BACKGROUND
IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the causative disease of at most 10% of patients on dialysis and waiting for kidney transplantation. The disease can recur on the graft and it is important to know the exact impact of such recurrence on overall results of transplantation in this subgroup of young recipients.

MATERIAL/METHODS
This is a retrospective study done in two closed centers over three decades with a final number of 142 recipients (111 men; median age of 42.2 years at surgery) with biopsy-proven IgAN among 1979 transplanted patients (7.2%). The mean follow-up time was 6.6 years. Recurrence was defined clinically as proteinuria over 1 g/day ± haematuria and associated with ≥1+ IgA mesangial deposits on the graft biopsy. We used Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier survival curves to study the event.

RESULTS
Patient survival was excellent: 92% at 10 y; graft survival was 53% at 10y and similar to other recipients. The clinico-pathological (full) recurrence (CPR) was observed overall in 25 cases (17.6%) leading to graft loss in 10 cases (7%). The cumulative rate at 10 y of full recurrence and graft loss due to CPR was 21% and 13% respectively. We could not demonstrate any major influence of immunosuppression (induction or maintenance) or other factors on full recurrence. In addition, 10.5% of recipients disclosed only pathological recurrence without significant clinical consequences.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite significant prevalence of full recurrence after grafting, the overall good results observed still validate renal transplantation in this subgroup of IgAN recipients.


This study investigates performance-based design optimization for a Kaplan hydro turbine at a maximum water head of 2.6 m (8.5 ft), a micro-sized horizontal Kaplan turbine with 7.6 cm (3.0 in) diameter that has fixed blades featured to attain the optimum performance for such type and size of hydro turbines. The optimization process includes solving design problems and enhance design development by applying a multi-disciplinary design optimization (MDO) technique. Varying the geometrical parameters of the turbine, i.e., dimensions, number of blades, blade wrap angles, and different rotational speeds (500–3000 rpm), are the relevant proposed disciplines of this study. Two multi-simulation matrices were solved by using the high-performance computing (HPC) cluster of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The first matrix includes different number of the blades (3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 blades) over six different rotational speeds (500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 rpm), while the second matrix includes 121 possible combinations of blade wrap angles starting at 60–60 deg (hub-shroud) angle to 110–110 deg angle with 5 deg increment alternated at both sides, the hub and the shroud.


In recent years, deep neural networks (DNNs), have yielded strong results on a wide range of applications. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have been one key enabling factor leading to the current popularity of DNNs. However, despite increasing hardware flexibility and software programming toolchain maturity, high efficiency GPU programming remains difficult: it suffers from high complexity, low productivity, and low portability. GPU vendors such as NVIDIA have spent enormous effort to write special-purpose DNN libraries. However, on other hardware targets, especially mobile GPUs, such vendor libraries are not generally available. Thus, the development of portable, open, high-performance, energy-efficient GPU code for DNN operations would enable broader deployment of DNN-based algorithms. Toward this end, this work presents a framework to enable productive, high-efficiency GPU programming for DNN computations across hardware platforms and programming models. In particular, the framework provides specific support for metaprogramming, autotuning, and DNN-tailored data types. Using our framework, we explore implementing DNN operations on three different hardware targets: NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm GPUs. On NVIDIA GPUs, we show both portability between OpenCL and CUDA as well competitive performance compared to the vendor library. On Qualcomm GPUs, we show that our framework enables productive development of target-specific optimizations, and achieves reasonable absolute performance. Finally, On AMD GPUs, we show initial results that indicate our framework can yield reasonable performance on a new platform with minimal effort.


A field research was conducted in the horticulture nursery the University of Agriculture Peshawar during the period 25 February to 14 April 2013 on the response of chilli (Capsicum annuum) growth to phosphorus level and sowing dates, to know the suitable time of sowing for better production of chilli, and know the optimum level of phosphorus for better growth of chilli. Amid split plot arrangements, the design used for the experiment was a randomized complete block design. Two factors involved i.e. Phosphorus levels and date of Sowing. Main plot constitutes Phosphorus levels whereas sowing date was in sub plot. Three times total 12 treatments were replicated. During this research of chilli different growth level study under phosphorous from sowing to plants ripeness and fruits. With the increase in Phosphorous level all parameters via, the height of plant, twigs no. and fruit number/plant increased significantly. Height of plant and twigs number increased significantly at its 1st blossoming and yield with an increase in P levels up to the cure while at final yield all parameters greatly improved up to the P2 treatment. The greatest plant tallness at final yield was obtained from P2 greatest numbers of fruits were presents in final P3 phosphorus levels. Phosphorus level (70 Kg ha-1) showed significantly best results followed by (100 kg ha-1). The rest of the phosphorus level showed moderate results. Early sowing date (25th February) was the best sowing date for bringel cultivation as compare the rest of the sowing dates. Thus it is recommended that bringel cultivation should be done during the 3rd week of February and the phosphorus level should be between 70 and 100 kg ha-1 depending on the soil type


Background and purpose Thrombectomy has become the standard of care for acute ischaemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion. Aim of this study was to compare the radiological outcomes and time metrics of the various thrombectomy techniques. Methods In this retrospective, multicenter study we analysed the data of 450 patients with occlusion of the anterior circulation, treated in five high-volume center from 2013 to 2016. The treatment techniques were divided in three categories: first-pass use of a large-bore aspiration-catheter; first-pass use of a stent-retriever; and primary combined approach (PCA) of an aspiration-catheter and stent-retriever. Primary endpoints were successful reperfusion and groin to reperfusion time. Secondary endpoints were the number of attempts and occurrence of emboli in new territory (ENT). The primary analysis was based on the intention to treat groups (ITT). Results The ITT-analysis showed significantly higher reperfusion rates, with 86% of successful reperfusion in the PCA-group compared with 73% in the aspiration group and 65% in the stent-retriever group. There was no significant difference in groin to reperfusion time regarding the used technique. The secondary analysis showed an impact of the technique on the number of attempts and the occurrence of ENTs. Lowest ENT rates and attempts were reported with the combined approach. Conclusions The combined first-pass deployment of a stent-retriever and an aspiration-catheter was the most effective technique for reperfusion of anterior circulation large vessel occlusion. Our results correlate with the latest single-centrere studies, reporting very high reperfusion rates with PCA variations.


The authors propose in the present material an energy analysis of the irrigated agriculture in which the inputs as well as the outputs, respectively the production are evaluated in energy units, meaning in Kcal/ha. For inputs, different methods are being applied, depending on the nature of materials, products or of the energy forms, in this manner: a)the energy consumed as mechanical work of: human, animal or windmill, hydraulic, ecc. origin can be measured as such and expressed in any energy measurement unit; b)the energy released by different forms of fuel is measured also knowing the equivalence coefficients; c)the energy contained in engines, constructions, materials that either is consumed once (tying rope), either is consumed slowly during the time (the tractors and agricultural machines' wearing out). In turn, the main agricultural products and the entire plant taken as biomass are also energy carriers stored by means of photosynthesis.The authors operate an energy and economical analysis of the romanian agriculture based on the statistical data obtained during the last years of the planned economy (1986-1989). The analysis comprises two versions: a) the design numbers in which the energy production is evaluated based on some high yield per area (ha). As a consequence, the energy efficiency indicators, respectively the balance and the energy efficiency have higher values. b) Based on the real yields obtained during the respective period of time when the energy efficiency indicators are much lower and the economical efficiency indicators are at limit or even negative.Irrigated agriculture is a big energy consumer. Compared with the non irrigated technological system, the energy consumption is higher with 28-30% at cereals, with 48-50% at oil plants or with 53-55% at sugar beet. The commercial cost of the energy unit in the irrigated technological system depends on many factors, among which the most important are: the structure of cultures, the irrigation norms and the number of applications the degree of use of the effective irrigated area from an irrigation system; the pumping height and the water transport distance from the source to the irrigated area; the attainment of the estimated productivity parameters; the energy crisis are directly affecting the irrigation water crisis as well, as a resource as well as price, that is why, at national level, a judicious management policy of the irrigation water and its associated energy is reccomended.


At the core of Professor North's investigation is the question of property rights, the arrangements individuals and groups have made through history to deal with the fundamental economic problem of scarce resources. In six theoretical chapters, Professor North examines the structure of economic systems, outlines an economic theory of the state and the ideologies that undergird various modes of economic organization, and then explores the dynamic forces such as new technologies that cause institutions to adapt in order to survive. With this analytical framework in place, major phases in Western history come under careful reappraisal, from the origins of agriculture and the neolithic revolution through the political economy of the ancient and medieval worlds to the industrial revolution and the economic transformations of the twentieth century. Structure and Change in Economic History is a work that will reshape many established explanations of the growth of the west.


How does the need to signal quality through price affect equilibrium pricing and profits, when a firm faces a similarly-situated rival? In this paper, we provide a model of non-cooperative signaling by two firms that compete over a continuum of consumers. We assume "universal incomplete information;" that is, each market participant has some private information: each consumer has private information about the intensity of her preferences for the firms' respective products and each firm has private information about its own product's quality. We characterize a symmetric separating equilibrium in which each firm's price reveals its respective product quality. We focus mainly on a model in which the quality attribute is safety (so that the legal system is brought into play) and quality is unobservable due to the use of confidential settlements; a particular specification of parameters yields a common model from the industrial organization literature in which quality is interpreted as the probability that a consumer will find the good satisfactory. We show that the equilibrium prices, the difference between those prices, the associated outputs, and profits are all increasing functions of the ex ante probability of high safety. When quality is interpreted as consumer satisfaction, unobservable quality causes all prices to be distorted upward, and lowers average quality and ex ante expected social welfare, but increases ex ante expected firm profits (when either the probability of high quality or the extent of horizontal product differentiation is sufficiently high). When quality is interpreted as product safety, the foregoing results are modified in that for some parameter values ex ante expected social welfare is higher under confidentiality because such legal secrecy lowers expected litigation costs.


