which is always about both punishment and reform. Part of the 'secret' to this is found in David Garland's earlier work in which the 'welfare sanction' appears as a compromise between modernist scientific expertise and liberal legalism and individualism. Normative regulation coupled with punishment in this bargain. As a result, even during the heyday of the welfare sanction and at rehabilitation's height, punitive and deterrent penalties remained important. Similarly, there is substantial evidence that increasingly widespread approaches such as restorative justice, therapeutic justice and risk-need models carry a newly revised correctionalism into the present. Rather than conceive recent changes as indicative of a watershed in penal rationality and practice, this article suggests that it is more important to think about the ways in which neo-liberal assaults on the modernist side of this equation have transformed its character.


I. INTRODUCTION The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in a case of first impression, struck down a provision of the 2005 bankruptcy reform law that prohibits attorneys from advising their clients to incur more debt in contemplation of filing for bankruptcy. (2) At the same time, the court upheld a provision of the Bankruptcy Code that compels attorneys to include a specified disclosure within their bankruptcy-related advertisements. (3) The court's rationale for striking down the Code's restriction on attorney advice was that its broad application restricted attorneys from rendering advice that in some situations would be entirely lawful and beneficial to their clients. (4) This decision protects an attorney's First Amendment right to free speech and rightfully allows consumer debtors the opportunity to be represented by counsel who may freely advise them of all their legal alternatives. On the other hand, the court reasoned that the Code's advertising disclosure requirement does not constitutionally infringe on attorneys' rights. (5) Because it only mandates that attorneys include an additional two lines of factual information in their bankruptcy-related advertising materials, it does not overly burden attorneys' interests and may help prevent deception on the part of the consumer. Whether this requirement truly provides beneficial information to consumers, or alternatively lends confusion, is questionable, and attorneys bound by this ruling are likely to face ongoing frustrations. II. FACTS AND HOLDING In April of 2005, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (the BAPCPA), which amended and added multiple sections to the Bankruptcy Code (the Code), was signed into law. (6) The purpose of this Act was to "'improve bankruptcy law and practice by restoring personal responsibility and integrity in the bankruptcy system and ensure that the system is fair for both debtors and creditors.'" (7) A primary underlying goal of the Act was to curb perceived abusive or fraudulent uses of the bankruptcy system. (8) One of the more striking BAPCPA amendments added the term "debt relief agency" to the Code, defined to include "any person who provides any bankruptcy assistance to an assisted person in return for the payment of money or other valuable consideration, or who is a bankruptcy petition preparer." (9) Further amendments either restricted the actions of, or required certain actions of, debt relief agencies. (10) For example, debt relief agencies are barred from advising a client "to incur more debt in contemplation of ... [a bankruptcy] filing," as codified in section 526(a)(4). (11) Additionally, section 528 requires that all debt relief agencies must "clearly and conspicuously" include the following statement in their bankruptcy-related advertisements: "'We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code[,]' or a substantially similar statement." (12) It thus became necessary for attorneys, such as the plaintiffs in this case, to determine whether the provisions applicable to debt relief agencies affected them professionally. The issue revolved around whether the definition of a debt relief agency was interpreted to include attorneys. In response to these concerns, suit was initiated by Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A., a Minnesota law firm that practices bankruptcy law, as well as the firm's president, a bankruptcy attorney within the firm, and two clients who sought bankruptcy advice from the firm. (13) These plaintiffs collectively brought suit against the United States seeking a declaratory judgment that the "debt relief agency" provisions of the BAPCPA were not applicable to attorneys and law firms. (14) The plaintiffs first requested the court to declare that attorneys did not fall within the definition of "debt relief agency" as provided within the Bankruptcy Code. …


The presentation will focus upon both existing and novel developmental processes for the replacement of the
hexavalent chromium containing 40/50V Bengough-Stuart anodise (CAA), with particular emphasis on their
resultant performance in structurally bonded systems. Two systems of particular interest are based upon a
phosphoric acid based electrolytic deoxidiser (EPAD) studied in combination with a standard sulphuric acid
anodise and an alternating current-direct current phosphoric-sulphuric (ACDCPSAA) anodise in a benign
electrolyte. It has been shown that the EPAD provides an open porous structure in order to enhance adhesion
to the modified sulphuric acid anodised (SAA) surface. Additionally, a post anodising (PAD) treatment has
been used to further aid structural adhesion in combination with the aforementioned processes. As a control,
the standard 40/50V Bengough-Stuart chromic acid anodising (CAA) has been used as a baseline
performance indicator in adhesion tests. Adhesion levels have been established using single lap shear and
modified wedge test configurations. Overall, excellent initial joint strengths and durability have been found
with both EPAD and ACDCPSAA, suggesting that these environmentally benign treatments may be used as
possible drop-in replacements for the currently used CAA process.


Five monomeric complexes of Co(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Ag(I) with 6-methoxyquinoline (6-MeOQ) as ligand have been prepared, and their crystal structures have been determined by single X-ray diffractions. The Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) complexes are formulated as M(6-MeOQ)2Cl2, completing MN2Cl2 coordination spheres. On the other hand, Co(II) and Ag(I) compounds are ionic with formulae [Ag(6-MeOQ)2]+ NO3− and H(6-MeOQ)+[Co(6-MeOQ)Cl3]− (where H(6-MeOQ)+ is the protonated ligand). Hirshfeld surface analysis was employed to study the intermolecular interactions in the crystal lattices and from these studies it was found that π-stacking contacts play an important role. Besides, the complexes have been characterized by FTIR, UV-visible and emission spectroscopies. The singlet oxygen production and fluorescence quantum yields were measured for all the complexes employing steady-state methodologies. Finally, the antibacterial activity of the complexes was screened against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.


The utilisation of Cu2O photocathodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting requires their stabilisation due to photocorrosion in aqueous electrolytes. Ultrathin films of wide band gap semiconducting oxides deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on top of cuprous oxide can perform the dual function of both facilitating charge extraction (through the creation of a p–n junction) and protecting the absorber material from the aqueous electrolyte, thereby suppressing corrosion in favor of hydrogen generation. The factors that determine the photocurrent performance as well as the stability of these photoelectrodes are examined. Specifically, the influence of ALD deposition temperature, electrolyte pH, electrolyte composition as well as post-deposition annealing treatments was studied. The successful development of protective overlayers must fulfil the dual requirements of favourable band alignments as well as chemical stability. At long time scales, the deactivation of the photocathodes proceeds through etching of the amorphous overlayer, accompanied by the loss of the platinum catalyst particles. Through the deposition of a semi-crystalline TiO2 overlayer, 62% stability over 10 hours of testing has been demonstrated without re-platinization.


We have identified a new Caenorhabditis elegans NK-2 class homeobox gene, designated ceh-24. Distinct cis-acting elements generate a complex neuronal and mesodermal expression pattern. A promoter-proximal enhancer mediates expression in a single pharyngeal muscle, the donut-shaped m8 cell at the posterior end of the pharynx. A second mesodermal enhancer is active in a set of eight nonstriated vulval muscles used in egg laying. Activation in the egg laying muscles requires an 'NdE-box' consensus motif (CATATG) which is related to, but distinct from, the standard E-box motif bound by the MyoD family of transcriptional activators. Ectodermal expression of ceh-24 is limited to a subset of sublateral motor neurons in the head of the animal; this activity requires a cis-acting activator element that is distinct from the control elements for pharyngeal and vulval muscle expression. Activation of ceh-24 in each of the three cell types coincides with the onset of differentiation. Using a set of transposon-induced null mutations, we show that ceh-24 is not essential for the formation of any of these cells. Although ceh-24 mutants have no evident defects under laboratory conditions, the pattern of ceh-24 activity is apparently important for Rhabditid nematodes: the related species C. briggsae contains a close homologue of C. elegans ceh-24 including a highly conserved and functionally equivalent set of cis-acting control signals.


Abstract The double-heterogeneity treatment is available in many lattice codes to represent the effect of one or many stochastic media on the deterministic solution of the neutron transport equation. A stochastic medium is a mixture of a diluent matrix with cylindrical or spherical microstructures of different sizes. Different models have been presented in the past, some limited to the collision probability method and others limited to the method of characteristics. We have reformulated these existing models in a uniform framework and introduced a scattering reduction, making them compatible with any solution technique of the neutron transport equation. This new approach has been implemented in the Dragon Version4 lattice code in a generic way that is interoperable with the overall code features. This approach can easily be implemented within any existing code dedicated to the solution of the transport equation.


