We examine the long-term effects of a 1998–2003 randomized experiment in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Individual Development Accounts that offered low-income households 2:1 matching funds for housing down payments. Prior work shows that, among households who rented in 1998, homeownership rates increased more through 2003 in the treatment group than for controls. We show that control group renters caught up rapidly with the treatment group after the experiment ended. As of 2009, the program had an economically small and statistically insignificant effect on homeownership rates, the number of years respondents owned homes, home equity, and foreclosure activity among baseline renters.


Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) have been used in the treatment of complications of portal hypertension. TIPS is used for the control of acute variceal bleeding and for the prevention of vericeal rebleeding when pharmacologic therapy and endoscopic therapy have failed. Patients with refractory ascites with adequate hepatic reserve and renal function who fail to respond to large volume paracentesis may be reasonable candidates for TIPS. Promising indications for TIPS are Budd‐Chiari syndrome uncontrolled by medical therapy, severe portal hypertensive gastropathy, refractory hepatic hydrothorax, and hepatorenal syndrome. TIPS cannot be recommended for preoperative portal decompression solely to facilitate liver transplantation. Special care should be taken to insure proper placement of the stent to avoid increasing the technical difficulty of the transplantation procedure. The major limiting factors for TIPS success are shunt dysfunction and hepatic encephalopathy. Because shunt stenosis is the most important cause of recurrent complications of portal hypertension, a surveillance program to monitor shunt patency is mandatory. The MELD score may be useful in predicting post‐TIPS survival, and also in counseling patients and their families.


In this paper, we study the impact of ethnic fragmentation on the provision of private and public schools, separately. The distinction is made because the two types of schools have different objective functions, a factor which can influence the relationship between ethnic fragmentation and public goods provision. We find that ethnic fragmentation has a negative impact on the provision of schools overall, but this effect manifests differently for the two types of schools considered. To explain our findings we show that ethnic fragmentation lowers collective action, and because of the different objectives of provision of private and public schools, lack of collective action results in a differential impact. While private schools are shown to be lower in number, public schools are of lower quality in fragmented districts.


In the real world the population are lack of save water and sanitation especially in the developing and underdeveloped
counties most people are poor, the children mortality are high rate, in the near future the lack of fresh water source
would be affected to the living life including animals human been and lastly environmental changeable. In Asia including
ASEAN member countries face to be challenge for those affect, the deforestation in the region would be huge damage of
the water shed also the surface water from the river face to be serious drought this dry season of year for Mekhong river.
In Vientiane the capital city of Lao P.D.R in April were face serious draught effect by lowest of Mekhong river compare
to last 40 years, thus the effected to the demand capacity of both water treatment plan need full capacity to supply water
to the two hundred thousand of consumer for one month. Refer to the real situation the Vientiane water supply company,
trying to solved that problem by water tanker delivery to the high lacking point including resettlement zone that we namely
Nongteng area but face to be not enough supply to whole city. There are a few water supply community served by local
and village volunteer whose armature to be assistant by some donor appear not enough capability to supply due to the
resettlement number are increased. The author highly to raise this topic for to have an any donor whose can assist for the
capability to supply the clean water to the communities which more that thousand of household, and lack of good sanitation
system due to lack of water supply. In the long run lack of clean water and bad sanitation would be effected to the
human been hygiene and infected by disease especially for the school children sickness and might not attend the school
age by normal life style that human been basic need.


This paper argues that the Digital Economy Act (DEA) 2010, already much delayed in its implementation, is fundamentally flawed in three respects. First, there are internal inconsistencies in the complex provisions to be enacted under secondary legislation. In particular, the problem of relying on Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to identify alleged infringers has proved problematic. Secondly, the proposed measures are disproportionate in terms of the offence and severity of the punishment involving a warning-system leading to possible disconnection from the Internet for copyright infringement. Thirdly, the Act is unlikely to succeed in its central purpose to control unauthorised digital copying because of its technological specificity in a fast moving environment, and a lack of consumer acceptance. Finally, by comparing the treatment of these issues under legislation in other countries, in particular New Zealand, alternative copyright enforcement models are explored.


Focused electromagnetic beams are frequently modeled by either an angular spectrum of plane waves or a partial-wave sum of spherical multipole waves. The connection between these two beam models is explored here. The partial-wave expansion of an angular spectrum containing evanescent components is found to possess only odd partial waves. On the other hand, the partial-wave expansion of an alternate angular spectrum constructed so as to be free of evanescent components contains all partial waves but describes a propagating beam with a small amount of standing-wave component mixed in. A procedure is described for minimizing the standing-wave component so as to more accurately model a purely forward propagating experimental beam.


The Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the national voting age to eighteen. Judges and scholars cite it for that proposition, and nothing more. This Paper argues, contra the conventional wisdom, that the Twenty-Sixth Amendment enacted two further changes in American constitutional law. First, it banned age-based franchise discrimination directed against any person above the age of eighteen. Such discrimination might be directed against people of any age category - the old, the young, or the middle aged. Second, it granted Congress authority to enact remedial legislation to correct age-based franchise discrimination. This authority carries with it a broad congressional power to define instances of prohibited age-based discrimination, and to override state laws while enforcing the ban on such discrimination. The argument in this Paper relies on both the text of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and the history of its passage. The Paper focuses on how the Amendment's enacting coalition interpreted and responded to the Supreme Court's judgments in Oregon v. Mitchell and Katzenbach v. Morgan, and the enacting coalition's decision to model Section Two of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment after the enforcement power clauses of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The Paper considers and refutes several counterarguments, and closes by suggesting that Congress may have authority under the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to enact remedial legislation preempting state law in several areas: voter ID requirements, state laws affecting the voting rights of college students and overseas soldiers, and state laws disenfranchising voters who suffer from age-related mental disabilities.


John McMillan's article raises numerous important points about the ethics of surgical castration of sex offenders.1 In this commentary, we focus solely on and argue against the claim that the offer of release from detention conditional upon surgical castration is a coercive offer that compromises the validity of the offender's consent. We take no view on the question as to whether castration for sex offenders is ethically permissible. But, we reject the claim that it is ethically permissible only if competing ethical considerations outweigh worries about coercion. For in the situation described, the proposal is not coercive at all.

McMillan states that if offenders agree to castration because they fear long-term detention, then 'it seems, intuitively, as if agreeing to be castrated under these conditions makes the decision coerced in some way.'1 He adds that if castration is 'the only way that they will be released back into the community, the status of this decision as a genuine expression of their autonomy is questionable.'1 In defence of his claim, he uses two analogies that he borrows from Joel Feinberg. First, if a governor offers to commute a death sentence if the prisoner agrees to participate in a medical experiment, then 'it's clear that the governor is coercing the prisoner.'1 Second, if a millionaire offers to give a woman $1 000 000 …


Intellectual property rights systems are important policy instruments in the armoury of governments. They have the potential to have favourable or adverse consequences for the relevant national system of innovation, technology transfer, research and development and eventually economic growth. While there is a substantial debate related to the optimization of patent systems in the developed world, there is limited debate related to the approaches used in developing countries like South Africa. This article presents an effort to assess whether the South African non-examining patent system makes a contribution or it is detrimental to the country's development. We find that the current intellectual property rights regime not only does not support the objectives of the national innovation system but it facilitates exploitation by foreign interests and creates substantial social costs.


An extension of the simple stochastic climate model of Frankignoul and Hasselman that includes the effects of seasonal variations in upper-ocean mixed layer depth upon the persistence of winter sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies is proposed. Seasonal variations in mixed layer depth allow for the ''reemergence mechanism,'' whereby thermal anomalies stored in the deep winter mixed layer persist at depth through summer and become partially reentrained into the mixed layer during the following winter. In this way, SST anomalies can recur from winter to winter without persisting through the intervening summer. Reformulating the simple stochastic climate model in terms of an effective ocean thermal capacity given by the depth of the winter mixed layer, thereby implicitly taking into account reemergence, is shown to provide a favorable fit to the observed winterto-winter SST autocorrelations in the North Atlantic and Pacific, and represents a considerable improvement over the original model. The extended model also compares favorably with results from an entraining bulk ocean mixed layer model coupled to an atmospheric general circulation model. The authors propose that the extended model be adopted as the new ''null hypothesis'' for interannual SST variability in middle and high latitudes.


A biological assay was designed and developed to study the effect of excreted morphogens of mechanically stimulated mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) on neighboring cells. Physical contact of different cell pop- ulations is prevented by patterning the cells in stripes with the help of micro contact printing. Micro uidics are used to stimulate the cells with a continuous ow generating shear stresses on the cells in the order of magnitude of 1 Pascale. Applying a unidirectional ow, where the advective ow is more important than the diffusive, ensure that morphogens will only effect cells lying downstream. This adds an asymmetry to the systems - if morphogens are involved in differentiation, cells will behave differently according to their spatial position. Specific markers for BMSCs are used to determine the state of differentiation. In parallel, mRNA was extracted from differentiating bone marrow stromal cells at different time points up to three weeks, either using an adipogenic or osteogenic inductive medium. The extracted and purified mRNA can be used to characterize the cell line BM153. Adipogenic po- tential of BM153 cells was shown with an Oil Red O stain.