The maritime supply chain of energy concerns all trips done between ports on the maritime space. The use of this space has in-crease since 1970. This increase is due to the globalization, a strong increase of the demand of energy and freight, containerization of goods and economies of scale (Rodrigue, 2013). Due to the development of maritime transport, a territorialization process appears on mari-time space (Parrain, 2012). For Di Meo (2001) "Territorialize space is for a socie-ty to multiply places to install networks in both concrete and symbolic". These lo-cations exist on the maritime space, and can be physical (e.g. weather, reefs) socio-economical (E.g use for navigation, exploitation) or political/legal (e.g. TSS, EEZ). All these locations formalize a spatial heterogeneity and a spatial dynamic, due to the permanent evolution of maritime locations. These maritime territories can be risky for maritime transport, taking into account the environment, human activities or deliberate actions. Risks can product disruptions and affect the capaci-ty of a spatial mediator (maritime space) to link the different parts within this me-diator (Gleyze, 2005). The main goal of this research is to propose a modeling ap-proach of the maritime network; we use an agent-based system to simulate vessel trajectories. This approach will be able to measure, by the spatio-temporal features of disruption, the vulnerability of the maritime network and especially the mari-time supply chain of energy.


This thesis presents the results of a geochemical study of the Banda Arc (East Indonesia) where magma genesis is influenced by subducted source components that are controlled by an active arc-continent collision. The main objective of this study is to investigate the role of subducted continental material on the magma genesis using isotopic and chemical compositions of samples from volcanoes and sediments distributed along the whole stretch of the arc. Sr-Nd-Pb isotope ratios and major and trace-element contents were determined for a total of 152 rocks from seven volcanic islands, 127 surface sediments from seven locations and five sediment samples from the DSDP Site 262 hole in the Timor Trough. The composition of these sediments is considered to represent that of a subducted component with continental affinity which is currently involved in magma genesis. This data set is used to (1) assess the importance of subducted continental material as opposed to material assimilated from the arc crust; (2) quantify the contribution of subducted continental material to magma sources; (3) discuss the mode of transfer from the slab to magma sources in the overlying mantle wedge, and (4) determine the role of sediment provenance in generating isotopic heterogeneities within the arc. Large variations in the isotopic composition were found between the volcanoes. These variations are matched by similar variations in the sediments along the arc. This parallelism is most evident for Pb isotopes and is considered as strong evidence for the involvement of subducted continental material in magma genesis. Conventional bulk mixing models indicate that the contribution of subducted continental material increases along the arc from < 1% in the NE to 5-10% in the SW. Important within-suite Sr-Nd isotopic ranges were also found for individual volcanoes. Assimilation is thought to be significant in one volcano and probably occurs to some extent on most islands. However, it cannot explain the conspicuous 'continental' signatures of the more mafic Banda Arc volcanics. Trace-element compositions of the volcanics show upper continental crust signatures. Many ratios of incompatible elements (e.g. LILE/HFSE and LILE/REE) and rare-earth patterns display an increasing correspondence with those of the sediments in the same direction. REE mixing-melting models were applied using a typical MORB source mantle and a representative sediment as end members. The results are consistent with the isotopic mixing models in terms of quantities and with the NE-SW along-arc changes. These models indicate that the bulk addition of subducted continental material to mantle sources is an important characteristic of the Banda Arc which can explain many of its trace-element signatures. Addition in the form of large-degree melts rather than mechanical mixing is considered to be the most plausible bulk-addition mechanism, particularly in the SW Banda Arc. Nevertheless, some trace-element ratios (e.g. BaJNb, Th/Nb, Th/Zr) cannot be expl~ned by bulk mixing and must be due to a process of selective mobilization, probably by fluids escaping from the slab. It is suggested that bulk transfer of subducted continental material dominates and is most conspicuous in the SW whereas fluid transfer is more evident in the NE. Despite the evidence for the involvement of subducted continental material, the Banda Arc volcanics are characterized by higher 208Pbp04Pb at a given 206Pbp04Pb compared to the sediments. This difference becomes more pronounced from NE to SW along the arc. High 208Pbp04Pb is a typical characteristic of the Indian ocean MORB and alB (so-called Dupal anomaly), and the high 208Pbp04Pb component in the volcanics could thus be derived from a mantle contribution. Because of the high Pb concentration in continental material compared to the Pb concentration in any solid mantle type, it is suggested that small-degree partial melts from a mantle source are involved. The terrigenous fraction in the sediments is thought to be responsible for the overall 'continental' character of the arc. From the combined isotopic and trace-element ratios in this fraction two provenance areas can be distinguished: in the NE part of the arc the sediments originate from Phanerozoic New Guinea and in the SW they originate mainly from Proterozoic Australia. A further subdivision can be made on the basis of Th/Sc, 147Sm/l44Nd, Pb and Nd isotopes into: North New Guinea+Seram, South New Guinea, Timor and Australia. In trace-element ratios and REE patterns the sediments are generally similar to published estimates for average Upper Continental Crust and Post Archean Australian Shale. No systematic difference was found between the compositions of sediments from shelf, wedge and back arc. The results for the Banda Arc highlight the importance of the subducted component in controlling inter- and intra-arc variations in chemical and isotopic signatures. Therefore, data from local sediments are indispensable for models of arc magma genesis in individUal cases. The potential variability of subducted sediments also has important implications for the origin and scale of mantle heterogeneities.


Abstract We propose a new root-mean-square radius parameterization for light nuclei A ≤ 30 suitable for use in Geant4 calculations of nucleus-nucleus total hadronic inelastic scattering cross sections. The new approach takes into account the proton-neutron asymmetry of the reactants, and was fit to 360 measured total inelastic cross sections from the EXFOR database. Measured nuclear radii are better described in the new approach than the current Geant4 implementation, particularly for unstable nuclides, and there is better agreement with measured cross sections for both stable and unstable nuclides. The improved parameterization should help in carbon-ion therapy applications in particular. Abstract We propose a new root-mean-square radius parameterization for light nuclei A (cid:20) 30 suitable for use in Geant4 calculations of nucleus-nucleus total hadronic inelastic scattering cross sections. The new approach takes into account the proton-neutron asymmetry of the reactants, and was fit to 360 measured total inelastic cross sections from the EXFOR database. Measured nuclear radii are better described in the new approach than the current Geant4 implementation, particularly for unstable nuclides, and there is better agreement with measured cross sections for both stable and unstable nuclides. The improved parameterization should help in carbon-ion therapy applications in particular.


Freshness is a key value for access fish quality; fish freshness could be determined by volatile compounds during storage. An electronic nose was constructed with virtual instrument and four commercial tin dioxide-based gas sensors array. Fresh water fish silver carp was stored at 4°C and tested by headspace method. A weighted piece of fish is introduced into a sensor's chamber and the signals of the sensors due to the fish emissions are recorded as function of time. Unsupervised method PCA (principal component analysis) was employed to discriminate among fresh, semi-fresh and deteriorate fish. PCR (principal component regression), PLS (partial least square) and BP-ANN (artificial neural network) method were used to build mathematic model to predict TVB-N (total volatile basic nitrogen). The results indicated that PCA method can discriminate fresh, semi-fresh and deteriorate fish, which indicated the electronic nose response correlated with the loss of fish freshness. The correlation coefficients of predicted and measured TVB-N value of PCR, PLS and BP-ANN model were 0.898, 0.922 and 0.976, which indicated that the BP-ANN method has the highest predicted accuracy for electronic nose.


The New Zealand Government has indicated a strong interest in fostering innovation and aims to concentrate on selected areas where New Zealand may be able to develop a new comparative advantage. One such area is biotechnology, which would build on New Zealand's existing comparative advantage in the primary sector dairy, forestry, meat, wool and horticulture). This paper aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of biotechnology and innovation processes in New Zealand. It is based on the 1998/99 survey of modern biotechnology activity in New Zealand conducted by Statistics New Zealand in 2000. The survey was commissioned by the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MORST) mainly in order to produce statistics on the present position of the industry for planning purposes. The findings reported in this paper are based on further analysis of the survey data conducted by the author on behalf of MORST. Data are presented on the number, type and characteristics of enterprises involved in biotechnology in New Zealand. The paper presents data on enterprises that conduct R&D into modern biotech processes and includes analysis of the rate of innovation by biotech respondents compared to OECD estimates. Comparisons are also made between data from the New Zealand and Canadian biotech surveys.