Nonadditive effects are calculated for (HF)3 and (HCl)3 complexes and analyzed via the combination of perturbation theory of intermolecular forces with Mo/ller–Plesset perturbation theory (MPPT). In both systems the nonadditivity is dominated by the self‐consistent field (SCF) deformation effect, i.e., mutual polarization of the monomer wavefunctions. Heitler–London exchange and correlation effects are of secondary importance. Three‐body terms exhibit much lesser basis set dependence than the two‐body effects and even quite moderate basis sets which are not accurate enough for treatment of two‐body forces can yield three‐body effects of quantitative quality. This is due in large measure to the additivity of strongly basis set dependent components such as uncorrelated and correlated electrostatics and dispersion. Various approximate models for the three‐body potentials and total interaction in the (HF)3 cluster are analyzed from the point of view of their ability to predict the orientation dependence of in...


Technology Acquisition is an important but neglected issue within the social science analysis of technology. The limited number of studies undertaken reproduce a schism between rationalist (e.g., economic) forms of analysis, where the assumption is that choice is the outcome of formal assessment, and cultural sociological approaches which see choice as driven by the micro-politics of the organisational setting, interests, prevalent rhetorics, fads, etc. While sympathetic to the latter critical view, we are dissatisfied with the relativist portrayal of technology selection: that decisions, beset with uncertainties and tensions, are divorced from formal decision making criteria. Influenced by Michel Callon's writing on the 'performativity' of economic concepts and tools, we argue that formal assessment has a stronger relationship to technology decisions than suggested by cultural sociologists. We focus on a procurement which is characterised by high levels of organisational tension and where there is deep uncertainty about each of the solutions on offer. We show how the procurement team are able to arrive at a decision through laboriously constructing a 'comparison'. That is, they attempt to drag the choice from the informal domain onto a more formal, accountable plane through the mobilisation and performance of a number of 'comparative measures' and criteria. These measures constituted a stabilised form of accountability, which we describe through the metaphor of a 'scaffolding', erected in the course of the procurement. Our argument is threefold: first, we argue that comparisons are possible but that they require much effort; second, that it is not the properties of the technology which determines choice but the way these properties were given form through the various comparative measures put in place; and finally whilst comparative measures might be imposed by one group upon others in a procurement team, these measures remain relatively malleable.


Dementia is estimated to occur in 15%–30% patients after ischaemic stroke.1 Stroke may initiate or accelerate neurodegeneration associated with cognitive impairment.1 Brain atrophy is an important marker of neurodegeneration, preceding the emergence of cognitive symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD).2 Atrophy occurs in distributed regions that collectively mirror known brain networks, including the default mode network (DMN). Atrophy and dysfunction within the DMN is evident in healthy ageing, accelerated in pathological ageing2 and evident in acute and subacute stroke.3 Lesion location rarely predicts long-term outcome in stroke. Network-wide changes may better explain neurodegeneration and conversion to dementia after stroke. Atrophy after stroke has not been well investigated and has been limited to cross-sectional studies and regional volume changes.

Structural covariance is an increasingly popular method of examining network-wide correlations in morphometric estimates of brain structure, such as cortical thickness or grey matter volume. There is a close relationship between estimates of network-based structural covariance and intrinsic functional network architecture.4 Structural covariance can be tracked over time to reveal changes in brain organisation, either developmental or degenerative, via cross-sectional comparisons within and between groups.4 Cross-sectional differences can be difficult to detect when there is normal variability across individuals.5 Longitudinal imaging has the benefit of overcoming interindividual differences in cortical morphology by using each individual as their own control.5 Longitudinal imaging also provides an opportunity for more direct examination of atrophy within networks by looking at correlations in the rate of cortical atrophy (see figure 1 in the online Supplementary file 1) across the brain, rather than just correlations in the morphometric measure itself. Atrophy across the brain can also be examined by …


In this paper we propose a low complexity method for Rotation, Scale and Translation (RST) invariant content-based image retrieval, suitable for a handheld image recognition device. The RST compensation method is based on Fourier-Mellin Transform (FMT) which we implement efficiently using log-polar grid interpolation. This RST compensation method is used in conjunction with an image recognition algorithm based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) phase matching. A pre-selection algorithm is also added for decreasing the complexity. This algorithm is based on color proportions within concentric circular zones encompassing the edge pixels. The resulting RST invariant image recognition system was tested on 1500 pictograms and 1000 pictures with different RST conditions, showing an average recognition accuracy of 95.2% for pictograms and 96.9% for pictures.


After the advent of British colonial rule, the epistemological prestige of Muslim culture, Arabic literacy, and qadi courts declined in Kenya. Coastal residents sought favorable court rulings outside qadi courts, which no longer had independent jurisdiction, and many sought education and jobs in a British colonial system less favorable to Islamic learning. Recognizing these challenges, Sheikh al-Amin Mazrui—Kenya's most prominent Islamic scholar—founded a newspaper called al-Islah in 1932. He was inspired by the prominent Cairo journal al-Manar, by the Salafi reformers Rashid Rida and Muhammad Abduh. Although al-Islah's themes were similar to al-Manar's in advocating for Islamic reform, al-Islah addressed itself to Swahili-speaking Arabs in a milieu where Muslims were increasingly a demographic minority and culturally marginalized. Print technology (al-Islah was printed in both Kiswahili and Arabic) and Salafi ideas in al-Islah worked together to spread reform and encourage East African Muslims to value Arabic and the pursuit of shariʾa. Although these ideas were products of a long Islamic tradition that privileged access to knowledge as the passport of the believer, they were also newly self-conscious reflections of Arab cultural and religious identity; al-Islah's articles stressed the Arab role in creating Muslim civilization in Africa. Al-Islah critiqued the parochial nature of the British colonial project, urging a return to pre-colonial modes of Islamic hegemony and stressing the essential role of shariʾa in constituting Islamic identity. Islamic reform in East Africa and the "reimagination" of transnational Arab identity within it depended on Arab Muslims understanding the importance of Islamic knowledge—particularly Arabic and shariʾa—in constituting coastal communities.


Infection is a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and low-grade B cell lymphomas. Several factors may contribute to an increased risk of infection in individual patients but, overall, impaired antibody production--commonly manifest as hypogammaglobulinaemia--appears to be a major factor. Early studies of immunoglobulin replacement using the intramuscular route showed equivocal results. More recently, highly purified preparations of IgG have become available for intravenous use making regular replacement therapy a realistic possibility for patients at risk. We have recently undertaken a multi-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of regular intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) replacement in patients with CLL at risk of infection as defined by presence of hypogammaglobulinaemia, a significant infection history, or both. Eighty-four patients with CLL were randomized to receive IVIg (Gammagard Baxter Healthcare Corporation Hyland Division), 400 mg/kg body weight or an equivalent volume of normal saline every 3 weeks for a year. Patients receiving IVIg showed a 45% reduction in bacterial infection during the study period (p = 0.01). In patients completing a full year of study, a 61% reduction in bacterial infection was observed (p = 0.001). A significant reduction in bacterial infection was also seen in a blinded crossover study in which 12 patients from one centre who had completed a full year in the former study were subsequently given the alternative infusion for a further year. The incidence of serious bacterial infection was significantly less during the months in which patients received IVIg compared with placebo (p = 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


One of the greatest challenges China faces is how to reshape its heavily investment-driven mode of economic growth. By investigating how the rebalancing of Japan's economic growth mode was realized in the 1970s, we indicate that it is essential in the rebalancing to correct the distortions in the factor cost (labor cost and capital cost) in a harmonious way. In addition, we refer to Japan's experience to indicate that achieving domestic rebalancing does not necessarily lead to external rebalancing.


