Background There is a need to identify and evaluate an effective mitigation program for arsenic exposure from drinking water in Bangladesh. Objective We evaluated the effectiveness of a multifaceted mitigation program to reduce As exposure among 11,746 individuals in a prospective cohort study initiated in 2000 in Araihazar, Bangladesh, by interviewing participants and measuring changes in urinary As levels. Methods The interventions included a) person-to-person reporting of well test results and health education; b) well labeling and village-level health education; and c) installations of 50 deep, low-As community wells in villages with the highest As exposure. Results Two years after these interventions, 58% of the 6,512 participants with unsafe wells (As ≥50 μg) at baseline had responded by switching to other wells. Well labeling and village-level health education was positively related to switching to safe wells (As < 50 μg/L) among participants with unsafe wells [rate ratio (RR) = 1.84; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.60–2.11] and inversely related to any well switching among those with safe wells (RR = 0.80; 95% CI, 0.66–0.98). The urinary As level in participants who switched to a well identified as safe (< 50 μg As/L) dropped from an average of 375 μg As/g creatinine to 200 μg As/g creatinine, a 46% reduction toward the average urinary As content of 136 μg As/g creatinine for participants that used safe wells throughout. Urinary As reduction was positively related to educational attainment, body mass index, never-smoking, absence of skin lesions, and time since switching (p for trend < 0.05). Conclusions Our study shows that testing of wells and informing households of the consequences of As exposure, combined with installation of deep community wells where most needed, can effectively address the continuing public health emergency from arsenic in drinking water in Bangladesh.


V. Gordon Childe was the first scholar to attempt a broad and sustained socioeconomic analysis of the archaeology of the ancient world in terms that, today, could be called explanatory. To most, he was remembered only as a diligent synthesizer whose whole interpretation collapsed when its chronology was demolished. There was little recognition of his insistence that the emergence of craft specialists, and their very variable roles in the relations of production, were crucial to an understanding of social evolution. The interrelationship between sociopolitical complexity and craft production is a critical one, so critical that one might ask, just how complex would any society have become without craft specialization. This volume derives from the papers presented at a symposium at the American Anthropological Association meetings on the centenary of Childe's birth. Contributors to the volume include David W. Anthony, Philip J. Arnold III, Bennet Bronson, Robert Chapman, John E. Clark, Cathy L. Costin, Pam J. Crabtree, Philip L. Kohl, D. Blair Gibson, Antonio Gilman, Vincent C. Piggott, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Gil J. Stein, Ruth Tringham, Anne P. Underhill, Bernard Wailes, Peter S. Wells, Joyce C. White, Rita P. Wright, and Richard L. Zettler. Symposium Series Volume VI University Museum Monograph, 93


Early European inhabitants of Sydney found themselves in a strange natural environment, far removed from those of the Britain they had left behind. They reacted to it in various ways, were constrained by it in various ways, and began to change their new environment from the moment they first stepped ashore. This study focuses on the two-way interaction between humans and nature, from the landing of the First Fleet to the end of the 18th century. It primarily uses first-hand accounts, attempting to read between the lines or deconstruct them to gain a possible overview of the range of early European reactions to the Sydney environment, and to at least begin to understand them. It also uses this evidence to look at and better understand the constraints that the environment placed on the daily life of the colonists in early Sydney, as well as the ways in which those early Sydneysiders changed their environment. Later historical works and more recent studies of Sydney's natural environment are also used to help in furthering these understandings.


William F. Martin is Chairman of Washington Policy and Analysis and Former US Deputy Secretary of Energy. Over the next 15 years, Asia's demand for energy is expected to more than double--accounting for approximately 40 percent of world energy demand. The rapid economic expansion of the industrializing nations of Asia is dramatically redefining energy security in the region for, while this economic growth is raising living standards in many of these nations, it is resulting in a dramatic increase in the demand for energy. The World Bank estimates that, over the next ten years, more than half of all infrastructure expansion in Asia will be devoted to energy-related projects. As Asian energy demand increases, principally for fossil fuels such as oil and coal, the energy insecurity and environmental quality challenges associated with these energy resources become glaringly apparent. Energy demand has risen in Asia largely as a result of the increasing industrialization of Asian economies. The removal of barriers to free trade and greater liberalization of markets has facilitated a shift in manufacturing away from industrialized economies, such as those in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), to rapidly industrializing economies, such as those in East Asia. Basic steel production, for example, shifted from the United States and Europe to Japan, then to Korea, and is now concentrated in Thailand and other East Asian economies. These manufacturing industries, such as steel, use a greater amount of energy per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) than the more service-oriented economies in OECD countries. Energy demand is also expanding because increasing percentages of Asian populations are living in cities. Urbanization leads to a greater demand for refrigerators, televisions, electric fans, and other appliances, and is also directly related to the rise in demand for motorized transportation. Energy and Environmental Insecurity At present, approximately half of Asia's demand for oil is supplied through imports from outside the region. With a growing transportation sector, this dependence on imports will only worsen over time. While there are several regions in Asia, such as China's Tarim Basin, which could have potentially huge oil reserves, technical and financial obstacles make it unlikely that these areas will be sufficiently exploited to impact oil supply levels in the near future. Given the soaring demand, this lack of indigenous oil production, is pushing Asian nations toward a greater reliance on oil from the volatile Persian Gulf region. In fact, this huge increase in Asian demand for oil and Asia's subsequent dependence on Middle Eastern oil producers is driving global reliance on the Persian Gulf back toward mid-1970s levels. Ironically, this increasing Asian dependence is occurring at a time when North America and Europe are lessening their overall dependence on the Middle East. Greater than expected production in the North Sea, Canada, and the Gulf of Mexico is diversifying the base of supply for North America and Europe. Unfortunately for Asia, there arefewer options. It is inevitable that Asia will become the principal consumer of Middle Eastern oil, engendering entirely new dynamics in the economic, political, and military relations between Asia and the Middle East. Some of these dynamics have already manifested themselves in the new relationship between China and Iran. China's expanding appetite for oil corresponds to Iran's desire to acquire and develop advanced military technology, thus leading to an increased risk of nuclear proliferation. In addition to the geopolitical risks of Asia's dependence on oil, the environmental impacts of fossil fuel use pose a further challenge. Asia's expanded fossil fuel use will intensify environmental problems such as global climate change and acid rain. Asian nations are expected to double their greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15 years, raising gas emissions from Asian nations from 28 to 45 percent of the world total. …


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a disease associated with excessive sleepiness and increased cardiovascular risk, affects an estimated 1 billion people worldwide. The present study examined proteomic biomarkers indicative of presence, severity, and treatment response in OSA. Participants (n = 1391) of the Stanford Technology Analytics and Genomics in Sleep study had blood collected and completed an overnight polysomnography for scoring the apnea–hypopnea index (AHI). A highly multiplexed aptamer-based array (SomaScan) was used to quantify 5000 proteins in all plasma samples. Two separate intervention-based cohorts with sleep apnea (n = 41) provided samples pre- and post-continuous/positive airway pressure (CPAP/PAP). Multivariate analyses identified 84 proteins (47 positively, 37 negatively) associated with AHI after correction for multiple testing. Of the top 15 features from a machine learning classifier for AHI ≥ 15 vs. AHI < 15 (Area Under the Curve (AUC) = 0.74), 8 were significant markers of both AHI and OSA from multivariate analyses. Exploration of pre- and post-intervention analysis identified 5 of the 84 proteins to be significantly decreased following CPAP/PAP treatment, with pathways involving endothelial function, blood coagulation, and inflammatory response. The present study identified PAI-1, tPA, and sE-Selectin as key biomarkers and suggests that endothelial dysfunction and increased coagulopathy are important consequences of OSA, which may explain the association with cardiovascular disease and stroke.


Electrokinetic peristaltic multi-layered transport is considered in a micro-channel under the action of an axial electrical field. Three different layers i.e. the core layer, intermediate layer and peripheral layer are simulated with three different viscosities for each fluid layer. The unsteady two-dimensional conservation equations for mass and momentum with electrokinetic body forces, are transformed from the wave frame to the laboratory frame and the electrical field terms are rendered into electrical potential terms via the Poisson-Boltzmann equation, Debye length approximation and ionic Nernst Planck equation. The dimensionless emerging linearized electrokinetic boundary value problem is solved using integral methods. Closed-form expressions are derived for stream functions in the core, intermediate and peripheral layers. Expressions are also derived for the core-intermediate interface shape and the intermediate-peripheral interface shape. Maximum pressures are also computed. To study bolus migration, the range of the trapping limit is also determined in the peripheral layer. It is found that in the core layer larger boluses are computed in the case of lower intermediate layer viscosity relative to peripheral layer viscosity although the number of boluses is greater when the intermediate layer viscosity exceeds the peripheral layer viscosity. Furthermore, in the intermediate layer, stronger concentration of streamlines is computed in the lower half space with positive Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity. Also, negative Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity reduces the core layer (H1) interface shape whereas it enhances the peripheral layer (H) and intermediate layer (H2) shapes. At lower values of volume flow rate ratio, hydromechanical efficiency is maximum for positive Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity whether intermediate layer viscosity is less or greater than peripheral layer viscosity. Finally, greater with greater peristaltic wave amplitude and also for positive Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity there is an increase in time-averaged flow rate, whether intermediate layer viscosity is less or greater than peripheral layer viscosity. The analysis is relevant to electro-kinetic hemodynamics and bio-micro-fluidics.


