A code generating device using lxN asymmetric POF coupler has been designed and fabricated. This code generating device is part of a novel portable optical access-card system. In this project, 1x2 Y-branch, 1x2 and 1x4 asymmetric couplers were developed. The design of the 1x2 asymmetric POF coupler utilized a simple tap off ratio (TOFR) design technique to tap off optical power from the main bus line. This asymmetric design was achieved by varying the size of the tap line while the bus line was fixed at 1 mm size. The device modeling was done using non-sequential ray tracing utilizing a metal-based hollow waveguide structure. The 1x2 Y-branch coupler device model shows a simple 3 dB device characteristics. The designed TOFR for the 1x2 asymmetric coupler varies from 33% to 50% for tap line width of 500 |jm to 1000 pin. The simulated TOFR however varies from 18.8% to 50% for the same tap line width ranges. These couplers were fabricated using hollow waveguide structure with metal and acrylic-based mold inserts where designs were engraved onto the mold inserts using CNC machine. After engraving, short POF fibers were inserted into the input and output ports of the engraved slots and a top block was then placed on top of the mold insert and secured. The fabricated metal-based 1x2 Y-branch showed a minimum excess loss of 3 dB. The fabricated metal and acrylic based 1x2 asymmetric couplers showed TOFR variation between 10.7% to 47.7% and 10.3%o to 50%) respectively. The insertion loss for the metal-based 1x2 asymmetric coupler at the tap line varies from 12.7 dB to 21.2 dB whereas for the bus line, the insertion loss was about 12 dB. The insertion loss for the 1x4 asymmetric coupler at the output ports varied from 17.3 dB to 27.7 dB. The high insertion loss of the metal-based devices was due to air gaps between the top block and the bottom mold insert, because of the non-flatness of the metal surfaces and causes light rays to escape from the hollow region. This work has enabled us to develop low cost optical code generating devices for a novel portable optical access card system.


ABSTRACT The ongoing Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands has underlined the need for a coordinated research network across the whole region that can respond rapidly to address the current knowledge gaps in Zika and enhance research preparedness beyond Zika. The European Union under its Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme awarded three research consortia to respond to this need. Here we present the ZikaPLAN (Zika Preparedness Latin American Network) consortium. ZikaPLAN combines the strengths of 25 partners in Latin America, North America, Africa, Asia, and various centers in Europe. We will conduct clinical studies to estimate the risk and further define the full spectrum and risk factors of congenital Zika virus syndrome (including neurodevelopmental milestones in the first 3 years of life), delineate neurological complications associated with ZIKV due to direct neuroinvasion and immune-mediated responses in older children and adults, and strengthen surveillance for birth defects and Guillain–Barré Syndrome. Laboratory-based research to unravel neurotropism and investigate the role of sexual transmission, determinants of severe disease, and viral fitness will underpin the clinical studies. Social messaging and engagement with affected communities, as well as development of wearable repellent technologies against Aedes mosquitoes will enhance the impact. Burden of disease studies, data-driven vector control, and vaccine modeling as well as risk assessments on geographic spread of ZIKV will form the foundation for evidence-informed policies. While addressing the research gaps around ZIKV, we will engage in capacity building in laboratory and clinical research, collaborate with existing and new networks to share knowledge, and work with international organizations to tackle regulatory and other bottlenecks and refine research priorities. In this way, we can leverage the ZIKV response toward building a long-term emerging infectious diseases response capacity in the region to address future challenges.


The purpose of this article is to analyze the strategy used to develop a collaborative professional development process that focused on the implementation of the common core state standards. In addition, the author will report findings, and discuss the effectiveness of the initiative for postsecondary faculty. Faculty can verify that not every student comes to a two or four year college program prepared to succeed in credit bearing coursework. To facilitate improvement of student success, states across the country collaborated with teachers, researchers and leading experts to design and develop the common core state standards. The standards were developed to ensure that all students, regardless of where they live, are well prepared with the skills and knowledge essential to collaborate and compete with their peers (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2012). Kentucky was the first state to adopt the Common Core Standards, and beginning in 2010 a large scale effort was developed to provide faculty with information about how implementation of the standards could affect postsecondary education. To address the need for information about the Common Core Standards, representatives from Kentucky institutes of higher education (IHE) collaborated in the development and delivery of information about the Common Core Standards.


"The simplest and yet most important contribution of sociolinguistics [and similar disciplines willing to go under that flag] to social scientific knowledge is its insistence on recognizing the considerable variation in speech that exists within even the most homogeneous of societies. The second important contribution is the insistence that this variation is neither trivial nor a pale reflection of 'real' language, but that it is systematic and that the systematicity of linguistic variation is an imperative object of study in itself. Having recognized that different people talk differently, and that the same people talk differently at different times, a central problem of sociolinguistics is – or ought to be – to understand why people talk the way they do. It then becomes clear that the research questions of sociolinguistics are preeminently social questions." (Woolard 1985: 738)


Ritualized violence is by definition not haphazard or random, but seemingly intentional and often ceremonial. It has a long history in religious practice, as attested in texts and artifacts from the earliest civilizations. It is equally evident in the behaviors of some contemporary religious activists and within initiatory practices ongoing in many regions of the world. Given its longevity and cultural expanse, ritualized violence presumably exerts a pull deeply into the sociology, psychology, anthropology, theology, perhaps even ontology of its practitioners, but this is not transparent. This short volume will sketch the subject of ritualized violence, that is, it will summarize some established theories about ritual and about violence, and will ponder a handful of striking instantiations of their link.


Abstract. General circulation models (GCMs) have been criticized for their failure to represent the observed scales of precipitation, particularly in the tropics where simulated daily rainfall is too light, too frequent and too persistent. Previous assessments have focused on temporally or spatially averaged precipitation, such as daily means or regional averages. These evaluations offer little actionable information for model developers, because the interactions between the resolved dynamics and parameterized physics that produce precipitation occur at the native gridscale and time step. We introduce a set of diagnostics ( Analyzing Scales of Precipitation , version 1.0 – ASoP1) to compare the spatial and temporal scales of precipitation across GCMs and observations, which can be applied to data ranging from the gridscale and time step to regional and sub-monthly averages. ASoP1 measures the spectrum of precipitation intensity, temporal variability as a function of intensity and spatial and temporal coherence. When applied to time step, gridscale tropical precipitation from 10 GCMs, the diagnostics reveal that, far from the dreary persistent light rainfall implied by daily mean data, most models produce a broad range of time step intensities that span 1–100 mm day−1. Models show widely varying spatial and temporal scales of time step precipitation. Several GCMs show concerning quasi-random behavior that may influence and/or alter the spectrum of atmospheric waves. Averaging precipitation to a common spatial ( ≈  600 km) or temporal (3 h) resolution substantially reduces variability among models, demonstrating that averaging hides a wealth of information about intrinsic model behavior. When compared against satellite-derived analyses at these scales, all models produce features that are too large and too persistent.


Interdomain routing on the Internet is performed using route preference policies specified independently and arbitrarily by each autonomous system (AS) in the network. These policies are used in the border gateway protocol (BGP) by each AS when selecting next-hop choices for routes to each destination. Conflicts between policies used by different ASs can lead to routing instabilities that, potentially, cannot be resolved regardless of how long BGP runs. The stable paths problem (SPP) is an abstract graph theoretic model of the problem of selecting next-hop routes for a destination. A solution to this problem is a set of next-hop choices, one for each AS, that is compatible with the policies of each AS. In a stable solution each AS has selected its best next-hop if the next-hop choices of all neighbors are fixed. BGP can be viewed as a distributed algorithm for solving an SPP instance. In this report we consider a family of restricted variants of SPP, which we call f-SPP. We show that several natural variants of f-SPP are NP-complete. This includes a variant in which each AS is restricted to one of only two policies and each of these two policies is based on a monotonic weight aggregation function. Furthermore, we show that for networks with particular topologies and edge weight distributions, there exist efficient centralized algorithms for solving f-SPP.


There are times in a mine life when airflow may need to be temporarily reduced. This may be the result of maintenance/loss of a fan or air heater/cooler or shaft maintenance. Without proper planning mine operators can be underprepared for these events, and not know how to handle the off-normal operation of a sudden and prolonged temporary reduction in airflow. The complexity of the ventilation systems associated with a block cave mine require unique methodologies and actions to continue operations under reduced ventilation scenarios. By having a strategy in place, the available airflow can be redistributed to predetermined areas in the mine to lessen disruption to production, development, and cave operations. It is also imperative to recognize the safety impacts from the abridged ventilation system, such as the potential for airflow reversals in some areas of the mine, including fixed facilities and between levels. Maintaining legislative airflows can be challenging. It is vital to understand the impact on main and booster fans when the ventilation system is in a state of fluctuation. This paper provides suggestions in generating a plan for temporary reduced ventilation situations in a block cave mine, while maintaining safety and maximizing production. This plan was used in maximizing operations for reduced airflow situations at Oyu Tolgoi Mine.