Nutrients were artificially increased in an oligotrophic, forested stream by adding nitrogen (as nitrate and ammonia) and phosphorus (as reactive phosphate) continuously for 44 days. This addition increased the nutrient concentrations by 10 (phosphorus), 6 (ammonia) and 4 times (nitrates) with respect to basal concentrations. The effect of the enrichment on the structure and metabolism in benthic habitats (rocks, sand and leaf litter) was studied during a period of moderate light availability (maximum light at the streambed ranged between 20-120 μE m -2 s -1 ), prior to leaf occurrence in the riparian vegetation. A BACI design was used to determine the significance of the addition by comparing an upstream non-enriched (control) reach with a downstream enriched one (impacted). Nutrient addition caused a 3-fold increase in chlorophyll density on rocks and sand, and a remarkable increase in algal cell density, but did not cause changes in the community composition of the algal community. The increase in algal biomass was not reflected in higher net community metabolism (NCM) when this was measured as oxygen production, but higher carbon incorporation was detected at the end of the experiment. Nutrient addition did not significantly alter bacterial cell density on rocks, sand and leaf litter substrata. Accordingly, no substantial increase in community respiration (CR) was detected. Neither did heterotrophic activity (extracellular enzymes) change significantly because of addition, except for a decrease (although weak) in phosphatase in sand. Enrichment did not cause a general increase in macroinvertebrate density or biomass, but some taxa increased in the enriched reach. Scrapers (Ancylus fluviatilis) and detritivores (Oligochaeta, Lumbriculidae significantly augmented their density or biomass on certain substrata. Overall, enhanced nutrient availability was able to cause a remarkable biomass increase in the autotrophic component of the stream, in spite of the moderate light availability.


In agile frogs, Rana dalmatina, an increase in male–biased operational sex ratio and in male abundance results in the emergence of alternative male mating behaviour in the form of searching. As a consequence, females are coerced into mating with multiple males, which in turn increases the level of conflict between the sexes. Selective predation on males by the European polecat, Mustela putorius, decreases the occurrence of polyandry. In ponds visited by polecats, the sex ratio is less male biased than in ponds where polecats are absent. As a result most males call to attract females and fewer males actively search for females. Females are able to choose between calling males and mate with a single male. Thus, predation by polecats is found to influence sex ratio, male abundance and sexual conflict in a frog mating system, restricting the opportunity for multiple mating.


In European coalmines, there are many unequipped, abandoned shafts (in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, UK and other countries) in which the long term stability is a cause of concern. The need for continuous assessment and monitoring of the stability of abandoned shafts present a real challenge particularly for deep shafts. The European STAMS research project (Long term STability Assessment and Monitoring of flooded Shafts), subsidized by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel programme (RFCS), is addressing this issue. The objective of the STAMS project is to implement Periodic Inspection Modules, and to design permanently installed monitoring systems, to achieve periodic and long term continuous monitoring and condition assessment of flooded mine shafts. The project proposes solutions to monitor and to assess the stability and the conditions of flooded shafts, including the non flooded portions of partially flooded shafts, for long periods of time. The Multi functional Monitoring Module is able to make periodic measurements in order to assess the stability of a flooded shaft. The Ultrasonic Inspection Module allows the detection of lining deformations with high precision between periodic inspections of shafts. In addition to monitoring, a modelling approach has been developed to assess the long term stability of shafts during and after flooding by coupling the hydro mechanical behaviour with the chemical reactions which occur between the mine water and the shaft lining components. A database of the flooded shafts has been established. Laboratory and trials tests are carried out by the partners of the project to check the tools and to test them under real conditions. This paper presents and describes the developed modules and the first obtained results.


Teachers (Pre-K-12) are rarely trained with any depth and prepared to develop high quality assessments or determine if the assessments they are using are of high quality (Stiggins, 2014). Therefore, investing time training and preparing Pre-K-12 teachers to conduct quality assessment of student learning is needed. Regulatory, accreditation, and funding agencies require Pre-K-12 education institutions to demonstrate that their students have mastered course/grade level content outcomes. Assessment practices that best allow students in Pre-K-12 education programs to know they have mastered course/grade level outcomes, in addition to instructional decisions that teachers should make in order for students to learn to what degree they have mastered course/grade level outcomes are addressed. A case study with an international Pre-K-12 United States accredited, independent, non-profit school that offers a rigorous U.S. curriculum to evaluate teacher understanding in implementing high quality assessment practices school highlights the need for teacher professional learning to be implemented and monitored to improve student learning outcomes. Methods and techniques must be taught and used by teachers to support this enhanced vision of assessment. The case study highlights that teachers need opportunities to demonstrate, study, critique, and refine their assessment practices. Formative and summative assessment must both be valued and implemented to promote and implement a high-quality assessment system and have confident and independent learners.


The objective of this paper is to determine the critical size of air bubbles, which harmfully affects the stability of air in mortar of self-compacting concrete (SCC). Mortar samples produced by different type of mixing procedures and mixing time with various dosage of air-entraining agent (AE) were tested. Air diameter distribution of these mortar samples was measured at fresh stage with air-void analyzer (AVA). With AVA machine, size of air bubble measured is considered as the chord length, which is assumed to be 2/3 of the diameter of air bubble (according to ASTM C 457). It was assumed that air bubbles with over the critical size were easily to escape either by collapsing or floating upward. It was found that instability in volume of air in fresh mortar of SCC was caused mainly by the existence of air bubbles with chord length of over 1000 µm and partially by 500 to 1000 µm due to unification between air bubbles with chord length of less than 1000 µm.


This study, designed to challenge the under-representation and limited attainment of girls in the physical sciences in an 11-16 comprehensive school, was suggested by research into attitude formation by Kelly et al in the early 1980s. Balanced science, in removing opportunities for girls to opt out of the physical sciences, made it essential to identify those factors which were adversely affecting girls' attitudes towards science.Preliminary research tasks investigated stereotypical attitudes towards science activities and the school curriculum amongst students and their parents. Additional research probed students' perceptions of their ability in science and the relevance of science subjects. Students' attitudes towards science and science teaching were investigated in relation to their option and career choices. These data influenced the choice of MEG Coordinated Science (The Suffolk Development) as the GCSE balanced science course for the school.The subsequent programme of action research included a series of small-scale investigations, involving both monitoring and evaluation, designed to develop the Suffolk scheme and satisfy the research aims. Student attitudes towards teaching methods and the Suffolk materials were amongst those areas investigated. After evaluation the findings were channelled into the action research spiral to integrate teaching methods and curriculum development thereby promoting the attitudes and achievement of the girls.Improvements in attainment by all students, particularly the girls, were illustrated by increasing GCSE success. Although the traditional pattern of boys' superiority within the physical sciences was markedly reduced the research demonstrated that it is possible to improve the attainment of girls within GCSE science without discriminating against boys.Student opinion and the GCSE data suggested that the girls' achievements could be partially explained by the coursework-led assessment which suited the girls' preferred methods of working. The research concluded with an investigation of the role of coursework within GCSE science assessment and considered the possible effects of the reduction of emphasis on coursework in the GCSE structure imposed for the 1994 examinations. This was identified as an area where further research is necessary.Continuing GCSE success reinforced the view that the skills and strategies developed by the department during the research have been influential in promoting positive attitudes and creating an environment where students, particularly girls, can achieve success in science. These skills include developing teaching contexts to match student interest, managing coursework tasks to promote student involvement and attainment and encouraging students to recognise and develop their individual abilities.


We demonstrate that useful bio-based amphiphilic polymers can be produced enzymatically at a mild temperature, in a solvent-free system and using renewably sourced monomers, by exploiting the unique properties of supercritical CO2 (scCO2). We present the use of a novel near-ambient temperature approach to prepare renewable amphiphilic ABA copolymers in scCO2. Bio-based commercially available monomers have been polymerised to prepare chains with targeted molecular weight. The amphiphilic materials were prepared by end-capping the synthesised polymers with methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (MPEG) chains in a one-pot high pressure reaction utilising Candida Antarctica Lipase B (CaLB) as a catalyst at a temperature as low as 35 °C. The block copolymers are characterised by 1H-NMR, GPC and DSC in order to carefully assess their structural and thermal properties. These polymers form self-assembled aggregates in aqueous environment and these nanostructures are studied through DLS, TEM and UV-Vis. Highly hydrophobic Coumarin-6 was used as a model to prove dispersion in water of lipophilic molecules. Maximum bubble pressure tests demonstrate the reduction in surface tension of these polymers and comparisons are made directly to commercial polymeric non-ionic surfactants.


