ON June 4, 2007, the United States Supreme Court resolved several questions of first impression presented in consolidated cases about how the "adverse action" notification provisions in the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) (2) apply to personal lines insurance underwriting. In Safeco Insurance Co. v. Burr/GEICO Insurance Co. v. Edo, (3) the Court resolved a question that presented a split in the United States Circuit Courts--the standard for "willful" noncompliance under the Act. The determination of the correct standard for a willful violation under the FCRA is a ruling significant not just to insurers, but to any business using or furnishing consumer credit information. The Burr opinion, authored by Justice Souter, declared that a willful failure to comply with the FCRA covers not only knowing violations, but also violations made in "reckless disregard" of the law. Additionally, the Court clarified that initial rates charged for new insurance policies where credit information is considered can constitute "adverse actions" thereby triggering FCRA notice provisions, and importantly, the Court set the benchmarks from which insurance adverse actions should be measured thus giving insurance companies needed clarity regarding when the FCRA's notice provisions are implicated. I. Background Since the late 1990's, many insurance companies, including GEICO and Safeco, have used information in consumer credit reports as one factor in setting insurance premiums. The FCRA permits insurers to use credit reports and expressly endorses insurers' use of credit reports to achieve differentiated pricing schemes. (4). In 2001 and 2002, a group of consumers initiated eight putative nationwide class actions in Oregon federal district court, including the two lawsuits consolidated in Burr, alleging that GEICO and other auto insurers' adverse-action notice practices contravened the FCRA. (5) In the two consolidated cases in Burr, the putative class action plaintiffs alleged that the insurance companies had violated the FCRA by failing to send them (new insurance applicants) adverse-action notices after the companies used their consumer credit report information in setting their premium and offering them insurance at rates less than the insurers' lowest possible (best) rates. According to the plaintiffs, the failure to send them an adverse-action notice was a willful violation of the FCRA, requiring the companies to pay statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per class member. The FCRA requires notice to any consumer who is subjected to "adverse action ... based in whole or in part on any information contained in a consumer [credit] report." (6) With respect to insurance companies, [section] 1681a(k)(1)(B)(i) of the FCRA describes an adverse action as "a denial or cancellation of, an increase in any charge for, or a reduction or other adverse or unfavorable change in the terms of coverage or amount of, any insurance, existing or applied for." A negligent failure to provide the statutory notice can result in liability for actual damages; a "willful" failure can give rise to liability for actual damages or statutory damages ranging from $100 to $1,000 per violation, as well as punitive damages. (7) The United States District Court for the District of Oregon granted summary judgment in favor of the insurance companies. (8) On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that an adverse action has occurred and a notice is required in all circumstances where a consumer would have received a lower rate if the consumer had a better credit score. (9) The Ninth Circuit also held that an insurer "willfully" fails to comply with FCRA where it acts with "reckless disregard" for the rights of a consumer. According to the Ninth Circuit, "reckless disregard" includes a "deliberate failure to determine the extent of [a company's] obligations," "reliance on creative lawyering that provides indefensible answers," or reliance on "implausible interpretations. …


This study describes soil and vegetation changes radiating out from a central watering point on a livestock farm in the Succulent Ceres Karoo (Tanqua). The aim was to identify possible relationships between long-term grazing pressure, and soil and vegetation properties. There are indications that continuous high-intensity defoliation of Succulent Karoo vegetation leads to a decline in species richness and perennial plant cover with a consequent loss of fertile topsoil. Over-grazed areas close to the watering point had shallow soils with a greater potential for crusting and therefore poorer water capacity. Mainly short-lived succulents (Mesembryanthemaceae) were recorded here, while under-utilised veld far from the watering point was identified by plant groupings dominated by Antimima hantamensis and Ruschia spinosa. Malephora crassa and Rhinephyllum macradenium are two key species which could be useful in veld condition assessment since they showed strong relationships with distance from the watering point. The results also have implications for restoration of degraded veld. Soils from degraded areas have been altered almost permanently and simply resting from livestock grazing may not achieve the desired vegetation recovery.


Street food vending is a growing phenomenon in many countries and contributes to the livelihoods of many people. However, the safety of the foods is often a cause for concern because the environment in which they operate is usually unhygienic, leading to contamination. The objectives of this study were to assess the socio-economic contribution of street foods in Maseru and to assess the hygienic practices of the vendors in the city. A cross-sectional study was done by interviewing the street food vendors using a semi-structured questionnaire focusing on the contribution of food vending to the economy, and the hygienic practices of the food vendors. One hundred street vendors were interviewed at the Maseru Market, Manonyane bus stop, Mafafa market, Metro taxi rank, Sefika taxi rank as well as outside the Ministry of Health Government Office Complex. The majority of the vendors [77%] were women. Fifty three per cent of the vendors were in age range of 25-30 years and street food vending was the main source of income. About 51% reported profits above 100 Maloti [@US$13] per day. The main types of food items sold were papa [thick maize meal porridge], boiled vegetables [moroho], roasted chicken, pork or beef, and beef stew. The vendors operated from makeshift structures and had no running water. All the street vendors used buckets for washing hands after visiting the toilet and before handling food. Fifty two percent of the vendors operated the street food vending business on individual basis. It was concluded that while street food vending in Maseru can be viable, the hygienic practices need to be improved. It is recommended the government and local authorities should assist vendors with appropriate shelters, running water, and electricity to improve the quality of food.


To "Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life" was adopted as one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, as a component of the aim to "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" as stated on the United Nation's Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. In the fisheries sector in Japan, female workers constitute 13% of those engaged in fishing activities (fishers), 38.4% of land-based workers, and 64% of those involved in the marine productsprocessing industries. However, the percentage of women at the decision-making levels in these various endeavors are extremely low. The rates of ordinary members and those serving in official capacities in fisheries cooperative associations are as low as 5-6% and 0.5%, respectively. Similar trends are also found in the fields of education and research. For example, the percentage of women researchers holding formal positions in the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA) has reached 11%, but those engaged in management-level positions constitute only 3% of the total. In 2015, numerical targets for ratios of women at the management/decision-making level of incorporated administrative agencies in Japan, such as the FRA, were established under the Fourth Gender Equality Basic Plan. The FRA has been exerting efforts to increase recruitment levels of female researchers into the organization, and to furthermore promote capable women to the management/decision-making level (Fig. 1). At the present time, there is a very small candidate pool for women researchers who are at the career stage eligible for such promotion; hence, it will take time to reach the desired numerical targets, but this goal is starting to be realized. In Japan, fishery-related production has declined in recent years, and the fisheries industry is facing an aging crisis. An increase of women members at the decision-making level in local communities is expected to lead to the establishment of various systems that will consider women's needs and utilize their talents. Women are regarded to have a high level of competence in communicative skills, and in this regard, it is highly probable that their active participation will bring new power and energy to their respective communities. Increasing women's participation in both the local community and in the research arena will be key to achieving a much-needed boost to Japan's fisheries sector. Fig. 1. Recent increasing trends for women researchers in the Japan Fisheries and Education Agency (FRA).


More than forty years after the Society of Jesus first articulated an inextricable link between the service of faith and the promotion of justice, a growing challenge today for Jesuit colleges and universities is to demonstrate what (if anything) faith adds to the struggle for human dignity and rights. Charles Taylor offers one of the most expansive views of our secular age, arguing that the cultural shifts are moral in nature. Ultimately, our secular age is one in which we are able to imagine human fullness and flourishing with no reference to the transcendent. This article employs the moral framework that Taylor develops in Sources of the Self as an interpretive lens for A Secular Age and identifies new challenges and opportunities for justice education embedded within our contemporary context. Ultimately, sustaining our moral and social commitments is difficult (if not impossible) without engaging our deeper moral and spiritual sources.


Dominant accounts of America's punitive turn assume that black elected officials and their constituents resisted higher levels of imprisonment and policing. We gather new data and find little support for this view. Panel regressions and an analysis of federally-mandated redistricting suggest that black elected officials had a punitive impact on imprisonment and policing. We corroborate this with public opinion and legislative data. Pooling 300,000 respondents to polls between 1955 and 2014, we find that blacks became substantially more punitive over this period, and were consistently more fearful of crime than whites. The punitive impact of black elected officials at the state and federal level was concentrated at the height of public punitiveness. In short, the racial politics of punishment are more complex than the conventional view allows. We find evidence that black elected officials and the black public were more likely than whites to support non-punitive policies, but conclude that they were constrained by the context in which they sought remedies from crime.


In this paper, we tackle the problem of discovering movement-based communities of users, where users in the same community have similar movement behaviors. Note that the identification of movement-based communities is beneficial to location-based services and trajectory recommendation services. Specifically, we propose a framework to mine movement-based communities which consists of three phases: 1) constructing trajectory profiles of users, 2) deriving similarity between trajectory profiles, and 3) discovering movement-based communities. In the first phase, we design a data structure, called the Sequential Probability tree (SP-tree), as a user trajectory profile. SP-trees not only derive sequential patterns, but also indicate transition probabilities of movements. Moreover, we propose two algorithms: BF (standing for breadth-first) and DF (standing for depth-first) to construct SP-tree structures as user profiles. To measure the similarity values among users' trajectory profiles, we further develop a similarity function that takes SP-tree information into account. In light of the similarity values derived, we formulate an objective function to evaluate the quality of communities. According to the objective function derived, we propose a greedy algorithm Geo-Clusterto effectively derive communities. To evaluate our proposed algorithms, we have conducted comprehensive experiments on two real data sets. The experimental results show that our proposed framework can effectively discover movement-based user communities.