Real knowledge comes from those in whom it lives. --John Henry Newman Watching a television show recently, I heard a character say, "DNA is what we are; identity is who we are." That's an interesting line--one I'm not sure I accept but one that raises salient questions: What is the "self "? How are boundaries between nature and nurture, or between individuals and their experiences (or between mind/body, self/other, I/we) drawn? These questions, applied to teacher development, frame this issue's investigation into teacher identity as useful frame for the study and practice of teacher education. This special issue of Teacher Education Quarterly brings together several researchers from United States university programs where teachers are prepared for work in diverse classrooms. While each researcher or research team has conducted a separate investigation, all nine studies are bound by a common question: how do individuals inside social contexts develop understandings of and for themselves as teachers; and how does highlighting the processes by which this occurs aid the various teacher educators who work with them? Together, these articles offer multiple analyses of teacher development inside connected spheres of multiculturalism, professional identity construction, and contemporary teacher education. More specifically, all studies foreground teacher identity as the primary analytic. But teacher identity is hard to articulate, easily misunderstood, and open to interpretation. What Is Identity? Part of the trouble defining teacher identity stems from the many ways the word "identity" had been used over time. For example, in early and middle parts of the 20th century, the term was mostly the province of psychoanalysis to refer to the individualized self-image any person possesses (Freud, 1961/1909). In this way, identity was framed as mostly autonomous and frequently directed by its owner. Although social psychologists (including Erickson, 1968; Moshman, 1990; and Vygotsky, 1978) have since framed identity as a more situated, dynamic process of individuals developing conceptions of themselves as rational beings over time, the articles in this special issue tend to avoid these traditional psychological framings of identity. Another example is that, in the second half of the 20th century, the term gained currency in sociology and anthropology. Troubled by some psychologists' emphasis on the individual, many social scientists privileged "cultural identity" to refer to the ways any person self-identifies with, or is somehow claimed or influenced by, various cultural or racial/ethnic categories (Anderson, 1991, Fishman, 1973; Bourdieu, 1991). Used in this manner, identity is understood in terms of broad cultural strata such as race, class, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, language, and physical ability, to name a few. This view treats individuals as mostly shaped or constructed via cultural markers and social positionings. It is inside this frame that identity politics emerged, in the early 1970s, as a way to describe how people work to acquire additional power or representation for themselves and the social groups to which they belong. The articles in this volume tend to avoid these broader, structural, perhaps over-determining, cultural framings. So, it is from this admittedly oversimplified tangle of intellectual traditions that we inherit "identity." (1) In fact, some may wonder if the word itself has become used up--twisted into so many shapes and disciplinary knots that a new term is required. To this, Kwame Appiah (2006) remarks: "'Identity' may not be the best word to use, but it is the one we use" (p. 15). So that is the word we use. The articles in this volume mostly draw on sociocultural theory--a loose cluster of complementary, sometimes competing, contributions from social psychology, social anthropology, sociolinguistics, and philosophy that focus on the self in practice; on the various interdependencies among person, context, history, and others; and on the situated, continuous nature of self-development. …


ABSTRACTâ??This paper discusses the experience of utilizing technology-based instruction in teaching four undergraduate courses and two graduate courses at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ). This technology-based instruction relied on the capabilities of Camtasia Studio and PowerPoint software for recording lectures or solutions of various problems. These recordings were made available to students through the Blackboard Vista and MediaMatrix systems. The studentsâ?? feedback was assessed using a web-based survey that included questions about the quality of the recordings and their possible benefits to students in understanding the course material. The studentsâ?? responses and the instructors experience have demonstrated that technology-based instruction contributed to enhancing studentsâ?? learning experience, capturing knowledge of experts teaching the courses, and improving the exchange of information between instructors teaching a course in parallel at the main campus of Texas A&M University in College Station-Texas (TAMU) and TAMUQ. It was clear from the survey responses that the availability of lectures and solutions helped them to better understand the lectures and comprehend the course materials. It is believed that the multi-national environment at TAMUQ, where English is not the first language for most students, was a main factor in the positive response to the availability of recorded lectures and solutions.


We describe a methodology for transforming a large class of highly-concurrent linearizable objects into highly-concurrent transactional objects. As long as the linearizable implementation satisfies certain regularity properties (informally, that every method has an inverse), we define a simple wrapper for the linearizable implementation that guarantees that concurrent transactions without inherent conflicts can synchronize at the same granularity as the original linearizable implementation.


The Rashba effect leading to subband splitting in quantum wells is frequently taken to be proportional to some average electric field. We here show that taking me spatial variation of the electric field into account gives important effects. In particular we demonstrate that one can apply a moderate electric field to a wide modulation‐doped quantum well and get an order‐of‐magnitude enhancement of the Rashba splitting characteristic of the built‐in interface field. For small asymmetry the wave function localization and spin projection of a subband can be rapid functions of the in‐plane wave vector.


This study analyses the extent to which the poor benefit from Free Basic Services (FBS), which include free basic water, free basic electricity, free basic sanitation and free basic solid waste removal. Unfortunately, none of the data sets analysed could be used to conduct fiscal incidence analysis because none of the surveys asked appropriate questions with regard to consumption/usage or tariffs/costs of FBS, the non-survey data from DWAF and NT were self-reported from municipalities, with several municipalities and district municipalities not providing any information at all, and the main data set provided by National Treasury was found to be riddled with inconsistencies and errors. The easiest and ideal solution to the data problem would be to have municipalities report household consumption data at monthly intervals throughout.


The field of machine translation (MT) -- the automation of translation between human languages -- has existed for more than fifty years. MT helped to usher in the field of computational linguistics and has influenced methods and applications in knowledge representation, information theory, and mathematical statistics. This valuable resource offers the most historically significant English-language articles on MT. The book is organized in three sections. The historical section contains articles from MT's beginnings through the late 1960s. The second section, on theoretical and methodological issues, covers sublanguage and controlled input, the role of humans in machine-aided translation, the impact of certain linguistic approaches, the transfer versus interlingua question, and the representation of meaning and knowledge. The third section, on system design, covers knowledge-based, statistical, and example-based approaches to multilevel analysis and representation, as well as computational issues.


A diode-laser end-pumped cw rotating Nd:glass disk laser that operates in the TEM(00) mode with a slope efficiency of 37% has been demonstrated to have an output power dependent on both the pumping rate and the rotation rate. As the rotation rate increases, the power increases from zero to an optimum and thereafter decreases. The initial increase is due to the lessening of the effect of medium heating on laser operation, while the decrease is due to decreased laser gain caused by sweeping of the excited-state population out of the laser cavity. At the optimum rotation rate of 2.5 Hz we obtained a cw output power of 0.55 W with 2 W of absorbed pump power; the output power was limited by the available pump power as opposed to thermal damage or thermo-optic distortion.


Background: Anemia is a common complication of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and is effectively managed by Erythropoietin Stimulating Agents (ESAs) and intravenous iron therapy. Management of anemia in ESRD patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) poses a unique challenge. ESAs even at extremely high doses do not result in a desired response, especially if the patients are iron-overloaded. Case: A 72-year-old man with history of ESRD and MDS on hemodialysis since September 2009 was severely anemic requiring massive doses of ESA in excess of 90,000 units/week. Iron saturation was consistently >60%; ferritin was >2500. Desferrioxamine (DFO) 125 mg IV/week was begun in November 2010. His PRBC transfusion and ESA requirements declined after the initiation of this therapy. He had 33 ER visits for PRBC transfusions (1 - 3 transfusions/visit) from September 2009 to November 2010 (average: 2.35/month), which decreased to 18 visits in 20 months (average: 0.9/month) after getting DFO. Conclusion: We report a case of MDS with ESRD on hemodialysis where anemia was managed with Desferrioxamine therapy along with ESA, after which it was noted that there was a significant reduction in the number of PRBC transfusions that the patient received along with a decrease in ESA requirements and a decrease in number of hospitalizations, which in the long term could be cost effective.


This article considers bootstrap inference in a factor‐augmented regression context where the errors could potentially be serially correlated. This generalizes results in Gonçalves & Perron (2014) and makes the bootstrap applicable to forecasting contexts where the forecast horizon is greater than one. We propose and justify two residual‐based approaches, a block wild bootstrap and a dependent wild bootstrap. Our simulations document improvement in coverage rates of confidence intervals for the coefficients when using block wild bootstrap or dependent wild bootstrap relative to both asymptotic theory and the wild bootstrap when serial correlation is present in the regression errors.


Understanding the relation between the environmental stress factors and the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis efficiency can reduce the susceptibility to thyroid diseases. In our study, thyroid dysfunction was induced in female rats by administration of 40 mg Na F/kg.bd.wt/day for a month. Co-administration of the water extract of Arca noae (300 mg/kg. bw) was tested as a treatment for Na F induced thyroid dysfunction. A group of rats injected Arca noae extract only (300 mg/kg.bd.wt) was performed to observe the impact of the extract on the (HPT) axis in addition to the normal control group. Results showed that there was a significant decrease in serum triglycerides, total protein and albumin levels in the fluoride supplemented group in addition to abnormal levels of TSH, (T4) and (T3) compared to the control group. In the treated group there was an improvement in the proteins level and lipid profile but pseudo-corrected serum (T4) and (T3) levels were observed in addition to a continuous increase in TSH level. Histological findings confirmed the harmful effect of fluoride on both the non treated and the treated groups. Consequently, fluoride supplementation must be considered as a harmful stress that may affect permanently the HPT axis.


Information in this document is provided in connection with Intel products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. Except as provided in Intel's Terms and Conditions of Sale for such products, Intel assumes no liability whatsoever, and Intel disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to sale and/or use of Intel products including liability or warranties relating to fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or infringement of any patent, copyright or other intellectual property right. Intel products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining applications. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice.


This paper reports on a design experience for undergraduates in computer engineering, industrial design, and marketing that focuses on pervasive computing devices. Across a broad range of targeted application areas and user groups, many of the student designs have been wearable computers. Consequently, our course will be of interest to the wearable computing community, particularly in terms of our aim of bridging the gap between design and engineering. For the two most recent offerings of the course, we have utilized external observers and surveyed the students in order to validate the impact of aspects of our process and changes to it. This paper presents an overview of our process with both qualitative and quantitative results from these two most recent offerings.