This study investigates the effect of nozzle geometry on the intermingling process. The dimensions of intermingling nozzles with single air inlets extended across the width of a rectangular yam channel are systematically varied. Nozzles with this cross-sectional shape prove to be easy to manufacture and efficient at intermingling. The performance is evaluated by visually inspecting the intermingled yarns and by measuring the nip fre quency. We have found that the performance of nozzles with large inlet widths is weakly dependent on yam channel geometry. The performance of nozzles with the smallest air inlet widths, on the other hand, is sensitive to yarn channel geometry. The smallest and largest yam channels we have considered give poor intermingling results. Control of the yam path is beneficial for the success and consistency of the intermingling process. Using yam guides to create a diagonal yarn path across the nozzle has the additional advantage of decreasing noise production. Our extended air inlet slot ensures continuous exposure of the yarn to the supply air stream across the entire width of the yarn channel in this arrangement. We also compare our designs with four industrial nozzles under identical process conditions. This study reveals similar trends for nip frequency and power consumption. The results agree with the broad trend established in the geometry study that the shape of the yam channel is not critical, provided the air inlet is large enough.


Ruth 3:9 en 4:5: What does the levirate marriage have in common with the practice of land redemption? This article examines two passages in the book of Ruth – 3:9 and 4:5. Both pertain to two practices in ancient Israel, namely the levirate marriage and the redemption of property – here in the case of the book of Ruth. Ruth 3:9 hints only indirectly to these, therefore, I aim to indicate that Ruth does offer Boaz a marriage proposal and that some form of redemption of property is intended. In Ruth 4:5 these two practices are once again juxtaposed. Scholars propose various reasons why the levirate marriage and redemption are related to each other in the book of Ruth and nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. It appears that their proposals can be related directly to their dating of the book, either pre- or post-exilic. In my article, I accept a post-exilic dating since the author of the book of Ruth seems to know most of the laws in the Pentateuch. I conclude with the views of Irmtraud Fischer, a feminist scholar who offers interesting perspectives from a feminist historical critical point of view.


This review supplies the reader with a detailed overview on the utilization of intramolecular processes for a design and synthesis of prodrugs. It is well known that a respected number of drugs suffer from low bioavailability, toxicity, unpleasant taste and presystemic first-pass metabolism which result in drug inactivation. The classical prodrug approach in which the linkage attaching the parent drug to its non-toxic linker and cleaved by in vivo enzyme's catalyzed reactions has proven its success in solving toxicity and bioavailability related issues. On the other hand, prodrugs based on chemical interconversion in which the prodrug releases the corresponding active parent drug via inter or intramolecular chemical process in the absence of an enzyme is considered as a better alternative approach since the prodrug cleavage is not dependent in the efficiency or quantity of the enzyme catalyzes the interconversion of the prodrug. Examples of successful prodrugs using the chemical approach via intramolecular processes such as cyclization reactions are illustrated as well.

In addition, another part of this review is devoted to cover reported studies on enzyme models and their utilization for the design and synthesis of a variety of novel prodrugs. In this approach, computational calculations using DFT and MM methods were exploited and correlations between experimentally determined and computed values of the rate-limiting step in the studied intramolecular processes were utilized in the prodrugs design. Selected examples of the designed prodrugs include aza-nucleosides for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes, the anti-Parkinson's agent dopamine, the anti-viral acyclovir, the anti-malarial atovaquone, and statins for lowering cholesterol levels in the blood, the antihypertensive atenolol, the antibacterial cefuroxime, the anti-bleeding tranexamic acid, the decongestant phenylephrine, and the pain killer paracetamol.


It has long been argued that nature of science (NOS) is an important part of science teaching. In the literature, many different approaches to NOS have been suggested. This article focuses on a storytelling approach, and builds on data from audio recordings from three middle-school (school year 6) classrooms. The three science classes are run by three science teachers who have been introduced to NOS and storytelling during a one-day workshop. These three teachers chose to tell the students a story about Ernest Rutherford. The stories told by the teachers, as well as the whole-class discussions afterwards, are analysed with respect to what NOS aspects were communicated. The results show that many different NOS aspects, such as the tentative nature of scientific models, empirical aspects of the scientific knowledge process, as well as human aspects of science, emerge in the context of the story about Rutherford and his work on the atomic model. The results indicate promising possibilities for storytelling as an approach to NOS teaching.


708 Overexpression of extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN or CD147), a member of the immunoglobulin family and a glycoprotein enriched on the surface of tumor cells, promotes invasion, metastasis, growth and survival of malignant cells, and confers resistance to some chemotherapeutic drugs. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the actions of EMMPRIN are not fully understood. In this study we sought to determine whether EMMPRIN contributes to the malignant phenotype of breast cancer by inhibiting anoikis, a form of apoptosis induced by loss or alteration of cell-cell or cell-matrix anchorage, and to explore the signaling pathways involved. We found that human breast carcinoma cells expressing high levels of EMMPRIN formed aggregates with large surface area, had higher viability, and were resistant to apoptosis in the absence of attachment. Knockdown of EMMPRIN expression by RNA interference (siRNA or shRNA) sensitized those cancer cells to anoikis, as demonstrated by activation of caspase-3, increased DNA fragmentation and decreased cellular viability. Furthermore, we observed that the accumulation of Bim, a pro-apoptotic BH3-only protein, was reduced in EMMPRIN-expressing cells, and that silencing of EMMPRIN expression elevated Bim protein levels and enhanced cellular sensitivity to anoikis. Inhibition of Bim expression by siRNA decreased the sensitivity to anoikis in cells with low EMMPRIN. Treatment of cells with a MEK inhibitor (U0126) or proteasome inhibitor (epoxomicin) also upregulated Bim accumulation and rendered cells sensitive to anoikis. These results indicate that expression of EMMPRIN protects cancer cells from anoikis, and this effect is mediated by a MAP kinase-dependent reduction of Bim via proteasomal degradation. Since anoikis deficiency is a key feature of neoplastic transformation and invasive growth of epithelial cancer cells, our study on the role of EMMPRIN in anoikis resistance and the mechanism involved underscores the potential of EMMPRIN expression as a prognostic marker and novel target for cancer therapy.


Long-term monitoring of mobility is beneficial in quantifying a person's functional health status. An SMS-based (Short Message Service) telemonitoring system has been redeveloped to remotely monitor the long-term mobility trends of elderly people in their living environment. Mobility is measured by an accelerometer-based portable unit, which is worn by each monitored subject. Mobility level summaries are transmitted hourly, as SMS messages, directly from the redeveloped portable unit to a remote server for long-term analysis. Each subject's mobility levels are monitored at the remote server using custom-designed mobility alert software and the appropriate medical personnel are alerted, by SMS, if deterioration in the subject's mobility levels is detected. This paper describes the process used to calibrate accelerometers for the wearable element of this telemonitoring system.


According to two-level game theory, negotiators tailor agreements at the international level to be ratifiable at the domestic level. This did not happen in the Kyoto negotiations, however, in the US case. We interviewed 26 German, Norwegian, and US participants in and observers of the climate negotiations concerning their views on three explanations for why the United States did not become a party to Kyoto. Explanation 1 argues that Kyoto delegations mistakenly thought the Senate was bluffing when adopting Byrd–Hagel. Explanation 2 contends that Europeans preferred a more ambitious agreement without US participation to a less ambitious agreement with US participation. Finally, explanation 3 suggests that in Kyoto the Clinton–Gore administration gave up on Senate ratification, and essentially pushed for an agreement that would provide them a climate-friendly face. While all explanations received some support from interviewees, explanation 1 and (particularly) explanation 3 received considerably more support than explanation 2.


1. Jurisdiction and Venue in Cyberspace 2. Copyright Law in the Digital Age 3. Trademarks in E-Commerce 4. Patents and Trade Secrets in the Information Age 5. E-Commerce and Online Contracts 6. Online Tax Related Issues 7. Computer Crimes 8. Tort Law in Cyberspace 9. Online Speech and Defamation 10. Constitutional and Statutory Privacy Protections 11. Special Topics in Online Privacy Appendix Glossary


A mineral assemblage of coffinite, USiO4-TiH2O, n= 0-2, carbonate-fluorapatite (CFAp) and (Ca, Sr)-(meta)autunite (MAut) from the Woodrow Mine, Grants uranium region, New Mexico, has been investigated in order to understand the influence of a Prich micro-geochemical environment on precipitation of coffinite and its subsequent alteration under oxidizing conditions. Finegrained coffinite (< 10 μm) precipitated under reducing conditions replacing CFAp, pyrite and aluminosilicates. Electron-microprobe analyses (EMPA) of coffinite indicate limited incorporation of P 2O5 and CaO, <2.7 and <3.0 wt%, respectively, into the coffinite structure during replacement of CFAp. The chemical formula of coffinite is (U0.95±0.09Ca 0.15±0.02)Σ1.10± 0.1(Si0.84±0.08P 0.06±0.02)<0.90 ± 0.08- Analysis by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) revealed that coffinite initially formed as crystals as large as 100 nm at the edges of altered CFAp. Subsequently, infiltration of (Na, Ba, Sr)-rich oxidizing fluids into fractures resulted in precipitation of Sr-rich M-Aut (up to 4 wt% of SrO) at the expense of coffinite and CFAp. Highresolution TEM reveals that Na-rich fluids caused a distortion of the ideal coffinite structure and stabilized amorphous domains that formed due to alpha-decay event radiation damage. Subsequently, the Na-enriched amorphous areas of coffinite were preferentially altered, and secondary porosity formed at the scale of ∼1 urn. Porosity also was formed during alteration of CFAp to M-Aut, which facilitated the migration of oxidizing fluids over distances of ∼ 150 μm; in to CFAp, as evidenced by precipitation of M-Aut. We report, for the first time, the precipitation of coffinite at the expense of apatite and the subsequent alteration of coffinite under P-rich, oxidizing conditions. These results show that micro-scale dissolution of apatite can create conditions conducive to the precipitation of U(IV)- and U(VT)-minerals, leading to the reduced mobility of U-species under both reducing and oxidizing conditions.