The evolution of a cancer system consisting of cancer clones and normal cells is a complex dynamic process with multiple interacting factors including clonal expansion, somatic mutation, and sequential selection. As a typical example, in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a monoclonal population of transformed B cells expands to dominate the B cell population in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. This expansion of transformed B cells suggests that they might evolve through processes distinct from those of normal B cells. Recent advances in next generation sequencing enable the high-throughput identification and tracking of individual B cell clones through sequencing of the V-D-J junction segments of the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH). Here we developed a statistical approach to modeling cellular evolution of the immune repertoire. Adapting the infinitely many alleles model from population genetics, we studied abnormalities occurring in the immune repertoire of patients as substantial deviations from the null model. The Ewens sampling test (EST) distinguished the immune repertoires of CLL patients with imminent relapse from healthy controls and patients in sustained remission. Extensive simulations based on sequencing data showed that EST is sensitive in detecting cancer-related derangements of the IGH repertoire. In addition, we suggest two potentially useful parameters: the rate at which donor's B cell clones enter the circulation and the average time to regenerate a transplanted immune repertoire, both of which help to distinguish relapsing CLL patients from those in sustained remission and provide additional information about the dynamics of immune reconstitution in the latter patients. We anticipate that our models and statistics will be useful in diagnosis and prognosis of leukemia, and may be adapted for application to other diseases related to adaptive immunity.


The experiments presented in this thesis describe the roles of the post-junctional α1, α2-adrenoceptors (AR) and P2X purinoceptors in response to sympathetic nerve stimulation in mouse mesenteric and tail arteries. Such roles were determined by combining wire myography techniques and nerve stimulation alongside various selective antagonists. The influence of each receptor on the response to nerve stimulation was first defined in wild type (WT) mice before analysis of α1-AR knock out (KO) mice. Therefore the effect that genetic removal of the α1-ARs had on vascular response could be investigated. The response is the force generated in milligrams/tension when the nerves are stimulated and correspond to activation of post-junctional receptors and subsequent smooth muscle cell contraction.

Systolic Blood Pressure and the α1-ARs
The aim of the first study (Chapter Three) was to determine whether systolic blood pressure (BP) was different in the KO mice compared to WT controls. Tail cuff measurements of systolic BP were recorded in WT and AR KO mice. It was found that BP was not affected by loss of the α1A- and α1D¬-AR subtypes (ADKO) or by loss of all three α1-AR subtypes (α1-null). Therefore, the α1-AR role in maintaining BP may not be as crucial as previously understood or, the remaining receptors may have compensated for the loss.

Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide (CGRP) in Mouse mesenteric and tail arteries
The second study (Chapter Four) examined whether, under the stimulation parameters used, the potent vasodilator CGRP masked the vasoconstrictor response to nerve stimulation in mouse mesenteric and tail arteries. The potent neurotoxin capsaicin depletes the sensory nerves of CGRP. Responses prior to capsaicin incubation were compared with those following capsaicin treatment in WT, ADKO and α1-null mice. In mesenteric artery from each mouse strain, capsaicin incubation had no significant effect on the peak response to nerve stimulation. Furthermore, in the tail artery, capsaicin treatment had no significant effects on the responses in WT and α1-null mice. However, in the ADKO mouse tail artery preparations, capsaicin treatment significantly increased the peak response at low frequency stimulation. These findings may indicate an interaction between the α1-AR subtypes and the release of CGRP whereby the presence of all or none of the subtypes (WT and α1-null) has no effect on CGRP release but loss of the α1A- and α1D-AR subtypes alters the balance and reveals a CGRP induced effect.

Response to perivascular nerve stimulation in Mouse mesenteric and tail arteries from Wild Type mice
The aim of Chapter Five was to determine which receptors were involved in the response to nerve stimulation in mouse mesenteric and tail arteries. These results would then act as a comparison with the ADKO and α1-null responses in the later chapters. A contractile response to nerve stimulation was recorded in each of the studied vessels and abolished by combined blocked with antagonists for the α1-, α2¬-ARs and P2X receptors. Individual receptor blockade and component analysis then revealed the roles of the individual receptors. In the mesenteric arteries, the α1-ARs were the main contributors to the response followed by the P2X receptors and finally the α2-ARs which displayed both pre- and post-junctional effects. No interactions were discovered between the α1-ARs and the other receptors. The P2X receptors initiated the contraction and prolonged the response at the low frequency and contributed to the contractile response at the high frequency. In the tail artery, the α2-ARs were the dominant receptors but required the presence of the α1-ARs, and to some extent the P2X receptors in order to produce a full contractile response upon activation. The P2X receptors alone initiated the response at low frequency stimulation with both α1-ARs and P2X receptors involved in initiation of the contraction at the high frequency.

Response to perivascular nerve stimulation in mesenteric and tail arteries from mice lacking α1A- and α1D-AR subtypes (ADKO)
Chapter Six determined the role of the α1B-ARs in the response to nerve stimulation and therefore examined whether loss of the α1A- and α1D-AR subtypes (ADKO) affected the response. In the mesenteric arteries, at the low frequency, there was a potential interaction between the receptors. However, no single receptor was responsible for the contraction although there was a trend for the P2X receptors to be active at the beginning of the response and the α2-ARs to be active at the latter stage of the response. This was also true at the higher frequency. The ADKO vessels displayed no evidence of pre-junctional α2-ARs. In the mesenteric arteries, there is little role for the α1B-ARs. The overall contribution in the tail artery was reduced in the ADKO, particularly at the higher frequency. Similar to the WT mice, the α2-ARs were the main contributor to the response. The P2X receptors initiated the contraction but required the α2-ARs to be active at the low frequency. The α1B-ARs also required an interaction with the other receptors at low frequency stimulation in order to contribute to the initiation of the response. The α1B-ARs also contributed to the initiation of the response at the high frequency without requiring the presence of the other receptors.

Response to perivascular nerve stimulation in mesenteric and tail arteries from mice lacking α1A-, α1B- and α1D-AR subtypes (α1-null)
In the final study (Chapter Seven), α1-null mice were utilised in order to determine whether loss of the α1-ARs had a significant effect on the response to nerve stimulation in mouse mesenteric and tail arteries. Furthermore, the influence of the α2-ARs and P2X receptors were compared with the response in the WT vessels to determine whether they compensate for the loss of the α1-ARs. The removal of the α1-ARs dramatically reduced the response to nerve stimulation in the mesenteric arteries, with no apparent compensation from the α2-ARs or P2X receptors. There was no evidence of pre-junctional α2-ARs. The small response recorded at the high frequency was initiated by the P2X receptors and maintained by the α2-ARs and P2X receptors. The tail artery response was smaller in the α1-null mice compared with WT, particularly at the higher frequency. However, the response was still mediated largely by the α2-ARs with an interaction with the P2X receptors likely. A potential compensatory mechanism was recorded at the lower frequency as the response to P2X receptor antagonism was greater in the α1-null than in the WT mice. As was shown in the WT, activation of the P2X receptors initiated the contraction, particularly at the high frequency.

Findings and Results
Collectively, the findings of the studies presented in this thesis demonstrate that the α1-, α2-ARs and P2X receptors are involved in the response to nerve stimulation in the mouse mesenteric and tail arteries. Genetic removal of the α1-ARs in the ADKO and α1-null is most effective in the mesenteric arteries with little evidence of any compensatory mechanisms. In the mouse tail artery, the α2-ARs are the main contributors to the response and so loss of the α1-ARs has less of an effect. Interactions between the receptors were most clearly shown in the tail artery with little interaction between the α1-ARs and the other receptors demonstrated in the mesentery. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated here that systolic BP is unaffected in the KO mice and there is little input from the CGRP nerves using the parameters tested. From these results, the importance of α1-AR activation in nerve mediated responses was determined. The absence of a compensatory mechanism to match the response lost in the ADKO and α1-null mice, and the presentation of a normal BP alongside the survival of these transgenic mice challenges the importance of the α1-ARs being crucial in the maintenance of vascular tone. This therefore complements the knowledge that treatment of primary hypertension with α1-AR antagonists is largely unsuccessful. The contractile response mediated by α2-ARs and P2X receptors may be used as potential therapeutic targets in controlling hypertension.


Transfer of asylum matters under the Community competence by the Amsterdam Treaty meant the adoption of new, Community legislation of a binding nature, to replace the Maatricht era soft law instruments. Asylum law development following the Amsterdam Treaty, though by virtue of harmonisation, brought about some positive results, can generally be viewed as rather disappointing. Obviously, Member States and the European Union institutions have to go much further in order to preserve adequate level of protection in the region, where the main refugee protection document - the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was created. Among the positive results that could be mentioned is that legally binding instruments are being created for the first time in asylum field to be applied to the whole European Union, and this process involves not only the Member States, but also increases the role of Community institutions is. Two years after the enforcement of the Amsterdam Treaty, the Commission managed to draft and present all documents envisaged in asylum field and some of those were adopted. One of the biggest achievements of the process is that the documents adopted under the Amsterdam Treaty have filled a number of gaps that were previously creating a number of practical problems. However, the transfer of competence under the Amsterdam Treaty over asylum maters to the Community area of responsibility did not help in solving substantially asylum development related problems. Retention of the unanimous decision-making process in the Council continued to be a hindrance in the process of improving and creating a new asylum legislation under the Amsterdam Treaty. Attempts to change unanimity to different voting procedure were not successful due to persistent objection of some member states. On the other hand, even if the decision-making procedure was to be changed, asylum law development in the EU would hardly turn the opposite direction. This is due to the fact that the Member States are disinclined to drop away their national specifics. They continue adopting national legal acts reflecting these specifics, in parallel to asylum legislation drafting process in the EU. They largely disapprove the efforts to introduce common standards, which would be different from their national ones and require raising the level of refugee protection in some member states. Though common standards will indeed be introduced for all Member States, such opposition leads to assent to those requirements that are lower ones and not in need of substantial changes in the Member States. Therefore many post-Amsterdam provisions are only slightly different from the previous norms. Many more problems arise in view of the new restrictions being introduced in this area, as some of these may even raise discrepancies and incompliances with the 1951 Convention and other human rights treaties. Particular concern can be expressed towards the measures that have been adopted in view of fighting or preventing terrorism, as their adoption and implementation in asylum field in such a manner, which violates the balance between the interests of the state and human rights, may virtually undermine the understanding of European Union countries as safe for refugees.