Functional recovery following central nervous system injuries is strongly influenced by rehabilitative training. In the clinical setting, the intensity of training and the level of motivation for a particular task are known to play important roles. With increasing neuroscience studies investigating the effects of training and rehabilitation, it is important to understand how the amount and type of training of individuals influences outcome. However, little is known about the influence of spontaneous "self-training" during daily life as it is often uncontrolled, not recorded, and mostly disregarded. Here, we investigated the effects of the intensity of self-training on motor skill acquisition in normal, intact rats and on the recovery of functional motor behavior following spinal cord injury in adult rats. We used a custom-designed small animal tracking system, "RatTrack," to continuously record the activity of multiple rats, simultaneously in a complex Natural Habitat–enriched environment. Naïve, adult rats performed high-intensity, self-motivated motor training, which resulted in them out-performing rats that were conventionally housed and trained on skilled movement tasks, for example, skilled prehension (grasping) and ladder walking. Following spinal cord injury the amount of self-training was correlated with improved functional recovery. These data suggest that high-impact, self-motivated training leads to superior skill acquisition and functional recovery than conventional training paradigms. These findings have important implications for the design of animal studies investigating rehabilitation and for the planning of human rehabilitation programs.


BACKGROUND
The main chronic degenerative diseases of the abdominal aorta, namely aneurysmatic and steno-obstructive pathologies, have a common denominator: atherosclerosis. Both pathologies are characterised by the destruction of the structural integrity of the extracellular protein matrix (ME). A number of studies have shown the presence and involvement of a group of enzymes with proteolytic activity towards one or more ME components, the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), in the pathogenesis of aneurysms of the abdominal aorta. Other authors have underlined the role of MMPs in the proliferation and migration process of smooth muscle cells into the intima in the pathogenesis of atheromasic plaque. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of these enzymes in the pathogenesis of chronic degenerative diseases of the aorta.

METHODS
Fragments of aortic wall were removed from patients undergoing elective aortic surgery for aneurysms (14 patients) or aortic steno-obstruction (4 patients). The samples obtained were treated appropriately and then subject to immunohistochemical analysis. The preparations were incubated with specific anti-MMP antibodies and were also incubated with substrate and chromogen, forming a pigmented precipitate on the site of the antigen, before being observed using an optic microscopic at an enlargement of 250x. Nuclear positivity linked to the presence of the antigen testified the validity of staining. Lastly, the MMP INDEX, or in other words the number of positive cells out of 100, was stained in the adventitia and in the tunica media in each preparation.

RESULTS
MMPs were divided into three main groups: interstitial collagenase (MMP1) which degrade type I and III native collagen; gelatinases (MMP9, MMP2) which act on elastin and type IV collagen; stromelysins (MMP3) with specific proteolytic action towards proteoglycans, fibronectin and laminine. In our experience, those preparations obtained from aorta affected by steno-obstructive pathologies (4 patients) revealed the presence of MMPs with a preferential localisation on the intimal side of the tunica media. In particular, the increased activity of gelatinases MMP9 in atherosclerotic aorta might be responsible for destroying the internal elastic lamina and fostering the proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells and the formation of atheromasic plaque. On the other hand, preparations obtained from aneurysmatic aorta (14 patients) showed an opposite situation with a preferential localisation within the adventitia and on the adventitial side of the media. Above all, the loss of elastin represents an essential stage in the formation of aortic aneurysms.

CONCLUSIONS
This study concords with numerous authors who have demonstrated the involvement of proteinase MMPs in the development of aortic aneurysms and their possible role in the pathogenesis of atheromasic plaque. The different origin of these enzymes (inflammatory cells and macrophages or endothelial cells) may be the result of different pathogenetic mechanisms. Although they present different pathogenetic features, aortic aneurysms and steno-obstructions have a common denominator in atherosclerosis. The mechanisms responsible for their evolution towards one or other form are not known. The different expression of MMPs in the context of the aortic wall represents a field for future research.


Testate amoebae are valuable indicators of peatland hydrology and have been used in many palaeoclimatic studies in peatlands. Because the species' ecological optima may vary around the globe, the development of transfer function models is an essential prerequisite for regional palaeoclimatic studies using testate amoebae. We investigated testate amoebae ecology in nine peatlands covering a 250-km north-south transect in south-central Alaska. Redundancy analysis and Mantel tests were used to establish the relationship between the measured environmental variables (water-table depth and pH) and testate amoebae communities. Transfer-function models were developed using weighted averaging, weighted average partial least squares and maximum likelihood techniques. Model prediction error was initially 15.8 cm for water-table depth and 0.3 for pH but this was reduced to 9.7 cm and 0.2 by selective data exclusion. The relatively poor model performance compared with previous studies may be explained by the limitations of one-off water-table measurements, the very large environmental gradients covered and by recent climatic change in the study area. The environmental preferences of testate amoebae species agree well with previous studies in other regions. This study supports the use of testate amoebae in palaeoclimate studies and provides the first testate amoebae transfer function from Alaska.


The study examines the contribution of education on regional technology adoption and aggregate crop output. The results indicate that education has a positive effect on the adoption of irrigation, biological (MV) and chemical fertilizer technology. Infrastructural facilities (road) has significant positive impact on MV adoption. Higher the road availability per hectare of cropped area, higher the adoption of MV. The study reveals that to increase the technology adoption level as well as its utilization to the fullest extent, we need to expand agricultural knowledge oriented education system in the rural areas of Bangladesh.


Tumour infiltrating lymphocytes have been associated to a better prognosis in colorectal cancers. Microsatellite unstable tumours present a greater infiltration by these immune cells when comparing to microsatellite stable tumours. It has been suggested that lymphocytic infiltration may be an indicator of a host immune response against tumour cells and therefore, contribute to a better prognosis. High microsatellite instability (MSI-H) tumours have been shown to bare a better prognosis and some authors believe that TILs infiltration take a part in this. Nonetheless, the significance of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), their distribution and prognostic value are still unclear. The aim of this review is to summarize the current evidence on tumour infiltrating lymphocytes characteristics, distribution, activity and relation to prognosis in microsatellite unstable colorectal tumours.


Building an infrastructure for Exascale applications requires, in addition to many other key components, a stable and efficient failure detector. This paper describes the design and evaluation of a robust failure detector, able to maintain and distribute the correct list of alive resources within proven and scalable bounds. The detection and distribution of the fault information follow different overlay topologies that together guarantee minimal disturbance to the applications. A virtual observation ring minimizes the overhead by allowing each node to be observed by another single node, providing an unobtrusive behavior. The propagation stage is using a non-uniform variant of a reliable broadcast over a circulant graph overlay network, and guarantees a logarithmic fault propagation. Extensive simulations, together with experiments on the Titan ORNL supercomputer, show that the algorithm performs extremely well, and exhibits all the desired properties of an Exascale-ready algorithm.


This paper presents the opportunities for using local action groups (LAG) as an ideal platform for the initiation of the functional and long-term development of rural regions. Countryside areas in the Czech Republic are facing an exodus of young people and a decreasing level of education. These problems are compounded by the non-conceptual approach to implementing solutions to resolve rural development issues. These problems need to be dealt with at all levels i.e. national, regional and local. The existing measures, mainly legislative and legal support, do not correspond with the importance of the issues at hand. At present, any development plans that are put forward are placed before local governments for approval. The local governments cooperate with LAGs to select those proposals that are realistic and can be supported from limited budgets. Unfortunately, development objectives that have the potential to work in larger territories often face major barriers "from above and from below". This paper identifies those factors that would make it feasible to use the management staff of local action groups as coordinators in the given region. With their detailed knowledge of the region they are able to assist in targeting various forms of financial support where they are most needed, as well as being able to initiate cooperation at different levels that would contribute to the actual and complex targeting of that support. The management staff of local action groups are also aware that rural development cannot only rely on a wave of subsidies. However, these resources can be used to build a strong partnership between the public, private and non-profit sectors. Prosperous rural regions are those regions in which local businesses function with the support of local governments and where the level of the local (and/or regional) education system is successfully maintained or improved and to which educated people return after their studies in larger towns. LAGs may substantially contribute to the solution of the aforementioned issues.


The optimized molecular structure of a series of 1,4,3,5-oxathiadiazepane 4,4-dioxides derived of sarcosine have been investigated theoretically using Gaussian09 software package. The HOMO and LUMO analysis were used to determine the charge transfer within the molecule and some molecular properties such as ionization potential, electron affinity, electronegativity, chemical potential, hardness, softness and electrophilicity. The linear polarizability (α) and the first hyperpolarizability (βtot) values of the investigated molecule have been computed using B3LYP with 6-31G (d,p) basis set. Stability of the molecules arising from hyper conjugative interaction and charge transfer delocalization has been analyzed using natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. Finally, Fukui function analyses on atomic charges, electrophilic and nucleophilic descriptors of the title molecules have been calculated.


This paper considers coexisting wireless networks sharing radio resources with contradicting performance objectives. A multi-objective optimization framework is proposed to investigate the fundamental trade-off between the performance of the coexisting networks. For a given set of radio resources, the optimal achievable performances of the coexisting networks are characterize by a multi-dimensional Pareto set. If the performance objectives of some of coexisting networks are modified or adjusted, the proposed framework provides the maximum corresponding achievable variation to the performance of the rest of coexisting networks. The quantitative information provided by the proposed framework facilitates joint design and optimization of coexisting networks and can be further exploited for regulating the collaborations among coexisting networks. We further show that the corresponding Pareto set can be in fact engineered by adjusting the technologies adopted in each of these networks. We then apply the proposed framework to two coexisting cellular networks. An improvement of 25% on the achievable rate is observed in return of a slightly higher interference tolerance at one of the coexisting networks.