Two theories of the causes of currency crises prevail in the economic literature. The first traces currency instability to countries' structural imbalances and weak policies; the second identifies arbitrary shifts in market expectations as the principal source of instability. The authors of this article contend that only a synthesis of these theories can capture the complexity of the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis. In their view, the crisis resulted from the interaction of structural weaknesses and volatile international capital markets. The authors also cite two other factors that contributed to the severity of the Asia crisis: inadequate supervision of the banking and financial sectors and the rapid transmission of the crisis across countries linked by trade and common credit sources.


The issue of cross-layer spreading code optimization, widely-linear receiver choice and transmit power control for non-cooperative energy-efficiency maximization in CDMA-based wireless data networks is considered in this paper. While previous work in this area has focused on a simple real signal model, in this paper a baseband complex representation of the data is used, so as to properly take into account the I and Q components of the received signal. For the case in which the received signal is improper, a widely-linear reception structure, processing separately the data and their complex conjugates, is considered. Several non-cooperative games are considered, all of which are shown to admit Nash equilibria. Interestingly, it is found that spreading code optimization coupled with widely-linear filtering permits supporting, with no multiuser interference, a number of users that is twice the processing gain. Numerical results corroborate the validity of the theoretical analysis, and show that widely-linear filtering in the presence of improper data brings remarkable performance improvements with respect to conventional linear receivers.


This study aimed to explore the carer experiences of fathers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A total of eight South African fathers between the ages of 38 and 45 years were the interview informants. They cared for at least one child with ASD each and their children with ASD were within the age range of five to nine years (n=9, males=7, females=2, Low functioning=4, Moderately functioning=4, High functioning=1).The father carers completed a semi-structured interview. The data were analysed thematically. Four primary themes emerged from the analysis pertaining to aspects of rescoping their futures to include the care of a child with ASD, relationship issues, access to and management of resources, information and support, and carer compassion and satisfaction. The fathers shared a view that caring for their children with ASD was both stimulating and enriching, and that with time, they were able to adapt, and better respond, to the specific needs of their child.


Kirkbyites upsoni Johnson, 1936 from the Upper Pennsylvanian of North America, type species of the poorly understood genus Kirkbyites, corresponds significantly with the well-known species Kullmannissites? solus Becker, 1981 from the Upper Devonian of SW Europe. From common, important diagnostic characters, the latter is considered to be a species of Kirkbyites Johnson, 1936 which is a valid genus of the Family Amphissitidae Knight, 1928 (Ostracoda, Palaeocopida, Kirkbyacea).


The concept of endogenous risk implies that an individual can privately influence many of the hazards he or she confronts. This realization has profound impacts on environmental policy, which in the past has been driven by an assumption of exogenous risk. Three key interdependencies now come to the forefront and must be addressed explicitly by environmental managers. First, accepting the presence of endogenous risk means rejecting the traditional risk assessment-risk management bifurcation currently applied to environmental hazards; instead, it requires a simultaneous physical-economical model approach. Second, endogenous risk requires that both private and collective risk reduction actions be considered in benefit-cost analysis. Otherwise, risk reduction is undervalued. Third, endogenous risk demands recognition of the interdependence among private agents, in that protective measures by one agent can take the form of simply transferring risk across space or time to another agent. Failure to account for these three interdependencies will result in unintended consequences from well-intended policies.


Digital forensics experts perform investigations of machines for "triage" to see if there is a problem, as well as to gather evidence and run analyses. When the machines to be examined are geographically distributed, an investigator could benefit greatly if he could conduct the investigation, or even its initial stages, remotely. The Mobile Forensic Platform (MFP) is a tool for performing remote network forensics. With it, investigators can gather evidence on a remote running system, maintain a copy of the original evidence (protected by a cryptographic hash), and run various analyses on the data to determine the next steps in the investigation (e.g., seize the machine, run tests, look elsewhere). The MFP maintains audit logs on all tasks it performs. ATC-NY (formerly Odyssey Research Associates) has designed the framework for, and implemented a prototype of, the MFP. We have modeled the investigative process to define the tasks investigators perform. The framework defines the interface for each modular component in the process. The prototype serves as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate how the different components of the system will function together. We implemented the MFP on a laptop computer with a platform-independent web interface serving as the GUI. The investigator runs a web browser on his desktop computer, connecting remotely to the MFP's web server to perform the investigative tasks. The preliminary version of the MFP supports a small set of analysis tools that illustrate the potential of the MFP. In particular, we created 3 sample logfile analysis tools. They detect if the data in a log file has been tampered, and also served to define how the analysis tools fit into the overall MFP framework. We describe each of the tools.


Language allows us to express and comprehend an unbounded number of thoughts. This fundamental and much-celebrated property is made possible by a division of labor between a large inventory of stored items (e.g., affixes, words, idioms) and a computational system that productively combines these stored units on the fly to create a potentially unlimited array of new expressions. A language learner must discover a language's productive, reusable units and determine which computational processes can give rise to new expressions. But how does the learner differentiate between the reusable, generalizable units (for example, the affix -ness, as in coolness, orderliness, cheapness) and apparent units that do not actually generalize in practice (for example, -th, as in warmth but not coolth)? In this book, Timothy O'Donnell proposes a formal computational model, Fragment Grammars, to answer these questions. This model treats productivity and reuse as the target of inference in a probabilistic framework, asking how an optimal agent can make use of the distribution of forms in the linguistic input to learn the distribution of productive word-formation processes and reusable units in a given language. O'Donnell compares this model to a number of other theoretical and mathematical models, applying them to the English past tense and English derivational morphology, and showing that Fragment Grammars unifies a number of superficially distinct empirical phenomena in these domains and justifies certain seemingly ad hoc assumptions in earlier theories.


As social beings, people need to be able to interact intelligently with others in their social environment. Accordingly, people spend much time conversing with one another in order to understand the broad and fine aspects of the relations that link them. They are especially interested in the interactive behaviors that constitute social relations, such as mutual aid, gift giving and exchange, sharing, informal socializing, or deception. The evaluations of these behaviors are embedded in social relationships and charged with values and emotions. We developed tasks to probe how people in an unfamiliar socio-cultural setting understand and account for the behavior of others conditional upon their category membership – by trying to elicit the basic categories, stereotypes, and models that inform the causal perceptions, inferences and reasoning people use in understanding others' interactive behaviors – and we tested these tasks among the Wampar in Papua New Guinea. The results show changes in the relevance of social categories among the Wampar but also, and perhaps more important, limitations in the translation and applicability of cognitive tasks.


Artificial cognitive systems sometimes neglect the impact on action selection of natural durative-state mechanisms like emotions and drives. These chemically-regulated motivation systems assist natural action selection through temporarily focusing an agent's behavioural attention on particular problems. This can improve efficiency by avoiding dithering, but taken to extremes can be inefficient in ways that seem cognitively improbable for mammal-level intelligence. This article demonstrates a flexible latching method that provides appraisal-based sensitivity to interruption, allowing reassessment of the current focus of attention. This drastically improves efficiency in handling multiple competing goals at the cost of a surprisingly small amount of extra cognitive complexity.


This paper studies regional differences in currently married women's employment status, its nature and some of the covariates in Nepal, with special focus to their education and economic status by analysing data from Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2011. Women's employment, with substantial regional variation in the three ecological regions, is predominately unpaid, done mainly for family members, mostly in agriculture sector and women work throughout the year. Women are employed mainly in family farm and their job is unpaid. Higher education of women is positively associated with their involvement in paid jobs. Women of better wealth strata are less likely to be employed but if employed, they are more likely to be in paid jobs. Increasing education of women may have mixed effect in future. Policy measures are desirable to minimize these regional differences and to reallocate the total labour force in general and the female labour force in particular in more productive sectors with secured paid jobs for women for prosperity of the country.


There is a growing interest in academia to provide biodiversity data to both the scientific community and the public. We present an internet database of the terrestrial lichens, bryophytes, vascular plants, molluscs, arthropods, vertebrates and coastal invertebrates of the Azores archipelago (Portugal, North Atlantic): the Azorean Biodiversity Portal (ABP, http://www.azoresbioportal.angra.uac.pt/). This is a unique resource for fundamental research in systematics, biodiversity, education and conservation management. The ABP was based on a regional species database (ATLANTIS), comprised of grid-based spatial incidence information for c. 5000 species. Most of the data rely on a comprehensive literature survey (dating back to the 19th century) as well as unpublished records from recent field surveys in the Azores. The ABP disseminates the ATLANTIS database to the public, allowing universal, unrestricted access to much of its data. Complementarily, the ABP includes additional information of interest to the general public (e.g. literature on Macaronesian biodiversity) together with images from collections and/or live specimens for many species. In this contribution we explain the implementation of a regional biodiversity database, its architecture, achievements and outcomes, strengths and limitations; we further include a number of suggestions in order to implement similar initiatives.