Memory-based Reasoning is a paradigm for AI in which best-match recall from memory is the primary inference mechanism. In its simplest form, it is a method of solving the inductive inference (learning) problem. The primary topics of this paper are a simple memory-based reasoning algorithm, the problem of pronouncing english words, and MBRtalk, a program which uses memory-based reasoning to solve the pronunciation problem. Experimental results demonstrate the properties of the algorithm as training-set size is varied, as distracting information is added, and as noise is added to the data.


Background: Although conventional cardiopulmonary bypass (cCPB) is still the most widely used method in open heart surgery, methods such as retrograde autologous priming (RAP) are increasingly popular in terms of limiting hemodilution. Our hypothesis is that the use of the RAP method in aortic surgery may result in a limitation of hemodilution and a decrease in fHb levels. For this purpose, plasma free hemoglobin (fHb) levels were investigated in adult open aortic arch repair with axillary artery cannulation patients using cCPB and rRAP methods. Materials and Methods: In this study, a total of 36 patients undergoing aortic surgery using rRAP and standard cCPB were investigated. Measurements were performed at five time points: After induction of anesthesia, 5th minute of CPB, 10th minute of antegrade cerebral perfusion, 30th minute after declamping of aorta, and at sternum closure. Besides hemodynamic variables, arterial blood gas analysis and postoperative variables, patients were assessed for fHb levels. Results: The rRAP group had a significantly lower increase in fHb levels in T3, T4, and T5 time points, when compared to the cCPB group (p = 0.002, 0.047, 0.009, respectively). There was no significant difference between the rRAP and cCPB groups in other intraoperative, and postoperative variables. Also, it was observed that rRAP did not make a difference in terms of blood and blood product transfusion. Conclusion: In this study, in patients undergoing aortic surgery, a reduction in the increase of fHb was observed with the rRAP method which is a simple procedure that does not require high cost or advanced technology.


We investigate the terminal-pairibility problem in the case when the base graph is a complete bipartite graph, and the demand graph is also bipartite with the same color classes. We improve the lower bound on maximum value of ∆(D) which still guarantees that the demand graph D is terminalpairable in this setting. We also prove a sharp theorem on the maximum number of edges such a demand graph can have.


The global and U.S. domestic effort to develop a clean energy economy and curb environmental pollution incentivizes the use of hydrogen as a transportation fuel, owing to its zero tailpipe pollutant emissions and high fuel efficiency in fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). However, the hydrogen production process is not emissions free. Conventional hydrogen production via steam methane reforming (SMR) is energy intensive, coproduces carbon dioxide, and emits air pollutants. Thus, it is necessary to quantify the environmental impacts of SMR hydrogen production alongside the use-phase of FCEVs. This study fills the information gap, analyzing the greenhouse gas (GHG) and criteria air pollutant (CAP) emissions associated with hydrogen production in U.S. SMR facilities by compiling and matching the facility-reported GHG and CAP emissions data with facilities' hydrogen production data. The actual amounts of hydrogen produced at U.S. SMR facilities are often confidential. Thus, we have developed four approaches to estimate the hydrogen production amounts. The resultant GHG and CAP emissions per MJ of hydrogen produced in individual facilities were aggregated to develop emission values for both a national median and a California state median. This study also investigates the breakdown of facility emissions into combustion emissions and noncombustion emissions.


It was taken over by the Irish Volunteers on Easter Monday 1916 and held for nearly a week. But the rebels finally surrendered the GPO to the Crown forces after heavy gun bombardment, and the ensuing conflagration reduced the building to an empty shell and destroyed much of the centre of the city. Clair Wills' rich and rewarding book recounts the dramatic events of Easter Week. But she also tracks the obsession with Dublin's iconic edifice through literature, film and art, exploring the twists and turns that the myth of the GPO has undergone in the last century. It has stood for sacrifice and treachery, national unity and divisive violence, for the future and the past.


An epidemiological study showed that green tea consumption is associated with a reduced risk of hematopoietic malignancy. The major green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG) is reported to have anticancer effects. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a major hematopoietic malignancy characterized by expansion of myeloid cells. In the present study, we showed EGCG-induced acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) activation and lipid raft clustering in CML cells. The ASM inhibitor desipramine significantly reduced EGCG-induced cell death. Protein kinase Cδ is a well-known kinase that plays an important role in ASM activation. We observed EGCG-induced phos-phorylation of protein kinase Cδ at Ser664. Importantly, EGCG-induced ASM activation was significantly reduced by pretreatment of CML cells with the soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitor NS2028, suggesting that EGCG induced ASM activation through the cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP)-dependent pathway. Indeed, pharmacological inhibition of a cGMP-negative regulator enhanced the anti-CML effect of EGCG. These results indicate that EGCG-induced cell death via the cGMP/ASM pathway in CML cells.


In the EXILL campaign a highly efficient array of high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors was operated at the cold neutron beam facility PF1B of the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) to carry out nuclear structure studies, via measurements of γ-rays following neutron-induced capture and fission reactions. The setup consisted of a collimation system producing a pencil beam with a thermal capture equivalent flux of about 108 n s−1cm−2 at the target position and negligible neutron halo. The target was surrounded by an array of eight to ten anti-Compton shielded EXOGAM Clover detectors, four to six anti-Compton shielded large coaxial GASP detectors and two standard Clover detectors. For a part of the campaign the array was combined with 16 LaBr3:(Ce) detectors from the FATIMA collaboration. The detectors were arranged in an array of rhombicuboctahedron geometry, providing the possibility to carry out very precise angular correlation and directional-polarization correlation measurements. The triggerless acquisition system allowed a signal collection rate of up to 6 × 105 Hz. The data allowed to set multi-fold coincidences to obtain decay schemes and in combination with the FATIMA array of LaBr3:(Ce) detectors to analyze half-lives of excited levels in the pico- to microsecond range. Precise energy and efficiency calibrations of EXILL were performed using standard calibration sources of 133Ba, 60Co and 152Eu as well as data from the reactions 27Al(n,γ)28Al and 35Cl(n,γ)36Cl in the energy range from 30 keV up to 10 MeV.


Fourteen experiments have been run in order to provide evidence regarding
the cognitive processes that underlie the switching between simple cognitive tasks. Central to these experiments was the predictability factor; in half of the cases, the upcoming task could be predicted in advance with absolute certainty while in the other half no foreknowledge regarding the upcoming task was provided. In all of the experiments, switch costs were found to be smaller when no task foreknowledge was provided relative to when task foreknowledge was available. Chapter 2 provided evidence regarding the interplay of endogenous and exogenous control in task switching. Top-down and bottom-up processes are not completely insulated from one another. Chapter 3 revealed that both task difficulty and task expectancy play a central role in determining performance on unpredictable cases. Based on the results so far, a task switching model was developed and discussed. Chapter 4 concentrated on the effects of task similarity on performance. It seems that in some cases when tasks are similar at a conceptual level then this results to interference increasing switch costs. Finally, on Chapter 5 behavioral and neuroimaging data provided further evidence that expectancy (in the form of trial expectancy) has a central role on task switching performance. In addition, the neuroimaging data revealed brain regions that could be linked with central components of the proposed task switching model. Concluding, in contrast to many task switching approaches, evidence is provided in the thesis in favor of the presence of endogenous control on unpredictable cases. This control, in the form of expectancies regarding the upcoming task or trial, plays a central role on task switching performance.


Incident evaluations show that bystanders tend to help: they do not wait for professionals to arrive, but act as required by the situation at hand. In the present study, we investigated how safety awareness (induced before an accident happened) and providing a course of action by emergency services affect helping behavior after witnessing a virtual accident with two victims. The main task of the participants was to arrive at a job interview in time. Safety awareness was manipulated by the specific organization they went to: either promoting safe traffic or healthy living. The results show that all participants were inclined to help. Participants who were primed towards safe traffic more often called the emergency number, but talked to the victim less often. Participants who had received specific courses of action moved the victim less often. In all, the results clearly indicate the value of effective risk communication (before an event occurs) and crisis communication (after an event has occurred), as both types of information improve the quality of actual helping behavior at the scene.


Abstract Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults, diagnosed in approximately 21,450 individuals annually in the US with nearly 11,000 deaths attributable to this disease (National Cancer Institute, 2020). Acute myeloid leukemia is a disease of the elderly, with the average age of diagnosis being 68 years old (Kouchkovsky & Abdul-Hay, 2016). It is a heterogeneous disease with widely varying presentations but universally carries a poor prognosis in the majority of those affected. Unfortunately, the 5-year overall survival rate remains poor, at less than 5% in patients over 65 years of age (Thein, Ershler, Jemal, Yates, & Baer, 2013). The landscape of AML is beginning to change, however, as new and improved treatments are emerging. Advanced practitioners (APs) are often involved in the care of these complex patients from the time of initial symptoms through diagnosis, treatment, and potentially curative therapy. It is vitally important for APs to understand and be aware of the various presentations, initial management strategies, diagnostic workup, and treatment options for patients with AML, especially in the elderly population, which until recently had few treatment options. This Grand Rounds article highlights the common presenting signs and symptoms of patients with AML in the hospital, including a discussion of the upfront clinical stability issues, oncologic emergencies, diagnostic evaluation, and current treatment options for elderly patients and those with poor performance status.