The relaxation behavior of an assembly of noninteracting single-domain ferromagnetic particles in the presence of a constant magnetic field is studied by solving the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation. The analysis is performed by first converting that equation into a hierarchy of differential-recurrence relations by expanding the solution in Legendre polynomials. The spectrum of eigenvalues and their associated amplitudes is then determined by matrix methods where all the desired physical quantities such as the magnetization correlation time and complex magnetic susceptibility may be computed numerically. In order to ensure the accuracy of the results obtained this solution is compared with an exact solution derived in terms of matrix continued fractions. It is shown that the conventional assumption in the theory of superparamagnetism, that except in the very early stages of relaxation to equilibrium the only appreciable time constant is the one associated with the smallest nonvanishing eigenvalue, is no longer true when an applied constant magnetic field exceeds a certain critical value. The breakdown of this assumption manifests itself in (a) a dramatically large deviation of the magnetization correlation time (area under the curve of the decay of the magnetization) from the inverse of the lowest eigenvalue, and (b) in the presence of relatively strong high-frequency modes superimposed on the N\'eel one usually assigned to the lowest eigenvalue. The results are compared with available experimental data.


Hunting is a common component in the management of ungulate species. Despite its widespread use, the influence of selective harvesting on phenotypic trait change is still ambiguous, and represents a critical gap in our understanding of the responses of wild populations under harvest. Using the long-term red deer (Cervus elaphus) dataset (1972–2012) from the Isle of Rum National Nature Reserve, Scotland, we assessed the relationship between antler length and key demographic processes (i.e., survival, recruitment, antler growth, parent-offspring trait correlation) for the male component of the population. We then constructed the first integral projection model for this species to examine the effects of simulated trophy hunting on 2 population-level parameters: the stable antler size distribution and the relative reproductive value of males. When male mortality rates due to hunting were <20%, the effect on antler size distribution and the reproductive value function were relatively small. However, as mortality due to hunting increased to 50% in large individuals, the direct effects of hunting on mean antler size and reproductive value became evident. Our model acts as a useful starting point to investigate the ecological and evolutionary consequences of hunting in red deer. © 2016 The Wildlife Society.


This situation analysis was undertaken to inform responses to several resolutions made at the 5th World Conservation Congress in 2012 about the plight of large vertebrates in West and Central Africa. It draws on a wide range of information to provide information on the status of these species, important sites, pressures, legislation, the effectiveness of protected areas, and both community-based incentives for conservation and institutional responses. The overriding conclusion is of substantial wildlife declines and inadequate responses to either long-standing pressures or rapidly escalating threats that have emerged in recent years.


This study aims to evaluate e-Government service quality especially in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The reason why the study conducted is that the difficulty obtaining available and accurate data from the Indonesian citizen regarding the implementation of e-government. The method used in this study is survey based on the e-GovQual questionnaire distributed to total 247 respondents to find out their perception of all the services provided by the e-Government website. The results showed that in general, the citizens agreed that quality of e-Government service provided by the government of West Sumatera province is good enough and meet their expectation regarding efficient, trust, reliability, citizen support, content & appearance of information, and functionality of interactive environment. However, e-Government service quality requires improvement due to the results obtained were still at a moderate level.


In 2011, after four years of lobbying and political wrangling, Colombia approved Law 1448, commonly known as the Victims Law. Its aims are broad: to be the comprehensive body of law to address civilian population claims related to the armed conflict, and therefore to include the necessary legal reforms to restore the rule of law through the enforcement of victims' rights. Currently, government, civil society and scholars are focused on the major issues of the Law, specifically land restitution and assistance for victims. However, this new body of Law, with its 208 provisions, is broader than that, and a close review of its articles is urgently needed. One little-studied and apparently forgotten provision is Article 46, which appears to put in place a specific directive to enhance the prosecution of juridical persons for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the context of the Colombian armed conflict. However, a thorough analysis of its wording and history reveals that Article 46 is incapable of establishing links between businesses and human rights and humanitarian law violations in Colombia. This article specifically exam


A stunning photographic journey through the seasons; These 145 spectacular color photographs celebrate nature's cycles in a splendid and diverse southern garden. Each month for more than six years, Carol and Hugh Nourse have explored the paths and collections of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, capturing the kaleidoscope of its seasons. In this large-format, beautifully produced volume, we move by season and scale from detailed close-ups to atmospheric vistas. From the subdued blues of a snow-covered garden to the dazzling golden light on scarlet leaves in autumn, the Nourses' keen and affectionate eyes have captured not only the living forms, but the essence of a garden in all its changing moods. A general introduction traces the history and development of this public garden, and brief sectional essays describe the special features of the Garden in each season. The sequence begins aptly with the glorious explosion of spring and meanders joyfully through the waxing and waning of the seasons to the stark forms of winter. An "Under Glass" section showcases tropical and subtropical jewels in the three-story conservatory. In the foreword, Garden director Jeff Lewis points out that the Nourses' photographs enable us to "notice details we might otherwise miss - symmetry, texture, form, color." Dedicated volunteers with the Garden's Plant Conservation Program, the Nourses champion conservation in a uniquely powerful way by simply letting the beauty of nature speak for itself. As they turn our eyes to the intricate, fragile beauty of tiny wildflowers and lacy ruffles of peeling bark, we begin to see this and all gardens with new wonder.


Zika virus (ZIKV) is a member of the Flavivirus genus of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses, which includes Dengue, West Nile, Yellow Fever, and other mosquito-borne arboviruses. Infection by ZIKV can be difficult to distinguish from infection by other mosquito-borne Flaviviruses due to high sequence similarity, serum antibody cross-reactivity, and virus co-circulation in endemic areas. Indeed, existing serological methods are not able to consistently differentiate ZIKV from other Flaviviruses, which makes it extremely difficult to accurately calculate the incidence rate of Zika-associated Guillain-Barre in adults, microcephaly in newborns, or asymptomatic infections within a geographical area. In order to identify Zika-specific peptide regions that could be used as serology reagents, we have applied comparative genomics and protein structure analyses to identify amino acid residues that distinguish each of 10 Flavivirus species and subtypes from each other by calculating the specificity, sensitivity, and surface exposure of each residue in relevant target proteins. For ZIKV we identified 104 and 116 15-mer peptides in the E glycoprotein and NS1 non-structural protein, respectively, that contain multiple diagnostic sites and are located in surface-exposed regions in the tertiary protein structure. These sensitive, specific, and surface-exposed peptide regions should serve as useful reagents for seroprevalence studies to better distinguish between prior infections with any of these mosquito-borne Flaviviruses. The development of better detection methods and diagnostic tools will enable clinicians and public health workers to more accurately estimate the true incidence rate of asymptomatic infections, neurological syndromes, and birth defects associated with ZIKV infection.


Greece is among the worst performing countries in Europe in terms of road safety with one of the highest annual rates of fatalities per million inhabitants in the EU. However, a gradual decrease has been recorded over time. The bad performance of Greece in road safety is partially due to institutional problems such as inefficient organization of public administration, lack of organized structures of the State with responsibility for road safety, non-accountability of stakeholders in relation to the implementation of actions and inadequate funding for road safety. The most critical , road user behavior related, accident factors include speeding, low usage rates of seat belts and helmets, unorganized and unprotected traffic of vulnerable road users, drink-driving, use of mobile phones while driving and generalized aggressive driving. In Greece, a great potential for safety improvement exists, if serious effort for tackling the above major critical factors is made.


Abstract Liagora tsengii sp. nov. (Liagoraceae, Rhodophyta) is described from St Kitts and Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles, West Indies. Mature thalli are to 7–10 cm in height, pinkish grey, moderately to heavily calcified, mucilaginous, and dichotomously branched (often with numerous short proliferous lateral branches in older portions). Carpogonial branches are 4–5 celled and borne on the mid- or distal region of a mid-cortical supporting cell. Following presumed fertilization the zygote divides transversely and gonimoblast initials arise laterally from the distal daughter cell. A moderately diffuse gonimoblast is produced, although it does not intermingle with vegetative filaments. The lower gonimoblast cells and distal cells of the carpogonial branch coalesce and form a fusion cell. Post-fertilization sterile filaments arise from the basal cell of the carpogonial branch and occasionally from the supporting cell, and adjacent vegetative cells. Spermatangia are borne in clusters on spermatangial mother cells that arise from apical and subapical cells of assimilatory filaments. The new species differs from those previously included in the genus by its moderately diffuse gonimoblast and by the position of the post-fertilization sterile filaments. The former feature relates the new species to Liagora indica V. Krishn. et Sundararajan. Liagora tsengii differs from that species in the production of post-fertilization filaments from the carpogonial branch.


The unidirectional and conventional flushing methods are compared in this study and the water amount and flow velocity at junctions within an EPANET water distribution network are compared. In the unidirectional method, the necessary flow and water pressure for the minimum flow velocity for flushing become greater when pipe diameter exceeds a certain value. Therefore, the maximum length of flushable pipeline decreases. The velocity in a pipeline is not highly dependent on the number of open hydrants; in contrast, the velocity in a pipeline after conventional flushing increases with the number of open hydrants. The hydrant discharge flow is smaller in unidirectional flushing than in conventional flushing. However, the percentage of velocities above 1.0 m/s or 1.5 m/s in a flow is relatively higher in conventional flushing when multiple hydrants are open concurrently. Moreover, preplanning or choice of an exact target area is more necessary for unidirectional flushing than for conventional flushing. In this research, a flushing path that can generate optimum effects with less hydrant discharge flow can be observed when conventional and unidirectional flushing processes are applied to specific components in advance.


Liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, and phentermine, a psychostimulant structurally related to amphetamine, are drugs approved for the treatment of obesity and hyperphagia. There is significant interest in combination use of liraglutide and phentermine for weight loss; however, both drugs have been reported to induce systemic hemodynamic changes, and as such the therapeutic window for this drug combination needs to be determined. To understand their impact on metabolic and cardiovascular physiology, we tested the effects of these drugs alone and in combination for 21 days in lean and obese male mice. The combination of liraglutide and phentermine, at 100 μg/kg/day and 10 mg/kg/day, respectively, produced the largest reduction in body weight in both lean and diet-induced obese (DIO) mice, when compared with both vehicle and monotherapy-treated mice. In lean mice, combination treatment at the aforementioned doses significantly increased heart rate and reduced blood pressure, whereas in DIO mice, combination therapy induced a transient increase in heart rate and decreased blood pressure. These studies demonstrate that in obese mice, the combination of liraglutide and phentermine may reduce body weight but only induce modest improvements in cardiovascular functions. Conversely, in lean mice, the additional weight loss from combination therapy does not improve cardiovascular parameters.


The mechanisms by which HBO exerts its potentially beneficial effects are not completely clear. Interactions of mechanisms affecting endothelial dysfunction, NO synthesis, EETs and HETE formation, CYP expression changes, oxidative stress and antioxidant defense system changes, and multiple effects on inflammation take place that might be consid ered as mediating factors for the observed positive (or negative) clinical effects in diabe - tes mellitus (for instance in chronic diabetic wounds). Studies on vasculature in diabetic animal models can provide us with more information that can help us understand its effects on blood vessel function. This chapter discusses the most relevant studies that have assessed the potential mechanisms of HBO-induced vascular functional changes in diabetic animal models.


Background and Purpose: Little is known about influences of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) on dietary intake and body composition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate dietary status, body fat distribution and leptin in overweight young men with and without OSAS in comparison to published values for normal weight counterparts. Methods: Groups were comprised of 24 sedentary overweight young men with and without OSAS, who had a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 kg/m. Serum leptin concentration was measured in the 24 subjects using radioimmunoassay, while OSAS assessment was done using nighttime home somnography. Analysis of 4-day diet recalls was performed using Nutritionist Pro (First DataBank, Inc., San Bruno, CA). A Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score was calculated for the 24 overweight subjects. Results: There were no differences between the two overweight groups for total fat mass, central abdominal fat, BMI, waist circumference, leptin, or the HEI. The HEI was not predictive of overall OSAS severity; however, BMI was moderately related to OSAS severity (r = 0.39; p=0.05). The normal weight group did have a 50% higher report of carbohydrate intake, and consumed on average, 500 more kilocalories per day. The normal weight group consumed 50% less sodium, and 50% more Vitamin's C and E including a 13% increase in the HEI. Conclusions: Regulation of eating behavior and related influences on diet composition may be affected by a number of neurohormonal disturbances associated with OSAS and/or obesity, itself. Further research is needed to quantify these possible differences on dietary status and the underlying mechanism involved.


Looking away from an interlocutor's face during demanding cognitive activity can help adults and children answer challenging mental arithmetic and verbal-reasoning questions (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998; Phelps, Doherty-Sneddon, & Warnock, 2006). While such "gaze aversion" (GA) is used far less by 5-year-old school children, its use increases dramatically during the first years of primary education, reaching adult levels by 8 years of age (Doherty-Sneddon, Bruce, Bonner, Longbotham, & Doyle, 2002). Furthermore, GA increases with increasing mental demands, with high levels signalling that an individual finds material being discussed challenging but remains engaged with it (Doherty-Sneddon et al., 2002; Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005). In the current study we investigate whether patterns of gaze and gaze aversion during children's explanations can predict when they are in states of transient knowledge (Karmiloff-Smith 1992; Goldin-Meadow, Kim, & Singer, 1999). In Study 1, thirty-three 6-year-old children completed a balance beam task (Pine & Messer, 2000). Children who improved the representational level of their explanations (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992) of this task with training used more GA than those who did not. Practical implications for teaching and for recognizing transient knowledge states are discussed. In Study 2, fifty-nine 6-year-olds took part and completed a "Time Task" along with periodic teaching intervention to improve their comprehension of telling the time. Some children improved immediately, whereas others did so more gradually. The gradual improvers showed the highest levels of GA, particularly when they were at an intermediate level of performance.


Diachronic morphosyntacticians of all theoretical persuasions agree that there is a tendency for "more lexical" linguistic material to develop "more functional" characteristics over time, a process generally known as grammaticalization. While most previous work on grammaticalization has been conducted in surface-oriented functionalist frameworks, this dissertation aims to illuminate the deeper structural properties of a sub-set of these phenomena, diachronic affixation, as well as its much rarer opposite, de-affixation, a phenomenon in which previously bound material becomes a syntactically independent form. This approach differs from previous generative approaches to this problem in utilising a non-lexicalist, piece-based, syntactic approach to morphology, Distributed Morphology (DM), according to which both words and phrases are built by the same generative system. Besides providing a schematic typology for the structural properties of affix-genesis and highlighting the theoretical advantage of DM, this dissertation has four main theoretical points. First, it makes explicit predictions about the locus of newly affixed material. Second, it argues, that affix-exodus is no less natural a change than affix-genesis. Third, it explores the similarities between affix-exodus and two other varieties of linguistic change: morphological re-cuttings and the disintegration of complex heads. Finally, it demonstrates that similar phenomena can also occur within a word. This is predicted by a theoretical framework with the properties of DM specified above. In addition to its specific contribution to work on diachronic morphosyntax, this dissertation has implications for morphology, morphosyntax, and historical linguistics more broadly, and argues that no additional diachronic-specific component is needed in the


Peer review is an essential part in the publication process, ensuring that Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease maintains high quality standards for its published papers [...].


AIMS The aim of this study was to examine the mechanisms of cognitive impairment and reversibility in elderly patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with special reference to cerebral blood flow (CBF). METHODS AND RESULTS We examined 15 elderly patients with severe AS (mean age 83.2±4.5 years, 12 female) who underwent TAVI. Before and three months after TAVI, we evaluated cognitive function with the Logical Memory II test (LM II), cardiac output (CO) with echocardiography, and CBF with 99mTc single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). LM II score and CO were significantly increased after TAVI compared with baseline (p<0.01 for LM II, p<0.005 for CO). Notably, CBF in the local regions, including that in the right hippocampus, was significantly increased after TAVI (p<0.005 at each voxel). The patients with increased CO after TAVI also showed significantly increased CBF in the right hippocampus compared with those without it (p<0.01). Importantly, CBF in the right hippocampus was positively correlated with LM II scores (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS These results provide the first evidence that TAVI may improve cognitive functions associated with increased cerebral perfusion especially in the hippocampus in elderly patients with severe AS.


Dinoflagellates are unicellular eukaryotic protists that dominate in all coastal waters, and are also present in oceanic waters. Despite the central importance of dinoflagellates in global primary production, the relationship between dinoflagellates and bacteria are still poorly understood. In order to understand the ecological interaction between bacterial and dinoflagellates communities, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and SSU rRNA sequencing were applied to monitoring the population dynamics of bacteria and dinoflagellates from the onset to disappearance of a dinoflagellates bloom occurred in Baltimore Inner Harbor, from April 15 to 24, 2002. Although Prorocentrum minimum was the major bloom forming species under the light microscopy, DGGE method with dinoflagellate specific primers demonstrated that Prorocentrum micans, Gymnodinium galatheanum and Gyrodinium uncatenum were also present during the bloom. Population shifts among the minor dinoflagellate groups were observed. DGGE of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments indicated that cyanobacteria, a, β, γ-proteobacteria, Flavobacterium-Bacteroides-Cytophaga (FBC), and Planctomcetes were the major components of bacterial assemblages during the bloom. DGGE analysis showed that Cytophagales and α-proteobacteria played important roles at different stages of dinoflagellates bloom. DGGE can be used as a rapid tool to simultaneously monitor population dynamics of both bacterial and dinoflagellates communities in aquatic environments, which is demonstrated here.


Demersal fish usually settle to established fish assemblages that include suites of gape-limited predators, whose compositions vary among locations. We investigated the extent to which predation was size-selective on a species of newly settled coral reef fish, the damselfish Pomacentrus amboinensis (Bleeker 1868), among 3 lagoonal sites on 1 reef. The 3 sites at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, differed in species composition and relative abundance of predators. Fish at the end of their larval phase were caught in light traps and tattooed for individual recognition. They were then paired so that there was a 1 mm difference between partners, and placed on small patch reefs at the base of the 3 shallow lagoonal sites. Large individuals survived significantly better than small individuals in 1 out of 3 sites. One site displayed the reverse trend, even though non-significant, and the third site showed no evidence of selection. Selection was strongest at the site where predators of small reef fishes were in highest densities and water currents were strongest. Strong water currents appeared to emphasise size-related differences in swimming ability and increase the vulnerability of small fish at this site. Our results suggested that the occurrence of size-selection for this species at settlement will depend on the composition of the predator assemblage and prevailing environmental conditions; these both interact with the performance attributes of prey, and all 3 variables may be location-specific.