Better economic growth gives opportunity for business people to increase their profits. At the other side, it is also increase tight rivalry between businesses.  Good performance  management  is needed  in order  to  achieve  the company's goals  and to maximalize investor's prosperity. This study uses descriptive quantitative method, which aims to determine the  company's financial performance  using  analysis tools  Economic Value Added  (EVA)  and Market  Value Added  (MVA)  in  pharmaceutical  companies,  namely  PT. Darya Varia Laboratories Tbk, PT. Kalbe Farma Tbk, PT. Merck Tbk, PT. Pyridam Farma Tbk,  and  PT.  Tempo  Scan  Pacific  Tbk.  The data used  in this study  is a  secondary data obtained from Pojok BEI Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Brawijaya Malang. The result shows that during the four (4) years of the study, five pharmaceutical companies are producing positive EVA value. It means that management has succeeded in creating added value for its investors because it met the investors's expectations to earn returns over the issuance of capital. While the MVA value shows diverse results. Positive result of MVA indicates that the management has been able to increase the wealth of its investors, while a negative value indicates that the MVA management has demolished the wealth of its investors. Keywords :  Financial Performance, Economic Value Added  (EVA), Market Value Added (MVA)


Mushrooms are fungal adaptations for the aerial dispersal of sexual spores. Their main economic value is their use as food. Despite their economical interest, relatively little is known about how mushrooms are formed. Schizophyllum commune is the only mushroom-forming fungus in which genes can be inactivated by homologous recombination and therefore it serves as a model system for mushroom development. The process of mushroom formation in S. commune starts with the aggregation of hyphae into stage I aggregates. These aggregates develop into stage II primordia and further differentiate into mature fruiting bodies. In order to improve the process of targeted deletion of genes by homologous recombination, a dedicated deletion vector (pDelCas) was developed that allows efficient screening of the transformants using two antibiotics. In addition, gene ku80 was inactivated, resulting in an increased relative incidence of homologous recombination. The genome of S. commune is 38.5 MBp in size and contains 13.210 predicted genes. A comparison with the genomes of other species showed that hydrophobins and several classes of transcription factors are over-represented in S. commune and other mushroom-forming species. Genome-wide expression analysis showed that hydrophobins, signal transduction genes and transciptional regulation genes are differentially expressed during mushroom development. Also, anti-sense gene expression was found to occur widely during development, especially in stage II aggregates. Of the 471 predicted transcription factor genes of S. commune, 311 were expressed during mushroom development. Deletion strains were produced for 10 of these transcription factor genes. In the light, wild type dikaryons form asymmetrical colonies that have produced mushrooms after 10 days of growth. Homozygous dikaryons in which bri1, hom2 or wc-2 were deleted, formed symmetrical colonies and no mushrooms developed. Homozygous dikaryons in which fst4 was deleted had an irregular shape similar to the wild type but they formed no stage I aggregates. Colonies of strains in which c2h2 was deleted were asymmetrical when grown in the light and they did form aggregates, but these did not develop into primordia. Strains in which fst3, hom1 or gat1 were inactivated formed more but smaller mushrooms than the wild type. Expression analyses on deletion strains of hom2, wc-2 and fst4 showed that hydrophobins and the regulators c2h2 and hom1 were downregulated. Furthermore, mushroom formation in the strain in which wc-2 was deleted could be induced by a heat shock by introducing a construct encompassing the wc-2 gene under control of the inducible hsp3 promoter. A strain in which the hydrophobin genes sc3 and sc4 are deleted does not form mushrooms. Genes encoding structural mushroom proteins are lowly expressed in this strain. In contrast, genes encoding regulators involved in mushroom development are normally expressed, suggesting that a signal from aerial hyphae is required to activate these regulators. The findings presented in the Thesis may be instrumental to explain why certain mushrooms can not be cultivated commercially and also represents an excellent lead to improve production of commercial mushrooms


Wi-Fi signals are typically information carriers between a transmitter and a receiver. In this paper, we show that Wi-Fi can also extend our senses, enabling us to see moving objects through walls and behind closed doors. In particular, we can use such signals to identify the number of people in a closed room and their relative locations. We can also identify simple gestures made behind a wall, and combine a sequence of gestures to communicate messages to a wireless receiver without carrying any transmitting device. The paper introduces two main innovations. First, it shows how one can use MIMO interference nulling to eliminate reflections off static objects and focus the receiver on a moving target. Second, it shows how one can track a human by treating the motion of a human body as an antenna array and tracking the resulting RF beam. We demonstrate the validity of our design by building it into USRP software radios and testing it in office buildings.


Background/Context Schools have attempted to address stratification in black and Latino students' access to higher education through extensive reform initiatives, including those focused on social supports. A crucial focus has been missing from these efforts, essential to improving the effectiveness of support mechanisms and understanding why they have been insufficient: how students experience these reforms. Purpose How can the social context of schools keep underrepresented minority students on track to transition to college? This study investigates how students experience the social contexts of their schools in relation to their college ambitions, and the particular attributes of schools' social contexts that might positively affect their transition to four-year colleges. Research Design Using a mixed-methods case study design, this three-year study examined students' educational pathways in a Chicago charter high school. Data collection methods included ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and a longitudinal survey. Supplemental secondary data sources were utilized to contextualize the case study. Analysis Interview transcripts and field notes were transcribed and coded to examine variation in students' experience of their social context and their college transition plans. To contextualize these findings, the author utilized descriptive, associative, and logistic regression techniques to analyze quantitative data from the case study survey and corresponding city and national datasets. Findings The school's organization facilitated academic, social, and college preparatory support through structured relationships. Notwithstanding, there was notable within-school variation in students' transitions to college. Students in this urban charter school often experienced multiple obstacles that interfered with the college ambitions they generally shared with their families and school peers. School regard is a mechanism identified in this study as central to students' transition success. Students' perceptions of their teachers' and their peers' regard for their capacity for educational success was associated with their persistence through the transition to college in the face of academic, socioeconomic, and other challenges. Conclusions/Recommendations This study demonstrates the effort and engagement under-represented students expend in the effort to become college-ready, and the risk for burnout as a result of both academic and nonacademic hardships during their high school years. School regard may mitigate these effects. Mere expectations for college appear insufficient in the current access-for-all climate. Rather, it is important that students perceive value and esteem for their potential from school faculty and peers, sustaining their ambitions through the obstacles they encounter in high school and expect in college.


This practical, nuts-and-bolts toolkit puts theory into practice with ready-made answers to common Flash development questions. It's the perfect resource for Flash developers, as well as designers who are ready to start doing development work.Flash 8 Cookbook offers quick look-up (and cross-referenced) recipes in four main categories:Creating Flash ContentBuilding Interactive Flash InterfacesAdding Multimedia and DataPlanning Flash ProjectsUsing O'Reilly's popular Problem/Solution/Discussion Cookbook format, this book offers 280 standalone recipes that include a brief explanation of how and why the solution works, so you can adapt it to similar situations you may run across in the future. For people who say, "I understand everything in theory, but I don't know where to start in practice," this book offers ready-to-use answers to real-world problems.Joey Lott is the author of ActionScript Cookbook (O'Reilly) and co-author of Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible (Wiley). He's a leading speaker and consultant in the Flash development community.


Non-malleable codes, introduced by Dziembowski et al., encode messages s in a manner, so that tampering the codeword causes the decoder to either output s or a message that is independent of s. While this is an impossible goal to achieve against unrestricted tampering functions, rather surprisingly non-malleable coding becomes possible against every fixed family P of tampering functions that is not too large (for instance, when I≤I 22αn for some α <; 1, where n is the number of bits in a codeword). In this paper, we study the capacity of non-malleable codes, and establish optimal bounds on the achievable rate as a function of the family size, answering an open problem from Dziembowski et al. Specifically, We prove that for every family P with IFI I≤I 22αn, there exist non-malleable codes against P with rate arbitrarily close to 1-α [this is achieved with high probability (w.h.p.) by a randomized construction]. We show the existence of families of size exp(nO(1)2αn) against which there is no non-malleable code of rate 1 - α (in fact this is the case w.h.p for a random family of this size). We also show that 1 - α is the best achievable rate for the family of functions, which are only allowed to tamper the first αn bits of the codeword, which is of special interest. As a corollary, this implies that the capacity of non-malleable coding in the split-state model (where the tampering function acts independently but arbitrarily on the two halves of the codeword, a model which has received some attention recently) equals 1/2. We also give an efficient Monte Carlo construction of codes of rate close to 1 with polynomial time encoding and decoding that is non-malleable against any fixed c > 0 and family P of size 2nc, in particular tampering functions with, say, cubic size circuits.


L-735,524, N-[2(R)-hydroxy-1(S)-indanyl]-5-(2(S)-(1,1- dimethylethylaminocarbonyl)-4-[(pyridin-3-yl)methyl]piperazin++ +-1-yl)-4(S)- hydroxy-2(R)-phenylmethylpentanamide, is a potent and specific inhibitor of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease and is undergoing clinical evaluation. In an initial clinical study, noninfected male volunteers were administered single, 1000 mg oral doses of nonlabeled compound. Urine samples were collected over a period of 48 hr. Metabolic profile of the urine was determined by HPLC-UV comparison with that from a human liver slice incubation of radiolabeled L-735,524. Seven significant metabolites were isolated from pooled human urine, and were characterized by NMR, MS, and/or chromatographic comparisons with authentic standards. The major metabolic pathways were identified as: a) glucuronidation at the pyridine nitrogen to yield a quaternized ammonium conjugate, b) pyridine N-oxidation, c) para-hydroxylation of the phenylmethyl group, d) 3'-hydroxylation of the indan, and e) N-depyridomethylation. A minor product was identified as 2',3'-trans-dihydroxyindan analog. Urinary excretion of L-735,524 and its metabolites represented a minor pathway of elimination. The intact parent compound seemed to be the major component in the urine, whereas the level of each metabolite was relatively low.