A novel homeobox gene, SOHo-1, was isolated from embryonic chicken retina. On embryonic day 2 (E2), SOHo-1 is expressed in the retina, posterolateral otic pit, and neural tube anterior to the spinal cord. On E4, SOHo-1 is expressed at high levels in anterior retina and low levels in posterior retina, suggestive of a role in patterning the anterior-posterior axis. It is also expressed on E4 in the otocyst, the dorsal root ganglia, some cranial ganglia, and the second branchial arch. SOHo-1 expression in the otic pit and otocyst is restricted to regions that will give rise to the nonsensory tissues of the inner ear. SOHo-1 is not closely related to any identified vertebrate or Drosophila homeobox-containing genes. Since it is expressed in sensory- related structures and does not fit into existing classes of homeobox genes, we propose the name SOHo-1, for sensory organ homeobox-1.


The complete diversity rule is broken. Although easily applied in theory (federal courts can exercise subject matter jurisdiction over an action on diversity grounds only when no party is of the same citizenship as any adverse party), over time the number of judicially - and legislatively - created exceptions to the rule, as well as their varying and inconsistent application by the federal courts, has in practice created an environment in which similarly situated parties are treated differently based solely on the forum in which the litigation is brought. In the removal context, depending upon the state in which an action is filed, a federal court may yet exercise diversity jurisdiction over a matter despite the presence of a nondiverse party where, for example, the defendant can show the plaintiff lacks a viable claim against the nondiverse party, or the plaintiff has improperly joined the claims of nondiverse parties to a completely diverse action, or, in mass actions, the plaintiffs have proposed trying the joined actions together (but not if they have not). In response, the federal judiciary (although largely having brought this problem on itself through its myriad, conflicting rulings on the subject) has cried out for order - requesting a revision to the current diversity jurisdiction regime that provides both uniformity in treatment and ease of application. This Article proposes the adoption of a minimum diversity standard for all matters between citizens of different states. This proposal has support in Article III of the Constitution and from its framers. Further, it is a standard easily applied, and largely incapable of manipulation. To ensure, however, that this change does not flood the courts with diversity matters, this Article further proposes an increase to the amount-in-controversy requirement to bring it into the twenty-first century, and a mandatory abstention provision precluding the federal courts from hearing matters local in nature.


Simultaneous observations of equatorial spread F (ESF) irregularities made on 10 nights during March-April 1998 and 1999, using an 18-MHz radar at Trivandrum (77° E, 8.5° N, dip 0.5° N) and two spaced receivers recording scintillations on a 251-MHz signal at Tirunelveli (77.8° E, 8.7° N, dip 0.4° N), have been used to study the evolution of Equatorial Spread F (ESF) irregularities. Case studies have been carried out on the day-to-day variability in ESF structure and dynamics, as observed by 18-MHz radar, and with spaced receiver measurements of average zonal drift V o of the 251-MHz radio wave diffraction pattern on the ground, random velocity V c , which is a measure of random changes in the characteristics of scintillation-producing irregularities, and maximum cross-correlation C I of the spaced receivers signals. Results show that in the initial phase of plasma bubble development, the greater the maximum height of ESF irregularities responsible for the radar backscatter, the greater the decorrelation is of the spaced receiver scintillation signals, indicating greater turbulence. The relationship of the maximum spectral width derived from the radar observations and C I also supports this result.


Abstract In polysynthetic West Caucasian languages, the morphological verbal complex amounts to a clause with all kinds of participants cross-referenced by affixes. Relativization is performed by introducing a relative affix in the cross-reference slot that corresponds to the relativized participant. However, these languages display several crosslinguistically rare features of relativization. Firstly, while under the view of the verbal complex as a clause this affix appears to be a relative pronoun, it is an unusual relative pronoun because it remains in situ. Secondly, relative affixes may appear several times in the same clause. Thirdly, relative pronouns are not expected to occur in languages with prenominal relative clauses. Fourthly, in the Circassian branch, relative pronouns are identical to reflexive pronouns. These features are explained by considering relative prefixes to be resumptive pronouns. This interpretation finds a parallel in the neighboring East Caucasian languages, where reflexive pronouns also show resumptive usages. Finally, since in some West Caucasian languages the relative affix is a morpheme with a dedicated relative function but still shows properties of a resumptive pronoun, our data suggest that the distinction between relative pronouns and resumptive pronouns may not be as clear as is usually assumed.


Sidescan sonar imagery and high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles were collected in Las Vegas Bay and Boulder Basin of Lake Mead to determine the surficial geology as well as the distribution and thickness of sediment that has accumulated in these areas of the lake since the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935 (Gould, 1951). Results indicate that the accumulation of post-impoundment sediment is restricted to the original Colorado River bed which runs down the axis of Boulder Basin from Boulder Canyon to Hoover Dam, and the old Las Vegas Creek bed that bisects Las Vegas Bay. The sediment cover along the original Colorado River bed is continuous and is typically greater than 10-m thick throughout much of its length with the thickness in some areas exceeding 35 meters. The flat-lying nature of the deposits suggests that they are the result of turbidity currents that flow the length of the lake. The sediment cover in Las Vegas Bay is much thinner (rarely exceeding 2 m in thickness) and more discontinuous. The source for these sediments presumably is Las Vegas Wash and a series of other ephemeral washes that empty into this part of the lake. The presence of sediments along the entire length of the Las Vegas Creek bed suggests that turbidity currents probably are active here as well, and that sediment has been transported from these streams at least 10 km down the axis of this valley to where it enters Boulder Basin. Alluvial deposits and rock outcrops are still exposed on large parts of the lake floor.


This paper presents the issue of whispered speech enhancement. Based on multi-band spectral subtraction method where the introduced musical residual noise occurs, the proposed approach performs parametric subtraction according to the WSS (Whispered Sensitive Scale) method that is particular for whispered speech processing and auditory masking model. The algorithm is characterized by a tradeoff mechanism between the amount of the whispered speech distortion, noise reduction, and the level of musical residual noise, which are determined by appropriate adjusting the subtraction parameters. Compared with traditional subtractive-type algorithms, the proposed method results in a significant reduction of musical residual noise. Finally, objective and subjective evaluations are implemented illustrating the improvements over traditional subtractive-type algorithms.


We present a language-independent verification framework that can be instantiated with an operational semantics to automatically generate a program verifier. The framework treats both the operational semantics and the program correctness specifications as reachability rules between matching logic patterns, and uses the sound and relatively complete reachability logic proof system to prove the specifications using the semantics. We instantiate the framework with the semantics of one academic language, KernelC, as well as with three recent semantics of real-world languages, C, Java, and JavaScript, developed independently of our verification infrastructure. We evaluate our approach empirically and show that the generated program verifiers can check automatically the full functional correctness of challenging heap-manipulating programs implementing operations on list and tree data structures, like AVL trees. This is the first approach that can turn the operational semantics of real-world languages into correct-by-construction automatic verifiers.


The effects of elevated CO2 on plant growth and insect herbivory have been frequently investigated over the past 20 years. Most studies have shown an increase in plant growth, a decrease in plant nitrogen concentration, an increase in plant secondary metabolites and a decrease in herbivory. However, such studies have generally overlooked the fact that increases in plant production could cause increases of herbivores per unit area of habitat. Our study investigated leaf production, herbivory levels and herbivore abundance per unit area of leaf litter in a scrub‐oak system at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, under conditions of ambient and elevated CO2, over an 11‐year period, from 1996 to 2007. In every year, herbivory, that is leafminer and leaftier abundance per 200 leaves, was lower under elevated CO2 than ambient CO2 for each of three species of oaks, Quercus myrtifolia, Quercus chapmanii and Quercus geminata. However, leaf litter production per 0.1143 m2 was greater under elevated CO2 than ambient CO2 for Q. myrtifolia and Q. chapmanii, and this difference increased over the 11 years of the study. Leaf production of Q. geminata under elevated CO2 did not increase. Leafminer densities per 0.1143 m2 of litterfall for Q. myrtifolia and Q. chapmanii were initially lower under elevated CO2. However, shortly after canopy closure in 2001, leafminer densities per 0.1143 m2 of litter fall became higher under elevated CO2 and remained higher for the remainder of the experiment. Leaftier densities per 0.1143 m2 were also higher under elevated CO2 for Q. myrtifolia and Q. chapmanii over the last 6 years of the experiment. There were no differences in leafminer or leaftier densities per 0.1143 m2 of litter for Q. geminata. These results show three phenomena. First, they show that elevated CO2 decreases herbivory on all oak species in the Florida scrub‐oak system. Second, despite lower numbers of herbivores per 200 leaves in elevated CO2, increased leaf production resulted in higher herbivore densities per unit area of leaf litter for two oak species. Third, they corroborate other studies which suggest that the effects of elevated CO2 on herbivores are species specific, meaning they depend on the particular plant species involved. Two oak species showed increases in leaf production and herbivore densities per 0.1143 m2 in elevated CO2 over time while another oak species did not. Our results point to a future world of elevated CO2 where, despite lower plant herbivory, some insect herbivores may become more common.