Abstract: Those are two contributions to spacetime sociology. The first is on space and the second on time. Both are part of a more comprehensive work which has been based on an extended epistemology of concepts. As soon as you investigate into the origins of culture, you come upon the survival formulas of our paleolithic ancestors. Among those symbols there is a concept of orientation that can be followed forward until in our times or the times of Descartes respectively. This concept, in its exact mathematical form, possesses a symmetry which is isomorphic with the symmetry of classical logic or what Boole denoted the laws of thought. The second contribution is on time and is similar to the first, but develops the idea by beginning at theother end of history, that is, it is begun in the present state of the art which is connected with nonlinearity and self-organizing systems. It is shown by the aid of a rather general scenario of a two-dimensional Feigenbaum attractor how an exact concept of linear time can be drived as an internal system parameter from the exchange of stability in such a chaotic system of population dynamics.;


Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), which is unavoidable in liver transplantation, is a multifactorial process that can cause non-function or dysfunction of the graft. These complications are the major cause for retransplantation and
mortality. An understanding of the mechanisms involved in IRI is essential for the design of therapeutic strategies to prevent IRI and thus improve the outcome of liver transplantation.
In recent years, the Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP) has been demonstrated to posses potential in protection against IRI. Nevertheless, many questions remain to be answered about signaling pathways involved in ANP-mediated effects and the processes responsible for its protective properties.
The isolated perfused rat liver is a well-investigated model for examination of treatment-mediated effects during ischemia and reperfusion (IR) in the liver. Using this setting, Kiemer et al. demonstrated that ANP-preconditioning
increases the activity of p38 MAPK in isolated perfused livers during IR. Functional consequences of an activation of p38 MAPK are widely unknown. This protein kinase has
been shown to participate in the regulation of cytoskeletal structures in various cells. Thus, our field of interest was to find a causal connection between ANP-mediated effects and possible cytoskeletal changes during IR in this model. In respect of IRI in the liver, ANP was evidenced to exhibit protective effects also in vivo, but so far nothing is known about signaling pathways responsible for this action. Apototic cell death in the liver during IR is
discussed controversial and ANP was demonstrated to mediate anti-apoptotic effects in the isolated perfuse rat liver. We therefore aimed to determine whether ANP mediates effects in the liver in vivo regarding apoptotic death during IR. ANP has not only been shown to have protective properties in IRI but also anti-inflammatory effects in
vitro. In previous studies we were able to show that ANP prevents TNF-α production in murine macrophages and whole human blood after LPS-stimulation. Moreover, we ddemonstrated that ANP also inhibits TNF-α-induced aactivation of NF-κB in human endothelial cells and reduces LPS-induced TNF-α secretion in Kupffer cells (KC). With regard to inflammatory processes during LPS-induced endotoxemia TNF-α has been demonstrated to be one of the
prototypic pro-inflammatory cytokines mediating many of the immunopathological features of this disease. During sepsis endogenous ANP is suggested to be a regulatory mediator, as the level of its precursor Pro-ANP in blood from septic patients has been demonstrated to be an important rognostic marker for the outcome of sepsis. Another topic discussed in this work is therefore the disease pattern of sepsis. This life-threatening disorder results from a harmful host response to infection and is the leading cause of death for
patients in intensive care units. Despite intensive research
on the mechanisms involved in the fatal outcome of this disease, few is known about potential therapies preventing death of patients suffering from sepsis. Based on the knowledge of ANP-mediated protective effects during deleterious processes in IRI and its anti-inflammatory properties we therefore aimed to answer the following questions:
1. Does pretreatment with ANP cause cytoskeletal changes in the liver during IR in the isolated
perfused rat liver?
Which cell type is affected?
What are the underlying signaling mechanisms for these changes?
2. Is apoptosis of liver cells during liver transplantation influenced by ANP?
Which anti-apoptotic pathway is involved?
3. Are anti-inflammatory properties of ANP able to maintain survival after LPS-induced septic shock?
How does ANP influence inflammatory processes during endotoxaemia?


The displacement of the modern term ofgovernment for the postmodern one ofgovernance, reveals a new postmodern languagein which one is left to guess that both notions,government and governance, tend to be opposed.Corporate governance signifies the seizure ofpower of financial capitalism over industrialcapitalism, which is nothing more than, on theone hand, to lean towards the maximumprofitability for the shareholders, to raise the valueof everything on the market without moralconsiderations, to, force the actors to look forpermanent risk and to adapt more flexiblehierarchical relations in the administration of thecompany; and on the other, the marginalizationof the working class. Governance has reachedthe political matters turning itself into the modelof public management par excellence, it meansthat the government, diminished to it's basic formguides a civil society, which acquires an importantrole in the creation and follow-up of the differentpolicies, that is to say, that the governmentacquires a flexible form of regulation, it is therewhere political governance leads us, to thealleged self-regulation of private interests thatadded-together are able to shape the generalinterest. Indeed it is a question of a new form ofdomination marked by a political failing, wherethe civil society plays in opposition to the State. Governance is leaning towards a fearsome trapto the democracy, insofar as it is presented as anextension of democracy embodied in a betterparticipation of civil society, destroying the publicperson formed by the union of all others and thebecoming representative of particular interests.


There is a growing awareness in international policy circles that climate change may be a driver of increased migration flows. In addition to political refugees and economic migrants, climate change-induced migration and environmental migrants are increasingly recognized as categories in human migration. As climate change-induced migration is a relatively new phenomenon, there is little established policy or legislation on how to deal with the associated pressures and how to address the needs and rights of environmental migrants. International decision-making on climate change and its impacts would need to address these new emerging issues.


This contribution studies the decomposition of folpet fungicide under oxidative conditions and compares the product species with those of captan fungicide, which is structurally related to folpet. Toxic products arising from folpet comprised carbon disulfide (highest emission factor of 4.9 mg g(-1) folpet), thiophosgene (14.4), phosgene (34.1), hydrogen cyanide (2.6), tetrachloroethylene (111), hexachloroethane (167), and benzonitrile (4.5). Owing to their related molecular structures, folpet emitted similar products to captan but at different yields, under the same experimental conditions. It appears that the availability of easily abstractable H atoms, in the structure of captan but not in that of folpet, defines the product distribution. In conjunction with the quantum chemical calculations, these experimental measurements afford an enhanced explanation of the formation pathways of hazardous decomposition products of these two structurally related fungicides.


UNLABELLED
BACKGROUND, SUBJECTS, AND METHODS: The 1990 Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Supplement to The National Health Interview Survey was used to develop point-prevalence data about smoking for four age groups, 55 to 64, 65 to 74, 75 to 84, and over 84 and to assess the association of sociodemographics, health status, and health beliefs with a respondent's smoking profile.

RESEARCH DESIGN
Chi-square and Cohran-Mantel-Haenszel tests were used to investigate prevalence patterns. Odds ratios generated from logistic regressions were used to indicate degree of association.

RESULTS
Fifty-three percent of individuals above the age of 54 smoked in the past and 17% smoked in 1990. Among these smokers, 61% tried to quit and 36% noted that their physicians never advised them to quit. Significant age group differences were noted on the various measures of smoking prevalence. Beliefs about the adverse health effects of smoking were associated with a greater likelihood of never smoking, and among smokers, a greater likelihood of being a former smoker.

CONCLUSIONS
Analyses of health behaviors among older adults must recognize the diversity within this age group, and measures of health beliefs should be included in subsequent studies of health behaviors among older adults. Physicians must also play a greater role in discussing smoking with their patients and advocating smoking cessation.