Women have historically been prevented from living autonomously by systematic injustice, subordination, and oppression. The lingering effects of these practices have prompted many feminists to view autonomy with suspicion. Here, Marilyn Friedman defends the ideal of feminist autonomy. In her eyes, behavior is autonomous if it accords with the wants, cares, values, or commitments that the actor has reaffirmed and is able to sustain in the face of opposition. By her account, autonomy is socially grounded yet also individualizing and sometimes socially disruptive, qualities that can be ultimately advantageous for women. Friedman applies the concept of autonomy to domains of special interest to women. She defends the importance of autonomy in romantic love, considers how social institutions should respond to women who choose to remain in abusive relationships, and argues that liberal societies should tolerate minority cultural practices that violate women's rights so long as the women in question have chosen autonomously to live according to those practices.


As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms in higher education transition from lecturing to active learning, the frequency of student interactions in class increases. Previous research documents a gender bias in participation, with women participating less than would be expected on the basis of their numeric proportions. In the present study, we asked which attributes of the learning environment contribute to decreased female participation: the abundance of in-class interactions, the diversity of interactions, the proportion of women in class, the instructor's gender, the class size, and whether the course targeted lower division (first and second year) or upper division (third or fourth year) students. We calculated likelihood ratios of female participation from over 5300 student–instructor interactions observed across multiple institutions. We falsified several alternative hypotheses and demonstrate that increasing class size has the largest negative effect. We also found that when the instructors used a diverse range of teaching strategies, the women were more likely to participate after small-group discussions.


Abstract: This report aims to highlight to the wider Defence community the challenges faced by Defence Logisticians and the lack of priority that Defence leaders have placed on Logistics systems in the past. Its fundamental contention is that Defence will need to place greater emphasis on the Defence Logistics function if it is to meet the challenges of a more complex and challenging operating environment in the future. Given the complexity of the Logistics challenge, the report provides a high level overview of Defence Logistics.


In this study, Mieczkowski's Tourism Climate Index (TCI) was used for Iran to investigate the climate change impacts on outdoor human comfort. The long-term data covering a network of 153 stations were used to compute TCI under baseline conditions (1981–2015) and a climate change scenario (HadCM3-A1B) for 2016-2045. In this study LARSWG was used for downscaling of large spatial resolution GCM outputs to a finer spatial resolution. User-friendly and multi-platform software which is called ITCIC (Iran Tourism Climate Index Calculator) was designed to calculate TCI. The spatial distribution of TCI for baseline and climate change conditions was investigated and the covered area by each TCI class was calculated by using ArcGIS 10. The annual distributions of TCI were investigated based on Scott and McBoyle (2001) Models. Also, a suite of multiple linear and non-linear regression models was used to determine the relationship between TCI, latitudes, longitudes and elevations of regions. Root mean square error (RMSE), mean error (ME), mean absolute relative error (MARE) and coefficient of determination (R) were used to evaluate the modeling accuracy. The best time and regions for outdoor activities in the base and future periods were determined. Comparison of the covered area by each TCI class in the base and future periods showed that the climate change occurrence was led to improving climate comfort. The results of error evaluation criteria showed that non-linear regression was appropriate for all month except January and October.


Feedback processes from active galactic nuclei (AGN) are thought to play a crucial role in regulating star formation in massive galaxies. Previous studies using \textit{Herschel} have resulted in conflicting conclusions as to whether star formation is quenched, enhanced, or not affected by AGN feedback. We use new deep 850 $\mu$m observations from the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy survey (S2CLS) to investigate star formation in a sample of X-ray selected AGN, probing galaxies up to $L_{0.5-7~\rm keV} = 10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Here we present the results of our analysis on a sample of 1957 galaxies at $ 1 < z < 3 $, using both S2CLS and ancilliary data at seven additional wavelengths (24--500 \mcm) from \textit{Herschel} and \textit{Spitzer}. We perform a stacking analysis, binning our sample by redshift and X-ray luminosity. By fitting analytical spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to decompose contributions from cold and warm dust, we estimate star-formation rates for each `average' source. We find that the average AGN in our sample resides in a star-forming host galaxy, with SFRs ranging from 80 - 600 $M_{\odot}$ year$^{-1}$. Within each redshift bin, we see no trend of SFR with X-ray luminosity, instead finding a flat distribution of SFR across $\sim$3 orders of magnitude of AGN luminosity. By studying instantaneous X-ray luminosities and SFRs, we find no evidence that AGN activity affects star formation in host galaxies.


We consider a exible greedy approach to wavelength assign- ment in an optical network with the goal of minimizing the cost incurred by wavelength conversions and ber deployment. The greedy approach pro- cesses demands one by one in a certain order and makes a locally optimal choice for each demand. We address several heuristics for creating desirable demand orderings, including a random ordering, as well as a hybrid method that begins with a graph coloring algorithm. One of the primary strengths of our heuristics is that they are both simple and exible. Hence, additional practical engineering and cost constraints can be easily incorporated into the approach. An empirical evaluation shows that our greedy approach works well on real-world networks under realistic demand loads.


G-quadruplexes are a family of four-stranded structuresstabilized by guanine quartets, in which four planar guaninesestablish a cyclic array of hydrogen bonds. They are ofspecial interest due to the increasing evidence for theirformation in vivo and their possible implication in biology,especially at telomeres and as contributors to gene regulation.Moreover, G-quadruplexes are also formed as a result ofself-assembling processes of guanosine derivatives, yieldingseveral interesting motifs such as G-ribbons and G-wireswhich have peculiar electrical conductivity properties thatare being explored as molecular wires.This special issue is initiated with two articles discussingthe self-assembling properties of guanosine derivatives whichdescribe the basic principles of G-quadruplex formation. Thefirst article by Neviani et al. analyzes the presence of severallevels of organization of guanosine derivatives carryingone or two lipophilic units as observed by light scatteringtechniques and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)experiments. The second article by Mariani et al. describesa study on quadruplex formation of 2 -deoxyguanosinemonophosphate by small-angle X-ray scattering techniques.


BACKGROUND
This study was conducted to examine the intermediate-term clinical outcomes in patients with refractory angina pectoris treated with transmyocardial laser revascularization (TMR) at our institution. TMR is an alternative surgical technique for the treatment of myocardial ischemia and angina pectoris not amenable to conventional percutaneous or surgical revascularization. Limited data exist evaluating the natural history and duration of clinical improvement in angina pectoris following TMR.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Thirty-four patients with severe coronary artery disease unsuitable for treatment with standard revascularization techniques underwent TMR in myocardial regions determined to be ischemic by preoperative SPECT (201)Tl perfusion imaging following dipyridamole stress. Patients were assessed postoperatively at 3, 6, and 12 months for clinical outcomes including death, myocardial infarction, functional class of angina pectoris, and hospitalizations for unstable angina. Myocardial perfusion imaging by (201)Tl scintigraphy was also assessed at these temporal end points. Overall mortality at 1 year was 14.7% (n=5). Nonfatal myocardial infarction occurred in 3 patients (8.8%). Among the patients with complete 12-month follow-up (n =27), mean anginal class improved from 3.5+/-0. 5 pre-TMR to 2.8+/-0.7 and 2.5+/-0.7 at 3 and 6 months, respectively, and 2.8+/-0.9 at 12 months. Overall improvement in angina pectoris was sustained at 1 year by at least one functional class in 50% of patients. Mean hospitalizations per year for unstable angina declined from 2.4+/-1.6 pre-TMR to 1.7+/-2.0 post-TMR (P=0.01). There was no significant improvement in perfusion by SPECT (201)Tl imaging at any temporal end point post-TMR.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the lack of demonstrable improvement in perfusion by SPECT (201)Tl imaging, TMR improved the functional class of angina pectoris in patients with end stage coronary artery disease to a modest degree. Although the maximal benefit in symptoms occurred at 6 months post-TMR, mild sustained clinical improvement above baseline was evident in 50% of patients at 1 year.


Objectives Autoimmune connective tissue diseases (ACTDs) commonly involve the shoulder joint; however, clinical epidemiological studies investigating their association with tendons are scant. Rotator cuff (RC) tears can cause shoulder disability, and surgical intervention is usually required. The study investigated RC repair surgery risk in ACTD patients. The effect of anti-inflammatory medication on RC repair surgery risk was also investigated. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study with a 7-year longitudinal follow-up period. Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, sicca syndrome, dermatomyositis and polymyositis diagnoses between 2004 and 2008 were enrolled. The control cohort comprised age- and sex-matched controls. The HR and adjusted HR (aHR) were estimated for the risk of RC surgery between ACTD and control cohorts after adjustment for confounders. Furthermore, the effects of steroid and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use on the HR and aHR of RC surgery risk were analysed. Results We enrolled 5019 ACTD patients and 25 095 controls in the ACTD and control cohorts, respectively. RC surgery incidence was 49 and 24 per 100 000 person-years in the ACTD and control cohorts, respectively. In the ACTD cohort, the crude HR for RC surgery was 2.08 (95% CI , 1.08 to 4.02, p<0.05), and the aHR was 1.97 (95% CI, 1.01 to 3.82, p<0.05). The ACTD patients who used NSAIDs had an aHR of 3.13 (95% CI, 1.21 to 8.07, p<0.05) compared with the controls, but the ACTD patients who used steroids did not have a significantly higher aHR than the controls. Conclusions ACTD patients had an increased risk of RC repair surgery. However, no difference was found in RC surgery risk when steroids were used compared with the control cohort. This could indicate that inflammation control may be a strategy for managing subsequent RC lesions.