ABSTRACT Traditional rationales for discrimination law often focus on the immutability of characteristics. Pursuant to these rationales, discrimination should be prohibited where it relates to a characteristic that a person cannot change, or where the characteristic is so connected to a person's identity that they should not be forced to change. Thus, discrimination is wrongful where the characteristic is an 'accident of birth'. But the reach of discrimination laws has expanded far beyond these traditional inceptions. Now discrimination is prohibited on a range of grounds, some immutable and others mutable. An example is the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of 'physical features' which prohibits discrimination on the basis of both immutable characteristics such as height and weight and other mutable characteristics such as tattoos, grooming standards, and hairstyles. This article considers the nature of discrimination on the basis of such mutable characteristics and if the prohibition on such discrimination is consistent with the current normative theories of discrimination law. It argues that rather conceiving discrimination on the basis of tattoos and hairstyles as an independent ground for protection, it is better understood as a manifestation of other, and often intersectional disadvantage based upon race, gender, disability and age.


The ubiquity of internet access has caused a sharp rise in the number of businesses offering platforms that connect users for communication or commerce. Entrepreneurs are particularly drawn to these platforms because they create significant value and have modest operating costs, and network effects protect their position once established—users rarely leave a vibrant platform. But these businesses also raise significant start-up challenges. Every platform starts out empty. Platforms need to immediately attract not only many users but multiple types of users. For example, it's not enough that many customers want to book taxis by smartphone. Drivers must also be willing to accept smartphone bookings. Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman has been studying the dynamics of platform businesses and strategies for launching them for 10 years. In this article he draws on research on dozens of platform sites and products to offer a framework for building a successful platform business. It involves asking five basic questions: • Can I attract a large group of users at once? • Can I offer stand-alone value to users? • How can I build credibility with customers? • How should I charge users? • Should my platform be compatible with legacy systems? INSET: Idea in Brief.


Summary of Recommendations

The following is a summary of the recommendations in the AAOS' clinical practice guideline, The Treatment of Osteoarthritis (OA) of the Knee. This guideline was explicitly developed to include only treatments less invasive than knee replacement (arthroplasty). This summary does not contain rationales that explain how and why these recommendations were developed nor does it contain the evidence supporting these recommendations. All readers of this summary are strongly urged to consult the full guideline and evidence report for this information. We are confident that those who read the full guideline and evidence report will also see that the recommendations were developed using systematic evidence-based processes designed to combat bias, enhance transparency, and promote reproducibility. This summary of recommendations is not intended to stand alone. Treatment decisions should be made in light of all circumstances presented by the patient. Treatments and procedures applicable to the individual patient rely on mutual communication between patient, physician and other healthcare practitioners.

Patient Education and Lifestyle Modification


Abstract. Spatial thinking has been recognized as closely related to tools of representation (NRC, 2006) and the maps have been widely pointed out as crucial for the development of that kind of reasoning. Furthermore, the scientific com-munity dedicated to the field of the spatial thinking has been asserting that the abilities encompassed in such a complex cognition can and must be fostered in school. Considering these groundwork, our research focused on the decision to assess the effectiveness of the contribution for the development of student's spatial thinking, provided by the questions found in Brazilian middle school geography textbooks. The main concern was the proficiency regarding cartographic language. To assure the possibility of comparing our results with some other investigations we decided to use a methodology that was strongly based on the Taxonomy of Spatial Thinking, designed by Injeong Jo and Sarah Bednarz (2009). Counting on those powerful tools we analyzed 6.884 questions in the three most adopted geography textbooks sets in Brazilian middle schools (6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades). For the purpose of enlarging the number of books and countries to be compared, we have also evaluated 2.073 questions that are present in a French geography textbook set edited for the same grades. Using the taxonomy enabled us not only to evaluate if the questions demanded or not the use of the spatial thinking by the students. It also showed us the three general levels of reasoning involved, allowing to discern between low, intermediate and high levels of spatial thinking.


Software upgrades are frequent. Unfortunately, many of the upgrades either fail or misbehave. We argue that many of these failures can be avoided for new users of each upgrade by exploiting the characteristics of the upgrade and feedback from the users that have already installed it. To demonstrate that this can be achieved, we build Mojave, the first recommendation system for software upgrades. Mojave leverages data from the existing and new users, machine learning, and static and dynamic source analyses. For each new user, Mojave computes the likelihood that the upgrade will fail for him/her. Based on this value, Mojave recommends for or against the upgrade. We evaluate Mojave for two real upgrade problems with the OpenSSH suite. Initial results show that it provides accurate recommendations.


The current debate on whether the US tax base should be income or consumption has been waged in terms of the traditional criteria for evaluating tax policy - efficiency, equity and administrability. Proponents of the consumption tax have argued that it is superior to the income tax on all three grounds. If that argument is correct, it is difficult to understand why most countries have both income and consumption taxes, and why countries like the United States adopted the income tax as a substitute for consumption taxes. This paper argues that the debate omits consideration of the goals of taxation in the modern era, which are (1) to raise revenue for government activities, (2) to mitigate unequal distributions of wealth in society, and (3) to regulate private economic activity. When these goals are taken into consideration, it is clear that both income and consumption taxes have a role in modern tax policy, and that the US should follow the path of other developed countries and employ both at the federal level.


Most interpretations of quantum theory fail to provide a fundamental, complete, self-consistent account of nature describing physical reality itself, as opposed to merely yielding predictions about results of experiments and observations. A paradigm providing a self-consistent foundation for quantum theory and a description of the reality it refers to, generalized to a worldview, is a Quantum Paradigm, where 'paradigm' is defined as structure of experiential reality. We assert that the fundamental obstruction in the quest for a quantum paradigm is the assumption of objectivity. The subject-object distinction, drawn within experience, has within the natural sciences degenerated into a dichotomy-an absolute split into separate realms-with scientists adopting the classical paradigm where the object pole of experience ("objective reality") can be studied independently from the subject pole ("the experiencer"), with a presupposition that this procedure yields a fundamental description of nature. In fact, the subjective is often eliminated altogether as a fundamental category, and reduced to an epiphenomenon of objective processes. We claim this objectivity assumption precludes a full comprehension and a paradox-free formulation of quantum theory. By challenging this presupposition, i.e. leaving the question open, a coherent understanding of quantum nature falls naturally into place, providing appropriate foundation for quantum theory and an associated world-view. The resulting Quantum Paradigm is "realist" in the sense that it provides a description of what is actually happening: namely the arena of all happening is Mind or Consciousness-from which mind and matter, subject and object, individual and collective, and time and space co-dependently arise. The subject matter of quantum theory then becomes the fundamental mind-function of distinction ("measurement"), resulting in information and its statistical correlations. The message of quantum mechanics is surprising: the basic components of objects-the particles, electrons, quarks, etc.-cannot be thought of as 'self-existent'. The reality that they, and hence all objects, are components of is 'empirical reality', of experience. "The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine."-James Jeans Anomalous phenomena such as ESP and psychokinesis, collective consciousness, and synchronicity that are considered impossible in the context of the classical paradigm, fit naturally in, and can in turn provide evidence for the Quantum Paradigm. Spirituality and science are shown to be complementary approaches referring to the same reality, Mind, while each discipline retains its integrity. The Quantum Paradigm can be intellectually comprehended, as well as embodied: one can live in quantum reality. A good metaphor for this is "life as a dream": with no "real" objects as distinguished from experienced objects. Experience is "empty" of self-nature in the Buddhist sense, with everything interconnected and co-dependently arising. Experiencing the world by "embodying the Quantum Paradigm" is transformative, healing, and an antidote to alienation resulting from embodying the classical paradigm. Embodying the Quantum Paradigm and living in the Oneness of all creation can help humanity-increasingly lost in the materialism and individualism reinforced by our embodiment of the classical paradigm-and restore intimate connection and harmony with Spirit, Nature and fellow humans; we need such a transformation to survive and thrive in our technological society. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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Maliodoma Patrice Some was born in a Dagara Village, however he was soon to be abducted to a Jesuit school, where he remained for the next fifteen years, being harshly indoctrinated into European ways of thought and worship. The story tells of his return to his people, his hard initiation back into those people, which lead to his desire to convey their knowledge to the world. "Of Water and the Spirit" is the result of that desire; it is a sharing of living African traditions, offered in compassion for those struggling with our contemporary crisis of the spirit.


We report on a palaeomagnetic study of upper Miocene sediments from the Amantea basin, located on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria. The magnetic mineralogy is dominated by greigite and subordinate magnetite in the Tortonian–Messinian clays (ten sites), and by hemoilmenite and magnetite in the underlying sands and volcanic ashes (three sites), which have not been dated. Data from the Tortonian–Messinian clays pass both a reversal and a fold test, and define a 19° ± 11° clockwise rotation (with respect to the geocentric axial dipole field direction) for the whole basin. The variable amounts of westward declinations observed in the underlying sands and volcanic ashes can be due to (1) a large counterclock wise rotation episode occurring before the clockwise rotation, (2) the effects of a transitional geomagnetic field in these rapidly deposited sediments, or (3) the observed complex magnetic mineralogy. These new results, when compared with previous palacomagnetic studies from other Calabrian basins, show that the Neogene drifting of the Calabro‐Peloritan block from the eastern margin of Sardinia to the present‐day position was accompanied by a (probably Pleistocene) 15–20° rigid clockwise rotation recorded in both the Tyrrhenian and Ionian margins. This tectonic regime is shown to be very different from the one observed by previous studies in the northern Tyrrhenian domain, where large rotations associated with thrust sheet activity in the external Apennines were coeval with the onset of an irrotational extensional regime in the Tuscan and Latium Tyrrhenian margins. Palaeomagnetism thus confirms the significant geodynamical differences between the southern and northern Tyrrhenian Sea spreadings.