A virtual industry has sprung up in academic and policy circles over Samuel Huntington's 'clash of civilization' thesis. Most of the responses have been punishing critiques of its essentialist tendencies and arguments for more contingent and complex understandings of the role of culture and religion in international conflict and co-operation in the post-cold war era. Yet, curiously but perhaps not surprisingly, Huntington's ideas have had particular resilience when it comes to analyses of Islam. The volumes under review here provide us with some recent additions to this ongoing debate.Of the four books reviewed, one gives an interesting version of Huntington's thesis, two offer critical perspectives on the role of Islam and religion more generally in the modern world, and the last provides a historical chronicle of American foreign policy debates on political Islam from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton. Along the way they reveal interesting insights into how the debate has played out in practice. At the roots of these debates is the extent to which culture and religion are emerging as significant, if not destabalizing, variables in world politics.Political Islam and Global DisorderTibi's The Challenge of Fundamentalism offers a clear and analytically interesting version of Huntington's clash of civilizations thesis. A devout Muslim, Tibi is both an apologist for Islam as a religion and a 'hawk' when it comes to its fundamentalist manifestation. 'For me as a Muslim,' writes Tibi, 'Islam itself, being a tolerant religion, is not and can not be a threat ... But Islamic fundamentalism, or political Islam, is a horse of another colour: this brand of fundamentalism poses a grave challenge to world politics, security, and stability' (p ix).Tibi's starting point for understanding Islamic fundamentalism is the process of globalization, a term he takes great care to define. First and foremost, globalization is intrinsically linked to the spread of modernity around the world. This process has been facilitated by the emergence and promotion of a variety of uniform structures on a global basis that he calls 'institutional modernity.' This is most clearly seen in the political division of the world into secular nation-states, but it has been strengthened in recent years by an acceleration in the global spread of technology and the emergence -- not unrelated -- of a more integrated global economic system.However, the globalization process is incomplete because it has failed to spread the cultural aspects of modernity that will lead to the emergence of universal norms and values at the global level. Cultural modernity, for example, is something more than 'McDonaldization, the drinking of Coca-Cola, or the watching of soap operas on television' (p 25). Rather, it is underpinned by the emergence of individuals who have broken free of their ascriptive civilizational roots and are capable of determining their individual destiny and social and natural environment (p 24). Preventing the more holistic spread of modernity has been the strength of non-Western civilizations -- defined as world-views that unite a variety of different and local cultures. The normative foundations of these world-views are often at odds with those of the West. Suppressed during the bi-polar days of the cold war, they have re-emerged onto centre stage in the global arena. This has created a real potential for conflict, especially between the West, founded on the idea of a secular, democratic nation-state, and Islam, which Tibi sees as having more universalistic, theocratic, if not authoritarian, imperatives.To avoid a civilizational dash, Tibi calls for 'civilizational accommodation' on grounds of mutual equality, respect, and recognition (p 3). This process of accommodation has certainly been made more difficult by the hegemonic nature of Western civilization. Tibi's sympathies clearly lie with the modernity project emanating from the West. …


This paper describes an approach to detect the organization of semantic subclasses of Japanese verbs. First, we classify verbs along two dimensions: thematic and aspectual. In the thematic dimension, we exploit the pattern of case marking particles which are attached to arguments of verbs. In the aspectual dimension, we exploit the classification of adverbs which modify verbs in a corpus. By combining the results of two classifications, we obtain an elaborate classification of verbs. We can incorporate the prototypicality of the members which constitute each semantic subclass by taking account of the frequency of case particles patterns and cooccurring adverbs. Moreover, the existence of close relationships among them enable us to detect the organization of these subclasses.


Abstract The case study method can be very useful in environmental management instruction, as well as in other teaching contexts. This is because the method is holistic and provides an in-depth view of situations and events, which is the kind of understanding that environmental managers and many other disciplines require. It is also important for environmental managers to learn that there are different perspectives from which to regard the complex problems and issues with which they must deal. The technical, organizational, and personal (TOP) inquiry method provides a set of such multiple perspectives. It is also a valuable tool that environmental managers can use in applying the case study method. Introduction Because of the increasing importance of environmental management, it is crucial for industrial operations to develop effective ways to train environmental managers. Today, however, environmental management instruction often lacks the resources and methods for understanding the complexities and dimensions of environmental decision making situations. In formal instruction, current methods for teaching environmental management by using management science approaches are often very unitary. This leads to incomplete theory and explanations, which hinders sound decision making. To be effective, environmental management training must take into account the complexity of the real-life decision situations faced by managers. Making the right decision in a particular situation may require the manager to consider numerous variables. Therefore, it is necessary for environmental management training to make sure its instructional methods are firmly based on the real demands of environmental management. One effective way to do this is to use case studies to instruct environmental managers in the kinds of situations they may face (Stem, 2000). Case studies give managers an in-depth look at real situations and provide insight into the ways that multiple variables relate to each other. In addition, they can illustrate principles of effective decision making in environmental management contexts. Another way to make environmental management instruction more relevant is through teaching managers to view problems and situations from multiple perspectives. Effective environmental management requires expertise not only in the technical aspects of ecological management, waste management, and other environmental issues; it also requires environmental managers to be knowledgeable about important non-technical factors related to their decisions. One way to teach environmental managers a multi-perspectival approach is through introducing the technical, organization, and personal (TOP) inquiry system, which can be applied fruitfully in many contexts (Allison, 1971; Linstone, 1984). By understanding these three important dimensions as they relate to environmental management issues, managers can better prepare for the real life decisions that will face them. In conjunction with teaching the TOP system, environmental management instruction should include theories and concepts not only from science and technology but also from the social sciences and humanities, and it should use appropriate teaching methods that can capture all of the relevant domains of environmental study. These methodologies--case study and the TOP inquiry system--are mutually reinforcing, and both can be profitably taught in environmental management programs. Moreover, elements of TOP can be used to help insure the rigorous application of the case study method in evaluating and doing case studies. Below, the case study method and its use for environmental management training will first be discussed. Then the TOP system and its use in environmental management instruction will he outlined. Finally, a way in which the TOP inquiry system can be usefully combined with case study will be described. The Case Study Method The case study method consists of an in-depth examination of one or a few events or cases over time (Yin, 1994). …


It has recently become more common for retired Canadian judges to return to the practice of law. This development raises an array of ethical considerations and potential threats to the integrity of the administration of justice. Although most codes of legal ethics contemplate the possibility of former judges returning to practice, the rules on this particular topic are dated, under-analyzed, and generally inadequate. This article reviews the Canadian ethical rules that specifically relate to former judges and identifies their shortcomings. In doing so, the authors consider, for comparative purposes, Canadian ethical rules directed at former public officers who return to practice and American rules directed at former judges. These rules have been developed in a different context, but involve many of the same issues and are more comprehensive. Following this analysis, the authors propose a series of new rules for judges who return to practice. These rules are not intended as the final word on the subject, but rather as starting points for further discussion of the issues involved. They illustrate the competing considerations with which law societies need to grapple as more judges return to practice.


In the following article I will analyse the different constructions of embedded object clauses in the older Indo-European languages. In quite a lot of modern Indo-European languages the standard realisation of the sentential object clause is a finite subordinate clause introduced by a complementizer corresponding to the English conjunction that . In contrast, in some of the older Indo-European languages, this construction is only rarely attested, e.g., in Vedic, and a variety of structures without that-complementizer are used instead ("that-clause competitors"). By cross-linguistic comparison I will reconstruct that two object clause constructions were part of the Proto-Indo-European syntactic structure and that one of them, the explicative clause, can be considered as the predecessor of the modern finite that-object clauses. Furthermore I will show how the relational element of the explicative clause, a wh -operator corresponding to English which , could change to a complementizer element like that.


The abundance of heterotrophic flagellates, ciliates and naked amoebae was measured in 8 sites covered with different vegetation (beech, birch, beech-birch, birch-oak-beech, grass) from January to April 2001. The results were analysed by a suite of mathematical techniques, together with data on bacteria, fungi, nematodes, microarthropods, and the composition of forest litter and field layer, available from parallel research. The population levels ranged between 4.02 and 795 × 103, 28 and 1010, 35 and 1170 g–1 litter dry wt for flagellates, ciliates and amoebae, respectively. Temporal changes in the microbiota appeared to be affected by progressive winter cooling followed by a spring increase in temperature, and influenced by habitat characteristics and a complex multivariate interplay among ecosystem components. The population abundance in winter (January-mid March) was higher than in spring (late March–April) for all protozoa. Amoebae showed minimum values in March, followed by considerable recovery in April. However, ciliate values dropped slightly between March and April, whilst flagellate values steadily decreased throughout the whole research period, suggesting that the spring growth of ciliates and flagellates might have been arrested by increased predation and/or competition. Statistical analysis revealed a number of significant relationships between the protozoa studied and other ecosystem components. These relationships were indicative of the conditions studied and may, therefore, be useful for future reference. The results highlighted the complexity of transient multivariate interactions of protobiota in forest litter, suggesting that any interpretations of the population dynamics must take account of a full range of both temporal and spatial factors.