The early history of polymetamorphic basement gneiss complexes is often difficult to decipher due to overprinting by later deformation and metamorphic events. In this paper we integrate field, petrographic and mineral chemistry data from an Archaean tonalitic gneiss xenolith, hosted within a Palaeoproterozoic mafic dyke in the Lewisian Gneiss Complex of NW Scotland to show how xenoliths in dykes may preserve signatures of early tectonothermal events. The Archaean tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) gneisses of the Lewisian Gneiss Complex are cut by a suite of Palaeoproterozoic (c. 2400 Ma) mafic dykes, the Scourie Dyke Swarm, and both are deformed by later shear zones developed during the upper greenschist- to lower amphibolite-facies Laxfordian event (1740 – 1670 Ma). Detailed field mapping, petrographic analysis and mineral chemistry reveal that a xenolith of TTG gneiss entrained within a Scourie dyke has been protected from amphibolite-facies recrystallization in a Laxfordian shear zone. Whereas the surrounding TTG gneiss displays pervasive amphibolite-facies retrogression, the xenolith retains a pre-Scourie dyke, clinopyroxene-bearing metamorphic assemblage and gneissic layering. We suggest that retrogressive reaction softening and pre-existing planes of weakness, such as the c. 2490 Ma Inverian fabric and gneiss–dyke contacts, localized strain around but not within the xenolith. Such strain localization could generate preferential flow pathways for fluids, principally along the shear zone, bypassing the xenolith and protecting it from amphibolite-facies retrogression. In basement gneiss complexes where early metamorphic assemblages and fabrics have been fully overprinted by tectonothermal events, our results suggest that country rock xenoliths in mafic dykes could preserve windows into the early evolution of these complex polymetamorphic areas. Supplementary material: Electron microprobe analyses and analytical spot locations are available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3809545


Diabetic disease is increasing exponentially on a global scale. Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are the leading cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations. The pathophysiological events need to be considered when designing new interventions. Bioengineered skin substitutes (BSS) are accepted in the therapeutic armamentarium for DFU treatment. However, newer designs are likely to offer more targeted approaches to the disease process. This relates to the stimulation of vasculogenesis in particular. This can be achieved by using interactive scaffolds that stimulate endothelial progenitor cells to increase vascular endothelial growth factor production and reverse some of the damage that is caused by glycation end-products that are characteristic of diabetes.


We examine the process by which antitobacco laws and ordinances were implemented and enforced in seven states and nineteen localities. Our findings indicate that state- and local-level clean indoor air laws were rarely enforced by governmental agencies. Instead, these laws were largely self-enforcing in that changed social norms regarding appropriate smoking behavior led to generally high compliance rates. In contrast, teen access laws were not self-enforcing, but were often enforced through periodic vendor compliance checks. We also found that antitobacco forces did not devote a significant amount of attention of implementation and enforcement issues. Their focus was primarily on enacting new legislation and fighting tobacco industry attempts to weaken existing laws. Our results do not augur well for public health measures that require state-level enforcement and that are opposed by powerful and politically well-connected interests. For tobacco control laws to be effective, public health advocates need to consider the locus of enforcement responsibility and the sanctions available to the enforcement agency, such as license removal by local authorities. These results suggest that failure to specify such mechanisms in the legislation will lead to delays in implementing and enforcing the laws as well as to a number of compliance problems. Antitobacco coalitions will also need to become more actively involved in the implementation and enforcement process.


This paper presents the findings of an investigation which, in its first part, identified risk factors for school failure (understood as grade retention and/or drop-out) in a cohort of all children born in the city Pelotas (RS) hospitals, in 1982. This was accomplished through a multivariate model which examined the risk for failure associated to children's personal and family variables. The results confirm findings from other research, suggesting the important influence exerted by factors such as ethnic group, family income, number of siblings, parents' level of schooling, type of dwelling, among others, over children's academic attainment. The second part of the investigation reports case studies of two schools (attended by populations that presented the same risk factors) with contrasting rates of repetition and dropout among their students (high in one and low in the other). The results indicate that the institutions differ among themselves and point out to the importance of intra-school factors, especially schools' pedagogic discourse (concept defined by Bernstein) for children's attainment. The emphasis on the academic aspect of schooling (instructional discourse), observed in the school that presented lower failure rates, enabled an effect modification over the important correlation (encountered in other research) between children's failure and parents' low level of schooling. The school which presented the highest rates of failure was characterized by a regulative discourse.


In this paper, we employ shunting inhibitory convolutional neural networks to develop an automatic gender recognition system. The system comprises two modules: a face detector and a gender classifier. The human faces are first detected and localized in the input image. Each detected face is then passed to the gender classifier to determine whether it is a male or female. Both the face detection and gender classification modules employ the same neural network architecture; however, the two modules are trained separately to extract different features for face detection and gender classification. Tested on two different databases, Web and BioID database, the face detector has an average detection accuracy of 97.9%. The gender classifier, on the other hand, achieves 97.2% classification accuracy on the FERET database. The combined system achieves a recognition rate of 85.7% when tested on a large set of digital images collected from the Web and BioID face databases.


Dendritic cells (DC) sense infection in their microenvironment and undergo a dynamic process of changes in phagocytic capacity, morphology and migratory activity in order to induce optimum T cell immunity. The acquisition of these properties is termed "DC maturation". In this study, key selected aspects of this DC maturation process have been explored. One aspect of DC maturation is the signalling pathways that DC use to respond to micro-environmental signals. DC respond to conserved microbial structures in their micro-environment via pattern recognition receptors including Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Generally it is thought that this leads to activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, p38, ERK, and JNK. JNK and p38 MAPK are also activated by reactive oxygen species, including hydrogen peroxide (H202), known to be present in the inflammatory DC milieu. Therefore the ability of H2O 2 to stimulate DC, or modulate their response to TLR ligands such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was examined. Activation of JNK, associated with inhibition of tyrosine phosphatases, is linked to induction of DC apoptosis. JNK inhibition partially protected the DC from the pro-apoptotic effects of H2O2. Furthermore, H2O2 and LPS synergise in inducing JNK activation, and DC apoptosis. These studies suggest that excessive DC maturation, which may induce pathogenic T cell activation may be limited by DC apoptosis. The second section of the thesis explores the mechanisms leading to MAPK activation upon TLR ligation. Biochemical studies demonstrated that mixed lineage kinase 3 (MLK3), a kinase not previously implicated in DC maturation, was phosphorylated upon TLR3 and 4, but not TLR2 ligation. Studies using a selective MLK inhibitor supported a role for the mixed lineage kinase (MLK) family of MAPK kinase kinase (MAP3K) proteins in regulation of DC signalling, phenotype and cytokine secretion, in response to TLR3 and 4, but not TLR2 ligation. Selective activation of MAP3K may therefore contribute to the heterogeneity and flexibility of DC/pathogen interaction. A further feature of the DC sensory role is antigen uptake, but the relationship between morphology and phagocytic capacity has not been defined. Therefore a simple and flexible assay to examine this relationship was developed. DC with long dendritic processes were less efficient at antigen internalisation than round DCs.


Though the marriage plot is the most familiar vehicle in the Victorian novel for reconfiguring the family, the adoption plot is a prominent alternative version. This essay explores the intersection of comic adoption plots with the motif that Alistair Duck-worth has dubbed the "improvement of the estate." In the Victorian novel the variety of arrangements according to which children are transferred to households other than the one to which they are born reflects the fact that institutionalized adoption did not exist in Victorian England. An investment in traditonal patterns of property succession was one of the factors that delayed its advent. In the adoption plots of Dinah Craik9s King Arthur: Not a Love Story and Trollope9s Doctor Thorne, however, this concern is countered by a representation of adoption as the key to safeguarding or revitalizing the estate. Craik9s novel makes a case for institutionalizing adoption by showing that it is the hero9s adoption into a middle-class family that equips him to be the worthy steward of an ancestral estate. In Trollope9s novel the salvation of the Greshamsbury estate hinges on the rescue of the illegitimate child, Mary, by the uncle who adopts her. Doctor Thorne suggests that adoption is the key to a social mobility that serves not just the individual but society at large.


Relativistic electron beams above thunderclouds emit 100 kHz radio waves which illuminate the Earth's at- mosphere and near-Earth space. This contribution aims to clarify the physical processes which are relevant for the spa- tial spreading of the radio wave energy below and above the ionosphere and thereby enables an experimental simulation of satellite observations of 100 kHz radio waves from rel- ativistic electron beams above thunderclouds. The simula- tion uses the DEMETER satellite which observes 100 kHz radio waves from fifty terrestrial Long Range Aid to Naviga- tion (LORAN) transmitters. Their mean luminosity patch in the plasmasphere is a circular area with a radius of 300 km and a power density of 22 µW/Hz as observed at 660 km height above the ground. The luminosity patches exhibit a southward displacement of 450 km with respect to the lo- cations of the LORAN transmitters. The displacement is reduced to 150 km when an upward propagation of the radio waves along the geomagnetic field line is assumed. This residual displacement indicates that the radio waves undergo 150 km sub-ionospheric propagation prior to en- tering a magnetospheric duct and escaping into near-Earth space. The residual displacement at low (L 2.14) geomagnetic latitudes ranges from 100 km to 200 km which suggests that the smaller inclination of the geomagnetic field lines at low latitudes helps to trap the ra- dio waves and to keep them in the magnetospheric duct. Dif- fuse luminosity areas are observed northward of the magnetic conjugate locations of LORAN transmitters at extremely low geomagnetic latitudes (L< 1.36) in Southeast Asia. This re- sult suggests that the propagation along the geomagnetic field lines results in a spatial spreading of the radio wave energy over distances of 1 Mm. The summative assessment of the electric field intensities measured in space show that nadir observations of terrestrial 100 kHz radio waves, e.g., from relativistic electron beams above thunderclouds, are attenu- ated by at least 50 dB when taking into account a transiono- spheric attenuation of 40 dB.