Electricity is an essential requirement for all facets of our life. It has been recognized as a basic human need and it is critical infrastructure on which the socio economic development of a country depends. With ever growing population, improvement in the living standard of the humanity, industrialization of the developing countries, the global demand for energy is expected to increase rather significantly in the near future. Today, the challenge of power sector is to match the ever increasing demand for power supply through newer environment friendly power projects with minimal transmission and distribution losses Even though globally the power generating capacity is increasing steadily, the growth in demand is exceeding the generation capacity and as a result of this many countries are facing acute shortage in peak and energy demand. Further, people in large number of village have no access to electricity. The electricity supply is not even sufficient for those who have been connected. The end users of electricity like household, farmers, commercial establishment and industries are confronted with frequent power cuts, both scheduled and un scheduled power cuts, erratic voltage and low or high supply frequency have added to the 'power woes' of the consumer Transmission and distribution losses have been concern for the developing countries, electricity sector since these have been very high when compared with developed countries. The present T&D losses including unaccounted energy are about 30% and there is a need to reduce these losses through efficient management and the best operation and maintenance practice of the transmission and distribution system so that more energy is made available to final consumer at reduced cost. Distribution generation(DG) is attracting increasing interest and policy attention. There are five major factors behind this trend: electricity market liberalization, developments in DG technology, constraints on the construction of new transmission lines, increased customer demand for highly reliable and quality electrical power, and concerns about climate change. DG have also become popular because they reduce the distribution loss substantially which is a major component of T&D losses and it will also improve voltage of the distribution network. The optimal allocation of DG units in power system has been a major challenge to distribution system planners as well as researches in the field. The reason for this is that DG affects the power flow and voltages conditions in the distribution system, contrary to its traditional unidirectional nature in radial configuration. Distributed Generation (DG) offers various techno-economical benefits when integrated in distribution system. Those benefits are always depends on the placement and sizing of DG. To maximise the benefits it is necessary to find optimal allocation of DG in distribution system. Optimal allocation of DG is a very important factor in planning & operation of distribution system. In present work a simple and efficient technique to implement DG at optimal is suggested. This technique has been applied to ieee 33 bus system, there is a remarkable improvement in voltage profile as well as reduction of losses in the system. The minimum voltage before implementing DG was 0.9038 pu, after DG implementation it improves to 1.0281 pu for DG of 1.5 MVA at 0.9 pf lag and 0.9713 pu for DG of 1.0 MVA at unity pf. Further, initially the system was having active and reactive power of 0.0021 pu and 0.0014 pu and subsequent to DG implementation the active and reactive power losses have come down to 0.0011 pu and and 0.0008 pu for DG of 1.5 MVA at 0.9 pf lag, and 0.0014 pu and 0.0009 pu for DG of 1.0 MVA at unity pf.


A significant component of the political history of New York and other states in the second half of the twentieth century is the extraordinary growth of a social movement directed at environmental issues. The authors completed a case study of a documentation project to collect archival records about the history of environmental affairs in New York State. This article critically examines documentation strategy and the evolution of statewide documentation projects in New York, describes the implementation of a documentation project for environmental affairs, and suggests methods for improving the identification and selection of records of enduring value. The project set out to answer a number of questions about the scope of environmental affairs, the nature of the political culture for environmental public policy, and the best way to develop an effective methodology for collection development, for record surveying, and for the education of record holders. A primary finding of the study was that holders of archival records are in dire need of education about the importance of and methods for depositing, providing access to, and preserving archival records.


Abstract : We present a paradigm for discovering the outlines of arbitrarily complex cultural objects in aerial imagery. The approach starts with a low-level image partition and generic (as opposed to specific or template-like) object descriptions. We then use geometric reasoning and context knowledge to suggest corrections to the discrepancies between the segmentation boundaries and the object models. Finally, when the corrections appear consistent with the generic cultural object model, we resegment the partition to produce new labeled regions with clear semantic interpretations. The general features of our approach appear to be applicable to a number of other domains.


The derivation and applications is presented of a spatial variable or spatial radius which is related to the inertia or mass-energy of any quantum body by a Lorentz invariant relation. Mass independent DeBroglie and Schroedinger equations are derived and applied to the resolution of the linguistic incompatibility between quantum theory and the geometrical weak equivalence principle. The equivalence principle is restated in terms of the spatial radius. The gravitational attraction between bodies and the relativistic energy are both presented in terms of the spatial radius follows. The ratio of the gravitational force to the Coulomb force at the Planck scale and is found to equal unity. The annihilation of particle and antiparticle is presented as an interference effect using the spatial radius.


A series of β-pyrrole functionalized push-pull porphyrins with amine push groups linked via an ethynylphenyl spacer, and cyclic imide or carboxylic esters as pull groups have been newly synthesized and characterized. The β-pyrrole functionalized ethynylphenyl spacer extends the conjugation of the porphyrin π-system, as reflected by their red-shifted absorbance and fluorescence spectra. The computed structures revealed no steric hindrance between the porphyrin π-system and the β-substituents. The calculated HOMO and LUMO of compounds WJ2 and WJ3 display significant segregation, where the electron density in the HOMO and LUMO is mainly located at the donor component and the acceptor component, respectively. The orbital segregation is likely attributed to the introduction of the electron-donating amine group at the porphyrin periphery. Electrochemical studies revealed the expected lower HOMO-LUMO gap as a result of the facile oxidation and reduction of the push-pull porphyrins. As a consequence of the push-pull effects, a reduction in fluorescence intensity and lifetime was observed, especially for compound WJ3 having two electron-donating amino groups and a strongly electron-withdrawing cyclic imide group. Femtosecond transient absorption spectral studies revealed the successful formation of the singlet excited state in all of these push-pull porphyrins. Due to the occurrence of intramolecular charge transfer-type interactions, relaxation of the singlet excited state was found to be faster in compound WJ3 compared to other two derivatives in polar solvent but not in nonpolar solvent. Such charge transfer-type interactions from the triplet excited state were also observed in the case of compound WJ3 in benzonitrile. The present findings bring out the importance of push-pull effects in governing the ground and excited (singlet and triplet) state properties of free-base porphyrins.


This paper is devoted to the development and evaluation of a fast three-dimensional Eulerian model for dispersion inside and above the urban canopy layer. Spatially averaged wind and diffusivity coefficient profiles obtained from the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT are used as input in the developed model. This model is numerically solved by means of a finite volume method and mean concentration outputs are compared with the corresponding results from FLUENT. We considered several canopies made of arrays of cubes laid in staggered position. Results from the comparison suggest the potential of this type of simple modelling approach. As the spatially averaged wind and diffusivity profiles are strongly dependent from the mean morphometry properties of the urban canopy, these results, though preliminary, highlight the necessity of using specific turbulence closure models where building effects at the neighbourhood scale are taken into account.


The purpose of the dissertation was to critically analyse the current waste and transport techniques found at UK festivals, and discuss how these sustainability standards can be improved.
The research methods included looking at UK festivals' websites to see what sustainability techniques they say they implement. Surveys were shared amongst past festival attendees who completed their surveys on a specific festival. The results from the surveys were then tabulated and put into sections of current sustainability practices, the public opinion on how well such practices are implemented, and the public opinions on how well additional sustainability techniques could work.
The key findings from this research are that major festivals have the most waste and transport techniques on offer, but medium festivals implement their techniques the best. With regards to small festivals, their level of sustainability very much depends on the type of festival they're going for. In general, the festivals that are deemed as 'hippy' or that obviously focus on being green fared the best and provided the best levels of sustainability. The best idea for waste management was reduced fees for stalls providing biodegradable/reusable bags and/or cutlery. The best transport management idea was creating an incentive for carpooling.