In several of his analyses, Talcott Parsons describes the establishment of modern societies as a differentiation process across spheres of mutual recognition. In this paper, I use Parsons' social theory of recognition to examine features of recent social conflicts. I begin with Parsons' description of the struggles for recognition that took place during his lifetime in the highly industrialized societies of the West (I). I then use Parsons' view of normatively ordered recognition conflicts to point out societal trends that led, in the final third of the twentieth century, to a gradual undermining of the pacification structures postulated by Parsons (II). An initial outcome of this apparent disintegration I describe as a 'brutalization' of social conflict. By this I mean a state of society where struggles for social recognition escalate and become anomic because resolution can no longer be found in the existing systemic spheres of negotiation (III). This paper shows the importance of the term recognition to social theory by following Parsons' theory in analyzing structural transformations that are currently emerging in response to social conflicts.


Depending on number and position of hydroxyl groups of some phenolic compounds, ascorbate and sugars, and their effects on IAA levels through oxidative hypothesis that accompanied aging phenomenon of mung bean cuttings were studied. The data revealed, highly significant increase in rooting response of cuttings aged in o-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, and p-hydroquinone all at 10-3 M, ascorbate at 200-500 ppm and sucrose at 3%. However, significant increase was there in rooting response of cuttings aged in cinnamic acid, phenol, o-hydroxyphenol (Catechol) at concentrations (10-3, 10-5, and 10-5) M, respectively compared to control (d/H2O). All of these compounds caused offseting or stopping of the oxidative processes that occurs during aging as anti-oxidant agents which, acts as free radical scavengers against oxidative processes products and then promoting IAA biosynthesis. Quantitative estimation of IAA by spectrophotometric method verified a highly significant increase of IAA content in hypocotyl of cuttings aged in the above compounds. The discussion draws the attention about the electronic conjugation area of ascorbate and hydrogen bonding of phenolic compounds and the oxidation of hydrogen-oxygen bond between hydroxyl groups of sugars in terms of rooting response of mung been cuttings, which is affected primarily by auxins.


Title of Dissertation: SPACE-TIME BEHAVIOR OF MILLIMETER WAVE CHANNEL AND DIRECTIONAL MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL Behnam Neekzad Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Directed By: Professor John S. Baras Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering An appropriate channel model is required to evaluate the performance of different physical (PHY) layer designs. However, there is no known space-time millimeter wave channel model that could benefit the use of directional antennas that is applicable in environments with lots of reflections such as residential or office. The millimeter wave signal strength is subject to temporal and spatial variations. The focus of the first part is the investigation of the characteristics of the millimeter wave propagation model. By analyzing measurement data of millimeter wave channels for indoor environments, space-time clusters are identified, and intercluster statistics for millimeter wave propagation are calculated. Correlation of the identified space-time clusters to the propagation environment is determined. In the second part, the effectiveness of the ray-tracing method in creating channel realizations in the intercluster and intracluster levels for millimeter wave indoor environments is validated. In the third part, a protocol to establish an optimal directional link between two nodes equipped with directional antennas is presented. The correctness of the protocol for different scenarios is illustrated using a ray-tracing tool. Then in the forth part, a Directional MAC (D-MAC) for supporting millimeter wave technology exploiting directional antennas is presented. The D-MAC is compatible with the current IEEE 802.15 MAC of WPAN, and it has backward compatibility to support devices which are not equipped with directional antennas. Finally, a directional neighbor discovery algorithm is presented which does not require time synchronization or any location information of communicating nodes. This means two nodes equipped with directional antennas can discover and communicate with each other through an established directional link as part of the D-MAC. SPACE-TIME BEHAVIOR OF MILLIMETER WAVE CHANNEL AND DIRECTIONAL MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL


We use a modified SampleRNN architecture to generate music in modern genres such as black metal and math rock. Unlike MIDI and symbolic models, SampleRNN generates raw audio in the time domain. This requirement becomes increasingly important in modern music styles where timbre and space are used compositionally. Long developmental compositions with rapid transitions between sections are possible by increasing the depth of the network beyond the number used for speech datasets. We are delighted by the unique characteristic artifacts of neural synthesis.


Manchester has made a dramatic turn around in the past two centuries, undergoing
extreme development and re- imaging in such a short period of time. The city has
welcomed the growth in economy due to the high level of services and the selfpromotion
of the city through the media. This research draws upon the powers of the
Manchester to pull in an ever- increasing residential population. My research question is
an aim to gain a greater understanding as to why people have chose to move into the city
centre of Manchester. My aims and objectives seek to analyse people attitudes and
opinions of how the space is being used and whether they believe that the regeneration
that has occurred in the city centre is the right kind of regeneration and if they feel that
culture is being lost as a result. Observational data in the form semiotic readings is used
to help with the understanding of the empirical data collected from the residents of
Manchester through the use of postal questionnaires.
The results of my research showed that the lifestyle, leisure activities and the nightlife
offered by the city centre were not the initial factors attracting people to the area. The
main factors were the job opportunities and the universities. Living in the city centre is a
convenience being within close proximity to work, the universities, leisure pursuits and
amenities. The research found that the lifestyle, leisure activities and the nightlife are just
the bonus of living in the city centre of Manchester.


Aerodynamic force tests on a slotted Clark Y wing were conducted in a vertical wind tunnel to determine the best position for a given auxiliary airfoil with respect to the main wing. A systematic series of 100 changes in location of the auxiliary airfoil were made to cover all the probable useful ranges of slot gap, slot width, and slot depth. The results of the investigation may be applied to the design of automatic or controlled slots on wings with geometric characteristics similar to the wing tested. The best positions of the auxiliary airfoil were covered by the range of the tests, and the position for desired aerodynamic characteristics may easily be obtained from charts prepared especially for the purpose.


We designed a system to infer multimodal itineraries traveled by a user from a combination of smartphone sensor data (e.g., GPS, Wi-Fi, accelerometer) and knowledge of the transport network infrastructure (e.g., road and rail maps, public transportation timetables). The system uses a Transportation network that captures the set of possible paths of this network for the modes, e.g., foot, bicycle, road_vehicle, and rail. This Transportation network is constructed from OpenStreetMap data and public transportation routes published online by transportation agencies in GTFS format. The system infers itineraries from a sequence of smartphone observations in two phases. The first phase uses a dynamic Bayesian network that models the probabilistic relationship between paths in Transportation network and sensor data. The second phase attempts to match portions recognized as road_vehicle or rail with possible public transportation routes of type bus, train, metro, or tram extracted from the GTFS source. We evaluated the performance of our system with data from users traveling over the Paris area who were asked to record data for different trips via an Android application. Itineraries were annotated with modes and public transportation routes taken and we report on the results of the recognition.


Charter schools are publicly funded but operate outside the regulatory framework and collective bargaining agreements characteristic of traditional public schools. In return for this freedom, charter schools are subject to heightened accountability. This paper estimates the impact of charter school attendance on student achievement using data from Boston, where charter schools enroll a growing share of students. We also evaluate an alternative to the charter model, Boston's pilot schools. These schools have some of the independence of charter schools, but operate within the school district, face little risk of closure, and are covered by many of same collective bargaining provisions as traditional public schools. Estimates using student assignment lotteries show large and significant test score gains for charter lottery winners in middle and high school. In contrast, lottery-based estimates for pilot schools are small and mostly insignificant. The large positive lottery-based estimates for charter schools are similar to estimates constructed using statistical controls in the same sample, but larger than those using statistical controls in a wider sample of schools. The latter are still substantial, however. The estimates for pilot schools are smaller and more variable than those for charters, with some significant negative effects.


BACKGROUND
The suture configurations in arthroscopic rotator cuff repairs have been limited to simple and horizontal stitches. Recent objective evaluations have demonstrated high failure rates of arthroscopic repairs of rotator cuff tears. A novel stitch for arthroscopic repair of the rotator cuff, the massive cuff stitch, was developed to increase the strength of the suture-tendon interface. The goal of this study was to determine the biomechanical properties of the massive cuff stitch and to compare it with other stitches commonly used for rotator cuff repair.

METHODS
Eight pairs of sheep infraspinatus tendons were harvested and split in half to yield a set of four tendon specimens from each animal. Four stitch configurations (simple, horizontal, massive cuff, and modified Mason-Allen) were randomized and biomechanically tested in each set of tendon specimens. Each specimen was first cyclically loaded on an MTS uniaxial load frame under force control from 5 to 30 N at 0.25 Hz for twenty cycles. Each specimen was then loaded to failure under displacement control at a rate of 1 mm/sec. Cyclic elongation, peak-to-peak displacement, ultimate tensile load, and stiffness were measured with use of an optical motion analysis system and load-cell output. The type of failure (suture breakage or pull-out) was also recorded. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed on the results, with the alpha level of significance set at p < 0.05.

RESULTS
There was no difference in cyclic elongation or peak-to-peak displacement among the four stitches. Ultimate tensile load was significantly higher (p < 0.05) for the massive cuff stitch (233 +/- 40 N) and the modified Mason-Allen stitch (246 +/- 40 N) than it was for either the simple stitch (72 +/- 18 N) or the horizontal stitch (77 +/- 15 N). There was no significant difference in the ultimate load between the massive cuff and modified Mason-Allen stitches. There was also no difference in stiffness among the four stitches. The simple and horizontal stitches failed by tissue pull-out, whereas the massive cuff and Mason-Allen stitches failed by a mixture of suture breakage and pull-out.

CONCLUSIONS
The massive cuff stitch provides strength comparable with that of the modified Mason-Allen stitch commonly used in open rotator cuff repair. The ultimate tensile load before failure of the massive cuff stitch was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the simple and horizontal stitches.