P values represent a widely used, but pervasively misunderstood and fiercely contested method of scientific inference. Display items, such as figures and tables, often containing the main results, are an important source of P values. We conducted a survey comparing the overall use of P values and the occurrence of significant P values in display items of a sample of articles in the three top multidisciplinary journals (Nature, Science, PNAS) in 2017 and, respectively, in 1997. We also examined the reporting of multiplicity corrections and its potential influence on the proportion of statistically significant P values. Our findings demonstrated substantial and growing reliance on P values in display items, with increases of 2.5 to 14.5 times in 2017 compared to 1997. The overwhelming majority of P values (94%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 92% to 96%) were statistically significant. Methods to adjust for multiplicity were almost non-existent in 1997, but reported in many articles relying on P values in 2017 (Nature 68%, Science 48%, PNAS 38%). In their absence, almost all reported P values were statistically significant (98%, 95% CI 96% to 99%). Conversely, when any multiplicity corrections were described, 88% (95% CI 82% to 93%) of reported P values were statistically significant. Use of Bayesian methods was scant (2.5%) and rarely (0.7%) articles relied exclusively on Bayesian statistics. Overall, wider appreciation of the need for multiplicity corrections is a welcome evolution, but the rapid growth of reliance on P values and implausibly high rates of reported statistical significance are worrisome.


Titanium may be considered a relatively new engineering material. It was discovered much later than the other commonly used metals, its commercial application starting in the late 1940s. Its usage as an implant material began in the 1960s, despite the fact that titanium exhibits superior corrosion resistance and tissue acceptance when compared with stainless steels and Cr-Co-based alloys. This paper reviews the use of titanium and titanium alloys for use in biomedical applications.


For the past few years, a collaborative of nonprofit organizations in Nebraska has been evolving a model for community intervention and self-help. The program, called Hometown Competitiveness, has emerged as a new model for interdisciplinary rural development. Combining outside technical assistance with local capacity building, the program features four distinct strategies for entrepreneurship identification and support, leadership training, youth engagement and the creation of local charitable assets. The HTC collaborative is one of 6 programs nationally that received awards from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Entrepreneurship System Development Initiative. The upcoming paper will offer descriptions of the assessment and engagement tools that have been developed by the HTC team as well as a look at how the collaborative developed and has changed over time. More information is available at: www.htcnebraska.org


In Mergers and Acquisition due diligence, lawyers are tasked with analyzing a collection of contracts and determine the level of risk that comes from a merger or acquisition. This process has historically been manual and resulted in only a small fraction of the collection being examined. This paper reports on the user-focused redesign of our document viewer that is used by clients to review documents and train machine learning algorithms to find pertinent information from these contracts. We present an overview of the due diligence task and the user stories, generated through analysis of support tickets, user interviews, and usability testing sessions, that we used to redesign our document viewer to accommodate the variety of workflows that our clients employ. Additionally, we detail the important design decisions made and discuss the implications of our redesign beyond our particular use case.


SIR, Many thanks are due to Deirdre Buckley and Anthony Du Vivier for their extremely comprehensive and informative review of the use of topical contact sensitizers. I have been involved in a systematic review of randomized controlled trials for all local treatments for cutaneous warts; during our searches we discovered two randomized controlled trials of dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) which were subsequently included in our review. Neither trial was mentioned in the review by Buckley and Du Vivier and both are worthy of comment. The trials were small (80 patients in total) and of relatively low quality but they have the advantage of being properly randomized and hence less prone to bias. Data pooled from these trials showed cure in 32 of 40 (80%) with active treatment and 15 of 40 (38%) with placebo, odds ratio 6Æ67 (95% confidence interval 2Æ44–18Æ23), random effects model. There were no precise data concerning adverse effects in either of these trials but Rosado-Cancino et al. commented that six of their 20 participants treated with DNCB sensitized only after the second application of 2% DNCB to the warts. All of these patients subsequently experienced significant local irritation, with or without blistering, when they were treated with 1% DNCB. None withdrew from the study. In our review, cryotherapy, interestingly, fared slightly less well than simple topical treatments containing salicylic acid, with much more substantial evidence for the efficacy of the latter than the former. Two trials (involving a total of 320 participants) comparing these two treatments showed them to be only of equivalent efficacy, with cure rates of approximately 60–70%. Of all the treatments reviewed, DNCB came out with the highest odds ratio for cure of warts, albeit with rather wide confidence intervals because of the small numbers in these two trials. We thought it reasonable to conclude, however, that topical immunotherapy with sensitizers such as DNCB appears to be one of the more promising therapeutic avenues for refractory warts.


Having optimism, self-efficacy, and less anxiety in social situation is very determinant in psychological well-being. The purpose of the present study was to in investigate the relationship between social anxiety, optimism, and self-efficacy with psychological well-being in students.

Materials & Methods: This descriptive-correlative study included 400 students (200 male and 200 female) that were selected by cluster sampling in Tabriz University. Data gathering tools were Watson's social anxiety questionnaire, Petterson test attributive style, Sherer's self-efficacy scale and Ryff psychological well-being questionnaire. The results were analyzed in the Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression model (stepwise) by SPSS.16.

Results: The finding showed that there was a negative and significant relationship between social anxiety and psychological well-being. And there was a positive significant relationship between optimism and psychological well-being and likewise between self-efficacy and psychological well-being. On the other hand, the result of regression analysis showed that variables optimism, self-efficacy and social anxiety are explanation 33% of psychological well-being variance.

Conclusion: Based on finding, with increased of optimistic views and self-efficacy and development programs for decrease social anxiety can be improved psychological well-being of people.


For the last several decades, social work curricula have included research as a required course at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The few social work texts on statistics that exist are written from a mainstream perspective and do not challenge the current neoliberal social order. In Statistics for Social Justice: A Structural Perspective, van de Sande and Byvelds argue that social work research, including statistics, should be taught from a structural perspective and should follow anti-oppressive principles, which view the problems experienced by people as rooted in the social, political and economic structures of society. Just as social workers are committed to social justice and social change, so too should be the aim of social work research.

In order for researchers to convince funders, the government or even the general public to accept their arguments, it is crucial to provide hard evidence in the form of numbers and statistics. Social workers must have a good understanding of quantitative research methods and statistical analysis in order to be able to present this kind of information. The aim of this book is to lay the foundation for this knowledge and provide an introduction into statistical concepts as they relate to social work, all while using a social justice lens.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in muscle power performance in a horizontal (forward movement), vertical, and lateral directions in collegiate basketball players due to the presence of an in-season resistance training program (ISRTP). Four basketball teams were recruited for this study. Two women's basketball teams and two men's basketball teams participated with one team in each gender participating in an ISRTP and one team not participating in an ISRTP. Fifty-three collegiate basketball players (Females= 29, Males= 24) were successfully recruited for this project. Subjects were assessed for lower extremity muscle power and muscle strength at pre-season, mid-season and post-season in order to evaluate any changes that occur over the course of a collegiate varsity basketball season. Margaria-Kalaman, single leg horizontal leap, single leg vertical leap, single leg lateral leap, 5-10-5 shuttle run, estimated RM leg press performance data were collected. Statistical analysis was performed with a multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures. Results show that an in-season resistance training program significantly impacted the changes over the course of the season (p< .001) as well as a significant interaction with ISRTP and gender (p<.001). All six performance measurements showed significant differences between genders, and the presence of an ISRTP had a significant interaction with gender with the 5-10-5 shuttle run, single leg horizontal leap, and the estimated 1RM leg press. The results of this study support implementation of an ISRTP for male basketball players. This study did not reveal benefits of female basketball players participating in an ISRTP during a collegiate varsity basketball season. The difference in gender responses of an ISRTP on collegiate basketball players may be due to a decrease in muscular strength that was observed in male non-ISRTP basketball players, but not male ISRTP, female ISRTP, or female non-ISRTP basketball players.


What once protected only virginal girls under the age of ten now also protects sexually aggressive males under the age of eighteen. While thirteenth-century statutory rape law had little reason to address the unthinkable possibility of chaste nine-year-old girls raping adult men, twenty-first-century statutory rape law has failed to address the modern reality of distinctly unchaste seventeen-year-old males raping adult women. Despite dramatically expanding statutory rape's protected class, the minimalist thirteenth-century conception of the offense remains largely unchanged—intercourse with a juvenile. Overlooked is the new effect of this centuries-old offense—a sexually aggressive seventeen-year-old raping an adult now exposes the adult rape victim to statutory rape liability. By being raped, the adult rape victim satisfies the minimal elements of the offense, lacks any defenses, and thereby commits statutory rape of her juvenile rapist. Therefore, the offense of statutory rape criminalizes being raped; that is, it criminalizes being the victim of rape. Paradoxically, while the offense of rape prohibits committing rape, the offense of statutory rape prohibits being raped. What the law of rape seeks to protect us from—being raped—the law of statutory rape punishes us for.


Postgraduate research throughput and problems associated with appropriate supervision are a key
focus area for many higher education institutions around the world (Lessing & Schulze, 2012;
Amehoe, 2014; Botha, 2016). Central to this challenge is the supervisory relationship, which by its
very nature, is not one-sided. A productive and rewarding supervisory process requires that both
student and supervisor(s) are committed to fulfilling clearly-articulated responsibilities relevant to
the research project at hand (Eley & Jennings, 2005). Both student-centric and institutional factors
have been found to contribute to low student throughput and to the time taken to complete
postgraduate studies (Amehoe, 2014; Luescher-Mamashela, 2015).
In South Africa, the higher education landscape is increasingly fraught with varied challenges,
including issues of attrition and completion rates as they relate to postgraduate students. Some of
the implications of the premature termination of postgraduate research are that various academic
fields are deprived of potentially valuable research contributions, and there is a significant cost
incurred by the affected students and supervisors (Lovitts, 2001; Lessing & Lessing, 2004), as well
as the relevant faculties and institutions, and society at large. Additionally, a number of South
African universities are still grappling with inequities resulting from the Apartheid era (Pillay &
Karlsson, 2013).
It is against this backdrop that this research, through a narrative research lens involving semi-structured
interviews, explores and chronicles the stories of six Master's students who have
encountered supervision-related challenges. According to Pearson and Kayrooz (2004), a limited
narrative research spotlight has been trained on the issue of postgraduate supervision from the
student perspective. The primary objective of this study, therefore, is to facilitate a platform through
which the six respondents are able to share the stories of their Master's supervision experience. On
a secondary level, the sharing of these student stories has the potential to enhance the postgraduate
research experience, as Lovitts (2001) and Lessing and Lessing (2004) point out.