Evolutionary outcomes depend not only on the selective forces acting upon a species, but also on the genetic background. However, large timescales and uncertain historical selection pressures can make it difficult to discern such important background differences between species. Experimental evolution is one tool to compare evolutionary potential of known genotypes in a controlled environment. Here we utilized a highly reproducible evolutionary adaptation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to investigate whether other yeast species would adopt similar evolutionary trajectories. We evolved populations of S. cerevisiae, S. paradoxus, S. mikatae, S. uvarum, and interspecific hybrids between S. uvarum and S. cerevisiae for ~200-500 generations in sulfate-limited continuous culture. Wild-type S. cerevisiae cultures invariably amplify the high affinity sulfate transporter gene, SUL1. However, while amplification of the SUL1 locus was detected in S. paradoxus and S. mikatae populations, S. uvarum cultures instead selected for amplification of the paralog, SUL2. We measured the relative fitness of strains bearing deletions and amplifications of both SUL genes from different species, confirming that, converse to S. cerevisiae, S. uvarum SUL2 contributes more to fitness in sulfate limitation than S. uvarum SUL1. By measuring the fitness and gene expression of chimeric promoter-ORF constructs, we were able to delineate the cause of this differential fitness effect primarily to the promoter of S. uvarum SUL1. Our data show evidence of differential sub-functionalization among the sulfur transporters across Saccharomyces species through recent changes in noncoding sequence. Furthermore, these results show a clear example of how such background differences due to paralog divergence can drive significant changes in evolutionary trajectories of eukaryotes.


Abstract SmartReader is a general-purpose "reading appliance" being implemented at Carnegie Mellon University (Qatar and Pittsburgh) - building upon an earlier prototype version. It is an artificial intelligence system that employs advanced language processing technologies and can interact with the reader and respond to queries about the content, words and sentences in a text. We expect it to be used by students in Qatar and elsewhere to help improve their comprehension of English text. SmartReader is motivated by the observation that text is still the predominant medium for learning especially at the advanced level and that text, being ``bland'', is hardly a conducive and motivating medium for learning, especially when one does not have access to tools that enable one get over language roadblocks, ranging from unknown words to unrecognized and forgotten names, to hard-to-understand sentences. SmartReader strives to make reading (English) textual material, an "active" and an "interactive" process with the user interacting with the text using anytime-anywhere contextually-guided query mechanism based-on contextual user intent recognition. With SmartReader, a user can -inquire about the contextually correct meaning or synonyms of a word or idiomatic and multi-word constructions, -select a person's name, and then get an immediate ``flashback'' to the first (or the last) time the person was encountered in text to remind herself the details of the person, -extract a summary of a section to remember important aspects of the content at the point she left off, and continue reading with a significantly refreshed context, -select a sentence that she may not be able to understand fully and ask SmartReader to break it down, simplify or paraphrase to comprehend it better. -test her comprehension of the text in a page or a chapter, by asking SmartReader to dynamically generate quizzes and answering them. -ask questions about the content of the text and get answers in addition to many other functions. SmartReader is being implemented as a multi-platform (tablet/PC) client-server system using HTML5 technology, with Unstructured Information Management Architecture -UIMA technology (used recently in IBM's Watson Q/A system in the Jeopardy Challenge) as the underlying language processing framework.


BACKGROUND
Although 5-amino-salycilic acids (5-ASA) are often used with corticosteroid treatment in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, the value of continuing/initiating 5-ASA in this clinical setting has not been explored.

OBJECTIVES
To investigate the impact of a combination 5-ASA+corticosteroid therapy on the outcome of hospitalized patients with acute moderate-severe ulcerative colitis.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective study of patients hospitalized with moderate-severe ulcerative colitis in two centers, Israel and South Korea. Patients were classified into those who received 5-ASA and corticosteroids and those who received corticosteroids alone. Analysis was performed for each hospitalization event. The primary outcome was the rate of treatment failure defined as the need for salvage therapy (cyclosporin-A/infliximab/colectomy). The secondary outcomes were 30 days re-admission rates, in-hospital mortality rates, time to improvement, and length of hospitalization.

RESULTS
We analyzed 209 hospitalization events: 151 patients (72%) received 5-ASA+corticosteroids and 58 (28%) corticosteroids alone. On univariate analysis the combination therapy group had a lower risk for treatment failure (11% vs. 31%, odds ratio 0.28, 95% confidence interval 0.13-0.59, P = 0.001). However, this difference disappeared on multivariate analysis, which showed pre-admission oral corticosteroid treatment to be the most significant factor associated with the need for salvage therapy.

CONCLUSIONS
A signal for possible benefit of a combination 5-ASA and corticosteroids therapy was found, but was confounded by the impact of pre-admission corticosteroid treatment.


This paper characterizes the query behavior of peers in a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing system. In contrast to previous work, which provides various aggregate workload statistics, we characterize peer behavior in a form that can be used for constructing representative synthetic workloads for evaluating new P2P system designs. In particular, the analysis exposes heterogeneous behavior that occurs on different days, in different geographical regions (i. e., Asia, Europe, and North America) or during different periods of the day. The workload measures include the fraction of connected sessions that are passive (i. e., issue no queries), the duration of such sessions, and for each active session, the number of queries issued, time until first query, query interarrival time, time after last query, and distribution of query popularity. Moreover, the key correlations in these workload measures are captured in the form of conditional distributions, such that the correlations can be accurately reproduced in a synthetic workload. The characterization is based on trace data gathered in the Gnutella P2P system over a period of 40 days. To characterize system-independent user behavior, we eliminate queries that are specific to the Gnutella system software, such as re-queries that are automatically issued by some client implementations to improve system responsiveness.


In a common law jurisdiction, such as Australia, judges may develop law in deciding cases. However, in China, judges, like their counterparts in civil law countries, are to apply, rather than interpret, the law. Although the Chinese Constitution and the Legislation Law vest the interpretive power in the NPC Standing Committee, the National People's Congress has authorised the Supreme People's Court to interpret laws and decrees relating to their specific application at trial. The Supreme People's Court issues judicial interpretations to provide lower courts with guidance in their application of statutory norms. In issuing these interpretations, the Supreme People's Court may create new legal norms beyond the mere application of law in adjudicating disputes. To facilitate the uniform application of law, the Supreme People's Court has adopted the system of guiding cases, to which lower courts should 'refer' in adjudging similar cases. The introduction of the system of guiding cases has generated scholarly and professional interest in whether China will have case law as another source of law. This article examines judicial interpretations and the system of guiding cases and assesses the role of judicial lawmaking in China's efforts to reform its legal system.


Assessments are a part of a physical educator's daily life. But most teachers struggle to find enough time to analyze their curriculum and develop assessments to track students' learning.Enter "Elementary Physical Education Teaching & Assessment: A Practical Guide, Second Edition." This guide is designed to make the assessment process not only easier but also more manageable. Assessment becomes not a burden in a teacher's life but an essential teaching tool that assists students in learning what they need to learn--and indeed can motivate and challenge them to take charge of their learning.This book, greatly expanded and revised from its original publication as "Teaching for Outcomes in Elementary Physical Education," will help teachers- plan and implement school- or district-wide curriculum based on the latest NASPE (National Association for Sport and Physical Education) Standards (2004);- create their own assessment tools;- understand, develop, and use alternative methods of assessment;- assess program effectiveness and students' progress toward understanding and acquisition of movement and fitness concepts and skills; and- design and use rubrics for each assessment task.In addition, teachers using this guide will learn to- streamline and manage their day-to-day assessment tasks and paperwork, applying the technology most suited to assist them;- interpret and communicate assessment results effectively; and- make assessments an integrated part of their program.In "Elementary Physical Education Teaching & Assessment: A Practical Guide, Second Edition," teachers will discover tips for handling paperwork, tools for communicating with parents, and practical guidance on coordinating teaching and assessment and dealing with grading issues. In addition, they will find more sample rubrics, more assessment tasks, and more curriculum ideas. Dozens of reproducibles complete the most comprehensive and practical book available on assessment in elementary physical education.


Michael Riley is a teacher trainer and currently (2011) Director of the Schools History Project. After an early teaching experience in Tanzania with VSO, he taught in schools in England becoming a schools advisor for Somerset. He has published several history textbooks. He was a member of the Dearing Review Working Group of 1994-5, which sought to reduce the burden of the first National Curriculum's history content on teachers. He discusses the process by which the NC was revised, noting the views of other key players - Chris Woodhead, the Minister John Patten and Chris McGovern (his interview is on this website). Michael Riley discusses the impact of more recent changes to the history curriculum in schools, in particular the concepts of diversity and Britishness. Interviewed by Nicola Sheldon.