PAX7 are amongst the first expressed in the embryo, being principal regulators of neurogenic and myogenic progenitor cell specification and embryonic segmentation. The basis for this review lies in the supposition that genetic programs for cell migration, thought regulated by PAX3 and PAX7 during embryonic development, become tools used by the metastatic cell. In highly metastatic neoplasms arising from cells of neurogenic and myogenic lineages such as embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and cutaneous malignant melanoma, markedly high expression levels of PAX3 and PAX7 support this supposition. As PAX3 and PAX7 are known to play a role in the regulation of migratory events in embryogenesis, it is possible that the metastatic potential of these tumours is directly linked to migratory properties conferred them through PAX expression. Here we provide a novel perspective by correlating metastasis with expression of PAX3, PAX7 and ephrin/Eph receptors as well as NCAMs, cell surface markers normally involved in migration and adhesion during development, and propose a role for PAX genes in the increased metastatic potential of these tumours.


PURPOSE
It was determined in cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (HRPE) cells whether there is gene expression for insulin, insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), insulin and IGF receptors, and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs); if these peptides are secreted by the HRPE cells, and whether they have mitogenic effects on these cells; and if IGF-related peptides bind to HRPE cells.

METHODS
Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), nucleotide sequencing, and Southern blot analyses were done to identify gene expression. The presence of IGFs in the tissue culture medium was detected by radioimmunoassay. For determination of mitogenic effects and receptor binding characterization, [3H]-thymidine incorporation and radioreceptor binding measurements were performed.

RESULTS
The genes for IGF-I and IGF-II, IGFBP-2, insulin receptor, and type I and II IGF receptors were detected. In the tissue culture supernatant, there was immunoreactivity for IGF-I and IGF-II. Insulin, IGF-I, and IGF-II stimulated DNA synthesis with EC50s of 3, 10, and 30 to 100 nM, respectively. Scatchard analyses of [125I]-IGF-I binding and [125I]-insulin binding to the cells showed that the cells have relatively abundant insulin and IGF-I binding sites.

CONCLUSIONS
HRPE cells express genes for IGF-I and IGF-II, and conditioned medium from these cells is immunoreactive to their protein products. The cells express genes for insulin receptor, type I and II IGF receptors, and IGFBP-2. IGF-I, IGF-II, and insulin are all mitogenic, possibly as a result of their interactions with either the insulin or type I IGF receptor. The cells bind insulin and IGF-I with high affinity. These results suggest that IGF-I and IGF-II production by HRPE cells may be essential for autocrine/paracrine-mediated regulation of proliferation. The presence of insulin receptor suggests that insulin has a role in the regulation of HRPE function.


Irreparable mitochondrial damage triggers cell death through Pink1-Parkin–mediated degradation of the antiapoptotic protein Mcl-1. PTEN-induced kinase 1 (Pink1) acts upstream of the ubiquitin ligase Parkin to control the dynamics and degradation of mitochondria. Pink1 accumulates on damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria, where it recruits and activates Parkin to promote mitochondrial repair or mitophagy. Mutations in Parkin are associated with Parkinson's disease, which involves the loss of dopaminergic neurons that are particularly sensitive to excitotoxic stress. Zhang et al. report that Pink1-mediated activation of Parkin also stimulates cell death in response to irreparable mitochondrial damage. HeLa cells stably expressing wild-type Parkin responded to the mild mitochondrial-damaging agent carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP) with mitophagy to remove the dysfunctional mitochondria. CCCP did not induce mitophagy in HeLa cells stably expressing a mutant version of Parkin that is associated with familial early-onset Parkinson's disease. In contrast, HeLa cells stably expressing wild-type Parkin responded to the potassium ionophore valinomycin, which causes more severe mitochondrial dysfunction than agents like CCCP, by undergoing apoptosis. Cells expressing mutant Parkin survived valinomycin treatment. Valinomycin-triggered apoptosis was Pink1-dependent and characterized by a gradual decline in the abundance of the antiapoptotic protein Mcl-1 over a period of several hours. The abundance of Mcl-1 was unaffected in valinomycin-treated cells expressing the mutant form of Parkin or in cells exposed to CCCP. Human Pink1 was not catalytically active in vitro, but an insect homolog of Pink1 that is active in vitro, TcPink1, phosphorylated Ser65 in the ubiquitin-like domain of rat Parkin (rParkin) and Ser65 of ubiquitin in vitro. Nonphosphorylated, but highly purified, rParkin ubiquitylated Mcl-1 in vitro, but a catalytically inactive mutant form of rParkin did not. Ser65 phosphorylation of both rParkin and ubiquitin enhanced the ubiquitylation of Mcl-1 in vitro. Expression of a S65A mutant form of Parkin blocked valinomycin-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells and mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These findings indicate that, in addition to inducing mitophagy in response to mitochondrial damage, Parkin can also promote cell death when mitochondrial damage is irreparable. How different types or degrees of mitochondrial damage influence the substrate specificity of Parkin remains an open question. C. Zhang, S. Lee, Y. Peng, E. Bunker, E. Giaime, J. Shen, Z. Zhou, X. Liu, PINK1 triggers autocatalytic activation of Parkin to specify cell fate decisions. Curr. Biol. 24, 1854–1865 (2014). [PubMed]


Ecological communities are structured in response to spatial and temporal variation of numerous factors, including edaphic conditions, biotic interactions, climatic patterns and disturbance regimes. Widespread anthropogenic factors such as timber harvesting can create long-lasting impacts, obscuring the relationship between community structure and environmental conditions. Minimally impacted systems such as old-growth forests can serve as a useful ecological baseline for predicting long-term compositional shifts. We utilized decadal tree species sampling data (1979–2010) divided into three strata (understory, midstory, overstory) to examine temporal changes in relative abundances and spatial distributions of dominant taxa, as well as overall shifts in community composition, in a relatively pristine Appalachian old-growth forest in eastern Kentucky, USA. Quercus and Carya species persisted mainly as mature canopy trees with decreasing juvenile recruitment, especially in mesic areas. In contrast, Acer, Fagus, and other mesophytic species were abundant and spatially widespread in subcanopy layers suggesting these species are more likely to recruit in gap-scale canopy openings. In the overstory, mesophytic species were spatially restricted to lower and mid-slope mesic habitats. Temporal changes in community composition were most evident in the understory and tended to be greater in mesic areas, a trend seemingly driven by recruitment failure among xerophytic species. In subcanopy vegetation we discovered a loss of distinction through time among the ecological community designations established following the 1979 survey (Chestnut oak, Mixed mesophytic, and Beech). The overstory was more stable through time, suggesting a storage effect where long-lived trees have maintained a particular community composition through time in areas where regeneration opportunities are minimal under current environmental conditions. Overall, sitewide canopy succession is occurring slowly in the absence of major disturbance, and topography-driven environmental variation appears to have an important local-scale filtering effect on communities.


Key Words: affect, ambivalence, conflict, intergenerational relations, solidarity, theory. Ambivalence is an apt term to describe the contradictions we experience in our intimate social relationships. We can feel it: the paradox between closeness and distance, the push and pull between intimacy and setting boundaries. Ambivalence is a phenomenological reality, a universal human experience, a reflection of the dilemmas we face in close relationships. That ambivalent feelings characterize family interactions will be no surprise to family therapists and psychotherapists because much of their practice involves helping people disentangle difficulties in close-but-distant intimate relationships. Nor should the notion of ambivalence be a surprise to family researchers because they examine often conflicting data concerning the antecedents and consequences of family processes on some outcome. But does the concept of intergenerational ambivalence, proposed initially by Luscher and Pillemer (1998) and now expanded by Connidis and McMullin, provide something significantly new-- a more useful way to conceptualize and theorize family relationships than previous conceptualizations have achieved? If so, how should the concept of ambivalence be refined and operationalized in order to provide a better understanding of family relationships? How does it relate to other, more established, concepts such as what has become known as the intergenerational solidarity paradigm (Lowenstein, Katz, Prilutzky, & Hassoen, 2001)? These are some of the questions raised by Connidis and McMullin in their examination of "Sociological ambivalence and family ties." These are theoretical issues important to examine. We congratulate Journal of Marriage and Family in highlighting this theoretical discussion for public debate. We congratulate Connidis and McMullin for their efforts to address the ambiguities of the intergenerational ambivalence concept and to strengthen its utility. Such explication moves the debate forward and will advance the building of theory in family research. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE AMBIVALENCE CONCEPT What is ambivalence in intergenerational relationships? Luscher and Pillemer (1998) delineate two types: (a) sociological or structural ambivalence, which stems from an individual's location in the social structure, and (b) psychological or individual ambivalence, which refers to the feelings or sentiments experienced by individuals when faced with structural ambivalence. Their general definition of ambivalence, ". . . contradictions in relationships between parents and adult offspring that cannot be reconciled" (LOscher & Pillemer, p. 416), incorporates both types. Connidis and McMullin applaud Lischer and Pillemer for going beyond previous conceptualizations of intergenerational relations that have been typified as wholly harmonious or wholly conflictual. However, they suggest that Luscher and Pillemer do not go far enough. Drawing on themes from critical theory (a rubric incorporating themes from Marxism, feminism, and the Frankfurt school), Connidis and McMullin argue that ambivalence must be reconceptualized as "socially structured contradictions made manifest in interaction" (p. 565). They assert that their concept of structured ambivalence is distinct from Uscher and Pillemer's structural or sociological ambivalence. The Connidis and McMullin reconceptualization of ambivalence as socially structured emphasizes that: (a) ambivalence is a feature of structured sets of social relationships within which certain groups are privileged, (b) individuals exercise agency (to the extent possible) when dealing with ambivalence, (c) the negotiation of ambivalence takes place through social interaction, and (d) conflict is an inevitable feature of interpersonal relationships, including intergenerational relationships. Connidis and McMullin's construct of structured ambivalence adds to our understanding of family relationships. …


COM (Component Object Model) is the fastest growing model. Microsoft exposes any new technology by implementing each new subsystem as a COM object. COM is the way to interact with subsystems like ADSI (Active Directory Services Interface), MTS (Microsoft Transaction Server), DirectX, Shell extensions, ActiveX controls, OLE DB (Object Linking and Embedding) and ActiveX scripting. The central tenet of COM is the concept of language independence. COM based components can be built in wide variety of development environments. So it is better for windows developers to understand the core infrastructure of COM. This understanding will enable you to easily take advantage of those new subsystems as well as make it easier for you to expose your own subsystems.


