Nutrition is an integral part of the prevention and management of the most prevalent conditions faced by today's primary care providers. This book is aimed at physicians around the world who treat patients from all walks of life. The first section is devoted to the basic principles of nutrition, covering the fundamentals of body composition, energy balance, and appetite, as well as the importance of the different macro- and micronutrients. The following section builds on the principles of the first by focusing on the special needs for specific circumstances, including pregnancy, exercise, food allergies and religion. The third part provides an overview of our latest understanding of various disease states and how they are influenced by nutrition. The final part on Food Policy takes a bird's eye view, offering perspectives on global sustainability, the rapidly changing face of malnutrition and the role played by the food industry in consumer health. This book is a practical reference source that will guide physicians on how to use nutrition as a tool to prevent and cure disease.


Red yeast rice has many biological activities such as antihyperglycemic, antihypercolesterolemic, antidiabetic and antioxidant. This study was conducted to search for the most active extracs of red yeast rice as an in vitro antidiabetes. Antidiabetic activity was measured through α-glucosidase inhibition assay. Samples were ethanol 95% extract of red yeast rice, as well as its fractionated products using n-hexane, dicloromethane, ethyl acetate and water. Extraction of red yeast rice powder with 95% ethanol had a yield of 9.44%. The yield from fractionation of ethanol 95% extract using n-hexane, dicloromethane, ethyl acetate and the water were 1.99%, 1.13%, 0.59% and 1.36% respectively. The phytochemical test showed that ethanol 95% extract of extract contained flavonoids, alkaloids and saponin. The highest antidiabetic activity was shown by ethanol 95% extracts with IC50 value of 20.86 μg/ mL and exhibited an uncompetitive inhibition. Therefore, red yeast rice extracts is potential for antidiabetes.


In eBay v. MercExchange, a unanimous Supreme Court announced that a new four-factor test should be employed by district courts in determining whether to award an injunction or damages to an aggrieved party whose intellectual property has been infringed. In the context of permanent injunctions in patent cases, district courts have distorted the four-factor test resulting in a "market competition requirement" Under the new market competition requirement, success at obtaining an injunction is contingent upon a party demonstrating that it is a market competitor. After consistent application in the first twenty-five district court cases /wsf-eBay, the market competition requirement is becoming an entrenched doctrine. However, the divergent legal standards used by district courts turning on market competition contravenes the Supreme Court's holding that courts should not apply the four-factor test in a manner that makes the injunctive remedy unavailable based on broad classifications. The market competition requirement may solve some of the problems resulting from holdup by so-called "patent trolls" but at a cost potentially too high to bear. The market competition requirement may insulate inefficient markets from meaningful competition and decrease incentives to innovate for individual self-made inventors, who drive a large segment of patenting activity. Because the market competition requirement is without foundational support from eBay and is of questionable utility in incentivizing innovation, its continued use is a cause for serious concern.


Research into the thermodynamic behaviour of copolymer blends has been stimulated by the increasing number of applications in which these materials can be used. In this work, it was intended to characterise the thermodynamics of mixtures of two industrial copolymers and to review the experimental techniques and theoretical analyses currently used in this field. The copolymers used were poly(ethylene - co-vinyl acetate), with Mn = 3290, and poly(tetradecyl fumarate - co - vinyl acetate), with Mn = 10400. The thermodynamics of these mixtures was studied using Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Inverse Phase Gas Chromatography. Solvent Vapour Sorption, Heats of Mixing Calorimetry and Phase Contrast Optical Microscopy. The results of these experiments were interpreted using Flory-Huggins Lattice fluid theory and Flory-Prigogine equation of state theory. Additionally, the results of the calorimetry and chromatography experiments were used to predict the theoretical phase boundary with the intention of comparing the phase boundaries determined experimentally with those predicted theoretically. Unfortunately this comparison could not be made because none of the techniques listed above located a miscibility limit between 303 and 393K. Although some of the experimental results are in conflict, it has been concluded that these materials are immiscible in all proportions in this temperature range. The theoretically simulated spinodal condition occurs between 5 and 50K and is of little practical use in the absence of its experimental equivalent and its extreme temperature. The free energy change which occurs on mixing these copolymers is dominated by the entropic contribution and the equation of state was concluded to be inadequate to interpret this type of behaviour. It is believed that this is the first work which uses experimental data and a partition function to calculate directly a phase boundary without the inclusion of a fixing parameter.


We report on the high statistics two-pion correlation functions from pp collisions at root s = 0.9 TeV and root s = 7 TeV, measured by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The correlation functions as well as the extracted source radii scale with event multiplicity and pair momentum. When analyzed in the same multiplicity and pair transverse momentum range, the correlation is similar at the two collision energies. A three-dimensional femtoscopic analysis shows an increase of the emission zone with increasing event multiplicity as well as decreasing homogeneity lengths with increasing transverse momentum. The latter trend gets more pronounced as multiplicity increases. This suggests the development of space-momentum correlations, at least for collisions producing a high multiplicity of particles. We consider these trends in the context of previous femtoscopic studies in high-energy hadron and heavy-ion collisions and discuss possible underlying physics mechanisms. Detailed analysis of the correlation reveals an exponential shape in the outward and longitudinal directions, while the sideward remains a Gaussian. This is interpreted as a result of a significant contribution of strongly decaying resonances to the emission region shape. Significant nonfemtoscopic correlations are observed, and are argued to be the consequence of "mini-jet"-like structures extending to low p(t). They are well reproduced by the Monte-Carlo generators and seen also in pi(+)pi(-) correlations.


Why did the United States adopt its labor laws? The extant federal laws have undergone little substantive change since 1959, and are mainly intact from the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments to the 1935 Wagner Act. This paper goes back to the Wagner to Taft-Hartley period to ask why some states adopted precursor laws to Taft-Hartley while others did not. These states are valuable and understudied sites of investigation in the development of the United States labor relations order. A key lesson of the state-level experience during the 1930s and 1940s is that Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) density and militance are linked with the adoption of restrictive labor laws. These laws were adopted because they served to restrain organized worker resistance in the form of strikes. The resultant decline in efficacious militance led to the present political canalization of American labor unions. In this paper, I construct a unique dataset of state-level characteristics and laws from 1936 to 1948 and deploy penalized maximum likelihood logistic regression to evaluate standard American Political Development theories of New Deal policy change. Labor militance is found to be a strong predictor of restrictive law adoption. My findings suggest that extant explanations give short shrift to CIO disruption-backlash in the states in explaining the crystallizing of the long-running and extant labor law. This paper is of interest to students of New Deal policy, the development of the United States labor relations order, and American Political Development generally.


Studies on the changing labor relations in post-communist countries have flourished in recent years, such that a review and analysis of what has been reported is overdue. Yet, interestingly, these studies have not reached a consensus on what they seek to explain. Indeed, some of the main questions remain under contention. First, is labor in post-communist societies weak, or (in at least some countries) strong? What should the referent be in determining strength or weakness? To the extent labor is weak, what would explain this weakness? If labor's power varies throughout the region, what would explain this variation? There have been a number of answers posed to these questions to date, but not a thorough testing of rival hypotheses. This paper will demonstrate, using a variety of measures, that labor is indeed a weak social and political actor in post-communist societies, especially when compared to labor in western Europe. This general weakness is rather surprising when one examines it against the now considerable economic and political diversity that exists in the post-communist world. The paper will then examine a number of hypotheses that have been proposed to explain labor's weakness, concluding that the institutional legacies of post-communist trade unions, and the ideological legacy of the discourse of class, best explain this overall weakness. However, the concept of legacy is itself found wanting, since it is unable to account for the extent of this weakness or the trends that have occurred in the region over time.


Psychophysiological interactions (PPIs) analysis is a method for investigating task-specific changes in the relationship between activity in different brain areas, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Specifically, PPI analyses identify voxels in which activity is more related to activity in a seed region of interest (seed ROI) in a given psychological context, such as during attention or in the presence of emotive stimuli. In this tutorial, we aim to give a simple conceptual explanation of how PPI analysis works, in order to assist readers in planning and interpreting their own PPI experiments.


Background/Context This article emerges from several scholarly traditions, chief among them feminist and critical ethnography; school–prison nexus; and critical feminist and race theories. Focus of Study The larger study that informs this article was an 18-month ethnographic inquiry into youth prison schooling in one state. This study explored both the specifics of schooling inside the system and attended to the ways in which it mimicked, mirrored, or resonated with schooling on the outside—offering a qualitative map of power and discipline in schooling writ large. The story that undergirds this article is drawn from that larger study. Here, I attend carefully to one ethnographic moment to conceptualize broad questions of punishment, gender, race, and sexual identity. Setting The research took place inside multiple institutions across one state's juvenile detention and prison system. The article organizes its inquiries around an ethnographic vignette from Inside one state's largest juvenile detention facility. Research Design The research that informs this article is both a long-term critical ethnographic study and rigorous theoretical research across several areas. Conclusions I both begin and conclude this article by offering an initial conceptualization of one form of punishment: vanishment. Vanishment is a punishment that works in concert with imprisonment, banishment, and treatment to organize the disciplinary practices of U.S. school and society. In considering vanishment, the article offers an initial development of the construct and reflects on inquiries that might begin to excavate its seemingly hidden mechanisms. I invite consideration of this punishment across multiple sites and through a variety of approaches.