Despite the apparent incompatibility between Mozart's humanitarian and cosmopolitan outlook and Nazi ideology, the Third Reich tenaciously promoted the great composer's music to further the goals of the fascist regime. In this revelatory book, Erik Levi draws on period articles, diaries, speeches, and other archival materials to provide a new understanding of how the Nazis shamelessly manipulated Mozart for their own political advantage. The book also explores the continued Jewish veneration of the composer during this period while also highlighting some of the disturbing legacies of Mozart reception that resulted from Nazi appropriation of his work. Augmented by rare contemporary illustrations, Mozart and the Nazis will be widely welcomed by readers with interests in music, German history, Holocaust studies, propaganda, and politics in the twentieth century.


AIM: To investigate the effect of administration of agmatine (AGM) on gastric protection against ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury.

METHODS: Three groups of rats (6/group); sham, gastric I/R injury, and gastric I/R + AGM (100 mg/kg, i.p. given 15 min prior to gastric ischemia) were recruited. Gastric injury was conducted by ligating celiac artery for 30 min and reperfusion for another 30 min. Gastric tissues were histologically studied and immunostained with angiopoietin 1 (Ang-1) and Ang-2. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) were measured in gastric tissue homogenate. To assess whether AKt/phosphatidyl inositol-3-kinase (PI3K) mediated the effect of AGM, an additional group was pretreated with Wortmannin (WM) (inhibitor of Akt/PI3K, 15 μg/kg, i.p.), prior to ischemic injury and AGM treatment, and examined histologically and immunostained. Another set of experiments was run to study vascular permeability of the stomach using Evan's blue dye.

RESULTS: AGM markedly reduced Evan's blue dye extravasation (3.58 ± 0.975 μg/stomach vs 1.175 ± 0.374 μg/stomach, P < 0.05), VEGF (36.87 ± 2.71 pg/100 mg protein vs 48.4 ± 6.53 pg/100 mg protein, P < 0.05) and MCP-1 tissue level (29.5 ± 7 pg/100 mg protein vs 41.17 ± 10.4 pg/100 mg protein, P < 0.01). It preserved gastric histology and reduced congestion. Ang-1 and Ang-2 immunostaining were reduced in stomach sections of AGM-treated animals. The administration of WM abolished the protective effects of AGM and extensive hemorrhage and ulcerations were seen.

CONCLUSION: AGM protects the stomach against I/R injury by reducing vascular permeability and inflammation. This protection is possibly mediated by Akt/PI3K.


With the purpose of attracting clicks, online news publishers and editors use diverse strategies to make their headlines catchy, with a sacrifice of accuracy. Specifically, a considerable portion of news headlines is ambiguous. Such headlines are unclear relative to the content of the story, and largely degrade the reading experience of the audience. In this paper, we focus on dealing with the information gap caused by the ambiguous news headlines. We define a new task of explaining ambiguous headlines with short informative texts, and build a benchmark dataset for evaluation. We address the task by selecting a proper sentence from the news body to resolve the ambiguity in an ambiguous headline. Both feature engineering methods and neural network methods are explored. For feature engineering, we improve a standard SVM classifier with elaborately designed features. For neural networks, we propose an ambiguity-aware neural matching model based on a previous model. Utilizing automatic and manual evaluation metrics, we demonstrate the efficacy and the complementarity of the two methods, and the ambiguity-aware neural matching model achieves the state-of-the-art performance on this challenging task.


Pig kidney general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase is markedly stabilized against loss of flavin and activity in 7.3 M-urea or at 60 degrees C upon reduction with sodium dithionite or octanoyl-CoA. Electron transferring flavoprotein is similarly stabilized, whereas egg white riboflavin-binding protein loses flavin more readily on reduction. These and other data support the anticipated correlation between the kinetic stability of the holoproteins and the oxidation-reduction potential of their bound flavins.


BackgroundDepressive illness and symptoms are known to be common in physical health problems and are present in at least a third of people with chronic kidney disease and end stage renalfailure (CKD/ESKD). Depressive illness and symptoms in CKD/ESKD complicates care, is associated with a shorter life expectancy, and may arise in response to inflammation.MethodsWe undertook a systematic review of studies including measures of depression and inflammatory markers in CKD/ESKD. The protocol was pre-registered with PROSPERO: CRD42019141305. Data base searches were completed in 2019 and repeated in May 2020. We assessed study quality, and undertook a narrative synthesis as well as meta-analyses of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, examining associations between depressive states and inflammatory markers.ResultsThere was significant heterogeneity in study quality, comorbidities, samples, depression measures, and study design, as well as in the specific measured inflammatory markers.Overall, there is some evidence for associations of IL6 and CRP with depressive illness and symptoms, with inconclusive or contradictory evidence for other inflammatory markers. There were few intervention studies. Studies of samples with physical comorbidity and higher rated quality were more likely to show positive associations. There were few longitudinal studies.ConclusionsThere is some evidence of inflammation being an important correlate of depressive illness and symptoms in the presence of physical health comorbidities. Better research designs areneeded including a range of inflammatory markers.


Cardiac transthyretin-related (ATTR) amyloidosis is a severe cardiomyopathy for which therapeutic approaches are currently under development. Because non-invasive imaging techniques such as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and echocardiography are non-specific, the diagnosis of ATTR amyloidosis is still based on myocardial biopsy. Thus, diagnosis of ATTR amyloidosis is difficult in patients refusing myocardial biopsy. Furthermore, myocardial biopsy does not allow 3D-mapping and quantification of myocardial ATTR amyloid. In this report we describe a 99mTc-DPD-based molecular imaging technique for non-invasive single-step diagnosis, three-dimensional mapping and semiquantification of cardiac ATTR amyloidosis in a patient with suspected amyloid heart disease who initially rejected myocardial biopsy. This report underlines the clinical value of SPECT-based nuclear medicine imaging to enable non-invasive diagnosis of cardiac ATTR amyloidosis, particularly in patients rejecting biopsy.


The Pacific coastline from Peru to Northern Chile is one of the most arid regions in the world, with little rainfall, but considerable amounts of fog produced by the advection of marine clouds towards the continent. This paper describes a project, recently funded by the European Commission, whose objective is to set up a basic plan of sustainable use for the natural resources of the Peruvian coastal desert using collected fog as the only water resource. This plan will be based on the results of a pilot experiment, which is being carried out on the coastal hills of Southern Peru, aimed at verifying the following assumptions: the effectiveness of artificially collected fog water in the restoration of the vegetation in an environment which is undergoing a process of rapid desertification; the ability of plants to sustain themselves by means of the water supply derived from the fog they collect, and with no more need for man made collectors; the possibility that the surplus of water obtained by means of artificial collectors can be used for subsistence agriculture and for pasture growth.


This study presents an extensive review of published and unpublished occurrence records of fish species in the Loreto department. Located in the northeast of the country, Loreto is the most geographically extensive region in the Peruvian territory. Despite the increase in fish collections in Loreto in recent years, the ichthyofauna of this department needs to be more documented. Based on a database of scientific collections and bibliographic information, an updated checklist of the freshwater fishes from Loreto is presented. The results reveal a rich and diversified ichthyofauna, with 873 species distributed in 331 genera, 50 families and 15 orders. The main groups are Characiformes (42.6%), Siluriformes (34.8%), Gymnotiformes (8.6%) and Cichliformes (7.4%). Part of the ichthyofauna has restricted distribution for Loreto (4.7%). In addition, 9.0% of species from Loreto are used in fisheries. Meanwhile, 219 species (25%) were categorized according to the IUCN criteria where only six species (0.7%) are currently considered threatened species (CR, EN or VU). The results presented in this work indicate that this department needs more studies to know the biodiversity of fish, likewise, the information presented constitutes a contribution to the knowledge of fish diversity that would support environmental management actions and decision-making aimed at conserving one of the most diverse departments of Peru.


Micro-cantilever based devices have revolutionized imaging and they are the primary tools for investigation and control of matter at the nanoscale. In this paper a novel approach based on the thermal noise response of the cantilever is developed that makes non-contact AFM possible in static mode. This technique exploits the dependence of cantilever's resonant frequency on the tipsample separation to maintain a small tip-sample separation by regulating the equivalent resonant frequency. The resonant frequency is estimated from cantilever's response to the thermal noise. The experiments performed in ambient room conditions have achieved tipsample separations as small as 4 nm for time periods in excess of 20 min. Based on this control technique a new static non-contact mode operation of AFM has been demonstrated. This method has given rise to an extremely powerful non-contact imaging technique capable of detecting sub-angstorm features at a bandwidth of 200 Hz with a force sensitivity of a few pN.


The traditional vertical decomposition methods in relational database normalization fail to prevent common data anomalies. Although a database may be highly normalized, the quality of the data stored in this database may still deteriorate because of potential data anomalies. In this paper, we first discuss why practitioners need to further improve their databases after they apply the traditional normalization methods, because of the existence of functional entanglement, a phenomenon we defined. We outline two methods for identifying functional entanglements in a normalized database as the first step toward data quality improvement. We then analyze several practical methods for preventing common data anomalies by eliminating and restricting the effects of functional entanglements. The goal of this paper is to reveal shortcomings of the traditional database normalization methods with respect to the prevention of common data anomalies, and offer practitioners useful techniques for improving data quality.