Apoptosis (programmed cell death) occurs in many multicellular organisms, including plants where it is involved in limiting the spread of invading pathogens by a process called the hypersensitive response. The plant response to pathogens also involves an oxidative burst that produces reactive oxygen species. Expression of proapoptotic proteins from mammals in yeast causes cell death. Kampranis et al. designed a strategy based on the yeast two hybrid system and yeast sensitivity to the expression of mammalian Bax to characterize plant genes involved in opposing Bax-induced apoptosis through direct and indirect mechanisms. The screen yielded several clones related to antioxidant proteins. The clone that was most effective at inhibiting cell death caused by reactive oxygen species and caused by Bax expression was then cloned from tomato. The protein sequence suggested that the clone encoded a glutathione S-transferase (GST), and expression and isolation of the protein from bacteria confirmed this enzymatic activity, as well as glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity. Expression of this GST/GPX protein in yeast expressing Bax blocked Bax-induced inhibition of the cell cycle, restored glutathione levels to wild type, and inhibited dissipation of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Thus, this unusual cross-kingdom approach may point to novel genes involved in the plant defense pathway, as well as provide more evidence for the role of oxidative stress in Bax-mediated cell death. Kampranis, S.C., Damianova, R., Atallah, M., Toby, G., Kondi, G., Tsichlis, P.N., and Makris, A.M. (2000) A novel plant glutathione S-transferase/peroxidase suppresses Bax lethality in yeast. J. Biol. Chem. 275: 29207-29216. [Abstract] [Full Text]


Phthalates, including di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), are common industrial chemicals in the environment. Recent evidence indicates that DEHP and its active metabolite mono-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (MEHP) negatively modulate reproductive functions and induce reactive oxygen species. Ascorbic acid (AA) is a dietary requirement for primates, and it acts as a potent free radical scavenger to protect tissues against oxidative stress. In this study, to investigate the toxic effects of MEHP on the follicle development and the beneficial role of AA, neonatal mouse ovaries were treated with different concentrations of MEHP with or without AA for 6 days. Then, the follicle constitution and oxidative status were compared in different groups. Results showed MEHP accelerated primordial follicle recruitment by increasing the percentage of primary and secondary follicles and decreasing the percentage of primordial follicles in the ovaries. Moreover, MEHP induced ovarian oxidative stress by significantly increasing malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration and the expression of GSS and SOD1. When ovaries were co-administrated with MEHP and AA, follicle constitution was normalized, and the oxidative status was significantly decreased. These results suggested that AA ameliorated MEHP induced ovarian oxidative stress and follicular dysregulation, which attested the clinical significance of AA for ovary protection in the case of MEHP exposure.


This is an embedded mixed methods research study aimed at examining the associations of gender and schooling type with the Big Fish Little Pond Effect (BFLPE) in four school subjects: Arabic, English, Science and Math in the context of Jordan. The BFLPE hypothesizes that academic self-concept is positively affected by individual academic ability but negatively affected by the average ability of a class or school. Students' ability was measured by using an ability test from PISA 2000 (Programme for international student assessment). Students' academic self-concepts were measured by the academic self-description questionnaire II (ASDQII). The types of social comparison made in the classroom were investigated using semi-structured interviews. The systematic multi-stage cluster sampling was used in selecting 269 tenth grade male and female students from single-sex and co-educational schools in the northern regions in Jordan. 8 male and female students were randomly selected to take part in face-to-face interviews. The results showed that male and female students in single-sex and co-educational schools in Jordan suffered the BFLPE. A student's own ability has a positive effect on their academic self-concept, but the average ability of a school is evident in having a negative effect on students' academic self-concept in the four subjects. Gender has no influence on the academic self-concept. The type of school a student attends has a substantial influence on academic self-concept. Students who attend co-educational schools suffered a larger BFLPE than their peers in single-sex schools. The interaction between gender and school type was not significant in any of the four subjects' self-concept. The findings from the interviews evidenced the downward and upward comparisons. The effect of downward comparisons on academic self-concept was positive; whereas, the effect of upward comparisons on academic self-concept was negative. The findings from the interviews also showed different social comparison standards that students used to establish their academic self-concepts such school grades, the participation in the class, homework, and teachers' and parents' comments.


How can interventions more effectively tackle women's and girls' vulnerability to HIV? In this presentation, given to mark World AIDS Day at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, STRIVE Research Director Professor Charlotte Watts introduces key structural drivers affecting women and girls, such as: poverty and transactional sex - young girls have sex with older men to access resources, seeding HIV into younger age groups; gender inequality and violence - women have difficulty negotiating sex or condom use when economically dependent on partner and fear violence; limited livelihood opportunities - such as women's economic dependence on their partner; labour migration and separation of families; stigma and discrimination - prevents those most vulnerable to HIV from accessing or supporting HIV programmes.

The presentation offers examples of two interventions designed to tackle multiple drivers of HIV risk among women and girls, combining economic and community mobilisation components.


For the past five years, I have engaged in fieldwork and filming a documentary about Diamond Mountain, a community of Western converts to Tibetan Buddhism in southern Arizona under the leadership of Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally. The latter was retreat master and, along with her husband Ian Thorson, in the middle of guiding forty students through a three-year, three-month, three-day silent meditation retreat. But when McNally stabbed Thorson, the Diamond Mountain Board asked both to leave. Feigning departure, the couple sneaked into a small cave just outside the Diamond Mountain property, where two months later Thorson died of dehydration. Stories of scandal, cult and death flooded the media. This essay provides an account of these events, the mistrust of my research that emerged because of the media's stigmatization of the group, and the type of trust-building necessary to continue my research.


Experience with a variety of intra-luminal "flow diverters" has demonstrated the ability of these high-density, metallic mesh devices to disrupt flow into intracranial aneurysms to a degree where thrombosis will occur. Thus far, limitations in their use includes the inability to treat aneurysms of some geometries, for example, bifurcation, as well as the need for the use of dual antiplatelet therapy during, immediately after and for some months following treatment. Over the last 3 years Sequent Medical has designed and developed a novel intra-saccular flow diverter aimed at expanding the utility and ease of use of these devices in aneurysm treatment. In this presentation I will illustrate some of the steps in the development, testing and evolution of the WEB as well as describe and illustrate a computational comparison of the flow diversion achieved by use of a Sequent WEB device or a generic intra-luminal flow diverter in two human aneurysms. Since 2007 we have evaluated a variety of WEB designs using the canine bifurcation aneurysm model. Our aim in these studies was to identify a design which allowed: (1) controlled and reproducible device delivery, retrieval and detachment; (2) aneurysm isolation from the circulation within minutes of deployment; (3) stable aneurysm occlusion at follow-up. A final device design consisting of a high density, two-layer nitinol mesh with variable porosity was selected for clinical use. Using examples from our canine studies, I will discuss and illustrate how changes in pore distribution (density), pore size and the addition of an internal compartment impacted the WEBs performance. To assess the differences between the extent of flow diversion achieved by the WEB as compared to a generic intra-luminal flow diverter, we performed computational studies comparing the two devices imbedded in two human aneurysms from our in-house data base (one a ICA sidewall aneurysm and the other a basilar apex aneurysm). To reduce computational requirements a porous media approach was used for these simulations. In these two aneurysms a comparison of the TA-WSS, flow entering the aneurysms and, changes in a surrogate of kinetic energy before and after virtual "treatment" all indicated potential advantages of the WEB over the generic intra-luminal device. Over the course of our studies, the Sequent WEB evolved into a device that was effective in the treatment of the canine bifurcation aneurysm. Computational studies in two human aneuyrms illustrate the potential advantages of this intra-saccular flow diverter over a generic intra-luminal flow diverter.


Intrigue: Murder in the Lucky Holiday Hotel is a podcast that is Agatha Christie meets House of Cards with an Oriental twist. It tells the story of the downfall of Bo Xilai, a once powerful and charismatic politician, who could have eclipsed current President Xi Jingping as a future leader of China if the cards fell his way. Despite the challenges of reporting in China, BBC China Editor Carrie Gracie is able to explain with clarity the tale of money, sex and power than unravelled Bo Xilai. Gracie guides us through her five-part series with clear knowledge of her beat of 25 years. She is upfront about the many restrictions and hardships involved in reporting on an important tale from one of the world's most repressive superpowers. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Gracie is a charismatic, jovial presenter, who delivers the story with zest. This podcast is very different listening to the straight-laced reportage from the BBC's network of correspondents around the world. Considered in a broader journalist context, Murder in the Lucky Holiday Hotel offers foreign correspondents based in bureaus around the world a blueprint for what is possible in terms of creative podcasting. It's refreshing to see a foreign correspondent dive deep and explain an important chapter of Chinese politics with simplicity and flair.