Embryonic stem cells, with the ability of self-renewal and differentiation to generate cells of all three germ layers, are promising sources to address developmental questions and also for use in clinical regenerative medicine. Generating lineage-committed intestinal stem cells from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) could provide a tractable experimental system for understanding intestinal differentiation pathways and may ultimately provide cells for regenerating damaged intestinal tissue. Intestinal organoids are multicellular crypt-like structures that can be derived from isolated intestinal stem cells or from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) following described differentiation procedures. In addition to their potential usefulness in tissue repair, intestinal organoids may also be useful as tissue surrogates to study basic aspects of intestinal cell biology and for the identification of novel compounds for intestinal diseases and disorders. In this work, we first generated a two-step differentiation procedure in which ESCs were first cultured with activin A to favor formation of definitive endoderm, and then treated with fibroblast-conditioned medium with or without Wnt3A to generate intestinal organoids. The twostep differentiation protocol generated gut bodies with crypt-like structures that included regions of Lgr5-expressing proliferating cells and regions of cell differentiation. The ability of the definitive endoderm to differentiate into intestinal epithelium was supported by the vivo engraftment of these cells into mouse colonic mucosa. These findings demonstrate that definitive endoderm derived from ESCs can carry out intestinal cell differentiation pathways and may provide cells to restore damaged intestinal tissue. Li Cao – University of Connecticut, 2013 We next analyzed their cellular compositions of ESC-derived intestinal organoids under different conditions. We found that the resulting organoids were enriched for intestinal stem cells expressing intestinal stem cell markers Lgr5, Msi1, Tert and Dclk1, relative to cells stripped from colonic mucosa. Similar to intestinal crypt cells, the Tert and Lgr5 expressing cells resolved into two distinct populations. Under two different differentiation procedures, the intestinal stem cell population was found to be largely unaffected whereas the expression of secretory vs. absorptive cell genes could be altered. Finally, intestinal organoids derived from cancer-prone Apc Min/+ mice showed reduced Atoh1 expression, as reported for native intestinal tissue, indicating that aberrant differentiation signaling is reproduced in the organoid system. Our data support the use of ESCderived intestinal organoids as tissue surrogates for the study of early events in intestinal stem cell differentiation. We propose that these organoids may be particularly useful for modeling colonic mucosa at risk for cancer development.


A Samisen is one of the typical plucked string instruments in traditional Japanese music. In this work, the sound generation mechanism of the Samisen will be discussed by analyzing how each part of the Samisen works. The Samisen sound is classified into four time regions by considering the characteristics of the waveform. The time–frequency analysis of the vibration waveform of each part in each time region is compared with that of the sound. Furthermore, the sound generation mechanism will be discussed, including the time region by the transient touch of the plectrum to the strings and the skin. It is concluded that both the cause of the vibration of the skin and the generation of the Samisen original sound are mainly due to two mechanisms: the transmission of the continuous vibration of strings through the bridge and the transient and direct touch of the plectrum.


One of the consequences of the geomagnetic storms resulting from adverse space weather is the induction of geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in power lines. The GICs that flow in a power transmission network are driven by the induced electric field at the Earth's surface. The electric field, in turn, is affected by the changing magnetic field during a magnetic storm. These GICs can cause extensive and expensive damage to transformers in the power transmission system. Understanding the behaviour of the magnetic field during a magnetic storm is a crucial step in modelling and predicting the electric field and ultimately the GICs in a power transmission network. We present a brief overview of the present status of GIC modelling in southern Africa and then discuss whether it is sufficient to use geomagnetic data from a single magnetic observatory alone to model GICs over the subcontinent. A geomagnetic interpolation method is proposed to improve the modelling of GICs in southern Africa. This improved model is one step closer to our being able to predict GICs accurately in the subcontinent, which will enable power distribution companies to take the necessary precautions to minimize possible transformer damage.


In this thesis, elastography is evaluated in combination with optical coherence tomography (OCT). Two approaches to OCT based elastography, Digital image correlation (DIC) and Doppler optical coherence elastography (DOCE), are evaluated for an intravascular setup using in vivo images from a porcine carotid model. DIC tracks the displacement of speckle patterns in consecutive frames, allowing the calculation of axial and lateral strain. Rapid speckle decorrelation was observed in preprocessed structural images, affecting the tracking and limiting the feasibility of this algorithm. DOCE measures axial strain based on relative tissue velocities. Rotational movement of the imaging optical fibre was the biggest source of artefacts in this imaging mode, but could be removed with a newly developed algorithm, based on the phase change induced in a surrounding catheter. The standard deviation of phase after artefact removal, measured in a stationary phantom experiment, was ~0.2 rad, corresponding to a minimum detectable velocity of 792 μm/s at a Doppler angle of 20°. The sensitivity allowed the detection of arterial blood flow velocity and pattern and the detection of adjacent veins, but did not allow direct elastography.


There is wide breadth of root function within ecosystems that should be considered when modeling the terrestrial biosphere. Root structure and function are closely associated with control of plant water and nutrient uptake from the soil, plant carbon (C) assimilation, partitioning and release to the soils, and control of biogeochemical cycles through interactions within the rhizosphere. Root function is extremely dynamic and dependent on internal plant signals, root traits and morphology, and the physical, chemical and biotic soil environment. While plant roots have significant structural and functional plasticity to changing environmental conditions, their dynamics are noticeably absent from the land component of process-based Earth system models used to simulate global biogeochemical cycling. Their dynamic representation in large-scale models should improve model veracity. Here, we describe current root inclusion in models across scales, ranging from mechanistic processes of single roots to parameterized root processes operating at the landscape scale. With this foundation we discuss how existing and future root functional knowledge, new data compilation efforts, and novel modeling platforms can be leveraged to enhance root functionality in large-scale terrestrial biosphere models by improving parameterization within models, and introducing new components such as dynamic root distribution and root functional traits linked to resource extraction.


OBJECTIVE
This study describes a new technique for measuring skin exposure to cutting fluids and evaluates the variability of skin exposure among machine operators performing cyclic (repetitive) work.

METHODS
The technique is based on video recording and subsequent analysis of the video tape by means of computer-synchronized video equipment. The time intervals at which the machine operator's hand was exposed to fluid were registered, and the total wet time of the skin was calculated by assuming different evaporation times for the fluid. The exposure of 12 operators with different work methods was analyzed in 6 different workshops, which included a range of machine types, from highly automated metal cutting machines (ie, actual cutting and chip removal machines) requiring operator supervision to conventional metal cutting machines, where the operator was required to maneuver the machine and manually exchange products.

RESULTS
The relative wet time varied between 0% and 100%. A significant association between short cycle time and high relative wet time was noted. However, there was no relationship between the degree of automatization of the metal cutting machines and wet time.

CONCLUSIONS
The study shows that skin exposure to cutting fluids can vary considerably between machine operators involved in manufacturing processes using different types of metal cutting machines. The machine type was not associated with dermal wetness. The technique appears to give objective information about dermal wetness.


This paper analyses the Irish residential energy demand system by using variants of Deaton and Muellbauer's Almost Ideal Demand System model. Annual data from 1970 to 2013 are employed to estimate a demand system for solid fuels, oil, gas and electricity with the models incorporating quadratic and demographic terms to estimate long-run price and expenditure elasticities. This is the first attempt in an Irish context to estimate an energy demand system for the residential sector. Error correction models were also estimated to recover short-run elasticities. Against the backdrop of onerous climate and energy efficiency policy targets, and given the residential sector's substantial energy use, it is important to update energy demand elasticity estimates to better inform policy instrument design.


Monostatic and bistatic acoustic scattering has been used in studies of the characteristics and motions of the atmosphere. This technique has been successfully implemented in the Monostatic Acoustic Vortex Sensing System (MAVSS) for the measurement of the characteristics of aircraft wake vortices during landing and take‐off. In the present study, calculations are performed to simulate the MAVSS. The results of this study are giving information about the acoustic scattering by the vortex, as well as providing a controlled test bed for the instrument's operation. Since the Doppler shifts, characteristic of the vortex velocity, are dependent on the incoherent scattering of the acoustic waves by turbulence advected by the vortex, a statistical model is proposed that describes the turbulence imbedded in the vortex. The simulations are performed using high‐order accuracy finite‐difference algorithms that have been developed for computational aero‐acoustic (CAA) and wave propagation problems.