We conducted a case-control study in northern China to estimate possible risk factors for Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). Forty patients were consecutively seen at the PUMC hospital and the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical College between July and September 1991. The diagnosis was established following the NINCDS criteria for GBS. Among 36 patients with measurements of motor evoked potentials, 34 had evidences of demyelination. Eighty controls chosen from spouses or siblings, and neighbors or work/school mates, were matched by sex and age (+/- 3 years). Using the Mantel-Haenszel estimate of the odds ratio, cold rain, overloaded activities, a history of diarrhea, common cold, and exposure to organophosphorus one month before onset, significantly increased, at least six-fold, the risk for development of GBS. Cases and controls did not differ in the number of previous vaccinations. We suggest that a single antigent is less likely of etiological importance in GBS.


Electric motors are repaired 2-3 times over their lifetime. Poor repair practices, particularly widespread in developing countries, can lead to a significant increase in motor losses. It is estimated that worldwide poor repair leads to annual electricity losses of approximately 40 TWh, representing 20 Mtons of CO2 emissions. The main objective of this paper is to provide a technical basis for designing demand side management actions, which address the motor repair market. This paper brings into focus motor repair process trends, energy-efficient motors, typical repair process, actions to promote energy-efficient motor repair, energy-efficient motor rebate schemes to replace old, badly damaged motors and the factors influencing payback. This paper will be useful to energy policy makers, and Demand Side Management (DSM) staff in energy agencies and electric utilities.


Approximately 40% of patients with aortic stenosis (AS) show discordant Doppler-echocardiographic parameters with aortic valve area (AVA) <1 cm 2 and/or index iAVA <0.6 cm 2 /m 2 (consistent with severe AS) and the mean gradient (MG) <40 mmHg, consistent with mild/moderate AS. Accurate diagnosis of true severe low flow low gradient AS versus pseudo-severe aortic stenosis is important for prognosis and optimal timing for intervention. Doppler echocardiography using intravenous low dose dobutamine challenge is widely used for differentiating pseudo-severe from true severe aortic stenosis. However, relying on echocardiography alone may have limitations in accurate diagnosis. Reliable diagnosis using echocardiography is dependent on multiple factors like the angle of interrogation of the aortic jet, the assumption that the LVOT area is circular in cross section, optimal echo windows, the presence of underlying subclinical coronary artery disease prior to dobutamine challenge etc. In this chapter, we describe non-invasive and invasive strategies to assess the aortic valve using dobutamine stress. Direct measurement of gradients across the aortic valve while estimating the change in cardiac output and aortic valve area with increments of dobutamine infusion dose is complementary, safe and useful when conventional echocardiography techniques are inconclusive. Finally, the chapter describes effective strategies of treatment for low gradient severe aortic stenosis, including the role for diagnostic balloon valvuloplasty, in the era of transcatheter valve replacement (TAVR).


Without using high speed RF feedback electronics, we successfully demonstrate a novel and economic long-term stabilization scheme for a 10 GHz 0.8 ps asynchronously mode-locked Er-fiber soliton laser by controlling the cavity length to lock the deviation frequency at 25 kHz. The required deviation frequency between the cavity harmonic frequency and the modulation frequency can be directly obtained from the low frequency electronic sideband of the laser output. The same feedback control unit is also useable for higher modulation frequencies, because the suitable deviation frequency always remains within the range of 15~40 kHz.


The problem of estimating the parameter of Exponential distribution on the basis of type II censoring scheme is considered when the available data are in the form of fuzzy numbers. The Bayes estimate of the unknown parameter is obtained by using the approximation forms of Lindley (1980) and Tierney and Kadane (1986) under the assumption of gamma prior. The highest posterior density (HPD) estimate of the parameter of interest is found. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to compare the performances of the different methods. A real data set is investigated to illustrate the applicability of the proposed methods.


: Healthcare regularly uses phenomenology as a research perspective to improve medical care. This paper explores the opportunities for applying phenomenology to better understand how the built environment might impact the behavioral symptoms of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is expected to be a major public health problem in the U.S. for the aging population. It is projected that by 2050, the number of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's will triple. This projection raises the question of how we are prepared to provide care for this growing population who, in some stages of the disease, are no longer able to meaningfully communicate. This paper outlines a review of phenomenology as a tool for that planning. From its inception to modern applications, possibilities for applying phenomenology to the intersection of the built environment and Alzheimer's are reviewed. The ontology of phenomenology, including Husserl and others, is assessed, and standard methodologies are discussed. With this foundation, possibilities for the application of a phenomenological approach to better understand the built environment's role in the of the lived experience of Alzheimer's disease are explored, including discussions of quality standards. Rooted in interpretivism and seeking an in-depth understanding of contexts and personal interpretations, phenomenological studies typically gather data through surveys, interviews and observations, which may cause problems with patients that often have issue retaining their memories. As such, this paper walks through the development of phenomenology with an eye to its potential application to Alzheimer's. This is followed by suggestions for applying the phenomenological research paradigm towards the support - and potentially future cure process of Alzheimer's with a focus on the built environment.


An improvement of a mathematical model of the galvanic iron corrosion, previously presented by one of the authors, is here proposed. The iron(III)-hydroxide formation is, now, considered in addition to the redox reaction. The PDE system, assembled on the basis of the fundamental holding electro-chemistry laws, is numerically solved by a locally refined FD method. For verification purpose we have assembled an experimental galvanic cell; in the present work, we report two tests cases, with acidic and neutral electrolitical solution, where the computed electric potential compares well with the measured experimental one.

[ DOI : 10.1685/CSC09331] About DOI


Objective: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are the major public health concern in both developed and developing countries regulated by the cultural pattern of gender expression in their society. Thus, it demanded a necessary action to review the changing pattern in (Gwalior, central India where health condition is not in a good fashion with poor socioeconomic status and awareness. Materials and Methods: This is a hospital based cross sectional questionnaire study with a sample size of 222 respondents attending sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic at JAH Gwalior from December 2011 to March 2012 using a random sampling method. Results: Most of the cases among females were in the age group of 20-40 years (152, 84.44%) and males were in 18-40 years age group (35, 83.33%). Out of 180, 22 (12.22%) females were having non-regular sexual partners. Out of 22 females frequency of consistent, non-consistent, and no condom use with non-regular sexual partners was three (13.63%), two (9.09%), and 17 (77.27%), respectively. Out of 42 males, 22 (52.38%) reported having sex with non-regular sexual partners. None of the 15 (100%) male subjects having friends or relatives as non-regular sexual partner were using condoms. Statistically significant differences were found as compared to a previous study from same STD clinic are discharge, lower abdominal pain, painful micturition, nodules in genitals as 106 (58.88%; P = 0.0001), 59 (32.77%; P = 0.0007), 25 (13.88%; P = 0.001), and one (0.5%; P = 0.005), respectively and in males with absence of abdominal pain and nodules in genitals as P = 0.016 and 0.03, respectively. Preferred place of treatment of STIs was government facility in both male and females with statistically significant 15.76% (P = 0.0001) of the population seeking no treatment. Discussions: Study suggests a changing trend of the STDs owing to the difference in the clinical presentation of the disease to a previous study from the same STD clinic few years back. A shift from adolescent towards adult age group have been reported, which could be the result of awareness generated from counseling patients during their visit to the STD clinic. The problem of low and infrequent condom use and improper binding to the treatment with multiple non-regular sex partners was seen in a fairly good proportion. Study also delineates the change in health-seeking behavior of the attendees. Deterrence towards public health facilities and an upsurge in self-medication as treatment-seeking behavior and approach towards the private health facilities have been reported. Conclusion: Study shows the very significant and much needed role of counseling center like STD clinic, in changing the due course and trend of STDs epidemiology.