In the present report, temporal behavior of entanglement between a photonic binomial distribution and a two-level atom in a leaky cavity, in equilibrium with the environment at a temperature T, is studied. In this regard, the master equation is solved in the secular approximation for the density matrix, when the initial photonic distribution is binomial. The atom-photon density matrix so calculated is then used to compute the negativity, as a measure of entanglement. The behavior of entanglement is, consequently, determined as functions of time and temperature. Our results, along with representative figures reveal that the atom-photon degree of entanglement exhibits oscillations while decaying with time and asymptotically vanishes. It is further demonstrated that an increase in the temperature results a decrease in the entanglement.


The incidence of civil war in Sub-Saharan Africa since the turn of the century is less than half of what it was on average in the last quarter of the 20 century. This paper shows that the aid boom triggered by 9/11 played a key role in achieving purposefully this result using panel data for 46 African countries over four decades. The duly instrumented estimated linear probability model predicts that the observed fall in the probability of a civil war occurring in a typical Sub-Saharan African country/year could have been achieved by increasing foreign aid by 25% on average, had the higher incidence of natural disasters and the commodity price shocks of the 2000s not stacked the odds against peace. However, the small rise in minor conflicts mitigates this achievement to some extent.


Abstract: In this study we discuss and empirically test the assertion that over the last two decades multinational enterprises' (MNEs') configuration of value-adding activities has shifted from a sparse and simple (host-home) international division of labor among the foreign affiliates to a more specialized and 'advanced' global value chain configuration in which MNEs locate fine-sliced parts of the value chain at the most efficient locations. Using data on trade flows of U.S. affiliates in 56 host countries between 1983 and 2003 we find some indications of a trend in the direction of global value chain specialization. In particular among US affiliates in developing countries the proportion of host-host, intra-firm trade has increased significantly during the observed period of time. Conversely, the proportion of host-home and inter-firm trade has diminished. We interpret this as indicating both value chain disaggregation (vertical specialization) and MNEs' systematic exploitation of factor cost differentials across countries. We also find that the absolute levels of all types of trade flows have increased. Hence, it is the relative, and not the absolute, changes in the trade flow patterns of US affiliates that gives credibility to the global value chain assertion.


Getting to Know ArcGIS ModelBuilder teaches readers how to develop and run reusable geoprocessing workflows and models in ModelBuilder, a visual programming technology available in ArcGIS. Getting to Know ArcGIS ModelBuilder presents basic and more complex concepts and demonstrates best practices through hands-on exercises.Divided into seven chapters addressing model basics interactive models, flow control, multiple inputs, model iterations, model environment, and building documentation, this book fosters a comprehensive knowledge of ModelBuilder for the classroom and forself-learners. All the data needed for the exercises, as well as examples of models, Python scripts, and custom applications are included in a companion DVD.


Species in the genus Trichoderma are important as commercial source of several enzymes and as biofungicides/growth promoters. The most common biological control agents of the genus are strains of T. harzianum, T. viride and T. viriens. In this study, sixteen selected isolates of T. harzianum from different land use types in Embu, Kenya were tested for anatognism against five soil borne phytopathogenic fungi (Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium sp, Fusarium graminearum, F. oxysporum f. sp phaseoli and F. oxysporum f. sp Lycopersici) using dual culture assay and through production of non-volatile inhibitors. Seven isolates were further characterized using RAPD-PCR procedure to determine genetic variability. All T. harzianum isolates had considerable antagonistic effect on mycelial growth of the pathogens in dual cultures compared to the controls. Maximum inhibitions occurred in Pythium sp-055E interactions (73%).The culture filtrates obtained from Czapek's liquid medium reduced the dry weight (mg) of the mycelia significantly while those from the potato dextrose broth showed minimum inhibition growth.Pythium sp was inhibited the most compared to other pathogens. Genetic similarities generated using Jacquard's coefficient of similarity ranged from 0.231 between isolates 055E and 011E to 0.857 between isolates 010E and 015E. The technique of RAPD was efficient in demonstrating the DNA polymorphism in the isolates of T. harzianum tested showing intraspecific genetic variability. Since all T. harzianum isolates evaluated were effective in controlling colony growth of the soil borne pathogens both in dual cultures and in culture filtrates they could be tried as a broad spectrum biological control agent in the green house and under field conditions.

 Key words: Trichoderma harzianum, growth antagonism, genetic similarity, RAPDs.


What are the impacts of war on the participants, and do they vary by gender? Are ex-combatants damaged pariahs who threaten social stability, as some fear? Existing theory and evidence are both inconclusive and focused on males. New data and a tragic natural quasi-experiment in Uganda allow us to estimate the impacts of war on both genders, and assess how war experiences affect reintegration success. As expected, violence drives social and psychological problems, especially among females. Unexpectedly, however, most women returning from armed groups reintegrate socially and are resilient. Partly for this reason, postconflict hostility is low. Theories that war conditions youth into violence find little support. Finally, the findings confirm a human capital view of recruitment: economic gaps are driven by time away from civilian education and labor markets. Unlike males, however, females have few civilian opportunities and so they see little adverse economic impact of recruitment.


Many researchers see the potential of wireless mobile learning devices to achieve large-scale impact on learning because of portability, low cost, and communications features. This enthusiasm is shared but the lessons drawn from three well-documented uses of connected handheld devices in education lead towards challenges ahead. First, 'wireless, mobile learning' is an imprecise description of what it takes to connect learners and their devices together in a productive manner. Research needs to arrive at a more precise understanding of the attributes of wireless networking that meet acclaimed pedagogical requirements and desires. Second, 'pedagogical applications' are often led down the wrong road by complex views of technology and simplistic views of social practices. Further research is needed that tells the story of rich pedagogical practice arising out of simple wireless and mobile technologies. Third, 'large scale' impact depends on the extent to which a common platform, that meets the requirements of pedagogically rich applications, becomes available. At the moment 'wireless mobile technologies for education' are incredibly diverse and incompatible; to achieve scale, a strong vision will be needed to lead to standardisation, overcoming the tendency to marketplace fragmentation.


Three generations of Vandenhoffs were among featured players in theatres of both America and England for over a century, 1808 through 1913. George Vandenhoff, the subject of this study, was the eldest son of the accomplished British tragedian, John Vandenhoff. Lauded in England, George accepted a theatrical booking in New York in 1842 and later became a resident of that city. Dissatisfied with changing trends in the theatre and perceiving a growing interest in public readings of literature, Vandenhoff ultimately turned his attention from the actor's stage to the reader's platform. One of the first to introduce Shakespearean readings, he enjoyed thirty-nine years of popularity as a public reader of literature. Vandenhoff was among those professional men who actively sought to improve oral expression in a growing America. Staunchly defending the teaching of elocution (oral delivery), he wrote textbooks and offered instruction in that art. His manuals, judged to have been admirable, intelligible, correct in theory, and easy of practice, were in popular use in both England and America for over forty years. As an elocutionist, the ex-actor was particularly adept at characterization. Recognized as "New York's favorite reader," his performances expanded the literary awareness of his listeners and inspired many to seek guidance in improving their own elocution. As educator and entertainer, Vandenhoff foreshadowed the twentieth century concept of oral interpretation as a valid method for studying and stimulating appreciation of literature. Being a popular participant in the mainstream of nineteenth century elocution, he unquestionably made a significant contribution to the practice of oral interpretation of literature and to oral delivery in general. In addition to recording highlights of the theatrical careers of George Vandenhoff and nine other family members, this study is an investigation of his years as a public reader and teacher, primarily in New York and New England. Also, it is an assessment of his contribution to the art of oral reading as an author of elocutionary textbooks. Appendix A contains copies of playbills and character portraits of Vandenhoffs. Appendix B presents a table of literary selections and authors comprising the anthologies found in Vandenhoffs and five of his contemporaries' textbooks.