Note: All chapters open with an Introduction. Chapter 1: A SAS Tutorial Computing With SAS: An Illustrative Example. Enhancing the Program. SAS Procedures. Overview of the SAS DATA Step. Syntax of SAS Procedures. Comment Statements. References. Chapter 2: Describing Data Describing Data. More Descriptive Statistics. Histograms, QQ Plots, and Probability Plots. Descriptive Statistics Broken Down by Subgroups. Frequency Distributions. Bar Graphs. Plotting Data. Chapter 3: Analyzing Categorical Data Questionnaire Design and Analysis. Adding Variable Labels. Adding "Value Labels" (Formats). Recoding Data. Using a Format to Recode a Variable. Two-way Frequency Tables. A Short-cut Way to Request Multiple Tables. Computing Chi-square from Frequency Counts. A Useful Program for Multiple Chi-square Tables. A Useful Macro for Computing Chi-square from Frequency Counts. McNemar's Test for Paired Data. Computing the Kappa Statistics (Coefficient of Agreement). Odds Ratios. Relative Risk. Chi-square Test for Trend. Mantel-Haenszel Chi-square for Stratified Tables and Meta Analysis. "Check All That Apply" Questions. Chapter 4: Working with Date and Longitudinal Data Processing Date Variables. Working with Two-digit Year Values (The Y2K Problem. Longitudinal Data. Selecting the First or Last Visit per Patient. Computing Differences between Observations in a Longitudinal Data Set. Computing the Difference between the First and Last Observation for each Subject. Computing Frequencies on Longitudinal Data Sets. Creating Summary Data Sets with PROC MEANS or PROC SUMMARY. Outputting Statistics Other Than Means. Chapter 5: Correlation and Simple Regression Correlation. Significance of a Correlation Coefficient. How to Interpret a Correlation Coefficient. Partial Correlations. Linear Regression. Partitioning the Total Sum of Squares. Producing a Scatter Plot and the Regression Line. Adding a Quadratic Term to the Regression Equation. Transforming Data. Chapter 6: T-tests and Nonparametric Comparisons T-test: Testing Differences between Two Means. Random Assignment of Subjects. Two Independent Samples: Distribution Free Tests. One-tailed versus Two-tailed Tests. Paired T-tests (Related Samples). Chapter 7: Analysis of Variance One-way Analysis of Variance. Computing Contrasts. Analysis of Variance: Two Independent Variables. Interpreting Significant Interactions. N-way Factorial Designs. Unbalanced Designs: PROC GLM. Analysis of Covariance. Chapter 8: Repeated Measures Designs One-factor Experiments. Using the REPEATED Statement of PROC ANOVA. Using PROC MIXED to Compute a Mixed (random effects) Model. Two-factor Experiments with a Repeated Measure on One Factor. Two-factor Experiments with Repeated Measures on Both Factors. Three-factor Experiments with a Repeated Measure on the Last Factor. Three-factor Experiments with Repeated Measures on Two Factors. Chapter 9: Multiple Regression Analysis Designed Regression. Nonexperimental Regression. Stepwise and Other Variable Selection Methods. Creating and Using Dummy Variables. Using the Variance Inflation Factor to Look for Multicollinearity. Logistic Regression. Automatic Creation of Dummy Variables with PROC LOGISTIC. Chapter 10: Factor Analysis Types of Factor Analysis. Principal Components Analysis. Oblique Rotations. Using Communalities Other Than One. How to Reverse Item Scores. Chapter 11: Psychometrics Using SAS Software to Score a Test. Generalizing the Program for a Variable Number of Questions. Creating a Better Looking Table Using PROC TABULATE. A Complete Test Scoring and Item Analysis Program. Test Reliability. Interrater Reliability. Chapter 12: The SAS INPUT Statement List Input: Data values separated by spaces. Reading Comma-delimited Data. Using INFORMATS with List Input. Column Input. Pointers and Informats. Reading More Than One Line per Subject. Changing the Order and Reading a Column More Than Once. Informat Lists. "Holding the Line"-Single- and Double-trailing @'s. Suppressing the Error Messages for Invalid Data. Reading "Unstructured" Data. Chapter 13: External Files: Reading and Writing Raw and System Files Data in the Program Itself. Reading Data from An External Text File (ASCII or EBCDIC). INFILE Options. Reading Data from Multiple Files (using wildcards). Writing ASCII or Raw Data to An External File. Writing CSV (comma separated variables) Files Using SAS. Creating a Permanent SAS Data Set. Reading Permanent SAS Data Sets. How to Determine the Contents of a SAS Data Set. Permanent SAS Data Sets with Formats. Working with Large Data Sets. Chapter 14: Data Set Subsetting, Concatenating, Merging, and Updating Subsetting. Combining Similar Data from Multiple SAS Data Sets. Combining Different Data from Multiple SAS Data Sets. "Table Look Up". Updating a Master Data Set from An Update Data Set. Chapter 15: Working with Arrays Substituting One Value for Another for a Series of Variables. Extending Example 1 to Convert All Numeric Values of 999 to Missing. Converting the Value of N/A (Not Applicable) to a Character Missing Value. Converting Heights and Weights from English to Metric Units. Temporary Arrays. Using a Temporary Array to Score a Test. Specifying Array Bounds. Temporary Arrays and Array Bounds. Implicitly Subscripted Arrays. Chapter 16: Restructuring SAS Data Sets Using Arrays Creating a New Data Set with Several Observations per Subject from a Data Set with One Observation per Subject. Another Example of Creating Multiple Observations from a Single Observation. Going from One Observation per Subject to Many Observations per Subject Using Multi-dimensional Arrays. Creating a Data Set with One Observation per Subject from a Data Set with Multiple Observations per Subject. Creating a Data Set with One Observation per Subject from a Data Set with Multiple Observations per Subject Using a Multi-dimensional Array. Chapter 17: A Review of SAS Functions Part I. Functions Other Than Character Functions Arithmetic and Mathematical Functions. Random Number Functions. Time and Date Functions. The INPUT and PUT Functions: Converting Numerics to Character, and Character to Numeric Variables. The LAG and DIF Functions. Chapter 18: A Review of SAS Functions Part II. Character Functions How Lengths of Character Variables are Set in a SAS DATA Step. Working with Blanks. How to Remove Characters from a String. Character Data Verification Substring Example. Using the SUBSTR Function on the Left-Hand Side of the Equals Sign. Doing the Previous Example Another Way. Unpacking a String. Parsing a String. Locating the Position of One String Within Another String. Changing Lower Case to Upper Case and Vice Versa. Substituting One Character for Another. Substituting One Word for Another in a String Concatenating (Joining) Strings. Soundex Conversion. Spelling Distance: The SPEDIS Function. Chapter 19: Selected Programming Examples Expressing Data Values as a Percentage of the Grand Mean. Expressing a Value as a Percentage of a Group Mean. Plotting Means with Error Bars. Using a Macro Variable to Save Coding Time. Computing Relative Frequencies. Computing Combined Frequencies on Different Variables. Computing a Moving Average. Sorting Within an Observation. Computing Coefficient Alpha (or KR-20) in a DATA Step. Chapter 20: Syntax Examples PROC ANOVA. PROC APPEND. PROC CHART. PROC CONTENTS. PROC CORR. PROC DATASETS. PROC FACTOR. PROC FORMAT. PROC FREQ. PROC GCHART. PROC GLM. PROC GPLOT. PROC LOGISTIC. PROC MEANS. PROC NPAR1WAY. PROC PLOT. PROC PRINT. PROC RANK. PROC REG. PROC SORT. PROC TTEST. PROC UNIVARIATE.


20th century witnessed Istanbul's unexpected and tumultuous economic, politic, social and spatial transformation. In the first quarter of the 20th century, Istanbul lost half of its population and went through a stagnated duration; however the city regained its importance and former population at the end of 1950's. The city's macroform and transportation infrastructure that could have easily handled the needs of the city at the beginning of the 20th century. However migration accalerated by industrilization began with 1950's and increased need for more transport infrastructure in the urban area and other cities. Due to these rooted changes, the city's macroform turned inside out in terms of spatial context. During this tumultuous and multi-layered transformation period, Istanbul's central business district was restructured and Istanbul pursued being the centre of commerce and economy in the country. In the last decade of the 20th century, with the influential effect of producer services, this transformation and change was reflected to the sectoral and spatial environment. 1950 and following years are the times of radical transformation of the economic, social and cultural structure for Istanbul. The structure and function, cultural and ethnic diversity, the appearance and silhouette the city had sustained for thousands of years has started to change first gradually in the 1950s, then dramatically in the 1970s and finally 1990s and 2000s Istanbul has become an unorganized, unplanned giant metropolis. In this framework, Istanbul's fastest transforming district, Beyoglu underwent through some big changes in economic, cultural and daily-life aspects. In this context, Beyoglu district which is a perfect example to observe the transformations that Turkish city went through between the years 1950 and 2010 and the influence of producer services during this transformation period. This research is aimed at analyzing the workplace geography of Beyoglu district in the period 1950-2011. Research focusing on; - recognition of sectoral assemblages that produces and reproduces economic and spatial change and transformation; - discovering the economic and spatial differentiation and segmentation which characterized by spatial shifts in years; - characterizing and monitoring the economic and spatial transformation processes by using policies, actions, and tools. The research analyzes the economic landscape of Beyoglu in the 20th century period with adopting a relational perspective. The research looks in detail to the characteristics and activity assemblages of economic structure of Beyoglu, spatial formations of change and transformation, and the effect of these all economic processes to the formation of the district and the city.


Aim: To compare the topographic characteristics of the optic discs in patients with severe and mild ocular Behçet's disease by using Heidelberg retinal tomographaphy (HRT). Methods: This prospective study included 47 eyes of 47 patients with ocular BD who were being followed-up at the Uveitis Clinic of the Ankara Ulucanlar Eye Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. The patients were divided into two groups. Group 1 consisted of 21 eyes with mild uveitis, and group 2 consisted of 26 eyes with severe uveitis. All patients underwent topographic optic disc analysis by HRT II, and the quantitative optic disc parameters of both groups were compared by non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The mean cup volume, rim volume, cup area, disc area and cup depth in group 1 were found to be statistically significantly greater than those in group 2 (p<0.0001, p = 0.03, p = 0.021, p = 0.01 and p = 0.017, respectively), while the difference between the mean cup-to-disc ratios in group 1 and group 2 were found to be statistically insignificant (p = 0.148). Conclusion: A relationship was found between the severity of ocular BD and optic disc topography determined by HRT. In eyes with smaller optic discs, uveitis was observed to have a more severe course with more frequent relapses than those with larger discs.


The Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment (VISA) questionnaire model is based on item response theory using a graded response (responses reflect increasing difficulty). The purpose of the VISA-G is to monitor patient outcomes and evaluate treatment strategies for people with greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS). The primary aim of the current study was to translate and culturally adapt the VISA-G into a Danish context (DK) through forward and back translation and cognitive interviews. The second aim was to establish test–retest reliability and face validity of the VISA-G into a Danish context (DK). No major disagreements were observed between the original and translated versions of the questionnaire. A total of 58 heterogenous asymptomatic, and 49 symptomatic respondents (response rate: 92% and 78% respectively) completed the VISA-G.DK twice, 1 week apart. The VISA-G.DK had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: asymptomatic = 0.86; symptomatic = 0.98). The test–retest reliability was excellent for the total score: ICC: 0.961 (95% CI [0.933–0.978]). Standard Error Measurement was calculated to be 0.6. Bland–Altman plots showed no significant or relevant differences from test to retest in the total score with mean differences below 1 (0.61). The minimal detectable change was 3.17 for both groups. The VISA-G.DK was found to be valid, reliable and acceptable for use in the Danish population.