Jewelry has always had an irresistible allure yet in the past also had a significance and function within society that went far beyond ornamentation. Jewelry is an important, if often forgotten facet of material culture. Its study is inter-disciplinary, involving archaeology, anthropology, art history, historical/textual studies, and research of materials and manufacturing techniques. While the renowned jewelry from regions such as Egypt and Mesopotamia has been studied, that of the southern Levant has received only limited attention, yet research of its archaeological/contextual, technological and socio-cultural perspectives is illuminating.
The book is a final publication of the author's doctoral dissertation made available to the archaeological and academic community at large. It is geared to be a working tool for archaeologists dealing in this period and region and to scholars who study its arts and crafts. The book provides a handy typological structure for jewelry classification as well as a comprehensive andf useful catalogue for research in this and related fields. In addition, it illustrates the significance, meaning and functions of jewelry and the development of the jeweler's craft in the southern Levant during the first and second millennia BCE.


The study is about Tanzanian foreign policy and its participation in conflict resolution. The survey goes back to the 1950's when Tanganyika's nationalist leader Julius Nyerere and Ghana's leader, Kwame Nkrumah led the liberation struggles and promoted the pan-African unity. The main assumption is that over fifty years, the nation's role and outlook in conflict resolution has remained the same despite changes in circumstances and the shift of emphasis. Tanzania's participation in conflict resolution is divided into two phases: from the mid 1950's during decolonisation to the 1990's when the focus shifted to the Great Lakes Region (GLR) conflicts. The "security" concept as reflected in Tanzania's traditional response to conflict in Southern Africa has by the early 1990's evolved to address specific problems in the neighbourhood. This also entailed the regional's and international community's response to those problems. Given that Tanzania's security is connected to that of its immediate neighbours the Regional Security Complex Theory has been adopted to assist in the explanation of Tanzania's experience in resolving conflicts in Mozambique, Rwanda and Burundi. The model focuses on the domestic, state-to-state relations – which produces a security region, relations with the neighbouring regions; and the relationship between the international community and regional security structures. Mozambique has been selected partly because it is the only country in whose conflict resolution from the liberation struggles to the end of the civil wars Tanzania participated. Mozambique's experience required Tanzania to focus on the link between decolonisation and development as well as develop a regional and pan-African policy. Rwanda and Burundi have been selected because they depict the post-colonial and post-Cold War case studies that required concerted regional and international responses. The study found that Tanzania's nation-building process largely contributed to its understanding and handling of intra-state conflicts. Nationalist struggles both served as a basis for minimising the factors that in the long run would cause conflicts and informed the country's initiatives at the regional level. The study further found that Tanzania's involvement in managing the conflicts in the neighbouring countries was informed by the immediate impact of the conflicts on the region and the threat they pose to Tanzania's national security. Being involved in resolving Mozambique's, Rwanda's and Burundi's conflicts for a longer period than the other countries, Tanzania also worked with regional and the international actors. The actors include the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the UN as well as other individual countries. In some instances Tanzania was even ahead of the other actors in responding to conflicts such as Rwanda's 1990 conflict. Finally, Tanzania's foreign policy and the participation in conflict resolution have largely been successful in the struggles against colonialism and apartheid as well as in the mediation and facilitation of peace talks. The involvement in peacekeeping missions has been an increasing trend, with a shifting emphasis on peace enforcement.


This research is carried out to study the potential of phytic acid extracted from rice bran in the suppression of colon carcinogenesis in rats. In the optimization of phytic acid extraction, results showed 5% H2S04 in pH 0.6 and 30 minutes of extraction time gave the highest amount of phytic acid. In animal study, 72 male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 6 groups with 12 rats in each group;
Group 1: ADM alone, Group 2: AOM + 0.2% (w/v) Commercial Phytic Acid (CPA), G roup 3: ADM + 0.5% (w/v) Commercial Phytic Acid (CPA), Group 4: ADM + 0.2% (w/v) Extract P hytic Acid (EPA) , G roup 5: AOM + 0.5% (w/v) Extract
Phytic Acid (EPA). Rats received two subcutaneous injections of azoxymethane (ADM) in saline at (15mg/kg bodyweight)" over a 2-weeks period to induce colon cancer. The treatments were given in two different concentrations of phytic acid; 0.2% (w/v) and 0.5% (w/v) during post initiation of carcinogenesis phase via drinking water. The colons of the animals were analyzed for detection and quantification of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) after 8 weeks of treatment. The finding showed treatment with 0.2% (w/v) EPA gave the greatest reduction in the formation of ACF. In addition, phytic acid significantly suppressed the number of ACF in the distal, middle and proximal colon as compared to AOM a lone (p<0.05). For the histological classification of ACF, treatment with 0.5% (w/v) CPA had the highest percentage (71%) of non-dysplastic ACF followed by treatment with 0.2% (w/v) EPA (61%). After 20 weeks of treatment, colons of the rats were excised and analyzed for tumor incidence. Results showed that administration of phytic acid reduced the incidence and multiplicity of total tumors and adenocarcinomas even though there were no significant differences between groups. For the immunohistochemical analyses, proliferating cell using Ki-67 and modulating of B-catenin and COX-2 expression were assessed as those have been shown to play a role in tumor progression . In Ki-67, there was a statistically
significance difference in lowering the proliferating index between treatment groups as compared to AOM alone (p<0.05). For B-catenin a nd COX-2 expression, there was a significant difference between g roups as (p=O.OOO) and
(p=0.030). In the correlation test, the results showed that there was a significant positive correlation (p=0.010) between proliferation of Ki67 and COX-2 expression. A positive linear relationship was found between total Ki67 and Bcatenin but these relationships were not statistically significant. Total B-catenin had a significant positive linear relationship with total COX-2 (p=0.044). As a conclusion, this study found the potential value of phytic acid extracted from rice bran in reducing colon cancer risk in rats. Besides identification of cancer reduction strategies based on dietary modification including looking at natural sources that may have anticancer properties, an alternative compound from local sources has been developed. Therefore, rice bran that is normally discarded as by-product of rice production will increase in value due to phytic acid potential as a nutraceutical compound in the prevention of colon cancer progression.


"Imagine trying to play defense in football without ever studying offense. You would not know when a run was coming, how to defend pass patterns, nor when to blitz. In computer systems, as in football, a defender must be able to think like an attacker. I say it in my class every semester, you don't want to be the last person to attack your own system--you should be the first."The world is quickly going online. While I caution against online voting, it is clear that online gaming is taking the Internet by storm. In our new age where virtual items carry real dollar value, and fortunes are won and lost over items that do not really exist, the new threats to the intrepid gamer are all too real. To protect against these hazards, you must understand them, and this groundbreaking book is the only comprehensive source of information on how to exploit computer games. Every White Hat should read it. It's their only hope of staying only one step behind the bad guys."--Aviel D. Rubin, Ph.D. Professor, Computer Science Technical Director, Information Security Institute Johns Hopkins University"Everyone's talking about virtual worlds. But no one's talking about virtual-world security. Greg Hoglund and Gary McGraw are the perfect pair to show just how vulnerable these online games can be."--Cade Metz Senior Editor PC Magazine"If we're going to improve our security practices, frank discussions like the ones in this book are the only way forward. Or as the authors of this book might say, when you're facing off against Heinous Demons of Insecurity, you need experienced companions, not to mention a Vorpal Sword of Security Knowledge."--Edward W. Felten, Ph.D. Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs Director, Center for Information Technology Policy Princeton University"Historically, games have been used by warfighters to develop new capabilities and to hone existing skills--especially in the Air Force. The authors turn this simple concept on itself, making games themselves the subject and target of the 'hacking game,' and along the way creating a masterly publication that is as meaningful to the gamer as it is to the serious security system professional."Massively distributed systems will define the software field of play for at least the next quarter century. Understanding how they work is important, but understanding how they can be manipulated is essential for the security professional. This book provides the cornerstone for that knowledge."--Daniel McGarvey Chief, Information Protection Directorate United States Air Force"Like a lot of kids, Gary and I came to computing (and later to computer security) through games. At first, we were fascinated with playing games on our Apple ][s, but then became bored with the few games we could afford. We tried copying each other's games, but ran up against copy-protection schemes. So we set out to understand those schemes and how they could be defeated. Pretty quickly, we realized that it was a lot more fun to disassemble and work around the protections in a game than it was to play it."With the thriving economies of today's online games, people not only have the classic hacker's motivation to understand and bypass the security of games, but also the criminal motivation of cold, hard cash. That's a combination that's hard to stop. The first step, taken by this book, is revealing the techniques that are being used today."--Greg Morrisett, Ph.D. Allen B. Cutting Professor of Computer Science School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard University"If you're playing online games today and you don't understand security, you're at a real disadvantage. If you're designing the massive distributed systems of tomorrow and you don't learn from games, you're just plain sunk."--Brian Chess, Ph.D. Founder/Chief Scientist, Fortify Software Coauthor of Secure Programming with Static Analysis"This book offers up a fascinating tour of the battle for software security on a whole new front: attacking an online game. Newcomers will find it incredibly eye opening and even veterans of the field will enjoy some of the same old programming mistakes given brilliant new light in a way that only massively-multiplayer-supermega-blow-em-up games can deliver. w00t!"--Pravir Chandra Principal Consultant, Cigital Coauthor of Network Security with OpenSSLIf you are a gamer, a game developer, a software security professional, or an interested bystander, this book exposes the inner workings of online-game security for all to see.From the authors of the best-selling Exploiting Software, Exploiting Online Games takes a frank look at controversial security issues surrounding MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft™ and Second Life®. This no-holds-barred book comes fully loaded with code examples, debuggers, bots, and hacks.This book covers Why online games are a harbinger of software security issues to come How millions of gamers have created billion-dollar virtual economies How game companies invade personal privacy Why some gamers cheat Techniques for breaking online game security How to build a bot to play a game for you Methods for total conversion and advanced mods Written by the world's foremost software security experts, this book takes a close look at security problems associated with advanced, massively distributed software. With hundreds of thousands of interacting users, today's online games are a bellwether of modern software. The kinds of attack and defense techniques described in Exploiting Online Games are tomorrow's security techniques on display today.