Any romantic notions in the West that the 2011 Arab uprisings could create instantaneous democracy in countries that have succeeded at toppling their leaders are already shattering. In the absence of strong political parties and viable civil society structures in most of the Arab world, these uprisings are proving to be only the first step in a process that will not follow a clear path and will take years to unfold. Much trial and error will take place and the region will experience multiple ups and downs before stable political and economic systems take hold. The challenge of replacing both leaders and regimes with ones that follow democratic norms is huge and certainly not automatic. As the Arab world starts this long transformation, a self-evident but often ignored fact is that democracy will thrive only in a culture that accepts diversity, respects different points of view, regards truths as relative rather than absolute, and tolerates—even encourages—dissent. Without this kind of culture, no sustainable system of checks and balances can evolve over time to redistribute power away from the executive. Nor can a mechanism be developed to check abuses by any state institution. As the first phase of the uprisings gives way to nation building after decades of authoritarian rule, people in the Arab world will discover that their societies are not equipped with the skills and values needed to accept different, pluralistic norms of behavior. Looking beyond the euphoria of the moment thus requires changes not only to the political structure and individuals—electoral law, constitutions, leaders—but also serious and sustained changes to the countries' educational systems. The current education reform efforts in the region heavily focus on such "technical" aspects as building more schools, introducing computers to schools, improving test scores in mathematics and sciences, and bridging the gender gap in education. While necessary and important, the reform's current emphasis misses a basic human component: Students need to learn at a very early age what it means to be citizens who learn how to think, seek and produce knowledge, question, and innovate rather than be subjects of the state who are taught what to think and how to behave. These attributes are essential if the region is to m ove away from its traditional reliance on "rents" in the form of oil and outside assistance, and toward the kind of system that empowers its citizens with the requisite skills to build self-generating, prosperous economies and achieve a quality of life that can come through respect for diversity, critical thinking, creativity, and exercising one's duties and rights as an active citizen.


Glutathione transferases (GSTs) catalyse the conjugation of the electrophilic herbicides atrazine, metolachlor, alachlor and fluorodifen with the tripeptide glutathione (GSH). Maize (Zea mays L), contains multiple GSTs with differing substrate specificities which confer tolerance to a variety of herbicides. In contrast far less is known regarding the GSTs in competing weed species. In vivo metabolism studies using seedlings of maize and the weeds Panicum miliaceum. Digitaria sanguinalis, Sorghum bicolor. Setaria faberi. Abutilon theophrasti and Echinochloa crus-galli demonstrated that all species were capable of metabolising radiolabelled atrazine to GSH conjugates and the relative rates of metabolism related well to GST activities. Similarly, GST activities toward atrazine, metolachlor and alachlor correlated well with herbicide tolerance, with GSH availability being less important. GST activities towards metolachlor, alachlor and atrazine were highest in young maize plants and decreased with age, whilst GST activities in S.faberi remained unchanged. At 35 days GST activities were similar in the two species and the atrazine selectivity was lost. GSH content decreased with age in both species. Protein purification studies showed that S.faberi contains 4 GST isoenzymes with differing substrate specificities. The major GST was estimated to account for 0.1 % of die total soluble protein in S.faberi. PCR-amplification of a cDNA prepared from mRNA showed that S.faberi contains a GST with 88% identity to GST I from maize at the nucleotide level and 82% identity at the amino acid level. Similarly antibodies raised to maize and wheat GSTs recognised GSTs in S.faberi. It is concluded that GSTs determine the relative tolerance to chloroacetanilides and atrazine in weed seedlings but may be less important in older plants. The GSTs in S.faberi are similar in complexity to those determined in maize but are expressed at lower levels.


Lagoon areas maintain ideal water conditions for mosquito breeding habitats and are thus environments with high risk of malaria transmission. In Benin, several administrative units, among which the Sô-Ava District, are located in lagoon areas. We conducted entomological surveys in this lagoon district from July 2014 to June 2015, in order to update existing information on biodiversity of mosquitoes, Plasmodium falciparum infection, and insecticide resistance status in malaria vectors. Our survey found that Culex quinquefasciatus and Mansonia africana were the most abundant species, and that Anopheles coluzzii represented the main malaria vector in this area, followed by Anopheles melas. Only Anopheles coluzzii was positive to Plasmudium falcimarum circum sporozoitic protein (4.2 %). An. gambiae s.l. were susceptible to chlorpyrifos-methyl and bendiocarb but resistant to all pyrethroids tested and to pyrimiphos-methyl. The average of kdr allelic frequency from July 2014 to June 2015 was 77.4% and that of ace 1 gene was less than 1%. We conclude that Anopheles coluzzii is the main malaria vector in the lagoon area we studied, somewhat contrary to our expectations. However, this malaria vector was resistant to insecticides used for bed net impregnation, even if the resistance level was lower than observed in other parts of Benin. Keys Words: Malaria, vectors, Plasmodium, infection, resistance, lagoon, Benin


Background: Petroleum is the main source of energy as fuel. Petroleum leakage or dumping of petroleum waste can lead to contamination of soil and ground water. Some major sources of oil spills are leaking storage tanks, pipelines, land disposal of petroleum waste and accidental spills. Phytoremediation is the use of plant and its associated micro-organisms. Objectives: This study aims to use sedge species, C. odoratus and PGPR strains for phytoremediation of oil sludge contaminated soil. Materials and Methods: The plant was grown in two conditions viz., oil contaminated soil as well as contaminated soil containing PGPR. The growth pattern of the plant in both conditions was observed. Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) was estimated using Soxhlet extraction method. The TPH samples were further analyzed by GC-MS. Results: A better growth was observed when the contaminated soil was treated with PGPR one month after the planting of C. odoratus. Initially when treated with the plant there was no change in the amount of total petroleum hydrocarbon but after treating with PGPR strains there was a decrease in the concentration of total petroleum hydrocarbon. Moreover, GCMS reveals that there is a breakdown of hydrocarbon when the soil are planted with C. odoratus and treated with Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobia (PGPR). Conclusion: A synergistic effect of Cyperus odoratus & PGPR strain in hydrocarbon uptake was observed. So, this combination could be effectively used to restore vegetation in oil spilled sites.


The Agricultural Water: Potential Use and Management Program in Georgia program (Ag. Water Pumping) began instrumenting and collecting agricultural water use data in 1999. As of October 2000, at least 407 permitted agricultural withdrawals, and more than 600 individual sites are in the monitoring program across the state of Georgia. This represents, however, just a small subset of the more than 19,000 permitted sites in the state. In order to scale-up this subset to represent an estimate of total statewide agricultural irrigation water, the already collected data of the Ag Water Pumping project were used to estimate monthly average use amounts per crop type. Then, based on agricultural statistics data, the total amount of irrigated acreage for each crop in the state was estimated. These two sets of estimates were combined to project the total amount of agricultural irrigation water for the whole state. An initial rough estimate, based on permit numbers of agricultural irrigators who have the capacity to pump or withdraw 4.4 1/sec (100,000 gallons/day) from either surface or ground water, showed that if there are 22,000 such sites in the state then water use would be 330,000 M gallons/year for the whole state or 1,012,425 Acreft/year. The value arrived at using the actually measured Ag Water Pumping subset and scaling up was 489,000 M gallons/year or 1,501,457 Acre-ft/year. It is encouraging that this initial analysis to scale-up refined data has given a total state water use amount which is not radically different from the extremely gross estimate based on the number of permits and their allotted flow rates. Further analysis and additional data are needed to provide a legitimate estimate of agricultural water use in the state of Georgia.


Summary This paper reports the results of a systematic geochemical study of intermediate and acid intrusive rocks from a number of continent-continent collision zones of Phanerozoic age. Four groups of intrusions can be recognized, each associated with a particular stage in the tectonic evolution of a collision zone. Pre-collision calc-alkaline (volcanic-arc) intrusions which are mostly derived from mantle modified by a subduction component and which are characterized by selective enrichments in LIL elements. Syn-collision peraluminous intrusions (leucogranites) which may be derived from the hydrated bases of continental thrust sheets and which are characterized by high Rb/Zr and Ta/Nb and low K/Rb ratios. Late or post-collision calc-alkaline intrusions which may be derived from a mantle source but undergo extensive crustal contamination and can only be distinguished from volcanic-arc intrusions by their higher ratios of Ta/Hf and Ta/Zr. Post-collision alkaline intrusions which may be derived from mantle lithosphere beneath the collision zones and which carry high concentrations of both LIL and HFS elements. The geochemical evolution of crustal melts within groups (ii) and (iii) can be viewed in terms of the dehydration reactions, volatile transfer and transient geothermal gradients that result from thrust tectonics in the zone of collision.


A new group of multifunctional ligands for DNA and RNA were prepared, comprising phenanthridinium and triazolyluracil connected by various aliphatic or peptide linkers. The peptide linker conjugates showed at least one order of magnitude higher affinity in comparison to aliphatic analogues, which was attributed to peptide-specific hydrophobic and hydrogen bonding interactions within DNA/RNA binding sites. Particularly, a peptide linker conjugate with lysine residue showed selectivity toward poly rA–poly rU, as well as toward poly U, both characterized by strong affinity and a selective fluorescence response. Negligible cytotoxicity of compounds additionally supported their possible applications as fluorimetric probes in laboratory use.