ABSTRACT We propose a computational model of human scientific discovery and perception of the world. As a prerequisite for such a model, we simulate dynamic microworlds in which physical events take place, as well as an observer that visually perceives and makes interpretations of events in the microworld. Moreover, we give the observer the ability to actively conduct experiments in order to gain evidence about natural regularities in the world. We have broken up the description of our project into two pieces. The first piece deals with the interpreter constructing relatively simple visual descriptions of objects and collisions within a context. The second phase deals with the interpreter positing relationships among the entities, winding up with elaborated construals and conjectures of mathematical laws governing the world. This paper focuses only on the second phase. As is the case with most human scientific observation, observations are subject to interpretation, and the discoveries are influenced by these interpretations.


This technical note discusses the changes in the price of crude oil that occurred in the second half of 2014 and the price dynamics of the first half of 2015. It shows that from 2011 till the first half of 2014 the price of crude oil remained at a remarkably stable level around 100 dollars per barrel, while prices for other commodities were falling as a result of declining demand, particularly in emerging markets. We argue that the resiliency of crude oil prices between 2011 and 1H2014 was a result of deliberate action by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) producers to keep the price of oil stable at a level perceived to be competitive by intervening in the market when the price diverged too far from an established level. Saudi Arabia and the GCC compensated three major supply disruptions by increasing production to prevent prices remaining above the 100 dollars per barrel mark for long. Beyond stabilizing prices, the strategy aimed at maintaining Saudi production competitive, increasing its world market share. Our research finds that the recent and sharp decline in price, a result of increased production from the United States tight oil basins, has led GCC to emphasize its market share strategy by increasing production at the new price level to bring United States shale production increase to a halt. Indeed, this means that the price of crude oil will be set at the marginal price of production of non-conventional crudes in the United States, a characteristic found in competitive markets and heretofore missing from the crude oil market.


Introduction: Chromium is among the important heavy metals which is found in most industrial wastes and is associated with both health and environmental risks. Therefore, this study tries to analyze the efficiency of lemna and azolla powders in removing hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions. Methods: As an experimental trial, this study was conducted experimentally in the lab scale. Initially, lemna and azolla were collected and washed three times with distilled water. They were desiccated in a dry heat, set on 105°C, for 24 hours and then were sieved with a 10-30-mesh sieve. Variation in pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, and initial metal ion concentration were investigated and the remaining concentration was analyzed using spectrophotometer (540 nm). [Equilibrium] Adsorption data were explained using the adsorption isotherms and kinetics. Results: The results of the study indicated that increasing adsorbent dose and contact time will increase adsorption efficiency with both adsorbents (azolla and lemna), whereas the adsorption capacity will be decreased; also, efficiency of [chromium] removal was decreased with decreasing the initial concentration of chromium and the best pH that can be used for removing chromium was found 3. For adsorbents used in this study, the best type of isotherm was Langmuir and the best reaction kinetics was second order kinetics. Conclusion: Generally, the adsorbents considered in this study, as inexpensive adsorbents, can be used successfully for treating industrial wastes and aqueous solutions.


The aim of this study was to evaluate bone and gingival connective tissue responses towards nanosecond-pulsed laser-treated titanium implants. A Nd:YVO4 nanosecond-pulse laser with a defocus technique was used to modify the surfaces of two types of cylindrical titanium implants. One had a 3.5 mm diameter and 7.0 mm length ( 3.5 Ti) to assess rabbit bone responses; the other a 1.0 mm diameter and 4.5 mm length ( 1.0 Ti) to assess rat gingival connective tissue responses. Laser-treated titanium implants, a 3.5 Laser-Ti and 1.0 Laser-Ti, were obtained by defocus irradiation. Collagen immobilized 1.0Laser-Ti ( 1.0 Coll/Laser-Ti) implants were obtained by a tresyl chloride-activated method. Laser-Ti surfaces had micro-scale roughened oxide layers and parallel arranged grooves. Sa (average roughness) and Sdr (interfacial area ratio) values of the Laser-Ti were significantly higher than those of Ti (titanium) implants (p<0.05). The 3.5 implants were implanted into the bone defects of rabbits to evaluate bone responses and 1.0 implants were implanted into the extracted sockets of rat maxilla to evaluate gingival connective tissue responses. After implantation periods, the specimens were excised and non-decalcified thin sections prepared to evaluate histological responses. After 12 weeks of implantation in the rabbit experiments, bone-to-implant contact for the Laser-Ti implants was significantly higher than for the Ti in both tibia and femoral condyle (p<0.05). Improved attachment of gingival connective tissue to the implant surface was observed for Laser-Ti and Coll/Laser-Ti in the rat maxilla. Polarized light microscopy showed perpendicular rod-like attachments of gingival collagen fibers on the Laser-Ti and Coll/ Laser-Ti implant surfaces. Ti implants had no discernible attachments with gingival connective tissue along the implant surface. In conclusion, nanosecond-pulsed laser treatment with a defocus technique produced roughened titanium surfaces with parallel grooves and micro-roughened asperities. Laser treatment of implants resulted in improved bone responses and attachment of gingival connective tissue.


In this paper I study how school desegregation by race following Brown v. Board of Education affected White individuals' racial attitudes and politics in adulthood. I use geocoded nationwide data from the General Social Survey and differences-in-differences to identify causal impacts. Integration significantly reduced White individuals' political conservatism as adults in the U.S. South but not elsewhere. I observe similar geographic impact heterogeneity for individuals' attitudes towards Blacks and policies promoting racial equity, but positive effects emerge less consistently across specifications. Results suggest that this heterogeneity may depend on the effectiveness of integration policies. In the south, Black-White exposure was greater following desegregation, and White disenrollment was lower. My study provides the first causal evidence on how different theories concerning intergroup contact and racial attitudes (i.e., the contact and racial threat hypotheses) may have applied to school contexts following historic court mandates to desegregate.


Background: There has been a reported worldwide increase in the apparent prevalence of autism and related autism spectrum disorders, Such an increase, whether due to an actual increase in incidence of autism or better detection methods.

Aims & Objective: To determine the prevalence and describe the clinical characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in school-age children.

Material and Methods: The study proceeded in four steps: screening, sampling, and diagnostic assessment. All parents and teachers asked to complete the ASSQ. Children from regular schools were considered screen positive if they had a teacher-rated ASSQ score ≥10.

Results: The result of the current study have shown that the overall prevalence of autism in the primary school of Taif district whose age ranged from 7 to 12 years was 0.035 % from a sample population of 22950 student , the prevalence of autism in male (0.031%) was greater than female (0.004%). The general characteristic of autistic disorders present in the sample population was concentrated on certain items mainly, Has a different style to communicate with others, either formally or informally (80 %), Deal with others with his own style (80%).

Conclusion: The overall prevalence of autism in the primary school of Taif district whose age ranged from 7 to 12 years was 0.035 %.


CHORUS is a Coordination Action, a specific type of project funded by the European commission under its research programmes, intended to bring together research projects with common goals, in the field of search technologies for digital audio-visual content, one of the strategic objectives of the current research frame program. CHORUS coordinates a number of research projects in the general area of audio-visual and multi-media information access and management.

The most important single contribution of the CHORUS work plan will be to provide a survey of the field and a roadmap with a gap analysis for the realisation of viable audio-visual search engines by European partners. This is done by several means. CHORUS organises Think-Tanks with industrial participation, focussed workshops to treat specific questions, and more general conferences for academic discussions. CHORUS is now in its final phase, and is currently preparing its final report together with a final conference to mark its publication.


One of the major components of the First Year Seminar in Natural Sciences (NSF101) is to introduce students to library research. The library orientation session exposes students to library resources such as books, videos, journals, databases. The "Choosing Your Career" assignment reinforces using the library by searching for information on a career, retrieving sources from select databases and evaluating the information found in a written reflection. Reflection questions are added to guide the student in their search and their approach to their career choice. The goal is to integrate library literacy as part of their developing college learning skills. This assignment effectively introduces information literacy as the ability to find and use information and critically think about the information found when deciding on a career path. This assignment consists of the following; ● 90-minute library orientation session (one lecture session) ● followed up by library research (students' time) ● initial draft (hard copy for instructor comments) ● written revision (students' time) ● a final written 1500-word research reflection. (deposited on student ePortfolio)


As music therapy is a relatively young profession, educating the public about 'What is music therapy?' is a vital part of our work. Newspaper articles access a novice and wide-reaching audience and music therapy is now being reported in print media more frequently than a decade ago. This paper describes a study that investigated how music therapy has been reported in Australian print media over the last 10 years (1996-2006), examining 178 articles retrieved via the Factiva search engine. Mixed-methods content analysis strategies were utilised for this study to examine both the main foci of articles and the nature of quoted material. Quantitative results indicated that articles referencing music therapy usually focus on contextual information about clients, the role of music generally, and how both of these are relevant in contemporary society. Qualitative analysis of the words of music therapists (quotes) suggested that journalists may use a common sequence of questions to frame interviews, and these are proposed. Recommendations for further studies are also suggested.


In nutrition, diet is the sum of food
consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of
specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the
two often being related). Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each
person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to
personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or
less healthy.

 Complete nutrition requires ingestion and
absorption of vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids from protein and
essential fatty acids from fat-containing food, also food energy in the form of
carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Dietary habits and choices play a significant
role in the quality of life, health and longevity.