testing and analysis for improving software quality. When dealing with complex software, cooperation that synergistically combines the strengths of users and tools is greatly needed and yet lacks support in state-of-the-art research and practice. This talk presents a methodology of cooperative testing and analysis, where users make informed decision when cooperating with software testing and analysis tools to accomplish tasks more effectively. This talk also presents a program-analysis technique on precisely identifying and reporting the problems that prevent test-generation tools from achieving high structural coverage. This technique enables users to help the tools address only the relevant problems, reducing users' efforts in providing guidance. Finally, this talk presents another program-analysis technique on computing information flows and classifying them as safe/unsafe based on a tamper analysis. This flow information explains how applications use permissions, enabling users to make informed decisions on using private data or anonymized data. Also, such information enables mobile platforms to provide default settings that only expose private data for safe flows, minimizing decision making required from users.


Accelerated microbial degradation (AMD) of organophosphate and carbamate nematicides is a phenomenon whereby biodegradation in the soil is increased, leading to a dramatically shortened persistence of nematicides. More intensified agriculture practices in South Africa in response to the future demand for food may lead to increased pest and disease pressure, which in turn will lead to more frequent pesticide application. The same principle applies to plant-parasitic nematode control practices, and the overuse and misuse will have a pronounced effect on the enhancement of AMD. With limited management options available, the responsible use of nematicides becomes more pertinent. Producers should be aware of the problems associated with multiple soil applications of organophosphates and carbamates against plant-parasitic nematodes. This article reviews factors contributing to the AMD of carbamate and organophosphate nematicides in soil and makes practical recommendations to avoid the occurrence of AMD in vineyard and orchards.


Abstract Hybridization between the unisexual Aspidoscelis dixoni and the bisexual Aspidoscelis tigris punctilinealis in southwestern New Mexico is documented by observations and analyses of external morphology (coloration, size, scalation), chromosomes (karyotypes), nuclear gene products (allozymes), and mitochondrial DNA. The locality (Hidalgo County, Antelope Pass of the Peloncillo Mountains, centered at 10.5 km west of Animas), consisting of only a few square kilometers, is the only place where this particular unisexual clone of A. dixoni exists. Because of its extreme rarity in recent years, A. dixoni has been listed as an Endangered Species in New Mexico, and the status of its populations has received intense study. Today, the cause(s) of endangerment remains unknown, although we hypothesize that interspecific competition may be the problem. Aspidoscelis dixoni is a diploid unisexual species that normally reproduces by parthenogenetic cloning, as demonstrated here with genetic data from laboratory-reared lizards. However, fertilization of its eggs in Antelope Pass is possible if mating occurs with a male of the syntopic bisexual species A. tigris punctilinealis. The resulting hybrids closely resemble their maternal parent morphologically, but they are triploid and the females observed to date have been sterile. Aspidoscelis t. punctilinealis is a recent invader of southwestern New Mexico. It is the dominant species of whiptail lizard today in the low-elevation, semiarid habitat of creosote desertscrub in Antelope Pass. The present rarity of A. dixoni in Antelope Pass, in contrast to its abundance a few decades ago, may result from negative interactions with this dominant species, including asymmetrical destabilizing hybridization. Only a few other populations of A. dixoni are known to exist, each in a limited area in southwestern Texas, so there is a hiatus of nearly 500 km between the small and restricted populations in New Mexico and Texas. Comparative genetic data presented here indicate that although these populations are similar, the population in New Mexico represents a unique clone. It has three alleles at 3 nuclear gene loci (among 31 examined) that distinguish it from the Texan populations, and it lacks a microchromosome that occurs in Texan populations. In addition, in this paper we present new comparative genetic data confirming that the origin of A. dixoni itself was from a hybrid between an A. tigris marmorata ♀ × A. gularis septemvittata ♂, consistent with earlier studies.


Deep learning-based 3D human pose estimation performs best when trained on large amounts of labeled data, making combined learning from many datasets an important research direction. One obstacle to this endeavor are the different skeleton formats provided by different datasets, i.e., they do not label the same set of anatomical landmarks. There is little prior research on how to best supervise one model with such discrepant labels. We show that simply using separate output heads for different skeletons results in inconsistent depth estimates and insufficient information sharing across skeletons. As a remedy, we propose a novel affine-combining autoencoder (ACAE) method to perform dimensionality reduction on the number of landmarks. The discovered latent 3D points capture the redundancy among skeletons, enabling enhanced information sharing when used for consistency regularization. Our approach scales to an extreme multi-dataset regime, where we use 28 3D human pose datasets to supervise one model, which outperforms prior work on a range of benchmarks, including the challenging 3D Poses in the Wild (3DPW) dataset. Our code and models are available for research purposes.1


It is possible that more than 50% of complex disease risk is attributed to differences in an individual's environment.1 Air pollution, smoking, and diet are documented environmental factors affecting health, yet these factors are but a fraction of the "exposome," the totality of the exposure load occurring throughout a person's lifetime.1 Investigating one or a handful of exposures at a time has led to a highly fragmented literature of epidemiologic associations. Much of that literature is not reproducible, and selective reporting may be a major reason for the lack of reproducibility. A new model is required to discover environmental exposures associated with disease while mitigating possibilities of selective reporting.


Abstract : This paper presents a suite of protocols called FIRE (Forgery-resilient Intrusion detection, Recovery, and Establishments of keys), for detecting and recovering compromised nodes in sensor networks. FIRE consists of two protocols: an intrusion detection and code update protocol, and a cryptographic key update protocol. In concert, the FIRE protocols enable us to design a sensor network that can always detect compromised nodes (no false negatives), and either repair them through code updates and set up new cryptographic keys, or revoke the compromised nodes from the network. The FIRE protocols are based on ICE (Indisputable Code Execution), a mechanism providing externally verifiable code execution on off-the-shelf sensor nodes. ICE gives the following two properties: 1) the locations in memory from where the code is currently executing on a sensor node, matches memory locations being verified and 2) the memory contents being verified are correct. Together, these two properties guarantee that the code currently executing on the sensor node is correct. The FIRE protocols represent a significant step towards designing secure sensor networks. As far as we are aware, there are no techniques for intrusion detection in adhoc and sensor networks that do make any false negative claims. Also, we do not know of any existing techniques that can automatically recover compromised sensor nodes. We present an implementation of our FIRE protocols and ICE on current off-the-shelf sensor devices.


Large-scale natural resource conservation initiatives are increasingly adopting a network governance framework to respond to the ecological, social, and political challenges of contemporary environmental governance. A network approach offers new modes of management that allow resource managers and others to transcend a single institution, organization, resource, or landscape and engage in conservation that is multi-species and multi-jurisdictional. However, there are challenges to network governance in large-scale conservation efforts, which we address by focusing on how special interests can capture networks and shape the goals, objectives, and outcomes of initiatives. The term "network capture" is used here to describe an array of strategies that direct the processes and outcomes of large-scale initiatives in ways that advance a group's positions, concerns, or economic interests. We outline how new stakeholders emerge from these management processes, and how the ease of information sharing can blur stakeholder positions and lead to competing knowledge claims. We conclude by reasserting the benefits of network governance while acknowledging the unique challenges that networks present.