The South African 2006 and 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) findings continue to highlight major concerns about the quality of reading literacy teaching in primary schools. Of specific concern is the lack of representation of the sampled South African learners at the PIRLS international benchmarks, revealing a distinct lack of their development of thinking and reasoning abilities for reading comprehension. To shed light on potential reasons for learners' reading comprehension difficulties, this article presents selected findings on teachers' reading comprehension development practices emanating from the investigation of one KwaZulu-Natal and five Gauteng province case study schools from the national South African PIRLS 2006 Grade 4 sample. These cases represented a range of educational contexts across the South African PIRLS 2006 performance continuum and were sampled according to class average achievement aligned to the PIRLS international benchmarks and further South African benchmarks lower on the achievement scale. The findings juxtaposing teaching practices for reading comprehension development from case study schools with achievement profiles at the PIRLS international benchmarks against those of case study schools with less than optimal achievement at benchmarks lower on the achievement scale speak to key teaching and learning areas, which still need attention in terms of curriculum policy and teachers' implementation thereof. Keywords : classroom practices, literacy, PIRLS, qualitative case studies, reading comprehension


This paper studies price-based spectrum access control in cognitive radio networks, which characterizes network operators' service provisions to delay-sensitive secondary users (SUs) via pricing strategies. Based on the two paradigms of shared-use and exclusive-use dynamic spectrum access (DSA), we examine three network scenarios corresponding to three types of secondary markets. In the first monopoly market with one operator using opportunistic shared-use DSA, we study the operator's pricing effect on the equilibrium behaviors of self-optimizing SUs in a queueing system. We provide a queueing delay analysis with the general distributions of the SU service time and PU traffic using the renewal theory. In terms of SUs, we show that there exists a unique Nash equilibrium in a non-cooperative game where SUs are players employing individual optimal strategies. We also provide a sufficient condition and iteraIntive algorithms for equilibrium convergence. In terms of operators, two pricing mechanisms are proposed with different goals: revenue maximization and social welfare maximization. In the second monopoly market, an operator exploiting exclusive-use DSA has many channels that will be allocated separately to each entering SU. We also analyze the pricing effect on the equilibrium behaviors of the SUs and the revenue-optimal and socially-optimal pricing strategies of the operator in this market. In the third duopoly market, we study a price competition between two operators employing shared-use and exclusive-use DSA, respectively, as a two-stage Stackelberg game. Using a backward induction method, we show that there exists a unique equilibrium for this game and investigate the equilibrium convergence.


In late 2009, Sandra Haukka secured funding from the auDA Foundation to explore what older Australians who never or rarely use the Internet (referred to as 'non-users') know about the types of online products and services available to them, and how they might use these products and services to improve their daily life. This project aims to support current and future strategies and initiatives by:

1) exploring the extent to which non-users are aware of the types and benefits of online products and services, (such as e-shopping, e-banking, e-health, social networking, and general browsing and research) as well as their interest in them

b) identifying how the Internet can improve the daily life of older Australians

c) reviewing the effectiveness of support and services designed to educate and encourage older people to engage with the Internet

d) recommending strategies that aim to raise non-user awareness of current and emerging online products and services, and provide non-users with the skills and knowledge needed to use those products and services that they believe can improve their daily life.

The Productive Ageing Centre at National Seniors Australia, and Professor Trevor Barr from Swinburne University provided the project with in-kind support.


Abstract. One of the main barriers to the uptake of 3D GI is the lack of understanding of what the user requirements are. From the data acquisition and creation perspective – in particular, that of a National Mapping and Cadastral Agency who may need to prepare datasets with national coverage – this is an issue as each new 3D feature type and element within a feature added (such as doors, windows, chimneys, street lights) requires additional processing and cost to create. This paper reports the results of a user requirements gathering exercise for a national 3D mapping product in the United Kingdom. The study focuses on the user perception of 'usefulness' of different 3D geometry and semantic features. A web-based questionnaire with Likert-type items was selected as the primary data collection method and was conducted in May 2017. A total of 121 completed responses were from the UK. Descriptive analysis showed that 'Air quality engineering', 'Infrastructure & transport' and 'Environmental services' presented the most positive outlook on the usefulness of 3D. Correlation analysis showed that potential 3D product groups that could be formed in a multi-product approach. Cluster analysis showed that appetite for 3D information not only varies between sectors, but also within sectors between different practitioners. The results from exploratory factor analysis showed that users were more interested in additional information on non-building features rather than additional detail to building geometry. Further continued work is required to incorporate both non-GIS users and 3D users outside the GIS domain.


This book provides an integrated overview of key trends in digital transformation, taking into consideration five interrelated dimensions: strategy and business models, society, organization, technology and regulation. As such, it provides a framework for the analysis of digital business transformation and its emerging factors, analyzing twenty-five key trends in terms of their future impact. On that basis, the book then delineates a new approach centered on the mutually accelerating links between multiple value creation spaces. It proposes a new mode of production – accelerated production of links (acceluction) – and analyzes it with respect to the still-dominant concept of lean production. Based on the results of the international CIGREF research program ISD, the book presents a valuable perspective of the expected impact of the abundance of networks and data as critical resources for enterprises beyond 2020.... Download ebook, read file pdf From Lean Production to Acceluction


A phytoplasma was associated with sweet potato plants with little leaf disease occurring in northern Australia using classical approaches of symptomatology, dodder (Cuscuta australis) transmission to Ipomoea nil, fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy. Sweet potato little leaf (SPLL) disease was then detected using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay using universal primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene. An Australian phytoplasma survey was undertaken using universal primers in a PCR-based detection system. Phytoplasmas were detected in thirty two different plant species showing little leaf, proliferation, phyllody, virescence, and/or yellows symptoms. The genetic relatedness of these phytoplasmas was determined by restriction analysis of the ribosomal PCR product using a number of enzymes including Alu l, Rsa I, Mse I and Hpa II. All the phytoplasmas detected had similar restriction profiles to SPLL except for the Australian grapevine yellows (AGY) phytoplasma which produced a unique digestion pattern. The ribosomal PCR product of some of the phytoplasmas was cloned and the l6S/23S intergenic spacer region was sequenced to identify more subtle differences in the SPLL-type phytoplasmas. In some of the phytoplasmas some minor nucleotide changes were identified in the variable regions of the spacer region either side of the conserved tRNAIle. The entire SPLL 16S rRNA gene was sequenced to determine its taxonomic and phylogenetic position. Parsimony analysis showed that SPLL belonged to the faba bean phyllody strain cluster, and was closely related with tomato big bud (TBB) from Australia and to phytoplasmas occurring in southeast Asia, such as peanut witches' broom, sesame phyllody and sunhemp phyllody. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) analysis of 16S rDNA showed that AGY was different to other characterised phytoplasmas occurring in grapevine, and most closely resembled stolbur phytoplasmas associated with bois noir from France and Vergilbungskrankheit from Germany. Sequence analysis of 16S rDNA showed that AGY clustered with the aster yellows group and was most closely related to, but not the same as, the stolbur subgroup, forming a new subgroup. Polymorphisms identified in the amplified tuf gene coding for the elongation factor EF-Tu confirmed the uniqueness of AGY in comparison to stolbur phytoplasmas of grapevine. The phytoplasma associated with papaya dieback (PDB) from Australia gave the same restriction profile as AGY. Australian phytoplasmas were therefore found to belong to two phylogenetically distinct groups: the faba bean phyllody strain cluster and the aster yellows strain cluster (stolbur subgroup), with AGY forming a new subgroup within the AY group. To further understand the genetic relatedness of phytoplasmas, physical and gene maps of the SPLL phytoplasma chromosome were constructed. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was used to determine the size of the SPLL-V 4 genome which was estimated to be 622 kb, the smallest phytoplasma genome recorded. A physical map was prepared using 2-dimensional reciprocal digestions of the restriction enzymes Bss HII, Sma I, Eag I and 1-Ceu I. Sixteen restriction sites were located on the map. Southern hybridisations of digested SPLL-V4 chromosomal DNA were done using random clones and PCR products as probes. This confirmed fragment positions and located the two ribosomal operons and the fus-tuf gene coding for elongation factors G and Tu on the physical map. Results confirmed the presence of two, non-linked 16S rRNA genes in phytoplasmas. Location of the fus-tuf gene represents the first mapping of a nonribosomal phytoplasma gene. Further hybridisations using the mycoplasma ribosomal probe pMC5 and digestions with the 23S ribosomal cutting enzyme I-Ceu I revealed an inversion of one of the ribosomal operons. Comparisons were made with the only other phytoplasma chromosome map published, and with other mollicute genome maps. Digestions of the TBB chromosome using Bss HII, Sma I, Eag I and 1-Ceu I revealed genome heterogeneity when compared to the closely related SPLL-V 4 , and a preliminary chromosome size of 662 kb was estimated. This mapping information has revealed that significant genome diversity exists within the phytoplasmas.


One of the objectives of any government is the establishment of an effective solution to significantly control crime. Identity fraud in Nigeria has generated global attention and negative publicity toward its citizens. The research problem addressed in this study was the lack of understanding of the dynamics that influenced the adoption and usability of biometrics technology for reliable identification and authentication to control identity deception. The support for this study was found in the theoretical framework of the technology acceptance model (TAM). The purpose of the study was to provide scholarly research about the factors that influenced the adoption of biometrics technology to reliably identify and verify individuals in Nigeria to control identity fraud. The mixedmethod descriptive and inferential study used interview and survey questionnaires for data collection. The binary logistic regression, point bi-serial correlation, independent samples t test, and content analyses were performed using SPSS version 18, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet 2007, and Nvivo 7.0 software. The results from the findings indicated statistical correlation between adopt biometrics technology and three other variables, ease of use (r = .38, n = 120, p <.01), perceived usefulness (r = .41, n = 120, p < .01), and awareness (r = .33, n = 120, p < .01). The implications for social change include leveraging biometrics technology for recognition, confirmation, and accountability of individuals to prevent identity scheming, ensure security, and control the propagation of personal information. Beyond these immediate benefits, this research presents an example that other developing countries may use to facilitate the adoption of biometrics technology. Biometrics Technology: Understanding Dynamics Influencing Adoption for Control of Identification Deception Within Nigeria


Background Different methods of evaluating diagnostic performance when comparing diagnostic tests may lead to different results. We compared two such approaches, sensitivity and specificity with area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC AUC) for the evaluation of CT colonography for the detection of polyps, either with or without computer assisted detection. Methods In a multireader multicase study of 10 readers and 107 cases we compared sensitivity and specificity, using radiological reporting of the presence or absence of polyps, to ROC AUC calculated from confidence scores concerning the presence of polyps. Both methods were assessed against a reference standard. Here we focus on five readers, selected to illustrate issues in design and analysis. We compared diagnostic measures within readers, showing that differences in results are due to statistical methods. Results Reader performance varied widely depending on whether sensitivity and specificity or ROC AUC was used. There were problems using confidence scores; in assigning scores to all cases; in use of zero scores when no polyps were identified; the bimodal non-normal distribution of scores; fitting ROC curves due to extrapolation beyond the study data; and the undue influence of a few false positive results. Variation due to use of different ROC methods exceeded differences between test results for ROC AUC. Conclusions The confidence scores recorded in our study violated many assumptions of ROC AUC methods, rendering these methods inappropriate. The problems we identified will apply to other detection studies using confidence scores. We found sensitivity and specificity were a more reliable and clinically appropriate method to compare diagnostic tests.