Objectives
Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake is linked to weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). SSBs taxes are a policy tool to reduce intake, and volume-based taxes have been passed in the US. Yet, the comparative health and economic impacts of volume-based, tiered, or sugar content-based SSB taxes have not been quantified. We aimed to estimate the health and economic impacts of these varying SSB tax designs in the US.

Methods
A validated microsimulation model, CVD PREDICT, was used to estimate reductions in CVD events, diabetes cases, gains in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), costs, and cost-effectiveness of three SSB tax designs in US adults: (1) volume tax ($0.01/oz), (2) tiered tax (no tax for <5 g of added sugar/8 oz; $0.01/oz for 5-20 g/8 oz; and $0.02/oz for >20 g/8 oz, and (3) sugar content tax ($0.01/tsp of added sugar). Model inputs included national demographic and dietary data from NHANES 2009-2014; policy effects on consumer intakes, industry responses, and SSB-disease effects from meta-analyses; and policy costs (tax implementation, industry reformulation) and health-related costs (formal/informal healthcare costs, productivity costs) from established sources. Findings were evaluated over 10 years and a lifetime, with costs inflated to constant 2018 USD, and costs and QALYs discounted at 3% annually.

Results
All SSB tax designs were cost-saving from all perspectives, compared to a base-case scenario accounting for voluntary industry reformulation (Table). At 10 years, the volume tax would prevent 0.24 M CVD events, 0.11 M CVD deaths, and 0.03 M diabetes cases, gain 0.22 M QALYs, generate $35.18bn tax revenue, and save $14.45bn in formal healthcare costs. Corresponding values for the tiered tax were 0.46 M, 0.22 M, 0.06 M, 0.42 M, $54.99bn and $27.88bn; and for the sugar content tax, 0.37 M, 0.16 M, 0.05 M, 0.27 M, $19.97bn and $20.54bn. Projected benefits increased over a lifetime, and economic benefits were less from health and societal perspectives, excluding tax revenue.

Conclusions
Implementing SSB taxes would generate substantial health gains and cost-savings for the US population. Taxing SSBs based on a tiered tax, followed by grams of sugar content, would be a more effective strategy than a volume tax to generate health and economic benefits.

Funding Sources
NIH, NHLBI.

Supporting Tables Images and/or Graphs


A new bilirubin oxidation end product (BOX) was isolated and characterized. The formation of the so-called Z-BOX C proceeds from bilirubin via propentdyopents as intermediates. This BOX was detected in pathological human bile samples using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and has potential relevance for liver dysfunction and cerebral vasospasms.

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"Buying a house may be love at first sight or seemingly take forever. This terrific book covers all the bases. Readers will enjoy discovering the secrets as they are revealed. There's something valuable for everyone."-Willard Scott, Noted NBC Radio and Television Personality"This book helps you get at not only the practical aspects of home buying and selling, but also the emotional side of what is usually the largest and most anxiety-riddled transactions of your lifetime. If you are thinking of buying or selling a home, it pays big dividends to read Lois Vitt's advice before you do!"-Jordan E. Goodman, America's Money Answers Man and author of Everyone's Money Book"If you want to get in touch with your inner home buyer-and make clearer decisions based on those insights-this is the book to take you there."-Kenneth Harney, Syndicated Real Estate Columnist, Washington Post Writers Group."The most significant purchase a person makes in a lifetime is a home. The process of finding, purchasing, or selling a home can be down right nerve-racking. Lois Vitt has written a thought-provoking book that addresses both the technical and emotional aspects of home ownership."-Deborah Owens, Financial Commentator and author of Confident Investing and Nickel and Dime Your Way to Wealth.Buying a home is not just the most important financial decision: It is also one of the most important emotional decisions. With 10 Secrets to Successful Home Buying and Selling, you get it right! Lois A. Vitt helps you discover your "housing value system," your personal housing psychology. Learn how your expectations compare with your family's expectations, so that you can make the best decisions for everyone. After you discover what you really want, answer crucial housing questions, such as: Rent or buy? Move or remodel? Sell or hold? Refinance? Vitt's practical examples, real-life stories, and easy quizzes help you make housing decisions that enrich your life emotionally and financially!© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.


Among the traditional arts, Islamic architecture and its associated decorations has always been the perfect setting for the presence of various visual elements, particularly decorative ornaments. A number of remaining monuments from the Ilkhanid era such as the tombs of Qom's Green Dome (the tomb of Khajeh Ali Safi which is the main focus of this research) provide a clear example of this artistic richness that due to its potential visual abilities can be found in today's art and in branches of contemporary art including graphic arts. This research is based on a "historical-comparative" method and a collection of findings based on library and documentary sources and field surveys. Firstly, a brief study of the historical background of the monument and the identification of the types of ornamentation used in the tomb, including herbal, geometric and inscriptional decorations among which the plant motifs occupy most of the ornamentation will be studied. In the following, the factors and elements of this role are discussed and their visual characteristics (rhythm, balance, symmetry, composition, unity, harmony of positive and negative space, etc.) are identified in order to understand the graphical dimensions of these motifs. Given that visual qualities and literacy are well-respected in these motifs, the above decorations can become a rich visual source for today's graphic designers. Research objectives: 1. Identifying the variety and characteristics of the motifs of Khajeh Ali Safi's tomb. 2. Extraction of motifs and studying its graphical features which can lead to revival and reuse of motifs in today's graphic arts.


This article argues for a "living, breathing" Global Health Governance Constitution, which would be initiated by a World Health Governance Forum ("Forum") convened by the World Health Organization (WHO). The content of the new constitution would result from the contributions of the various public health actors. A "Board of Editors," consisting of officials from the WHO and other stakeholders, would then review contributions and produce a non-binding instrument or modus vivendi. This instrument would be subject to continuous review, with "special temporary revisions" and "opinions" produced on a rolling-basis by the Board of Editors based on open-source contributions and comments submitted by stakeholders. Every year, the Forum would reconvene to comprehensively review the terms of the modus vivendi. The "living, breathing" Global Health Governance constitution would complement the existing governance arrangements and offer a structure for current and future action in the field of public health.


Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main cause of death globally. Most CVDs can be prevented by avoiding habitual risk factors. Separate from the habitual risk factors, there are some inherent factors in each individual that can increase the risk potential of CVDs. Vessel shapes and geometry are influential factors, having great impact on the blood flow and the hemodynamic behavior of the vessels. In the present study, the influence of bifurcation angle on blood flow characteristics is studied. In order to approach this topic, by simplifying the details of the bifurcation, three models with angles 30°, 45°, and 60° were created, then by using CFD analysis, the response of these models for stable flow and pulsatile flow was studied. In the conducted simulation in order to eliminate the influence of other geometrical factors, only the angle of the bifurcation was changed and other parameters remained constant during the research. Simulations are conducted under dynamic and stable condition. In the stable flow simulation, a steady velocity of 0.17 m/s at the inlet plug was maintained and in dynamic simulations, a typical LAD flow waveform is implemented. The results show that the bifurcation angle has an influence on the maximum speed of the flow. In the stable flow condition, increasing the angle lead to decrease the maximum flow velocity. In the dynamic flow simulations, increasing the bifurcation angle lead to an increase in the maximum velocity. Since blood flow has pulsatile characteristics, using a uniform velocity during the simulations can lead to a discrepancy between the actual results and the calculated results. Keywords—Coronary artery, cardiovascular disease, bifurcation, atherosclerosis, CFD, artery wall shear stress.


An investigation was carried out to determine the effect of nodular cast iron (NCI), nickel aluminum bronze (NAB), and Monel 400 microstructures on their cavitation erosion behavior in natural seawater. The cavitation tests were conducted using cavitationinduced facility at a frequency of 20 kHz on detached specimens. Morphological examinations by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on cavitated specimen indicated that the surfaces of NCI, NAB, and Monel 400 became very rough with large-size cavity pits. Localized material removal on the NCI surface was due to ductile tearing and brittle modes of failure and that for NAB and Monel 400 was due to grain boundary attack and micro-galvanic activities between the different phases of these two alloys. It was determined that the mechanical action of the collapsing air bubbles on the surfaces of the three alloys was the main cause of metal loss.


Massive MIMO system has been designed to enhance the capacity, data rate, spectral efficiency and maximal energy efficiency as well as system sensitivity towards propagation environment which meets demand of future wireless communication. Using an asymptotic argument of random matrix theory, linear signal processing can be used to achieve the optimal performance of the massive MIMO. So what are the optimal numbers of antennas, actives users, and power transmitted in system? Is the one fundamental question needed to be answered? In this work we described the effect of these parameters using Ergodic achievable rate and energy efficiency by applying linear signal processing; particularly we have used zero-forcing (ZF), and maximum ratio combining or maximum transmission (MRC/MRT) algorithms. We also used minimum mean square error (MMSE) to estimate the CSI. In the context the major problem that encounters the implementation of massive MIMO multi-cell time division duplexing (TDD) network system is called pilot contamination due to limitations of coherence time. In this paper, massive MIMO along with linear precoding algorithms and pilot contamination are described and also included source and possible solutions of this problem and we found that, contrary to MRC/MRT algorithms, ZF can be used to get an optimal performance of massive when the K is equal to or less than BS antennas. Keywords— Massive MIMO, pilot contamination linear precoding, channel state information (CSI), single-cell, multi-cell, Ergodic achievable rate, energy efficiency (EE).