The Psychology of Musical Development provides an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the latest theory, empirical research and applications in the study of musical development, an important and emerging field of music psychology. After considering how people now engage with music in the digital world, and reviewing current advances in developmental and music psychology, Hargreaves and Lamont compare ten major theoretical approaches in this field - including cognitive stage models and neuroscientific, ecological and social cognitive approaches - and assess how successfully each of these deals with five critical theoretical issues. Individual chapters deal next with cognition, perception and learning; social development; environmental influences on ability, achievement and motivation; identity, personality and lifestyle; affect and emotion; and well-being and health. With an emphasis on practical applications throughout, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of music psychology, developmental psychology, music education and music therapy.


Corn is a crop of high productive potential, but to achieve this, it is essential to apply production technologies, especially fertilizers with a high level of nitrogen. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of nitrogen fertilizer in different phenological stages on corn production. The experiment was installed in the experimental plot of the Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Concepcion, Concepcion Department, Paraguay. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with 5 treatments and 4 repetitions. The treatments consisted of the application of nitrogenous fertilizer in the phenological stages V0, V3, V5, V7 and V9. Number of leaves on and below the spike, number of seed lines per spike, plant height, spike height and yield were evaluated. The obtained data was subjected to the analysis of variance by Fisher's test at 5%, when significant differences was detected, it was proceeded to compare the means obtained by the effect of the treatments using the Tukey test at 5% of significance. The results indicate that the application of nitrogen in different phenological stages of corn cultivation influenced the height of the plant, height of insertion of the spike and yield; not so, for: number of leaves above and below the spike and number of seed lines per spike. It is concluded that the application of nitrogen in different phenological stages of corn, has influence on productive characteristics of the crop. It was recommended that  it should be done in phenological stage V5, to achieve maximum efficiency.

 Key words: Zea mays L., phenological stages, nitrogen, fertilization.


Magnetic nanoparticles, which exhibit a variety of unique magnetic phenomena that are drastically different from those of their bulk counterparts, are garnering significant interest since these properties can be advantageous for utilization in a variety of applications ranging from storage media for magnetic memory devices to probes and vectors in the biomedical sciences. In this Account, we discuss the nanoscaling laws of magnetic nanoparticles including metals, metal ferrites, and metal alloys, while focusing on their size, shape, and composition effects. Their fundamental magnetic properties such as blocking temperature (Tb), spin life time (tau), coercivity (Hc), and susceptibility (chi) are strongly influenced by the nanoscaling laws, and as a result, these scaling relationships can be leveraged to control magnetism from the ferromagnetic to the superparamagnetic regimes. At the same time, they can be used in order to tune magnetic values including Hc, chi, and remanence (Mr). For example, life time of magnetic spin is directly related to the magnetic anisotropy energy (KuV) and also the size and volume of nanoparticles. The blocking temperature (Tb) changes from room temperature to 10 K as the size of cobalt nanoparticles is reduced from 13 to 2 nm. Similarly, H c is highly susceptible to the anisotropy of nanoparticles, while saturation magnetization is directly related to the canting effects of the disordered surface magnetic spins and follows a linear relationship upon plotting of ms (1/3) vs r(-1). Therefore, the nanoscaling laws of magnetic nanoparticles are important not only for understanding the behavior of existing materials but also for developing novel nanomaterials with superior properties. Since magnetic nanoparticles can be easily conjugated with biologically important constituents such as DNA, peptides, and antibodies, it is possible to construct versatile nano-bio hybrid particles, which simultaneously possess magnetic and biological functions for biomedical diagnostics and therapeutics. As demonstrated in this Account, nanoscaling laws for magnetic components are found to be critical to the design of optimized magnetic characteristics of hybrid nanoparticles and their enhanced applicability in the biomedical sciences including their utilizations as contrast enhancement agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ferromagnetic components for nano-bio hybrid structures, and translational vectors for magnetophoretic sensing of biological species. In particular, systematic modulation of saturation magnetization of nanoparticle probes is important to maximize MR contrast effects and magnetic separation of biological targets.


Iterative Logic Arrays (ILAs) are widely used in the datapath parts of digital circuits, like general purpose microprocessors, embedded processors, and digital signal processors. Testing strategies based on more comprehensive fault models than the traditional combinational fault models have become an imperative need in CMOS technology. In this paper, first, we introduce a comprehensive, cell-level, sequential fault model suitable for ILAs, termed Realistic Sequential Cell Fault Model (RS-CFM). RS-CFM drastically reduces test complexity compared to exhaustive two-pattern testing proposed so far in the literature for sequential ILA testing, without sacrificing test quality. In addition, it favors robustness of sequential test sets both at the cell and the array levels. Second, a new Automatic Test Pattern Generator (ILA-ATPG) based on RS-CFM for the case of one-dimensional ILAs is presented. ILA-ATPG can handle all classes of one-dimensional ILAs: unilateral or bilateral ILAs, with or without vertical inputs/outputs. Based on a graph model, ILA-ATPG explores the C-testability and linear-testability of the ILA under test and resolves the test invalidation problem constructing robust test sequences. The efficiency of ILA-ATPG is demonstrated through a comprehensive set of experimental results over all classes of one-dimensional ILAs, including all practical one-dimensional ILAs, as well as a number of more complex benchmarks.


This study focuses on the numerical simulations of the flow around tandem cylinders placed in the vicinity of a rigid, horizontal, plane wall. The cylinders are immersed close to a plane wall in a steady current with a logarithmic boundary layer profile at an intermediate, subcritical Reynolds number (Re = 1.31 x 10). The distance between the cylinder centres is L/D = 2 and 5 and the gap between the cylinders and the wall is G/D = 1. Three-dimensional Large Eddy Simulations (LES) with Smagorinsky subgrid scale model are performed using the open-source code OpenFOAM. The present results are analysed through the values of drag and lift coefficients, as well as by the details of the flow fields in the near wake of the cylinders. The results are qualitatively compared to the results of the flow around tandem cylinders for both L/D = 2 and 5, as well as to the case of a single cylinder near a plane wall.


Background Increasing evidence demonstrate N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA) provides neuroprotection and attenuated oxidative stress in rats following traumatic brain injury (TBI). The nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)–antioxidant response element (ARE) signal pathway is activated after TBI and provides a protective effect against TBI. However, the function and mechanism of NACA in mice after TBI remain unknown. This study was to evaluate the neuroprotection of NACA and the potential action of the Nrf2-ARE pathway in a weight-drop mouse model of TBI. Materials and methods Four groups of animals were randomly divided into sham, TBI, TBI+vehicle, and TBI+NACA (100 mg/kg, administered intraperitoneally). The protein levels of Nrf2, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), NAD(P)H: quinine oxidoreductase-1 (NQO1), cleaved caspase-3 and the mRNA levels of HO-1 and NQO1 were detected. The neurobehavior, neuronal degeneration, apoptosis and oxidative stress were also assessed. Results Treatment with NACA significantly improved neurologic status at days 1 and 3 following TBI. Moreover, NACA promoted Nrf2 activation a day after TBI. The protein and mRNA levels of HO-1 and NQO1 were upregulated by NACA. Meanwhile, NACA treatment significantly reduced the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and enhanced the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), which indicated NACA attenuated oxidative stress following TBI. NACA prominently reduced the protein level of cleaved caspase-3 and TUNEL-positive cells, indicating its antiapoptotic effect. Additionally, Fluoro-Jade C staining showed NACA alleviated neuronal degeneration a day after TBI. Conclusions Our study reveals that NACA potentially provides neuroprotection via the activation of the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway after TBI in mice.


The authors will describe in the following pages the reasons why the project of the Multi-functional Sports Hall from Cluj Napoca is attractive. The main lines of the building are: a hall with a capacity of 7000 seats, a structure dominated by precast concrete elements, a long span roof and an advanced analyze of the connections, all well-kept into the limited funds. The roof solution consists in using steel space trusses made out of square hollow sections (SHS). The truss has a clear span of 63.90m, a total length of 76,10m, a maximum height of 4,00m that is reduced on the length of the structural element, and a triangular cross section being 3,60m wide. Global stability checks and specific local stability problems were performed and are exposed in the following paper. For the fabrication of the space truss, welded joints between the SHS profiles were designed. As a result of the fact that for characteristic failure checks of the welded TT and KK joints analytical methods are based only on a semi-empirical formulae, developed for Φ=90 degrees (the angle between the diagonal planes), for the design of joints finite element modelling was used. Good agreement between the results of the developed finite element joint model and the analytical method for TT and KK joints has been found, even though the semi-empirical formulae are applied for the analysed truss which had Φ=50 degrees.


Face recognition is an important field in image processing. However, most of the face recognition methods found today can recognize a face only if the face has frontal view. To overcome this flaw, the techniques of face recognition can be combined with the techniques of face frontalization, to recognize a face of any angle from the frontal view alone. This type of recognition has many real time applications like recognizing a person in a CCTV camera, auto tagging feature in Smartphone etc. Thus, this paper discusses about various face recognition and face frontalization techniques and our proposed two stage hybrid system. A brief description is provided about the methods. Then the results of these methods are evaluated and the methods are compared with each other and the methods to be incorporated into the system are selected. Keywords—Face Recognition; Image Processing; Computer Vision; Front Face Generation; Side Face; Face Angle.


Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic blood disorder. Because there are at least 15 genetic subtypes that are associated with its development, and large deletions, duplications, or sequence variations are frequently found in some of these genes, customary genetic testing for FA is complicated and time-consuming. Therefore, we used the diagnostic result of a Chinese boy with Fanconi anemia by the next generation sequencing (NGS) as the reference, we confirmed the mutations in him, his father and pregnant mother using Sanger sequencing technique and performed the prenatal diagnosis to the fetus. A heterozygous nucleotide deletion c.989_995del7 (p.H330LfsX2) and nucleotide substitution c.3971C>T (p.P1324L) in FANCA gene were detected in the patient. Further analysis confirmed that the p.H330LfsX2 was derived from his mother and the p.P1324L from his father. As for the fetus, both of the same parental mutations were detected in amniotic fluid and cultured amniotic fluid. Our result shows that NGS combined with Sanger sequencing greatly improve the speed of prenatal diagnosis of FA.


Sun hours is one of the parameters used in Photovoltaic system design in determining whether installation of a solar system would be recommended for a particular region, with a minimum of 5 sun hours per day being a recommended standard. As a result, photovoltaic systems are preferably installed in areas with long sun hours and these invariably have high temperatures. However, studies carried out on the performance of photovoltaic modules have shown a considerable decrease in their power output at temperatures above their optimum operating temperature 25°C. Most interestingly, research has also shown a decrease in the output power of a photovoltaic module as it cools down after being heated to 58°C indicating that high temperatures may cause premature aging of the module. This research aims to determine whether the temperatures at which University of Namibia (UNAM) Faculty of Engineering and I.T campus' photovoltaic modules are operated are high enough to reduce the module power output considerably. To achieve this, the average operating temperature of the systems modules for the period of 214 days between 1 March and 30 September 2014 was determined. During the course of the research it was discovered that 79% of the insolation received by the system's modules daily is received in the time period between 12 pm and 4 pm. In this report, this time period will be referred to as the peak insolation period and because the insolation received directly affects PV power output, particular attention was paid to the effect PV module operating temperatures have on the system power output during this period. The PV system was modeled to a 98.7% mean accuracy using Matlab Simulink and run at optimum operating temperature, daily average operating temperature and peak insolation period operating temperature, for a range of insolation values. The simulation results show a 0.31% decrease in system power output per Kelvin increase in temperature and performance ratios of 0.97 and 0.94 when the simulation is run at daily average temperature and average peak insolation period temperature respectively. Finally, using the T test at the 95% confidence level, the power outputs obtained when the simulation was run at average operating temperature and average peak insolation temperature were tested to see if they are statistically different from the power outputs obtained when it is run at optimum operating temperature. The results of the T test showed that the power outputs obtained at both the average operating temperature and the average peak insolation operating temperature are statistically different from the power output at optimum operating temperature indicating that the temperature significant decreases the PV system power output.


In this paper I will exploit answers coming from the British Election Study in order to assess the validity of the Single Mindedness Theory. In particular, I will evaluate whether political preferences of voters for political candidates depend on their age and some other characteristics such as gender, education, religion, social and economic conditions. Performing LOGIT and PROBIT regression I will demonstrate that variable age is statistically significant, demonstrating that Single Mindedness Theory assumptions hold in the UK political environment.


The oil palm is one of the most important commercial oil crops that produces
high quality of oil and with it comes an increasing global demand for this crop. The
clonal oil palm produced by tissue culture technique provides an opportunity to
expand productivity in order to fulfill the vast demand. However a number of reports
have documented the occurrence of abnormalities in clonal oil palm such as
vegetative abnormalities of tissue-cultured plantlets and also abnormalities of
flowers. There has been no fundamental understanding of the cause of these
abnormalities. Since the tissues and organs of plants originate fiom apical
meristerns, it is worthwhile to study the molecular mechanism underlying organ
morphogenesis k m this undifferentiated meristem cells. Within the past several
years, there are several lines of evidence indicating that the homeobox genes control
pattern formation and morphological structure determinations in multicellular
eukaryotes including plants. In this study, Knotted homeobox gene was identified
and isolated in order to develop an understanding of the function of this gene during
oil palm development. In order to isolate the fiill-length Knotted homcobox gene
from oil palm, an oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) suspension culture cDNA
library of was screened with a partial cDNA clone (putative oil palm Knotted gene).
From the screening, the full-length of oil palm Knotted homeobox gene was isolated
and designated as oil galm Knotted homeobox gene (OPKNI). This thesis
describes the first homeobox gene isolated from oil palm. Sequence analysis showed
that OPKNl belongs to the class-1 Knotted gene family. Expression study by semiquantitative
RT-PCR, northern blot as well as in situ hybridization analyses proved
that OPKNl gene was expressed in both vegetative and floral meristems suggesting
a function in both phases of development. Based on semi-quantitative RT-PCR
analyses, OPKNl was shown to be expressed in all meristem-based tissues
including shoot apex, both male and female floral meristems, embryogenic callus,
and suspension cell cultures. This seems to indicate that OPKNI may play role in
meristem organization and later in morphogenesis processes. This can be supported
by the presence of OPKNl transcript in leaf prirnordia suggesting that it may play
roles in the development of pimate leaf in oil palm. The presence of OPKNl
throughout the flower development in both normal and abnormal flowers also
indicates that the gene is active during floral development, suggesting a function in
floral morphogenesis. Furthermore, the differences in temporal and spatial
expression of OPKNl in different stages and type of meristem tissues may cause
error in organ determination.
iii


Three species of Homidia, (H. rosannae n. sp., H. sotoi n. sp. and H. yoshiii n. sp.) found among misidentified specimens of the Yoshii Collection at MHNG, are described by the use of macrochaetotaxy (Jordana & Baquero, 2005) facilitates the differentiation among members of the Japanese species. This paper describes three new species identified through this method. A comparative chaetotaxy of Homidia species and a key are given.


An analysis of the recently reconstructed gridded May–September total precipitation in the Indian monsoon region for the past half millennium discloses significant variations at multidecadal timescales. Meanwhile, paleo‐climate modeling outputs from the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model 4.0 show similar multidecadal variations in the monsoon precipitation. One of those variations at the frequency of 40–50 years per cycle is examined in this study. Major results show that this variation is a product of the processes in that the meridional gradient of the atmospheric enthalpy is strengthened by radiation loss in the high‐latitude and polar region. Driven by this gradient and associated baroclinicity in the atmosphere, more heat/energy is generated in the tropical and subtropical (monsoon) region and transported poleward. This transport relaxes the meridional enthalpy gradient and, subsequently, the need for heat production in the monsoon region. The multidecadal timescale of these processes results from atmospheric circulation‐radiation interactions and the inefficiency in generation of kinetic energy from the potential energy in the atmosphere to drive the eddies that transport heat poleward. This inefficiency creates a time delay between the meridional gradient of the enthalpy and the poleward transport. The monsoon precipitation variation lags that in the meridional gradient of enthalpy but leads that of the poleward heat transport. This phase relationship, and underlining chasing process by the transport of heat to the need for it driven by the meridional enthalpy gradient, sustains this multidecadal variation. This mechanism suggests that atmospheric circulation processes can contribute to multidecadal timescale variations. Interactions of these processes with other forcing, such as sea surface temperature or solar irradiance anomalies, can result in resonant or suppressed variations in the Indian monsoon precipitation.


F2-layer is the most important and characteristic layer of the ionosphere in the propagation of high frequency (HF) waves due to the highest level of conductivity in the propagation path. In this study, the relation of Total Electron Content (TEC) with the maximum ionization height (hmF2) and the critical frequency (foF2) of F2-layer are investigated within their defined parametric range using the IRI model extended towards the plasmasphere (IRI-Plas). These two parameters are optimized using daily observed GPS-TEC (IONOLAB-TEC) in an iterational loop through Non-Linear Least Squares (NLSQ) optimization while keeping the physical correlation between hmF2 and foF2 parameters. Optimization performance is examined for daily (24-hour) and hourly TEC optimizations separately. It is observed that hourly TEC optimization produces results with much smaller estimation errors. As a result of the hourly optimization, we obtain the hourly hmF2 and foF2 estimates as they are the optimization parameters. Obtained hmF2 and foF2 estimates are compared with the ionosonde estimates for various low, middle and high latitude locations for both quite and disturbed days of ionosphere. The results show that hmF2 and foF2 estimates obtained from IRI-Plas optimization (IRI-Plas-Opt) and ionosonde are very much in agreement with each other. These results also signify that IRI-Plas provides a reliable background model for ionosphere. With the proposed method, it is possible to build a virtual ionosonde via optimization of IRI-Plas model using the observed TEC values.