Dutch verb spelling is a rather complicated system of rival orthographic pre-scriptions. The spelling of Dutch verbs not only depends on their pronuncia-tion, but also on syntax and semantics. Pupils are often incapable of learning the system, even after many hours of verb spelling instruction. Investigations lead to the insight that a rule-oriented algorithmic method is more effective than traditional methods. But pupils still make a lot of errors.In this study we investigate how computers can improve verb-spelling performance of pupils. A first way could be the use of a word processor with an built-in spelling checker. Spelling checkers find errors in typed text, but existing spelling checkers cannot correct Dutch verbs automatically. Artificially Intelligent spelling checkers will do (but will be expensive for instructional use). A second way of improving spelling performance is the use of tutorial programs. We discuss algorithm-based instructional programs that introduce and train the verb spelling system and its underlying concepts. As a third way to improve spelling performance we introduce the instructional program DT-DUIVELTJE (DT-DEMON).DT-DEMON can be characterized as a half-automatic spelling checker for Dutch verbs. In most cases it can find and correct verb spellings automatically. In the remaining cases DT-DEMON asks the user one or two questions, in order to complete the analysis.The core of the program is a simulation of a human expert in verb spelling. An expert is supposed to find correct orthographic prescriptions as a result of very economic decisions, i.e. based on an analysis of lower-order language regularities. For instance, when the spelling of a verb can be found by analyzing letter sequences, a syntactic analysis can be omitted. In this way an expert writes far more verbs correctly as a result of automatic pattern recognition.Although the internal inference mechanism of DT-DEMON is one of pat-tern recognition, the dialogue with the user is rule-oriented. The program also knows the rule-oriented algorithm for verb spelling.A final remark about the way DT-DEMON internally processes, concerns the number of analyses performed. The program does not just stop searching when it finds a solution, but continues until all solutions are found. The number of successful redundant analyses is an indication of the degree of difficulty of the spelling problem. A lot of solutions means: easy; just one solution means: a less simple problem; not even one complete, automatically found solution means: pay attention, this is a difficult problem.DT-DEMON is suitable for instructional purposes once a pupil has learned the rules that govern verb spelling. The program works like an online spelling checker. When there is a difficult spelling problem, and the program cannot find a complete solution itself, it will ask the student for help. By doing so, it prevents errors due to premature automatization of spelling skills.The use of DT-DEMON is not restricted to precooked exercises, it can handle free language productions.


Bacterial resistance to present antibiotics is emerging at a high pace that makes the development of new treatments a must. At the same time, the development of novel antibiotics for resistant bacteria is a slow-paced process. Amid the massive need for new drug treatments to combat resistance, time and effort preserving approaches, like the prodrug approach, are most needed. Prodrugs are pharmacologically inactive entities of active drugs that undergo biotransformation before eliciting their pharmacological effects. A prodrug strategy can be used to revive drugs discarded due to a lack of appropriate pharmacokinetic and drug-like properties, or high host toxicity. A special advantage of the use of the prodrug approach in the era of bacterial resistance is targeting resistant bacteria by developing prodrugs that require bacterium-specific enzymes to release the active drug. In this article, we review the up-to-date implementation of prodrugs to develop medications that are active against drug-resistant bacteria.


Computer-generated objects presented on a display typically have the same focal distance regardless of the monocular and binocular depth cues used to portray a 3D scene. This is because they are presented on a flat screen display that has a fixed physical location. In a stereoscopic 3D display, accommodation (focus) of the eyes should always be at the distance of the screen for clear vision regardless of the depth portrayed; this fixed accommodation conflicts with vergence eye movements that the user must make to fuse stimuli located off the screen. This is known as accommodation-vergence conflict and is detrimental for user experience of stereoscopic virtual environments (VE), as it can cause visual discomfort and diplopia during use of a stereoscopic display. It is believed that, by artificially simulating focal blur and natural accommodation, it is possible to compensate for the vergence-accommodation conflict and alleviate these symptoms. We hypothesized that it is possible to compensate for conflict with a fixed accommodation cue by adding simulated focal blur according to instantaneous fixation. We examined gaze-contingent depth of field (DOF) when used in stereoscopic and non-stereoscopic 3D displays. We asked our participants to compare different conditions in terms of depth perception, image quality and viewing comfort. As expected, we found that monocular DOF gave a stronger impression of depth than no depth of field, stereoscopic cues were stronger than any kind of monocular cues, but adding depth of field to stereo displays did not enhance depth impressions. The opposite was true for image comfort. People thought that DOF impaired image quality in monocular viewing. We also observed that comfort was affected by DOF and display mode in similar fashion as image quality. However, the magnitude of the effects of DOF simulation on image quality depended on whether people associated image quality with depth or not. These results suggest that studies evaluating DOF effectiveness need to consider the type of task, type of image and questions asked.


High horizontal-resolution (1=12:5 and 1=25 ) 41-layer global simulations of the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), forced by both atmospheric fields and the astronomical tidal potential, are used to construct global maps of sea surface height (SSH) variability. The HYCOM output is separated into steric and nonsteric and into subtidal, diurnal, semidiurnal, and supertidal frequency bands. The model SSH output is compared to two data sets that offer some geographical coverage and that also cover a wide range of frequencies—a set of 351 tide gauges that measure full SSH and a set of 14 in situ vertical profilers from which steric SSH can be calculated. Three of the global maps are of interest in planning for the upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) two-dimensional swath altimeter mission: (1) maps of the total and (2) nonstationary internal tidal signal (the latter calculated after removing the stationary internal tidal signal via harmonic analysis), with an average variance of 1:05 and 0:43 cm2, respectively, for the semidiurnal band, and (3) a map of the steric supertidal contributions, which are dominated by the internal gravity wave continuum, with an average variance of 0:15 cm2. Stationary internal tides (which are predictable), nonstationary internal tides (which will be harder to predict), and nontidal internal gravity waves (which will be very difficult to predict) may all be important sources of high-frequency ''noise'' that could mask lower frequency phenomena in SSH measurements made by the SWOT mission.


Intrinsically stretchable multilayer circuit boards are fabricated with a fast and material efficient method based on filtration. Silver nanowire conductor patterns of outstanding performance are defined by filtration through wax printed membranes and the circuit board is assembled by subsequent transfers of the nanowires onto the elastomer substrate. The method is used to fabricate a bright stretchable light emitting diode matrix display.


Operational data of Scania trucks were used in order to estimate a wearfunction for disc brakes. This was done in order to compare wear fortrucks having a retarder mounted with trucks that do not have a retarder.The implementation followed the Knowledge Discovery in Databasesprocess with Support Vector Regression and standard Matlab regressin the Data Mining step. It was found that the retarder relieves theworkload more for trucks with lower Technical Total Weights and thatthe braking behaviour plays a role on how much the retarder can relievethe workload of the disc brakes.It was also found that Support Vector Regression tends to favour longlived data while standard Matlab regress balance between long lived andshort lived data. This clearly showed that depending on which methodis used to implement regression analysis plays a big role on the outcome.


GEORGIEVA, V., S. CHOBANOVA, N. TODOROV and D. PAVLOV, 2014. Effect of dietary crude fiber on endogenous dry matter and nitrogen excretion in cockerels. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci. 20: 903-908 The experiments were carried out with 10 cecectomisеd cockerels for each diet. They are force fed by method of Sibbald (1986) with nitrogen free diets of pure nutrients and with sunflower meal with different crude fiber and crude protein content. The endogenous excretion of nitrogen was established by quantity excreted when cockerels are kept without feeds (fasting), by extrapolation (regression) of excretion when fed nitrogen free diet with different level of cellulose, by feeding nitrogen free diet, and extrapolation (regression) when cockerels are fed sunflower meal with different protein and crude fiber content. The endogenous nitrogen was 1.69, 1.73, 1.78, and 1.80 g respectively. The differences between data obtained by different methods are not significant (P > 0.05). There are tendency for increasing endogenous nitrogen excretion with increasing pure cellulose or crude fiber in diets. Endogenous dry matter excretion was 8.00 g in fasting cockerels, 9.26 g by extrapolation nitrogen free diets with different cellulose level, and 9.61 g by extrapolation diets with sunflower meal (SFM) with different crude protein, and crude fiber content. Differences between different methods are not significant (P>0.05). Although there is some impact of type of fiber, differences are small. However, the results with fasting bid tend to be lower. Part of the observed small differ ence was probably due to the incomplete digestibility of dietary mineral supplements in diets with pure nutrients and in SFM, and partly on increased secretions and raw (desquamation) of epithelial cells, which are not reabsorbed completely. Therefore, level of insoluble feed fiber in diet is not expected to be serious obstruction to establish basic value for endogenous nitrogen excretion in practical diet with normal fiber content.