Agrobacterium tumefaciens transfers a specific DNA fragment from the resident tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid and effector virulence (Vir) proteins to plant cells during infection. A. tumefaciens VirB1-11 and VirD4 proteins assemble as the type IV secretion system (T4SS), which mediates transfer of the T-DNA and effector Vir protein into plant cells, thus resulting in crown gall disease in plants. Previous studies revealed that an α-crystallin-type, small heat-shock protein (HspL) is a more effective VirB8 chaperone than three other small heat-shock proteins (HspC, HspAT1, and HspAT2). Additionally, HspL contributes to efficient T4SS-mediated DNA transfer and tumorigenesis under room-temperature growth. In this study, we aimed to characterize the impact of HspL on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation efficiency under heat-shock treatment. During heat shock, transient transformation efficiency and VirB8 protein accumulation were lower in the hspL deletion mutant than in the wild type. Overexpression of HspL in A. tumefaciens enhanced the transient transformation efficiency in root explants of both susceptible and recalcitrant Arabidopsis ecotypes. In addition, the reduced transient transformation efficiency during heat stress was recovered by overexpression of HspL in A. tumefaciens. HspL may help maintain VirB8 homeostasis and elevate Agrobacterium-mediated transformation efficiency under both heat-shock and nonheat-shock growth.


As indicated by some studies, the problem of "falling behind" often exists when using computer-assisted learning with children, and gender may be a factor in this. While digital contents presented on various e-readers are promising replacements for paper-and-ink books, the question arises as to whether this emerging technology will have the same effect with boys and girls? Conventionally, boys are believed to have more aptitude for using computer and information technologies, and it is of interest to see if this is true when using e-books in an educational context. In this study, two investigations were conducted to explore children's attitudes, reading behaviors and outcomes in order to find out if there were any gender differences in the reading of e-books. The first investigation was conducted with 166 elementary school students to evaluate their attitudes towards reading with an Interactive E-book Learning System (IELS), a tailor-made e-book learning environment for children. The results showed that the gendered attitudes in terms of the Satisfaction dimension and the expectation for the usable functions were different. Twenty-three sixth-grade children then participated in the second investigation, in which they silently read two e-books in the IELS with a reading behavior tracking technique, and a retrieval test was conducted to assess the reading outcome for each e-book. The results show that while the girls mostly had the behavior of Skimming during the reading process, they outscored the boys in the retrieval tests. Although the application of personalized reading technologies in education, such as reading e-books with IELS, tends to diminish the gap in technology adaptation between the genders, however, the gender differences, as revealed in this work, are still substantial and considerable to factor in children's reading of e-books. In practice, the results of this study suggest that these differences may create reading barriers for some children, and thus should be taken into account when e-books are used for formal learning.


Many anticipated that Bond v. United States (2014) would confirm or overrule Justice Holmes's canonical decision in Missouri v. Holland (1920). Bond is now considered to have done neither; rather, it purportedly elided the constitutional issue by applying the canon of constitutional avoidance to the treaty's implementing legislation, thus resolving Bond on statutory grounds alone and leaving Holland's validity for another day. We argue to the contrary that Bond eviscerated Holland. Chief Justice Roberts proceeded from the premise that "the statute — unlike the [treaty] — must be read consistent with principles of federalism inherent in our constitutional structure." This premise, upon which the core of the Court's subsequent analysis relied, is not, as the orthodox reading suggests, a mere clear-statement rule. By its terms, it is mandatory rather than precatory; and it cannot be reconciled with Holland. It abjures Holland's holding that a treaty and its implementing legislation must be evaluated together and that, under the Tenth Amendment, the validity of the latter depends upon the constitutionality in this regard of the treaty itself. Further, the federalism-based canon of constitutional avoidance and the background principle on which the Court relied both tacitly, but necessarily, presupposed that Holland is no longer good law. Holland nonetheless continues to represent the most sensible and defensible reconciliation of the tension between the Treaty Clause and the Tenth Amendment. By abandoning Holland, the Court has interpreted the Constitution as disabling the nation from honoring international obligations of the sort at issue in Medellin v. Texas — in which the Court held that the federal government can do what Bond now holds it cannot. Bond took a lamentable step backwards for the United States, recreating one of the paramount problems that beset the nation under the Articles of Confederation.


While large-scale pretrained language models have significantly improved writing assistance functionalities such as autocomplete, more complex and controllable writing assistants have yet to be explored. We leverage advances in language modeling to build an interactive writing assistant that generates and rephrases text according to fine-grained author specifications. Users provide input to our Intent-Guided Assistant (IGA) in the form of text interspersed with tags that correspond to specific rhetorical directives (e.g., adding description or contrast, or rephrasing a particular sentence). We fine-tune a language model on a dataset heuristically-labeled with author intent, which allows IGA to fill in these tags with generated text that users can subsequently edit to their liking. A series of automatic and crowdsourced evaluations confirm the quality of IGA's generated outputs, while a small-scale user study demonstrates author preference for IGA over baseline methods in a creative writing task. We release our dataset, code, and demo to spur further research into AI-assisted writing.


The extraction of oil from microalgae was investigated. The study focused on the hydrothermal liquefaction of the microalgae Microcystis aeruginosa, Cyclotella meneghinia and Nitzschia pusilla. M. aeruginosa was collected from the Hartebeespoort dam, while C. meneghinia and N. pusilla were cultured in the laboratory. The experiments were conducted in a high pressure autoclave with an inert atmosphere. Sodium carbonate was studied as a potential catalyst. The hydrothermal liquefaction of M. aeruginosa, C. meneghinia and N. pusilla was carried out at various reaction temperatures and catalyst loads. For the liquefaction of M. aeruginosa the residence times were also varied. The reaction temperatures ranged from 260 to 340 °C, while the catalyst loads varied between 0 and 10 wt% Na2CO3. The residence time was varied between 15 and 45 minutes. The study showed that hydrothermal liquefaction of M. aeruginosa produced a maximum oil yield of 15.60 wt% at 300 °C, whereas the thermochemical liquefaction of C. meneghinia and N. pusilla produced maximum yields of 16.03 wt% and 15.33 wt%, respectively, at 340 °C. The residence time did not influence thermochemical liquefaction of the algae, while an increase in the catalyst load reduced the oil yield. The reaction conditions had no effect on the elemental composition or the calorific value of the thermochemical liquefaction oil. The calorific value of the hydrothermal liquefaction oils ranged from 28.57 to 35.90 MJ.kg. Hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae produced oil that can be used as substitute for coal in simple gasification processes. The study showed that microalgal blooms, such as the M. aeruginosa blooms of the Hartebeespoort dam, can be used for the extraction of oil through hydrothermal liquefaction.


Motivated by the fact that in many game-theoretic settings, the game analyzed is only an approximation to the game being played, in this work we analyze equilibrium computation for the broad and natural class of bimatrix games that are stable to perturbations. We specifically focus on games with the property that small changes in the payoff matrices do not cause the Nash equilibria of the game to fluctuate wildly. For such games we show how one can compute approximate Nash equilibria more efficiently than the general result of Lipton et al. \cite{LMM03}, by an amount that depends on the degree of stability of the game and that reduces to their bound in the worst case. Furthermore, we show that for stable games the approximate equilibria found will be close in variation distance to true equilibria, and moreover this holds even if we are given as input only a perturbation of the actual underlying stable game.
For uniformly-stable games, where the equilibria fluctuate at most quasi-linearly in the extent of the perturbation, we get a particularly dramatic improvement. Here, we achieve a fully quasi-polynomial-time approximation scheme: that is, we can find $1/\poly(n)$-approximate equilibria in quasi-polynomial time. This is in marked contrast to the general class of bimatrix games for which finding such approximate equilibria is PPAD-hard. In particular, under the (widely believed) assumption that PPAD is not contained in quasi-polynomial time, our results imply that such uniformly stable games are inherently easier for computation of approximate equilibria than general bimatrix games.


The effluent resulted from the palm oil industry can cause serious pollution
if left untreated. This is a problem of considerable magnitude, notably in
Malaysia. Anaerobic biological treatment processes, have effectively used to
treat POME. Currently, methane production is the most commonly used
method to treat POME, but hydrogen production is an innovative alternative
because of the methane green house nature. Processes under thermophilic
anaerobic conditions showed superior production rates and less variety in
fermentation by products which is economically and technically interesting.
A fermentation process for hydrogen production by anaerobic micro flora
under controlled conditions (pH 5, T 60oC and 200rpm) in a semi-continuous
process with recycling was developed for this study. The substrate used in
this study was POME (Palm Oil Mill Effluent) and POME sludge for the
biogas production was collected to be used as source of inocula. The
experimental setup conducted using a 5-L fermenter and six steady states were achieved. The POME sludge possessed a maximum hydrogen
evolution rate of 0.83 L H2 gas/Lmed.hr at the fifth steady state with a
maximum hydrogen percentage in the biogas of 64% at the fourth steady
state.
Increasing the organic loading rate from 10.3 to 25.5 kgCOD/m3/d resulted
in increasing biomass productivity up to 25.325 g/L at the sixth steady
associated with increasing biogas emission throughout the six steady states,
and an increase in the total gas yield up to 0.97 L gas/gCOD/d at the fifth
steady state. It is also noted that increasing the organic loading rates resulted
in increasing hydrogen yield up to 0.6 L gas/g COD/d at the fifth steady
state, and decreasing the COD removal efficiencies from (66.33 to 59.32%)
throughout the system, this might be due to the decrease of hydraulic
retention time (HRT) and solids retention time (SRT) from 5 to 2.94 days and
52.282 to 12.260 days, respectively. The minimum solids retention time
(SRTm) for this study was 1.99 days.
A mathematical model was developed to understand the kinetics of the
digester operations. The growth yield coefficient, Y and the specific
microorganism death rate, kd for anaerobic semi-continuous system, were
found to be 0.3075 (gVSS/gCOD) and 0.1035 day-1 respectively. The
maximum specific growth rate, μmax , maximum substrate utilization rate, K,
half-velocity coefficient, Ks for the process were found to be 0.502369 day-1,1.63372gCOD/gVSS.day, 50.336546 mgCOD/l respectively. This study
suggests that using thermophilic semi-continuous process with recycling is
suitable for hydrogen production from POME and POME biomass and
increasing the organic loading rate esulted in an increase of biogas
production throughout the system.