Measures of population differentiation, such as FST, are traditionally derived from the partition of diversity within and between populations. However, the emergence of population clusters from multilocus analysis is a function of genetic structure (departures from panmixia) rather than of diversity. If the populations are close to panmixia, slight differences between the mean pairwise distance within and between populations (low FST) can manifest as strong separation between the populations, thus population clusters are often evident even when the vast majority of diversity is partitioned within populations rather than between them. For any given FST value, clusters can be tighter (more panmictic) or looser (more stratified), and in this respect higher FST does not always imply stronger differentiation. In this study we propose a measure for the partition of structure, denoted EST, which is more consistent with results from clustering schemes. Crucially, our measure is based on a statistic of the data that is a good measure of internal structure, mimicking the information extracted by unsupervised clustering or dimensionality reduction schemes. To assess the utility of our metric, we ranked various human (HGDP) population pairs based on FST and EST and found substantial differences in ranking order. In some cases examined, most notably among isolated Amazonian tribes, EST ranking seems more consistent with demographic, phylogeographic and linguistic measures of classification compared to FST. Thus, EST may at times outperform FST in identifying evolutionary significant differentiation.


Best known as the author of the classic "Darkness at Noon", Koestler was one of the most influential and controversial intellectuals, involved in and commenting on almost every political movement of the twentieth century. As young man, he was a committed Zionist and moved to Palestine; he was imprisoned and sentenced to death in Franco's Spain; escaped Occupied France; and, was a member of the Communist party for seven years, later becoming one of its fiercest critics with the publication of "Darkness at Noon". Without sentimentality, Scammell gives a full account of Koestler's turbulent private life: his drug use, manic depression, the frenetic womanizing that doomed his three marriages and led to an accusation of rape, and his startling suicide pact with his wife in 1983. Koestler also gives a full account of the author's voluminous writings, making the case that the autobiographies and essays are fit to stand beside "Darkness at Noon" as works of lasting literary value. Michael Scammell creates an indelible portrait of this brilliant, unpredictable, and talented writer, once memorably described as 'one third blackguard, one third lunatic, and one third genius'.


The genus Aesculus L. (Hippocastanaceae) has 12 species distributed in eastern Asia, eastern and western North America, and Europe. In Europe and the United States, A. hippocastanum has been used for the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency, hemorrhoids, and postoperative edema. In China, A. chinensis var. chinense has been used as a stomachic and analgesic in the treatment of distention and pain in the chest and the abdomen, malaria, dysentery, and heart disease. The objective of this paper is to review the ethnobotany, phytochemistry, and pharmacological properties of the genus Aesculus. To date, more than 210 compounds have been isolated and identified primarily from the fruits or seeds of Aesculus, with polyhydroxylated triterpenoid saponins as the major active principles. Studies have confirmed that Aesculus seed extracts and isolates possess diverse activities, including anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antiviral, antifungal, antiangiogenic (vascular protection), anti-obesity, antioxidative, and antigenotoxic properties. Interestingly, detailed stud- ies of the saponins from more eastern North American species and other uninvestigated Aesculus species are necessary to further confirm the chemotaxonomic value of the novel cytotoxic saponins discovered recently from A. pavia, an eastern North American species, and to fully understand the chemical profile of the genus. Animal investigations of these novel cytotoxic saponins on the potential for the treatment of cancer are also intriguing.


Climate change and its harmful effects are widely accepted. A common approach is to argue along the lines of Mill's 'harm principle': if we contribute to climate change, then we are likewise responsible for harming others and we have a negative duty to reduce our carbon emissions. This article argues that a negative duty leads to a philosophical fork in the road which does not necessarily entail carbon emissions reductions. Arguments for such reductions require further supplementation to close off possible non-conservationist alternatives.


Abstract Oxide scale behaviour in thermomechanical processing has been the subject of intensive research for several years that allowed development of a finite element based model to simulate a range of events of relevance to the process and to the surface quality of the hot rolled product. Oxide scale failure is predicted taking into account the main physical phenomena, such as stress directed diffusion, fracture and adhesion of the oxide scale, strain, strain rate and temperature. The most critical parameters for scale failure are measured during modified hot tensile testing and depend on the morphology of the particular oxide scale and scale growth temperature and are also very sensitive to the chemical composition of the underlying metal. Provided that it is validated, the model can also be used for detailed modelling of the microevents during technological operations. The work integrates finite element analysis with a range of experiments each to provide partial insight into oxide fracture, friction, heat transfer, pick-up and descaling, among others. An overview of this research is presented, revealing a variety of phenomena of considerable technological importance.


The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly named GLAST, is a mission in low-Earth orbit to observe gamma rays from the cosmos in the broad energy range from 20 MeV to >300 GeV, with supporting observations of gamma-ray bursts from 8 keV to 30 MeV. The telescope far surpasses previous generations in its ability to detect and localize faint gamma-ray sources, as well as its ability to see 20% of the sky at any instant and scan the entire sky on a timescale of a few hours. With its launch on 11 June 2008, Fermi opened a new and exciting window on a wide variety of exotic astrophysical objects and is enabling new research on such topics as the origin and circulation of cosmic rays and searches for hypothetical new phenomena such as annihilation of dark matter. In addition to introducing the mission and the instruments, this talk will present the latest results on dark matter searches, diffuse gamma-ray production, galactic sources such as pulsars and micro-quasars, and extragalactic sources such as active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts.


An undestanding of the activities and functions of a speech therapist within the specific context of the Basic Health Units (Unidades Basicas de Saude) is sought. Difficulties relating to the introduction of a new service on the basis of one of the health professions that has not hitherto belonged to the group of categories which are traditionally incorporated in these same Basic Units. When the statistical data on the demand for speech therapy services by the population who attend health centres were considered, it was discovered that 32% were of schooling age and had been referred by schools, allegedly due to "learning problems". Closer contact with these children, through speech therapy, has brought a different aspect to light i.e. that one cannot consider as disturbance/deviation/problem/pathology written signs which constitute indications of the shock between the process of literacy and that of learning how to read and write. To understand the problem from the point of view of public health, a programme of teacher counselling is proposed, with the purpose of helping the school to clarify its role as co-constructor of the child's literacy process and of returning to the teacher the responsibility for the success and/or failure of teaching how to read and write. A similar programme is proposed for creches where coincidently, a greter proportion (44%) of the younger children (2 to 5 years of age) are seen to have difficulties in oral language development. Both programmes are based on the view of language as a constructor of processes of subjetivism and objectivism, and therefore the oral (and written) discoursive practices are the privileged "locus" for interpreting oral and graphic signs and their transformation into the symbolic realm.


Between 2014 and 2020 over 1.8 million refugees fled from Venezuela to Colombia as a result of a humanitarian crisis, many of them without a regular migratory status. We study the short- to medium-term labor market impacts in Colombia of the Permiso Temporal de Permanencia program, the largest migratory amnesty program offered to undocumented migrants in a developing country in modern history. The program granted regular migratory status and work permits to nearly half a million undocumented Venezuelan migrants in Colombia in August 2018. To identify the effects of the program, we match confidential administrative data on the location of undocumented migrants with department-monthly data from household surveys and compare labor outcomes in departments that were granted different average time windows to register for the amnesty online, before and after the program roll-out. We are only able to distinguish negative albeit negligible effects of the program on the formal employment of Colombian workers. These effects are predominantly concentrated in highly educated and in female workers.


Personal sense of uniqueness, a major construct in humanistic psychology, has been recently shown to be a robust correlate of happiness. Yet the antecedents of this experience are not known. To address this limitation, we focused on extraversion and openness to experience, the two traits referred to as plasticity in higher-order framework of personality, as predictors of uniqueness and happiness. In light of theory and past empirical research, we proposed that the two traits representing plasticity would promote a sense of uniqueness, which in turn influence happiness. This model was tested in a college sample (N = 370) by relying on structural equation modeling. Results showed that uniqueness mediated the associations of extraversion and openness to experience with happiness. This model was supported when the effects of neuroticism, a marker of vulnerability to psychopathology, on uniqueness was taken into account. The implications of the findings for future research were addressed and sense of uniqueness as an element of a good life was highlighted.


Summary The aim of the present work is to evaluate the effect of Tinospora cordifolia against hepatosuppression induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). The evaluation markers used were serum marker enzymes viz. GOT, GPT, Alkaline phosphate, glucose, bilirubin, Triglycerides, γ GT, cholesterol, DNA, RNA and total protein. These biochemical parameters were significantly changed by the single dose of CCl4. The treatment of Tinospora cordifolia significantly recovers all the serum and liver parameters like normal levels. However, silymarin was used as a reference standard for this study. The findings indicates that the hepatoprotective action of Tinospora cordifolia against hepatosuppression possibly involves CCl4 bioactivation through selective inhibitors of reactive oxygen species like antioxidants brought about significant inhibition of TBARS suggesting possible involvement of O2 – , HO2, HO2 – , H2O2 and OH. Light and electron microscope photographs also support the same. Hence Tinospora cordifolia indicating protection in liver may prove promising effect against liver disorders. Thus it may act even in humans as a potent liver tonic.