The Department of Education has in recent years been recognised as one of the most important government departments; yet it is dramatically changing almost on a daily basis. Schools are faced with major challenges, some of which directly impact on the school management as well as on the effectiveness of the school. The principalship is more often spoken of in terms of joint responsibility of associates ("management team" or "admmrstratro . . n team"). The school management team functions effectively in collaborative decision making with the school governing body. Although participating management is not discussed in the literature this concept has captured the interest of many managers in the schools since 1994. Participative deciision management teams at schools are necessary for the selection progress during which educators are promoted to higher levels of the hierarchy within the school. One person alone does not promote educators, but the process involves the efforts of all relevant stakeholders. Involvement of stakeholders is regulated by the South Afirican Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996) and the Employment of Educators Act (Act no 79 of 1998). The Department of Education wishes to prevent any flaws in the selection process of SMTs, because such flaws can be expensive. Since this process of selection involves people (educators), everyone has h i d m own way of thinking about the process and this can have a longlasting negative or positive effect on the effectiveness of the school. The implementation of selection process is not easy and may create dissatisfaction and wnflict; therefore this study was ursdertaken to gain knowledge of the perception of educators on the selection process of the school management team at Mokolokotoane Public. The following aspects were investigated: Effectiveness of the selectiion processes. Composition of the selection paneL Judicial requirements for the selection process. Those aspects, which according to the findings of the research, needed attention, were dressed at the end of the study.


The tractable history of life records a successive emergence of organisms composed of hierarchically organized cells and greater degrees of individuation. The lowermost object level of this hierarchy is the cell, but it is unclear whether the organizational attributes of living systems extended backward through prebiotic stages of chemical evolution. If the systems biology attributes of the cell were indeed templated upon prebiotic synthetic relationships between subcellular objects, it is not obvious how to categorize object levels below the cell in ways that capture any hierarchies which may have preceded living systems. In this paper, we map out stratified relationships between physical components that drive the production of key prebiotic molecules starting from radiolysis of a small number of abundant molecular species. Connectivity across multiple levels imparts the potential to create and maintain far-from-equilibrium chemical conditions and to manifest nonlinear system behaviors best approximated using automata formalisms. The architectural attribute of "information hiding" of energy exchange processes at each object level is shared with stable, multitiered automata such as digital computers. These attributes may indicate a profound connection between the system complexity afforded by energy dissipation by subatomic level objects and the emergence of complex automata that could have preceded biological systems.


The theological ethics of Willie Jonker The article deals with the South African Dutch Reformed theologian W.D. (Willie) Jonker's (1929-2006) contribution to theological ethics. Three perspectives onhis ethics are developed, viz. foundational, methodological and substantive perspectives. The first relates to his idea that the foundation of ethics is the correlation between doctrine and life. Ethics is the outcome of the reconciliation in Christ as activated by the work of the Spirit, through which the totality of human life in the world is sanctified through the mediation of the life of the church. The second, methodological perspective deals with the relationship between ethics and hermeneutics. Here Jonker's complex and original work on the grounding of ethical claims on Scripture is discussed, and much attention is paid to his appropriation of Calvin in this regard. The third, substantive perspective deals with an area where Jonker made a distinctly new contribution to theological ethics in Dutch Reformed orientated South Africa during apartheid, viz. the development of a social ethics. This aspect of his work was particularly inspirational for the development of a critical consciousness about apartheid in Dutch Reformed circles sionce the 1980's. The article is concluded with a couple of critical and evaluative remarks.


The Aztec practice of human sacrifice is one of the most sensationalized and bloody cases of mass killing in history, raising essential questions about cultural definitions, personal perceptions and the interrelationship of different forms of violence. Produced as part of a project on the long-term history of interpersonal and mass violence in Latin America, this article assesses the available sources for human sacrifice rates in pre-colonial Tenochtitlan, and lays the groundwork for a comparative analysis of homicide rates, by estimating the number of victims of human sacrifice. Offering an analysis which addresses key themes and structures in the history of violence, this study attempting to reconcile the frequency of 'official' violence with the apparent unacceptability of interpersonal aggression, and interrogates the sensationalism and cultural sensitivities which have often hindered impartial and empathetic studier of the human sacrifice in Aztec society. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41636609 Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung © 2012 GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Language: en


Refugees who pursue livelihoods in protracted encampment contexts are held up as exemplars of self-reliance, but their success relies on access to basic resources and infrastructure. Such amenities are often lacking, however, because refugee camps are seldom included in state infrastructural development, and resources provided by camp agencies are intended for domestic use, not livelihoods. Nonetheless, the systems of water and energy use in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camps exemplify the ways that refugees acquire the resources needed for their livelihood activities, either by creatively re-distributing resources from formal systems of humanitarian provision, or by seeking alternative sources of these basic goods. Findings show that the form of infrastructure available in a camp has implications for safety and sustainability, refugee livelihoods, and refugee-host relations. Interventions to improve resource provision and camp infrastructure must consider the various consequences for differently positioned actors.


For the past years, studies on face recognition were focused on the effects and influence of illumination, pose, and angle to the performance, which, in fairness, has been proven by different research works as the dominant factor of adding complexity to face recognition across age progression observed through photographs, specifically headshots (Ling, Soatto, Ramanathan, & Jacobs, 2007; Ramanathan & Chellappa, 2006; Ramanathan & Chellappa, 2005). However, studies on face verification and recognition with time lapses between pairs of photographs and the interaction on the sexual orientation of the identifier was somehow defocused on the factor of effects of age progression or the time interval between pairs of facial images on face recognition. Thus, the researchers aimed to resolve the gap on the prevailing literatures on face recognition by finding the effects of age interval of the stimuli and sexual orientation of the participants on face recognition using Filipino college students as sample. Results showed that the greater the age gaps between the pair of images, the lesser the chance of identifying it. In addition, it is also not important to consider whether identifier is male or female in terms of recognizing picture because based from the result of the experiment, sexual orientation does not have an effect on the performance of the participants in face recognition. The study was guided by the theory of Biederman (1987) and Recognition By Components (RBC) to analyze the findings.


Abstract In this paper, we present the results of an integrated geomorphological and stratigraphical study carried out in the eastern side of the Crati River valley (northern Calabria, South Italy). This area is characterized by the occurrence of three order palaeosurfaces that, along with low-sloping palaeovalleys and structural landforms, are striking features of the landscape. The relationships between morpho-tectonic and sedimentary evolution of the Crati Basin has been assessed through sandstone detrital modes, morphostratigraphy and geomorphological correlation with adjacent areas. The two main unconformity surfaces that typify the Quaternary fill were correlated to different steps of landscape evolution. The presence of both erosional and depositional palaeosurfaces has been a useful marker for reconstructing sedimentary and morphogenetic events, and hence to detect drainage network evolution and changes in source sediment area. In particular, we recognized that the study area experienced, during the late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene a period of sub-aerial landscape modelling as suggested by low-sloping palaeovalleys and related fluvial deposits (1st Order Palaeosurface). At that time, the source of the detrital constituents of the PPS Unit sandstones was mainly from the Sila Massif. The onset of Coastal Range identification and uplift (Early Pleistocene) marks a change in the geomorphic scenario with tectonic driven stream incision and valley development along the eastern side of Coastal Range, along with the occurrence of depositional and erosional landsurfaces (2nd Order Palaeosurface) at footslopes. During this period, the Coastal Range and Sila Massif were the sources for the detrital constituents of the PlS Unit sandstones. The progressive uplift of Coastal Range during late Early Pleistocene and the marked backstepping of the depositional systems along the Sila footslope was accompanied by alternating phases of down-cutting and base-level stability resulting in the development of a step-like distributed 3rd Order Palaeosurface. The presence of dolostone in detrital modes is clear evidence of stream piracy phenomena of ancient palaeovalleys by the Crati valley-facing drainage network.


While many evolutionary questions can be answered by short read re-sequencing, presence/absence polymorphisms of genes and/or transposons have been largely ignored in large-scale intraspecific evolutionary studies. To enable the rigorous analysis of such variants, multiple high quality and contiguous genome assemblies are essential. Similarly, while genome assemblies based on short reads have made genomics accessible for non-reference species, these assemblies have limitations due to low contiguity. Long-read sequencers and long-read technologies have ushered in a new era of genome sequencing where the lengths of reads exceed those of most repeats. However, because these technologies are not only costly, but also time and compute intensive, it has been unclear how scalable they are. Here we demonstrate a fast and cost effective reference assembly for an Arabidopsis thaliana accession using the USB-sized Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer and typical consumer computing hardware (4 Cores, 16Gb RAM). We assemble the accession KBS-Mac-74 into 62 contigs with an N50 length of 12.3 Mb covering 100% (119 Mb) of the non-repetitive genome. We demonstrate that the polished KBS-Mac-74 assembly is highly contiguous with BioNano optical genome maps, and of high per-base quality against a likewise polished Pacific Biosciences long-read assembly. The approach we implemented took a total of four days at a cost of less than 1,000 USD for sequencing consumables including instrument depreciation.