Diatoms tend to dominate the Arctic spring phytoplankton bloom, a key event in the ecosystem including a rapid decline in surface-water pCO2. While a mass sedimentation event of diatoms at the bloom terminus is commonly observed, there are few reports on the status of diatoms' health during Arctic blooms and its possible role on sedimentary fluxes. Thus, we examine the idea that the major diatom-sinking event which occurs at the end of the 25 regional bloom is driven by physiologically deteriorated cells. Here we quantify, using the Bottle-Net, Arctic diatom stocks below and above the photic zone and assess their cell health status. The communities were sampled around the Svalbard Islands and encompassed preto post-bloom conditions. A mean of 24.2 ± 6.7 % SE (Standard Error) of the total water column (max. 415 m) diatom standing stock was found below the photic zone, indicating significant diatom sedimentation. The fraction of living diatom cells in the photic zone averaged 59.4 ± 6.3 % but 30 showed the highest mean percentages (72.0 %) in stations supporting active blooms. In contrast, populations below the photic layer were dominated by dead cells (20.8 ± 4.9 % living cells). The percentage of diatoms' standing stock found below the photic layer was negatively related to the percentage of living diatoms in the surface, indicating that healthy populations remained in the surface layer. Ship-board manipulation experiments demonstrated that 1) dead diatom cells sank faster that living cells, and 2) diatom cell mortality increased in darkness, showing an average 35 half-life among diatom groups of 1.025 ± 0.075 days. The results conform to a conceptual model where diatoms grow during the bloom until resources are depleted and supports a link between diatom cell health status (affected by multiple factors) and sedimentation fluxes in the Arctic. Healthy Arctic phytoplankton communities remained at the photic layer, whereas the physiologically compromised (e.g. dying) communities exported a large fraction of the biomass to the aphotic zone, fuelling carbon sequestration to the mesopelagic and material to benthic ecosystems. 40


This article provides an in-depth study and critique of the nomination and inscription of an item on UNESCO's lists of intangible cultural heritage, and the developments following its acceptance. China is now a major partner in UNESCO's heritage projects, but the application and experience of heritage initiatives across China has been highly uneven. I discuss the particular challenges presented in the contested, predominantly Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. I focus on the question of community, a term that lies at the heart of the UNESCO literature. What do we mean by community, and why do we think it matters? How does socially embedded music-making facilitate community, and how do heritage initiatives change that?


Background: The implementation of the Care Matters: Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care Green Paper (Department for Education and Skills, (DfES) 2006) and the subsequent Care Matters: Time for Change White Paper (DfES, 2007), witnessed the consolidation of a universal ambition to improve the opportunities for all children living in care. Arguably, the most important recommendation in this pursuit is reflected in the need to provide people who have lived in care as children with independent support, which enables them to discuss their experiences, and suggest ways in which the care system might be improved. However, whilst this recommendation has been implemented with a diverse range of care leavers, the impact of the experience of living in care and the associated disadvantage experienced by Travellers and Gypsies remains under researched, understated, and unacknowledged (Cemlyn et al., 2009). Methodology: Guided by the philosophical assumptions of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), this study represents and constructs the experience of living in public care by focusing on the voices 10 Travellers and Gypsies who lived in care as children. Testimonies were collected through a wide variety of methods that included face-to-face interviews, focus groups, telephone interviews, blogs, emails, letters, song lyrics, and poems. Findings: Following a considered application of IPA, six main themes emerged from the analysis. These were social intervention; an emotional rollercoaster of separation, transition, and reincorporation; a war against becoming settled; leaving care and the changing relationship with the self and others; inclusion and strength; and, messages for children living in care. In line with the tenets of phenomenology, these findings are presented in such a way to as to invite the reader to move away from their own personal understanding of the world in order to enter the 'lifeworld' (Husserl, 1970, 1982) of Travellers and Gypsies who lived in care as children. However, to assist in this sense making activity, this study also provides a discrete interpretation of the findings before developing this knowledge to form a more detailed theoretical construct entitled 'the model of reflective self-concepts'. Taken together with the testimonies of each person who took part in the study, the thesis enables an understanding of how the experience of living in care is inextricably linked to a process of social and psychological acculturation. By staying close to the experiences provided, it reveals how a process of change is determined, more often than not, by a sense of personal resilience directly related towards a Traveller or Gypsy self-concept. In attempt to move towards service improvement, this thesis offers a series of recommendations and conclusions which aim to support social workers and carers empower Traveller and Gypsy children to develop a secure Traveller and Gypsy self-concept thus enabling them experience improved outcomes including those opportunities set out in Care Matters social policy agenda (DfES, 2006; 2007).


Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the largest ever positive labour supply shock occurred, resulting from demographic trends and from the inclusion of China and eastern Europe into the World Trade Organization. This led to a shift in manufacturing to Asia, especially China; a stagnation in real wages; a collapse in the power of private sector trade unions; increasing inequality within countries, but less inequality between countries; deflationary pressures; and falling interest rates. This shock is now reversing. As the world ages, real interest rates will rise, inflation and wage growth will pick up and inequality will fall. What is the biggest challenge to our thesis? The hardest prior trend to reverse will be that of low interest rates, which have resulted in a huge and persistent debt overhang, apart from some deleveraging in advanced economy banks. Future problems may now intensify as the demographic structure worsens, growth slows, and there is little stomach for major inflation. Are we in a trap where the debt overhang enforces continuing low interest rates, and those low interest rates encourage yet more debt finance? There is no silver bullet, but we recommend policy measures to switch from debt to equity finance.


We analyze extensive spectroscopic and photometric data of the hypervariable quasar SDSS J141324+530527 (RMID 017) at z = 0.456, an optical "changing-look" quasar from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project that increased in optical luminosity by a factor ≃10 between 2014 and 2017. The observed broad emission lines all respond in luminosity and width to the changing optical continuum, as expected for photoionization in a stratified, virialized broad emission line region. The luminosity changes therefore result from intrinsic changes in accretion power rather than variable obscuration. The variability is continuous and apparently stochastic, disfavoring an origin as a discrete event such as a tidal disruption flare or microlensing event. It is coordinated on day timescales with blue leading red, consistent with reprocessing powering the entire optical spectral energy distribution. We show that this process cannot work in a standard thin disk geometry on energetic grounds, and would instead require a large covering factor reprocessor. Disk instability models could potentially also explain the data, provided that the instability sets in near the inner radius of a geometrically thick accretion disk.


Laboratory and field experiments show that when choosing among a set of objects, consumers could be subjected to context-dependent preferences and evaluate options by considering both the absolute utilities and their relative standing in the choice set. Using this premise we construct a game-theoretic model of competition between two firms and investigate how a firm's decision to differentiate or imitate is affected when consumers' preferences are context-dependent. We consider two horizontally differentiated firms where some consumers own the product of one firm and the rest own the other firm's product. One firm upgrades its existing product by adding a new feature. In the absence of any cost or capability constraints, to protect its competitive position, the other firm would prefer to upgrade its product by adding a differentiated new feature. We show that if consumers' preferences are context-dependent and the new feature is of an incremental type, the second mover prefers to imitate the first mover by adding the same feature even when there is no cost disadvantage to differentiate itself. This happens because context-dependent preferences cause consumers to dislike brands that are very differentiated from one another. Thus, if the second mover mimics the first mover, both firms can charge higher prices for their upgraded products i.e., imitation leads to higher prices. This outcome, in turn, leads the first mover to pick a new feature such that it would induce the second mover to imitate. Therefore, our analysis shows that the need for context management leads not just to imitation but also to accommodating imitation.


In the framework of relativistic quantum molecular dynamics the authors find that the pion system produced in central heavy-ion collisions at Elab/A approximately 1 GeV/nucl. is out of chemical equilibrium. Pion chemical potential is large and decreases during the expansion stage.


Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at increased risk of mortality compared with the general population. Evidence suggests that this increased mortality can largely be attributed to increased cardiovascular (CV) death. In a retrospective study of an inception cohort of RA patients in Rochester, MN, we found that patients with RA were at increased risk of CV death, ischemic heart disease, and heart failure compared with age- and sex-matched community controls. In addition, when we examined coronary artery tissue from autopsied RA patients, we observed increased evidence of inflammation and an increased proportion of unstable plaques. We also investigated the contribution of traditional and RA-specific risk factors to this increased risk of CV morbidity and mortality. Although traditional CV disease risk factors were found to contribute to the increased risk of mortality in RA patients, they did not fully explain the increased CV mortality observed in RA. Instead, increased inflammation associated with RA appears to contribute substantially to the increased CV mortality. Together with other studies that have demonstrated similar associations between RA and CV mortality, these data suggest that more aggressive management of inflammation in RA may lead to significant improvements in outcomes for patients with RA.