Purpose of review Various aspects of the management of acute calculous cholecystitis, including type and timing of surgery, role of antibiotics, and nonoperative management, remain controversial. This review focuses on recently published studies addressing the timing of cholecystectomy, use of cholecystostomy tubes, and role of antibiotics in this condition. Recent findings In most cases, the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis can be initially confirmed with an abdominal ultrasound. Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy (within 24–72 h of symptom onset) is better than delayed surgery (>7 days) for most patients with grade I and II diseases. Percutaneous cholecystostomy and novel endoscopic gallbladder drainage interventions may be used as a temporizing measure or as definitive therapy in those who are too sick to undergo surgery. Studies are conflicting as to whether antibiotics are required for the treatment of uncomplicated cases. Summary Cholecystectomy remains the only definitive therapy for acute cholecystitis. Current guidelines recommend treatment on the basis of disease severity at presentation. Antibiotics and a variety of minimally invasive nonsurgical interventions, although not definitive, play an adjunctive role in the management of the disease.


The purpose of this work is to determine the influence of the reprocessed polymer on tensile properties. Tested samples were obtained using the injection molding technology from the industrial unpolluted waste, which is the same material like the virgin styrene acrylonitrile (SAN). The waste was milled for further reprocessing and a mixture of different particles was obtained. This mixture was sifted to fraction differ by particle sizes. These mixtures were characterized by tensile testing at the ambient temperature. It was found that mixtures with small particles influenced the non-sifted milled mixture even though these particles contain only a small amount.


This paper informs and updates civil engineers of the status and advances of global navigation satellite systems, and how this will affect the profession in the near future. An overview of the various global and regional systems is given. Real data are used to show the potential precision of the US Global Positioning System and other global navigation satellite systems, as well as the advantages of using a multi-system approach. The results illustrate that there is a clear increase in the availability of satellites through a multi-system approach, as well as an improvement in the resulting coordinate precision.


The presence and expression of nitrogenase genes in diazotrophic prokaryotes has been documented in oligotrophic surface waters of the North Pacific gyre; however, there have been few investigations in other ocean basins. We initiated a study into the ecology of planktonic diazotrophs at 4 stations in the Sargasso Sea. Nucleic acid samples from the surface to 5890 m were collected on several dates between October 2003 and September 2005. Surprisingly, nifH could only be amplified from nano- and picoplankton DNA in surface waters on only 1 of 2 sampling dates at 1 station in the Sargasso Sea. Although no nifH was detected in the surface DNA samples earlier in the year at that station, Crocosphaera sp. cyanobacterial nifH was detected in enrichment cultures initiated with sur- face water collected at the time. In contrast to surface waters, diazotrophs were more consistently detected in deeper waters, including at several stations elsewhere globally. The nifH microarray fingerprints from the Sargasso Sea from 0, 5 and 25 m depths were remarkably consistent between samples taken 2 yr apart, but were different from fingerprints from subeuphotic waters. The results of our study suggest the presence of diazotrophic plankton in the Sargasso Sea, which is not con- strained to surface waters. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that a deep-water diazotrophic flora persists in the meso- and abyssopelagic zones in the presence of high concentrations of combined nitrogen; however, the gene expression patterns of such species and their role in the N cycle remain unknown.


SQL Server 2005, Microsoft's next-generation data management and analysis solution, represents a huge leap forward. It comes with a myriad of changes that deliver increased security, scalability, and power--making it the complete data package. Used properly, SQL Server 2005 can help organizations of all sizes meet their data challenges head on. Programming SQL Server 2005 from O'Reilly provides a practical look at this updated version of Microsoft's premier database product. It guides you through all the new features, explaining how they work and how to use them. The first half of the book examines the changes and new features of the SQL Server Engine itself. The second addresses the enhanced features and tools of the platform, including the new services blended into this popular version. Each chapter contains numerous code samples-written in C# and compiled using the Visual Studio 2005 development environment-that show you exactly how to program SQL Server 2005.Programming SQL Server 2005 can help you:Build, deploy, and manage enterprise applications that are more secure, scalable, and reliableMaximize IT productivity by reducing the complexity of building, deploying, and managing database applicationsShare data across multiple platforms, applications, and devices to make it easier to connect internal and external systemsBecause the goal of Programming SQL Server 2005 is to introduce all facets of Programming SQL Server 2005, it's beneficial to programmers of all levels. The book can be used as a primer by developers with little experience with SQL Server, as a ramp up to the new programming models for SQL Server 2005 for more experienced programmers, or as background and primer to specific concepts.Any IT professional who wants to learn about SQL Server 2005's comprehensive feature set, interoperability with existing systems, and automation of routine tasks will find the answers in this authoritative guide.


This paper proposes a simple nonparametric test of the hypothesis of no measurement error in explanatory variables and of the hypothesis that measurement error, if there is any, does not distort a given object of interest. We show that, under weak assumptions, both of these hypotheses are equivalent to certain restrictions on the joint distribution of an observable outcome and two observable variables that are related to the latent explanatory variable. Existing nonparametric tests for conditional independence can be used to directly test these restrictions without having to solve for the distribution of unobservables. In consequence, the test controls size under weak conditions and possesses power against a large class of nonclassical measurement error models, including many that are not identi?ed. If the test detects measurement error, a multiple hypothesis testing procedure allows the researcher to recover subpopulations that are free from measurement error. Finally, we use the proposed methodology to study the reliability of administrative earnings records in the U.S., ?nding evidence for the presence of measurement error originating from young individuals with high earnings growth (in absolute terms).


Specimens of the agglutinated foraminifera Eggerella bradyi (Cushman) and Karreriella bradyi (Cushman) have been sectioned to study their wall structure. Specimens of both species from the continental slopes off Britain have test walls composed of quartz, calcite and dolomite grains in an excess of calcareous cement. One specimen of E. bradyi examined came from below the C.C.D. and, in this case, the test wall is composed of quartz and feldspar grains with very little intergranular calcareous cement. This suggests one way in which a eurytopic, calcareous agglutinated species may adapt to living below the C.C.D.


This paper explores the impact of Ryerson's WEMADEIT Youth Think Tank (YTT) on participating girls' understanding of and attitudes toward engineering. According to recent research, most teens openly admit that they are not familiar with the specifics of a job in engineering (Intel, 2011), typically associating the field of engineering with independent work and a math and science focus; however, the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) emphasizes teamwork, socially-conscious thinking and entrepreneurship. Existing professional engineering organizations, including Engineers Without Borders (EWB), are also working to introduce the broader concept of the "Global Engineer" – a socially and ethically conscious, teamwork-driven, creative engineer. These recent trends in engineering reveal a disparity between public perception of engineering and the realities of the industry. The WEMADEIT project was formed in order to increase girls' interest in and exposure to engineering in three ways: by creating a brand that correlates with new trends in engineering; by getting girls involved through an in-person Youth Think Tank (YTT); and by creating a new website (WEMADEIT.ca). Through interviews with five YTT participants, as well as an analysis of the content participants produced for the WEMADEIT website, this paper traces the journeys of a purposive sample of five teenage girls who have participated in the YTT. The researcher's autoethnographic insights as the daughter of a female engineer further enrich the paper's analysis and discussion. The findings suggest that exposure to engineering through the YTT generated greater interest in engineering and stronger self-efficacy in participants, opened up post-secondary conversation between participants and their parents and created positive outcome expectations for a career in engineering.


This paper considers the design of an optimal rating system, in a market with adverse selection. We address two critical questions about rating design: First, given a number of categories, what are the criteria for setting the boundaries between them? Second, what are the gains from increasing the number of categories? A rating system helps reallocate sales from lower- to higher-quality producers, thus mitigating the problem of adverse selection. We focus on two main sources of market heterogeneity that determine the extent and effect of this reallocation: the distribution of firm qualities and the responsiveness of sellers' supply to prices. We provide a simple characterization for the optimal rating system as the solution to a standard k-means clustering problem, and discuss its connection to supply elasticity and the skewness of firm qualities. Our results show that a simple two-tier rating can achieve a large share of full information surplus. Additionally, we characterize the conflicting interests of consumers and producers in the design of a rating system.


The Convention on Biologcal Diversity (CBD) recognises that both access to and transfer of technologies are essential for the attainment of its objectives. This report explores a number of issues related to technology transfer with a particular focus on India asking questions on: typologies, actors, and institutions, perceptions and mechanisms. The report explores these issues for herbal medicine development and the use of medicinal plants particularly those based on the ancient written Ayurvedic medicinal system.


and Implications Presence of cattle near pasture streams may increase the probability of bare ground and feces on streambanks and increase the risks of sediment, phosphorus, and fecal pathogen loading of water resources through direct deposition or transport in precipitation runoff. Management techniques such as providing off-stream water sources or managing cattle access to pasture streams through rotational stocking or use of stabilized stream access sites may limit the amount of time that the cattle spend near the stream, decreasing the risks of non-point source pollution. Six 30acre cool-season grass pastures, bisected by a stream, were split into two blocks with three treatments per block. Treatments were: continuous stocking with unrestricted stream access (CSU), continuous stocking with access to the stream restricted to a 16-foot wide stabilized stream crossing (CSR), and rotational stocking (RS). Each pasture was stocked with 15 fall-calving Angus cows. For two weeks in each month from May through September, at least one cow in each pasture was fitted with a GPS collar programmed to record cow position at 10 minute intervals. Off-stream water was made available to cows in pastures with the CSU and CSR treatments for one week of the twoweek position measurement period in each month., Each pasture was divided into four zones to analyze position data; in the stream or on the streambank (stream zone), 0 to 110 feet from the streambank (110 zone), 110 to 220 feet from the streambank (220 zone), and greater than 220 feet from the streambank (upland zone). The combination of the stream and 110 zones were defined as the streamside zone. Cattle in both RS and CSR pastures spent (P < 0.10) less time within the stream and 110 zones than CSU pastures in June and May, and July, respectively. Off-stream water availability had no meaningful effect on cattle distribution in the CSU and CSR pastures. With increasing temperatures, the probability that cattle were present in the streamside zone of CSU pastures increased more rapidly than CSR pastures.