Although the theory of evolution is well-established it nevertheless presents us with a few unresolved matters of interpretation. One key task is to get clear about what exactly one should take the term 'natural selection' to denote. Is natural selection a causal factor that causes evolutionary change and that has driven the process of evolution from relatively simple beginnings to the current state of biological complexity, or is it a "mere" consequence of the appearance of novel forms in relatively stable environments? Does evolutionary theory present us with a set of specifically evolutionary causes, natural selection being the most important? The answers to these questions have repercussions for what we may rightly take appeals to natural selection to explain, and how we are to relate evolutionary theory to neighbouring sciences. The first paper of this compilation thesis, as well as the appendix, deals with these questions at length, and come out supporting a non-causal interpretation. It is argued that it is redundant to posit natural selection as a cause of evolutionary change, and that the idea promotes misunderstanding of the evolutionary process. The second paper criticises the attempt to invoke natural selection in accounting for the heterogeneity of realisation within functionally defined biological categories. It is argued that the purported explanation is mistaken in a way that reflects the misconception of selection that is inherent in the causal interpretation. The paper furthermore presents a hypothesis that constitutes an additional theme in the thesis; that evolutionary discourse is influenced by pre-theoretical "leakage" due to the terms used and their entrenched meanings. The third paper argues that we have no reason to adopt an essentially etiological conception of biological functions. It is argued that the seeming reasonableness of essentially etiological functions stems from a pre-theoretical mindset that lacks theoretical justification. Standard etiological accounts unpack the notion of function in terms of selection, and so this discussion is related to the question of interpreting the inventory of evolutionary theory. The fourth paper discusses the relation between evolutionary discourse and intentional psychology. The background is that evolutionary considerations are quite commonly presented in terms connoting intent and motivation, and that the evolutionary and psychological perspectives are not always kept apart. The last paper is a metaphilosophical contribution that emanated from my engagement with the debate about biological functions.


Abstract Subduction is a fundamental mechanism of material exchange between the planetary interior and the surface. Despite its significance, our current understanding of fluctuating subducting plate area and slab volume flux has been limited to a range of proxy estimates. Here we present a new detailed quantification of subduction zone parameters from the Late Triassic to present day (230–0 Ma). We use a community plate motion model with evolving plate topologies to extract trench-normal convergence rates through time to compute subducting plate areas, and we use seafloor paleo-age grids to estimate the thickness of subducting lithosphere to derive the slab flux through time. Our results imply that slab flux doubled to values greater than 500 km3/yr from 180 Ma in the Jurassic to 130 Ma in the mid-Cretaceous, subsequently halving again towards the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, largely driven by subduction zones rimming the Pacific ocean basin. The 130 Ma spike can be attributed to a two-fold increase in mid-ocean ridge lengths following the break-up of Pangea, and a coincident increase in convergence rates, with average speeds exceeding 10 cm/yr. With one third of the total 230 - 0 Ma subducted volume entering the mantle during this short ∼50 Myr period, we suggest this slab superflux drove a surge in slab penetration into the lower mantle and an associated increase in the vigour of mantle return flow. This mid-Cretaceous event may have triggered, or at least contributed to, the formation of the Darwin Rise mantle superswell, dynamic uplift of the South African Plateau and the plume pulse that produced the Ontong-Java-Hikurangi-Manihiki and Kerguelen plateaus, among others. The models presented here contribute to an improved understanding of the time-evolving flux of material consumed by subduction, and suggest that slab superflux may be a general feature of continental dispersal following supercontinent breakup. These insights may be useful for better understanding how supercontinent cycles are related to transient episodes of Large Igneous Province and superswell formation, and the associated deep cycling of minerals and volatiles, as well as leading to a better understanding of tectonic drivers of long-term climate and icehouse-to-greenhouse transitions.


In today's world, growing cultural integration has a direct impact on the development of tourism, which is important from the economic as well as the social, political or ecological perspective. Given the rapid expansion of tourism on the global market and the ever-increasing competitiveness of the tourism sector, it is important to assess the state of the tourism sector in Lithuania and determine the potential for its development. The results of the qualitative research have demonstrated that the policy options that could allow for the smooth development of Lithuanian tourism have eluded clear identification owing to the less than appropriate regulation of this area and the absence of effective tourism management. It has been discovered that the legal framework so far remains underdeveloped. In addition, when it comes to tourism policy management, the relevant functions tend to not be performed properly. Moreover, there is a lack of cooperation among the institutions responsible for tourism coordination or otherwise indirectly connected to the area, whereas cooperation between the local and the national level is minimal. This shows that a number of areas may require improvement in order for the country's tourism development policy to become more effective. However, if the country manages to perform a targeted elimination of the problematic areas and makes proper use of its strengths and existing potential in the tourism sector, such as the favorable geographical location, a well-developed sector of tourism-related services, rich recreational resources, or an attractive ratio between the quality and price of tourism products, the effective development of tourism in Lithuania will become possible in the long term.


In absolute identification experiments, the participant is asked to identify stimuli drawn from a small set of items which differ on a single physical dimension (e.g., 10 tones which vary in frequency). Responses in these tasks show a striking pattern of sequential dependencies: The current response assimilates towards the immediately preceding stimulus but contrasts with the stimuli further back in the sequence. This pattern has been variously interpreted as resulting from confusion of items in memory, shifts in response criteria, or the action of selective attention, and these interpretations have been incorporated into competing formal models of absolute identification performance. In two experiments, we demonstrate that lengthening the time between trials increases contrast to both the previous stimulus and the stimulus two trials back. This surprising pattern of results is difficult to reconcile with the idea that sequential dependencies result from memory confusion or from criterion shifts, but is consistent with an account that emphasizes selective attention.


An 11-GHz optical modulator using LiTaO(3) as the electrooptic material has been designed and built. The experimental model has a bandwidth of about 100 mHz and is tunable over 1.5 GHz with uniform modulation characteristics. A phase modulation index of 0.45 rad was achieved with 1.6 W of modulating power.


Deposition of latex microspheres on a borosilicate filter was carried out at gradually decreasing suspension velocities at conditions favourable for particle attachment and excluding particle retention due to size exclusion. Particle critical retention concentration followed quadratic function of suspension velocity agreeing with the modified particle attachment/detachment model based on mechanical equilibrium of a particle located on the porous matrix surface within experimental uncertainty in the entire range of studied velocities. Electrostatic force is the dominant factor in a strong particle-matrix attraction. Significant part of latex particles were able to overcome a low energy barrier and be trapped irreversibly in the primary energy minimum. The remaining deposited particles were attached in the secondary energy minimum. Due to a strong particle attraction to the surface, their detachment cannot be achieved by increasing fluid velocity only. Almost a fifth of the attached particles were removed after the reduction of salinity and increase in pH of solution.


This study hypothesized that ecotourism projects expose resident-beneficiaries to an environment that has some sense of preservation and appreciation of nature and in turn, influence perception. Perception has been defined as opinions or ideas. Since ecotourism factors could have simultaneity and interrelations, differences in perception could be affected by collective factors. And since ecotourism factors have independent properties, differences in perception could be affected by individual factors. Relative differences were found in perception of households with respect to different tourism projects ecotourism and historical/cultural tourism, and with respect to length of existence of tourism projects. With relative differences in perception of benefits and costs of ecotourism, the tourism and travel industry could be guided in the tourism programmes that are prepared. For example, marketing and promoting of tourist areas could include some of the observed perceptions of resident-beneficiaries on their surroundings and on tourists of their communities. In turn, this could facilitate the explanations of tourism programmes and restrictions to both tourists and resident-beneficiaries. Moreover, getting the involvement of more resident-beneficiaries in specific tourism activities or through employment could allow them to have better understanding of tourists. Although the conclusions of this exploratory study were limited to 4 communities in Sweden, the observations could be useful in the proper utilization of natural resources of developing countries. For instance, developing countries could have diverse and rich natural resources, warm and hospitable people and tourist spots that are of national significance. Furthermore, policymakers of developing countries could be guided in the promotion of a balanced regional growth. Lastly, the study could provide new dimensions of adopting ecotourism not only in developing countries but also in developed countries like Sweden. For example, knowing how tourism resident-beneficiaries perceive costs and benefits could be used to guide implementation of some specific environmental protection rules in specific areas for greater efficiency. As some of the opinions of the households in the survey were the poor implementation of environmental protection laws of Sweden, this could also be considered by the tourism and travel industry in their marketing and promotion stints


Electronic teaching is a task that intents to also prepare the student to understand and design analog and digital circuits. However the design flow in those two arenas are quite opposite as result of very different development state and also are the design methodologies, being challenging for both teachers and students. In fact, the electronic design in the digital field is centered in the use of components based in two kind of circuits (microprocessor and FPGA) using a relatively high level programing/configuring languages. In an opposite way, the analog design is traditionally founded in the use of elementary components (e.g. resistors and capacitors) associated with macroblocks (e.g. operational amplifiers) in order to built-up the wanted mission circuit. However they have just a few analog programmable components, as the PSoC that is analogically configurable in a similar manner that the one already used in the digital domain. The use of this kind of components, however, is not straightforward being necessary to get some concepts traditionally not taught in the analog electronic classes. The training using PSoC are then indispensable to verify if the programed analog circuit corresponds to the intended one. The current work present an innovative remote lab to support teaching of the PSoC.