Over the past three decades, the Supreme Court has repeatedly insisted that due process requires that absent class members be given an opportunity to "opt out" of a class action seeking predominantly money damages. The Court's asserted justification for linking opt-out rights and due process focuses on absent class members' potential interest in seeking their own, personal "day in court." But this "day-in-court" rationale provides a problematic basis for viewing opt-out rights as a categorical requirement of procedural due process. Perhaps most obviously, the day-in-court justification makes virtually no sense in the context of class actions involving only small-value individual damages claims, which cannot feasibly be litigated outside the context of a class proceeding. Recognizing the deficiencies of the standard day-in-court rationale, this Article approaches the connection between due process and class action opt-out rights from a different perspective. Rather than taking as its central case the condition of an individual class member wishing to pursue a separate, standalone litigation — the perspective implicit in the standard "day-in-court" account — this alternative perspective focuses instead upon the interests of those class members who prefer that their legal claims not be asserted at all. Outside the class action context, ownership of a legal claim typically entitles claimholders to decide for themselves whether or not their claims will be asserted in litigation. Class actions extinguish this control right by transferring control over absent class members' claims to the class representatives and their attorneys. This transfer occurs without the claim owners' explicit consent and allows their claims to be used for purposes with which the owners of those claims might not agree, such as to punish a particular defendant or to enrich class action lawyers that the owner views as undeserving. Opt-out rights provide an appropriate procedural safeguard that protects objecting class members from having their control rights extinguished, thereby allowing them to decide for themselves whether or not their claims will be asserted. Shifting the focus of due-process analysis away from the interests of absent class members who wish to pursue individual litigation and toward the interests of class members who wish to avoid having their claims asserted at all sheds useful new light on a number of issues relating to the theory and practice of class action litigation, including: (1) the theoretical foundations for opt-out rights in cases involving so-called "negative value" claims, (2) the differential treatment of opt-out rights in equitable class actions as opposed to those seeking monetary relief, and (3) the relationship between opt-out rights and the underlying substantive law establishing the claimholder's entitlement to sue.


This article proposes the concept of an extractive regime to understand Indonesia's developmental trajectory from 1966 to 1998. The concept contributes to world-systems, globalization, and commodity-based approaches to understanding peripheral development. An extractive regime is defined by its reliance on extraction of multiple natural resources in the formation of an economic and political order that is also supported by global and regional forces. After elaborating the concept of an extractive regime, the article illustrates it through examination of Indonesia's developmental trajectory from its formation in the post-World War II era to its firm establishment during Suharto's New Order. Although a comprehensive study would necessitate attention to the full panoply of commodities, the study illustrates some of the workings of the extractive regime in the timber and fisheries sectors, which share spatial extensivity and other characteristics. The article concludes by considering the future of the extractive regime in Indonesia amid democratization and continued class domination and by offering suggestions for further application, specification, and extension of the extractive regime concept.


Purpose
This paper aims to expose the inadequacy of social marketing to tackle complex social problems, while proposing an expansion in the discipline' conceptual repertoire. The goal is to incorporate complexity tools, in particular from the system dynamics field, and the promotion of mindware within a true transdisciplinary paradigm.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses literature review to support the proposed theoretical development. It also presents a short case study.

Findings
Most problems that plague our modern societies have a distinctive complex nature that is not amenable to traditional social marketing interventions. Social marketing has simplified the problem of bringing about societal change by thinking that upstream social actors can be influenced in the same way as downstream individuals. This paper shows that this is not the case while proposing a framework to close this gap.

Research limitations/implications
The proposed framework is a theoretical one. It depends on further refinements and actual application to wicked problems.

Practical implications
Complex social problems – or wicked problems – remain widespread in modern societies. Moreover, they are getting worse over time. The paper presents a proposal to redefine the limits of the social marketing discipline so it can be more useful to tackle such problems. Practical approaches such as measuring the success of mindware in the marketplace of ideas are implied in the proposed framework.

Social implications
The increase in complexity of social problems has not been accompanied by an evolution in the discipline of social marketing. The lack of proper conceptual tools has prevented the discipline from contributing to tackling these problems effectively. Some interventions may actually worsen the underlying problems, as illustrated in the paper.

Originality/value
This paper identifies two major gaps associated with the social marketing discipline, in particular the lack of complexity and systems thinking and the forsaking of ideas (mindware) as a legitimate goal of the discipline. This realization corroborates the claim that boundaries among disciplines are often artificial, hindering the proper understanding of complex social problems. In turn, only the use of adequate conceptual lenses makes it possible to devise interventions and programs that tackle actual causes (instead of symptoms) of complex social problems.


Recordings of electrical activity in the human brain reveal the fine-tuned, stepwise neuronal processing of language and speech. How does intention to speak become the action of speaking? It involves the generation of a preverbal message that is tailored to the requirements of a particular language, and through a series of steps, the message is transformed into a linear sequence of speech sounds (1, 2). These steps include retrieving different kinds of information from memory (semantic, syntactic, and phonological), and combining them into larger structures, a process called unification. Despite general agreement about the steps that connect intention to articulation, there is no consensus about their temporal profile or the role of feedback from later steps (3, 4). In addition, since the discovery by the French physician Pierre Paul Broca (in 1865) of the role of the left inferior frontal cortex in speaking, relatively little progress has been made in understanding the neural infrastructure that supports speech production (5). One reason is that the characteristics of natural language are uniquely human, and thus the neurobiology of language lacks an adequate animal model. But on page 445 of this issue, Sahin et al. (6) demonstrate, by recording neuronal activity in the human brain, that different kinds of linguistic information are indeed sequentially processed within Broca's area.


One of the most successful applications of peer-to-peer communication networks is in the context of blockchain protocols, which-in Satoshi Nakamoto's own words-rely on the "nature of information being easy to spread and hard to stifle." Significant efforts were invested in the last decade into analyzing the security of these protocols, and invariably the security arguments known for longest-chain Nakamoto-style consensus use an idealization of this tenet. Unfortunately, the real-world implementations of peer-topeer gossip-style networks used by blockchain protocols rely on a number of ad-hoc attack mitigation strategies that leave a glaring gap between the idealized communication layer assumed in formal security arguments for blockchains and the real world, where a wide array of attacks have been showcased. In this work we bridge this gap by presenting a Byzantineresilient network layer for blockchain protocols. For the first time we quantify the problem of network-layer attacks in the context of blockchain security models, and we develop a design that thwarts resource-restricted adversaries. Importantly, we focus on the proofof- stake setting due to its vulnerability to Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks stemming from the well-known deficiency (compared to the proof-of-work setting) known as nothing at stake. We present a Byzantine-resilient gossip protocol, and we analyze it in the Universal Composition framework. In order to prove security, we show novel results on expander properties of random graphs. Importantly, our gossip protocol can be based on any given bilateral functionality that determines a desired interaction between two "adjacent" peers in the networking layer and demonstrates how it is possible to use application-layer information to make the networking-layer resilient to attacks. Despite the seeming circularity, we demonstrate how to prove the security of a Nakamoto-style longest-chain protocol given our gossip networking functionality, and hence, we demonstrate constructively how it is possible to obtain provable security across protocol layers, given only barebone point-to-point networking, majority of honest stake, and a verifiable random function.


Weaver ants (Oecophylla spp.) are widely used as effective biological control agents. In order to optimize their use, ant abundance needs to be tracked. As several methods have been used to estimate ant abundance on plantation trees, abundances are not comparable between studies and no guideline is available on which method to apply in a particular study. This study compared four existing methods: three methods based on the number of ant trails on the main branches of a tree (called the Peng 1, Peng 2 and Offenberg index) and one method based on the number of ant nests per tree. Branch indices did not produce equal scores and cannot be compared directly. The Peng 1 index was the fastest to assess, but showed only limited seasonal fluctuations when ant abundance was high, because it approached its upper limit. The Peng 2 and Offenberg indices were lower and not close to the upper limit and therefore showed fluctuations throughout the season. The numbers of nests showed high fluctuations unlikely to reflect ant abundance, but rather reflected nest building behaviour influenced by tree phenology. In conclusion, nest counting is not recommended, whereas the Peng 1 index can track dynamics at low ant abundance and the Peng 2 and Offenberg indices can be used in most situations. (Resume d'auteur)