The development of a reliable on-line method to monitor process streams is important for improved process control in oil sand extraction plants. The suitability of diffuse reflectance near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for this purpose has been tested in a pilot plant environment. Spectra of a feed slurry flowing through a pipe were measured with the use of an on-line fiber-optic probe. Data were collected throughout a nine-hour period during which ore type and slurry water content were varied. The feasibility of monitoring feed stream conditions is demonstrated by principal component analysis of the measured spectra. Clustering of these spectra according to ore type and water content enables the detection of deviations from and transitions between steady-state conditions of the process. Estimates are given of characteristic times for the process to reach a steady state after a change in condition has been initiated. The use of artificial neural networks for classifying spectra on the basis of ore type is also illustrated.


The transcription factor Grainy head (Grh) is conserved from Drosophila to humans. Drosophila Grh plays important roles in epithelial differentiation and regeneration. To investigate the mechanisms of Grh function, we performed ChIP-sequencing and microarray gene expression analysis and identified Grh target genes in Drosophila embryos at a genome-wide scale. We found Grh ChIP peaks in the proximity of 3754 genes and showed that Grh acts both as an activator and as a repressor. Grh regulates distinct genes in different contexts. During wound healing, Grh transcriptionally activates stitcher (stit), a gene encoding a receptor tyrosine kinase. We show that Stit activates two distinct pathways, including Src kinases and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), after injury. The tyrosine residue Y762 mediates Stit binding to the SH2 domains of Src42A, Src64B, or Drk. Src family kinases and Drk act as downstream effectors of Stit in the activation of wound response enhancers. Src family kinases control re-epithelialization, but fail to induce the dpERK accumulation after injury. In contrast, Drk is dispensable in re-epithelialization, but can induce the activation of ERK, which can therefore link RTKs to ERK-mediated Grh-dependent activation of wound response genes. In airways, Grh regulates 1152 target genes encoding various enzymes, signaling proteins, and transcription factors. Grh represses the POU-domain transcription factor Vvl (Ventral veinless). Vvl interacts with Grh and can regulate a set of Grh target genes. Grh and Vvl antagonize each other during airway maturation and tracheal tube elongation. The analysis of Grh-responsive enhancers during embryonic development and in wound healing indicates that Grh cooperates with other transcription factors, such as Vvl, to regulate target gene expression.In addition, we identify a novel grh PO isoform expressed predominantly in the central nervous system, epidermis, and trachea. Unlike the canonical grh (grh PI) that can regulate endogenous grh PI and grh PO, Grh PO fails to regulate the grh gene transcriptionally. Further functional analysis in the trachea suggests that Grh PO may act as a partial dominant-negative regulator of Grh.


The continuous need to increase the efficiency of technical systems requires the utilization of complex adaptive systems
which operate in environments which are not completely predictable. Reasons are often random nature of the environment
and the fact that not all phenomena which influence the performance of the system can be explained in full detail. As a consequence, the developer often gets
confronted with the task to design an adaptive system with the lack of prior knowledge about the problem at hand.
The design of adaptive systems, which react autonomously to changes in their environment, requires the coordinated
generation of sensors, providing information about the environment, actuators which change the current state of the system
and signal processing structures thereby generating suitable reactions to changed conditions. Within the scope of the thesis, the new system growth method has been introduced. It is based on the evolutionary optimization design technique, which can automatically produce the efficient systems with optimal initially non-defined configuration. The final solutions produced by the novel growth method have low dimensional perception, actuation and signal processing structures optimally adjusted to each other during combined evolutionary optimization process.
The co-evolutionary system design approach has been realized by the concurrent development and gradual complexification of the sensory, actuation and corresponding signal processing systems during entire optimization.
The evolution of flexible system configuration is performed with the standard evolutionary strategies by means of adaptable representation of variable length and therewith variable complexity of the system which it can represent in the further optimization progress. The co-evolution of morphology and control of complex adaptive systems has been successfully performed for the examples of a complex aerodynamic problem of a morphing wing and a virtual intelligent autonomously driving vehicle.
The thesis demonstrates the applicability of the concurrent evolutionary design of the optimal morphological configuration, presented as sensory and actuation systems, and the corresponding optimal system controller. Meanwhile, it underlines the potentials of direct genotype – phenotype encodings for the design of complex engineering real-world applications.
The thesis argues that often better, cheaper, more robust and adaptive systems can be
developed if the entire system is the design target rather than its separate functional
parts, like sensors, actuators or controller structure. The simulation results demonstrate that co-evolutionary methods are able to generate systems which can optimally adapt to the unpredicted environmental conditions while at the same time shedding light on the precise synchronization of all functional system parts during its co-developmental process.


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In Corsica, spelling contests, road signs, bilingual education bills and Corsican language newscasts leave language planners and ordinary speakers deeply divided over how to define what "counts" as Corsican and how it is connected with cultural identity. In Ideologies in Action Alexandra Jaffe explores the complex interrelationship between linguistic ideologies and practices on the French island of Corsica. This detailed exploration of the ideological and political underpinnings of three decades of language planning raises fundamental questions about what it means to "save" a minority language, and the way in which specific cultural, political and ideological contexts shape the "successes" and "failures" of linguistic engineering efforts. Jaffe's ethnography focuses both on the way dominant language ideologies are inscribed in the everyday experience of ordinary people, as well as how they shape the evolving strategies of language planners trying to revitalize the Corsican language. While Jaffe's analysis demonstrates the pervasive influence of dominant language ideologies on minority language speakers and language planners, she also draws on case studies from everyday discourse, educational practice and public and mediatized debates over language issues to develop an ethnographically-grounded perspective on levels of resistance. In the final part of the book she explores the emergence (and the limits) of "radical" genres of resistance found in forms of Corsican language activism and in examples of codeswitching and language mixing in bilingual radio practice. This book contributes to a growing literature on language ideology, and will be of interest to anthropologists, political scientists and linguists interested in the practical and theoretical dimensions of language contact, minority language literacy, bilingual education, and language shift.


The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) is the central pillar of civil rights laws for people with disabilities in the United States. Its significance is far-reaching and extends well beyond the court system; it is also a symbol of a paradigmatic shift to operationalize disability rights into culture and practice. Despite its significant and broad reach, there are frequent debates about the ADA's efficacy as a social policy due to disparate and fragmented sources of data, disagreements about indicators of change, and the lack of a systematic data collection mechanism to track the law's social progress. This dissertation includes a systematic review of research on the ADA and an exploration of its impact on social change. It also includes the design and execution of a novel approach to systematic review that can be used as a framework for future analyses of policy research. The dissertation is comprised of three separate papers, each of which is used to develop a descriptive knowledge base of the current state of evidence about the ADA. Findings from over 25 years of research reveal evidence of static, but positive, endorsements of disability inclusion across society, which are not necessarily interconnected with the embrace of disability rights principles such as the ADA's goal of equal opportunity. Results are explained to provide suggestions for practice, and to identify trends to inform future research, discourse, and policy implementation.


Abstract. Clouds play a tangible role in the Earth's atmosphere and in particular, the cloud base height (CBH), which is linked to cloud type, is one of the most important characteristics to describe the influence of clouds on the environment. In the present study, CBH observations from Ceilometer CL31 were extensively studied during May 2013 to January 2015 over Ahmedabad (23.03° N, 72.54° E), India. A detailed comparison has been performed with the use of ground-based CBH measurements from Ceilometer CL31 and CBH retrieved from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) onboard Aqua and Terra satellite. CBH retrieved from MODIS is  ∼  1.955 and  ∼  1.093 km on 25 July 2014 and 1 January 2015 respectively, which matches well with ceilometer-measured CBH ( ∼  1.92 and  ∼  1.097 km). Some interesting features of cloud dynamics viz. strong downdraft and updraft have been observed over Ahmedabad which revealed different cloud characteristics during monsoon and post-monsoon periods. CBH shows seasonal variation during the Indian summer monsoon and post-monsoon period. Results indicate that the ceilometer is an excellent instrument to precisely detect low- and mid-level clouds, and the MODIS satellite provides accurate retrieval of high-level clouds over this region. The CBH algorithm used for the MODIS satellite is also able to capture the low-level clouds.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different poultry house heating systems on the thermal comfort and performance of broiler chicks during the winter period, in the southern region of Brazil. Three buildings were used, each containing 17,700 broiler chickens (Cobb), during two complete productive cycles. Three heating systems were evaluated: furnace with indirect air heating; infrared heater and radiant experimental "drum" system with an infrared supplemental heating system. In order to evaluate the thermal environment and animal performance, a randomized block experimental design with three heating system was used, in two complete productive cycles. In the first two weeks after birth, the radiant experimental "drum" system is the most efficient in maintaining the air temperature and relative humidity in thermal comfort condition of the broiler chicks and, consequently, result in the best results of weigh gain, dietary conversion and efficient production.