AIM: Although the effects of climate on species richness are known, regional processes may lead to different species richness–climate relationships across continents resulting in species richness anomalies, especially for tropical groups. Phylogenetic niche conservatism may also influence species richness–climate relationships of different lineages. Here, we tested whether regional effects also exist for temperate lineages using the genus Quercus. LOCATION: Northern Hemisphere. TIME PERIOD: Present day. MAJOR TAXA STUDIED: Quercus (Fagaceae). METHODS: We used a dated phylogeny and distribution data for Quercus to evaluate its global species richness patterns and phylogenetic niche conservatism. To evaluate the consistency in species richness–climate relationships across continents of the genus Quercus as a whole and the temperate subgenus Quercus, we conducted analyses of covariance with continent as the categorical variable and climate variables as the covariate. We calibrated four widely used models using the global data or data from each continent separately and evaluated the predictive power of each model for different continents using the root mean squared error. RESULTS: The relationships between species richness and climate were not significantly different among continents for both the genus Quercus as a whole and the subgenus Quercus. Unlike the models based on European data, those based on North American and eastern Asian data predicted both the global species richness and the richness in other continents. The species richness of a subtropical subgenus Cyclobalanopsis was most influenced by water availability, while that of a temperate subgenus Quercus was most influenced by environmental temperature. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to the subtropical subgenus Cyclobalanopsis, our results showed a consistent richness–climate relationship and absence of regional effects on species richness across continents for the temperate subgenus Quercus, likely suggesting that the species richness of temperate lineages, for example subgenus Quercus, may have reached equilibrium with the contemporary climate in the Northern Hemisphere.


Modal birefringence of highly birefringent fibers can be measured nondestructively by the elastooptic modulation method. Based on this modulation method, a new method for precisely measuring the wavelength dependence of modal birefringence in highly birefringent fibers is presented using an incoherent light source such as a fiber Raman laser.


There is widespread interest in finding sustainable replacements for fossil fuels, and hence hydrogen production via water splitting has received much attention. However, finding efficient water splitting methods remains a challenge. We use first principles theory to design a catalytic cycle for water splitting that employs the pyroelectric effect in ferroelectrics. Taking PbTiO3 as an example, we show that actively controlling the ferroelectric polarization via cyclic temperature modulations can catalyze the splitting of H2O into O2 and H2. In practice, the energy needed to drive this cycle may be provided by low/intermediate grade heat. Since no precious metals are used in this catalytic cycle, this approach may lead to viable water-splitting methods that employ earth-abundant elements.


Background Methotrexate (MTX) is considered the anchor drug in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment, based on efficacy, safety, and its ability to increase the efficacy of biologic agents when used in combination. Both the "American College of Rheumatology" (ACR) and the "European League Against Rheumatism" (EULAR) recommend the use of biologic agents with concomitant MTX in RA. However, analyses from health care claims suggest that the MTX prescribed in conjunction with a biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD), is not collected at the pharmacy by more than half of the patients. Despite claims from pivotal trial data, the empirical evidence supporting combination MTX plus bDMARD in terms of the actual benefit-harm has not been evaluated extensively. Objectives To review the evidence for benefit and harm associated with combining MTX with a biologic agent in RA patients. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was performed to identify all trials relating treatment of RA with MTX in combination with bDMARD compared to a bDMARD in monotherapy. Random-effects models were applied for meta-analyses with risk ratio and 95% confidence intervals (RR, 95%CI) and inconsistency (I2, %) estimated using Review Manager. According to the protocol the major outcomes were ACR50 for benefit and withdrawals due to adverse events (AEs) for harm (PROSPERO: CRD42014014633). Results From the 4,405 identified references, 14 trials were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The overall likelihood of responding to therapy (ie, RR according to ACR50) was 1.36 [1.24 to 1.49] - with a low degree of inconsistency (28%) - in favour of concomitant use of MTX when treating with a biologic (P<0.001). There was no reason to suspect that added value of MTX varied with the choice of bDMARD (Test for subgroup differences P=0.38): abatacept 1.27 [0.97 to 1.67], adalimumab 1.42 [1.24 to 1.61], etanercept 1.44 [1.22 to 1.69], golimumab 1.60 [1.13 to 2.27], infliximab 3.54 [1.38 to 9.08], rituximab 1.31 [0.74 to 2.32], and tocilizumab 1.24 [1.03 to 1.51]. The overall estimate of discontinuing therapy due to AEs from concomitant use of MTX was 1.17 [0.94 to 1.44] (P=0.16) compared to bDMARD in monotherapy - corresponding to a possible 17% increased risk. Conclusions This systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs provides empirical evidence about the clinical value of combining the prescribed bDMARD with the recommended concomitant use of MTX. Combination therapy increases the probability of achieving treatment success at the level of ACR50 by approximately 40% compared to patients using biologics in monotherapy. Although the precision around the estimate of concomitant MTX use does not rule out an increased risk of clinically important harms, these findings justify the recommendation that all patients prescribed biologics should be encouraged to continue MTX therapy. Acknowledgements This study was supported by unrestricted grants from The Oak foundation, and AbbVie (Denmark). Disclosure of Interest T. S. Jørgensen Grant/research support from: has received research grants paid to institute: AbbVie and Roche, S. Tarp: None declared, D. E. Furst: None declared, A. Døssing: None declared, P. Taylor: None declared, H. Bliddal Grant/research support from: has received research grants paid to institute: AbbVie and Roche, R. Christensen Grant/research support from: has received research grants paid to institute: AbbVie and Roche


Introduction: Geographical access to antenatal intervention is a growing problem in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Countries in the regions have for more than 40 years deployed mobile health clinics (MHC) to address that problem, yet, their feasibility, costs, and effectiveness of are poorly known.
Methods: A qualitative case study in chapter three using key informant interviews to explore the feasibility of using MHC to deliver maternal health care was conducted. Thematic analysis was done using NVivo software for Mac version 10.5.8. In chapter four exit interviews were conducted to estimate client time and direct costs incurred by clients when they use services. Data were entered in EpiData software version 3.1 and analysed in STATA version 12. In chapter five, a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised control trial were conducted to synthesis effectiveness data used in the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). In chapter six a CEA was conducted from the provider perspective. DALYs lost due to malaria, and severe anaemia was calculated based on recommended guidelines. Cost data were collected from the public district hospital that oversees the MHC. The activity-based costing methodology was adopted to identify measure and value resource used. The Markov decision model was used to compare the cost-effectiveness of using MHC to scale up the provision of IPTp-SP3 and a "wait to treat" strategy. The model was built in Microsoft Excel version 15.37. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses with 10,000 simulations were used to test the robustness of model results. In chapter seven-a, stratified analysis and a net health benefits analysis was conducted to explore the impact of heterogeneity on the estimates when considering parity and HIV status as focus subgroups.
Results: Policymakers perceive MHC as an important mode of service delivery to scale up essential interventions in areas that lack static health facilities. Yet, this approach is challenged by scarce resource, poor road infrastructure, and a weak health information system. MHC indicates to have reduced client travel time; however, women incur direct costs due to out of pocket payments driven by out of stock of medicine. The cost of IPTp-SP3 per pregnancy was estimated to be US$ 12.87. The model predicted the total cost to roll out the intervention to 1,000 women to be US$ 20,185 compared to US$ 12,283 if the "wait to treat" strategy is adopted. The strategy was predicted to be more cost-effective than waiting to treat, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of US$ 40 per DALY averted. The strategy was also associated with lower costs of the consequences as compared to wait to treat strategy (US$6 086 versus US$12 365). Additionally, more net health benefits (NHB) were predicted when the intervention was provided to low parity and HIV positive women alone.
Conclusions: Using MHC to scale up IPTp-SP3 in Tanzania is worth the cost with more NHB predicted for low parity and HIV positive women. Although the presented evidence may help guide decision in scaling up essential health intervention, yet more evidence is needed on the impact of this mode of service delivery on a budget of the ministry of health and social welfare.


In this article the author discusses the importance of defining generic competences in alignment with the European definitions. As a case study the generic competences defined by Laurea University of Applied Sciences are compared with European definitions of generic competences. The purpose is to open up the various perspectives within this thematic field of interest and reflect on them according to the objectives of the European Higher Education Area. The comparative matrix of generic competences enhances the comparison of learning outcomes in higher education institutions, facilitates credit transfer and the acknowledgement of prior learning.


OBJECTIVE
When the dimensional measurements of the students who spend most of their time at school are taken into consideration, inappropriate dimensions of school equipment may affect their body and psychological improvements negatively. Anthropometric measurements are necessary for designing the educational equipment of the children at school. It is emphasized that anthropometric measurements of the people living in different climate and altitude conditions will be different. It is mentioned that anthropometric data available for a certain region will be able to change as a result of changing socio-economical conditions and therefore, anthropometric data update is necessary at certain periods.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In 2000 anthropometric data obtained from the children between the age of seven and fifteen, who were in sitting and standing positions, were measured with a repeated measurement in the same schools in 2007.

RESULTS
Mean values of the heights of elbow at standing position of the female students, 8 years old, increased from 72.38 cm in 2000 to 74.67 cm in 2007 (p<0.001). Most of the other measurements in 2007 were larger than those in 2000, giving the impression that new generation children are getting larger in size.

CONCLUSION
As reported in the literature, anthropometric data should be updated at certain period of times.


Sea level anomalies from altimeters are combined with decade-long potential temperature and salinity profiles from Argo floats to investigate the vertical structure of mesoscale eddies in the South Atlantic Bight (SAB) and the Gulf Stream Recirculation region. Eddy detection and eddy tracking algorithms are applied to the satellite observations, and hydrography profiles from floats that surfaced inside eddies are used to construct three-dimensional composites of cyclones and anticyclones. Eddies are characterized by large temperature and salinity anomalies at 500–1000 m depth and near the surface, and by small anomalies at 200–400 m below the surface at the depth of the North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water. Anomalies associated with anticyclones are generally larger and found deeper in the water column compared to those due to the presence of cyclones. Geostrophic velocities around eddies generally exceed their translation speed in the top 1000 m of the water column. As such, these eddies can trap water in their interior as they propagate westward. Combining the volume of water inside eddies above their trapping depths with the number of eddies that propagate into the SAB each year, it is estimated that cyclones and anticyclones transport 3.5 ± 0.9 Sv and 4.1 ± 1.7 Sv onshore toward the Gulf Stream, respectively. The total volume transport of 7.6 ± 2.2 Sv represents an important fraction of previous estimates of the onshore transport in the Gulf Stream Recirculation gyre. Since eddies are characterized by large temperature and salinity anomalies, they also contribute significantly to the onshore transport of heat and salt.


Business collaboration in the form of virtual factory is nowadays considering as one of the critical factor in the manufacturing community, mostly within small and medium size enterprises SMEs. In such an environment, it is very important to deal with accompanying process details within virtual factory environment. This research articulates fundamental concepts of the virtual business network in the form of plug-and-play virtual factory, where both intra and inter-organisational processes are defined for the purpose to execute the virtual collaboration successfully. Different phases of virtual factory and its associated process steps are defined with necessary annotations. All such business processes as required to execute the virtual factory are exclusively presented with examples. More specific example of the virtual factory monitoring and controlling process is illustrated and highlighted with the help of user interface portal known as dashboard. The functionality and importance of this dashboard user interface layer is presented with its inherent features and implementation perspectives. This paper is concluded with future research directions.


We report the assembly of three-dimensional (3D) liver sinusoidal mimics comprised of primary rat hepatocytes, human or rat liver sinusoidal endothelial cells denoted as hLSECs and rLSECs respectively, and an intermediate chitosan-hyaluronic acid (HA) polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM). The height of the PEMs ranged from 30-55nm and exhibited a shear modulus of ~ 100kPa. Primary rat hepatocytes coated with 5 and 15 PE layers exhibited stable urea and albumin production over a seven day period and these values were either comparable or superior to that in a collagen sandwich (CS). Hepatocyte-PEM-hLSEC liver mimics exhibited stable urea production and increasing albumin secretion over the culture period in comparison to hepatocyteLSEC samples. In the 3D liver mimics, hLSEC phenotype was maintained and verified by the uptake of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (AcLDL). A sixteen-fold increase in CYP1A1/2 activity was observed for hepatocyte-PEM-10,000 hLSEC samples, thereby, suggesting that interactions between hepatocytes and hLSECs play a key role in enhancing hepatic phenotypes in in vitro cultures. As the first step towards elucidating key signaling pathways involved in cellcell communications, global genome-wide transcriptional profiles of primary hepatocytes cultured in CS and hepatocyte monolayers (HMs) were performed over an eight-day period using DNA microarray measurements and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) in order to derive biologically meaningful information at the level of gene sets. The gene expression in CS cultures steadily diverged from that in HMs. Gene sets up-regulated in CS are those linked to liver metabolic and synthetic functions, such as lipid, fatty acid, alcohol and carbohydrate metabolism, urea production, and synthesis of bile acids. Monooxygenases such as CYP enzymes were significantly up-regulated starting on day 3 in CS cultures. These results serve as a baseline for further investigation into the systems biology of engineered liver tissues. 3D hepatic constructs were also assembled with primary rat hepatocytes and rLSECs, and a chitosan-HA PEM. In these hepatic models, the phenotype of hepatocytes and rLSECs were maintained. rLSEC phenotype was verified over a twelve-day period through immunostaining with the sinusoidal endothelial-1 (SE-1) antibody. In contrast, rLSECs cultured as monolayers lost their phenotype within 3 days. A two-fold increase in albumin production was observed only in the 3D liver models. rLSECPEM-hepatocyte cultures exhibited threeto six-fold increased CYP1A1/2 and CYP3A enzymatic activity. Well-defined bile canaliculi were observed in only 3D hepatic constructs. In summary, these results indicate that the layered rLSEC-PEM-hepatocyte constructs can be used as liver models for future studies.


A RAY-BASED INVESTIGATION OF THE STATISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND EFFICIENT REPRESENTATION OF MULTI-ANTENNA COMMUNICATION CHANNELS Gus R. German Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Master of Science Multi-antenna communication systems are attracting research interest as a means to increase the information capacity, reliability, and spectral efficiency of wireless information transfer. Ray-tracing methods predict the behavior of wireless channels using a model of the propagation environment and are a low-cost alternative to direct measurements. We use ray tracing simulations to validate the statistical time and angle of arrival characteristics of an indoor multipath channel and compare model parameter estimates with estimates derived from channel sounding measurements. Ray tracing predicts the time and angle clustering of multipaths observed in the measurements and provides model parameter estimates which are closely correlated with measured estimates. The ray tracing parameters relating to power characteristics show more deviation from measurements than the time and angle related parameters. Our results also indicate that the description of reflective scatterers in the propagation environment is more important to the quality of the predicted statistical behavior than the description of bulk materials. We use a ray synthesis model to investigate means of efficiently representing the channel for feedback information to the transmitter as a means to increase the information capacity. Several methods of selecting the ray-model feedback information are demonstrated with results from simulated and measured channels. These results indicate that an ESPRIT algorithm coupled with ad hoc transmit/receive pairing can yield better than 90% of the ideal waterfilling capacity when adequate training-based channel estimates are available. Additionally, we investigate a covariance feedback method for providing channel feedback for increased capacity. Both the ray-based and covariance-based feedback methods yield their highest capacity improvements when the signal to noise ratio is low. This results because of the larger benefit of focusing transmit power into the most advantageous eigenmodes of the channel when fewer eigenmodes have power allocated to them by the waterfilling capacity solution. In higher signal to noise ratio cases, more eigenmodes of the channel receive power when waterfilling, and the capacity improvement from feedback information decreases relative to a uniform power allocation. In general, ray model feedback methods are preferable because the covariance feedback quickly requires higher computational effort as the array sizes increase and typically results in lower capacity for a given amount of feedback information.


ABSTRACT Pathogenic bacteria are in a constant battle for survival with their host. In order to gain a competitive edge, they employ a variety of sophisticated strategies that allow them to modify conserved host cell processes in ways that favor bacterial survival and growth. Ubiquitylation, the covalent attachment of the small modifier ubiquitin to target proteins, is such a pathway. Ubiquitylation profoundly alters the fate of a myriad of cellular proteins by inducing changes in their stability or function, subcellular localization or interaction with other proteins. Given the importance of ubiquitylation in cell development, protein homeostasis and innate immunity, it is not surprising that this post-translational modification is exploited by a variety of effector proteins from microbial pathogens. Here, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the many ways microbes take advantage of host ubiquitylation, along with some surprising deviations from the canonical theme. The lessons learned from the in-depth analyses of these host–pathogen interactions provide a fresh perspective on an ancient post-translational modification that we thought was well understood. This article is part of a Minifocus on Ubiquitin Regulation and Function. For further reading, please see related articles: 'Mechanisms of regulation and diversification of deubiquitylating enzyme function' by Pawel Leznicki and Yogesh Kulathu (J. Cell Sci. 130, 1997–2006). 'Cell scientist to watch – Mads Gyrd-Hansen' (J. Cell Sci. 130, 1981–1983). Summary: Microbial pathogens have developed a variety of strategies, both conventional and unconventional, to exploit and interfere with the ubiquitylation machinery of infected host cells.


Bridges are omnipresent in every society and they affect
its human, social, ecological, economical and cultural aspects. This is why a
durable and safe usage of bridges is an imperative goal of structural
management. Measurement and monitoring have an essential role in structural
management. The benefits of the information obtained by monitoring are apparent
in several domains. In deformation analysis, the functional relationship
between the acting forces and the resulting deformations should be established. If
time depending observations are given, a regression could be used as a
functional model. In case of stochastic model uncorrelated observations with
identical variance are assumed. Due to the high sampling rate, a small time
difference arises between two observations. Thus the assumed stochastic model
is not suitable. The calculation has to be effected by means of auto-correlated
observations. This paper investigates an integrated monitoring
system for the estimation of the deformation (i.e., static, quasi-static) behavior of bridges from total station
observations and studies the effect of autocorrelation technique on the
accuracy of the estimated parameters and variances. The results have shown that
autocorrelation technique is reduced the standard deviation of X&Y-direction about 6.7% to 29.4% and 6.5% to 15.5% of the original
value, respectively, but the situation was differ in Z direction; the standard deviation in vertical component Z was increased.


Extracted from text ... W
Flawed leadership:
cascading throughout the organisation
16 Management Today August 2006
Dr Stuart Allen has a doctorate in
organisational leadership and is a
leadership development facilitator for
the Centre for Applied Leadership
Excellence (CALE). CALE is a centre of
excellence focused on developing leaders
to lead rather than just know about
leadership. CALE operates on a nonprofit
basis, complementing its range of
corporate training and development
services with a strong social focus
through providing sponsored leadership
training to non-profit and NGO leaders.
We have all worked with leaders who
scarcely deserve the title, being regarded
rather as fire ..