The rapid and continuing evolution of information technology has occasioned large stocks of electronic resources in libraries and created pressure for both library professionals and users to continue learning in order to provide effective service and make adequate use of the new information materials. Many activities in collection development, such as online searching of other libraries' catalog have become possible only in the last few years with the expansion of the internet. This research is mainly to find to what extent does a public library such as Perpustakaan Raja Tun Uda (RATU), Shah Alam are utilizing IT for the purpose of collection development process. This study will emphasis on the types of IT services used by the library, the system requirements for collection development, the IT skills needed for collection development and also the advantages and disadvantages of IT to Perpustakaan Raja Tun Uda (RATU), Shah Alam. The objectives of the study are to identify the types of IT services used in the collection development process, to recognize the system requirement for collection development, to identify the IT skills needed for collection development, to discover the advantages of using IT for collection development, and to recognize of the drawback of IT as a tool for collection development. This research is important for the reason that it can provide information to the librarian and staffs at the acquisition department especially those doing the selection for the materials to be purchase. The finding is also valuable for the library to know what are the basic requirements needed to adopt IT in the process of collection development, such as the training program for the staff to acquire the necessary skills to utilize the IT services. Beside that, the library will be aware of the potential and drawbacks of using IT.


A novel algorithm is proposed for the distributed and location-free detection of boundaries in sensor networks. The approach allows a node to decide autonomously, based solely on connectivity information of a small 2-hop neighborhood, whether it is in the interior of the network or on its fringes. This makes the presented algorithm well suited for scenarios that include mobility or dynamic changes to the network topology. The algorithm is compared qualitatively and quantitatively to multiple previous approaches. Various models and network settings are considered in extensive simulations. Even though the algorithm uses less information than most other approaches, it yields significantly better results. It is very robust against variations in node degree and does not rely on simplified assumptions of the communication model. Moreover, the approach is easy to implement on real sensor nodes, as it requires little computational power.


A cooperative is business voluntary owned and controlled by its member patrons, and operated for them on a non profit. Its mean that cooperative is an economic system with social content. So, cooperative suits coastal communities, especially for fishermen that majority of them living in under poverty line. KUD Mina Fajar Sidik is one of the fisheries cooperative in Indonesia get award as independent cooperative. The objectives of the study are: (1) to identify the performance of fisheries cooperative KUD Mina Fajar Sidik, (2) to identify the KUD Mina Fajar Sidik role in coastal communities, (3) to identify the internal and external factors which influence the performance of fISheries cooperative KUD Mina Fajar Sidik. The research shows that: (1) The performance of fisheries cooperative KUO Mina Fajar Sidik is very good, because apply the cooperative principles, (2) KUD Mina Fajar Sidik takes important role in coastal communities on economic and social sectors, (3) The main internal factors which influence the performance of fisheries cooperative KUD Mina Fajar Sidik are applied the cooperative principles (as strength) and human resources of their member poorly (as weakness). Another hand, the main external factors are the govemment concem to cooperative is very good (as opportunity) and unpredictable climate and over fIShing (as threat) Keynote: cooperative, coastal communities, cooperative prinCiples PENDAHULUAN Latar Belakang


The development of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) technology allows a new approach for the intensive care management of acute cardiac and/or respiratory failure in adult patients who are not responsive to conventional treatment. Current ECMO therapies provide a variety of options for the multidisciplinary teams who are involved in the management of these critically ill patients. In this regard, veno-venous ECMO (VV-ECMO) can provide quite complete respiratory support, even if this highly complex technique presents substantial risks, such as bleeding, thromboembolic events and infection. While VV-ECMO circuits usually include the cannulation of two vessels (double cannulation) in its classic configuration, the use of a single cannula is now possible for VV-ECMO support. Recently, experienced centers have employed more advanced approaches by cannulating three vessels (triple cannulation) which follows veno-arterio-venous (VAV) or veno-arterio-pulmonary-arterial cannulation (VAPa). However, 'triple' cannulation expands the field of application but increases the complexity of ECMO systems. In the present review, the authors focus on the indications for VV-ECMO, patient assessment prior to cannulation, the role of ultrasound-guided vessel puncture, double lumen single bicaval cannulations, and finally triple cannulation in VV-ECMO.


This paper formalizes the process of updating the nowcast and forecast on output and inflation as new releases of data become available. The marginal contribution of a particular release for the value of the signal and its precision is evaluated by computing 'news' on the basis of an evolving conditioning information set. The marginal contribution is then split into what is due to timeliness of information and what is due to economic content. We find that the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia surveys have a large marginal impact on the nowcast of both inflation variables and real variables and this effect is larger than that of the Employment Report. When we control for timeliness of the releases, the effect of hard data becomes sizeable. Prices and quantities affect the precision of the estimates of GDP while inflation is only affected by nominal variables and asset prices.


Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) was used to identify polymorphisms between crucifer species using the polymerase chain reaction-random fragment-length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. Ten primer pairs based on cpDNA gene sequences were used to amplify cpDNA fragments in Brassica oleracea L., B. rapa L., B. nigra (L.) Koch, B. napus L., B. carinata Braun, B. juncea (L.) Czern, and Raphanus sativus L. accessions. Amplified DNA sequences were then digested using 11 restriction enzymes to identify polymorphisms between the 7 species. Of the 110 combinations, 38 generated polymorphisms that discriminated one or more of the species. Genotyping of these polymorphisms in 10 accessions of each of the diploid species (B. oleracea, B. nigra, B. rapa and R. sativus) did not reveal segregating polymorphisms among accessions within species, indicating that they can be used to help determine species identity. Ten accessions of each of the amphidiploids B. napus, B. carinata and B. juncea were genotyped to infer their maternal ancestry. The diploid source of cpDNA in B. carinata was B. nigra in all accessions tested and B. rapa for nine of ten B. juncea accessions tested. Two B. napus accessions amplified polymorphisms shared with B. rapa, and eight accessions produced unique polymorphisms from neither B. rapa, B. oleracea or B. nigra. The polymorphisms identified in this study can be used to help confirm identity of the diploid crucifer species for taxonomic and conservation studies.


The literature on feminism and multiculturalism has identified potential conflicts between the recognition of cultural diversity and securing women's equality. Three broad approaches to this dilemma have emerged in the practices of contemporary states: regulation, working with the communities, and exit. Each of these is apparent in current initiatives regarding forced marriage, but the overwhelming emphasis in the UK has been on enabling individuals to exit from the threat or reality of a forced marriage. In assessing these initiatives, this paper highlights the limitations of exit and the danger of moving towards immigration regulation as the preferred solution.


The existing Monte-Carlo-based non-line-of-sight (NLOS) multiple-scatter propagation model is extended to include polarization and also vectorized to improve the simulation speed by about 500 times. This model is validated by the noncoplanar single-scatter model; the results show a perfect match. Numerical examples for various polarization setups are obtained, and results show that the single-scatter and multiple-scatter signals are all polarization dependent. Therefore, NLOS polarized UV communication with a high data rate is achievable--the polarizing information is coded by a time-dependent polarizer, influenced by the atmospheric channel, and decoded according to the distribution characteristics of the scattered signals after the time-independent analyzers.


(ABSTRACT) The purpose of this research was to predict a COBOL program's reliability from software characteristics that are found in the program's source code. The first step was to select factors based on the human information processing model that are associated with changes in computer program reliability. Then these factors (software metrics) were quantitatively studied to determine which factors affect COBOL program reliability. Then a statistical model was developed that predicts COBOL program reliability. Reliability was selected because the reliability of computer programs can be used by systems professionals and auditors to make decisions. Using the Human Information Processing Model to study the act of creating a computer program, several hypotheses were derived about program characteristics and reliability. These hypotheses were categorized as size, structure, and temporal hypotheses. These characteristics were then used to test several prediction models for the reliability of COBOL programs. Program characteristics were measured by a program called METRICS. METRICS was written by the author using the Pascal programming language. It accepts COBOL programs as input and produces as output seventeen measures of complexity. Actual programs and related data were then gathered from a large insurance company over the course of one year. The data were used to test the hypotheses and to find a model for predicting the reliability of COBOL programs. The operational definition for reliability was the probability of a program executing without abending. The size of a program, its cyclomatic complexity, and the number of times a program has been executed were used to predict reliability. A regression model was developed that predicted the reliability of a COBOL program from a program's characteristics. The model had a prediction error of 9.3%, a R 2 of 15%, and an adjusted R 2 of 13%. The most important thing learned from the research is that increasing the size of a program's modules, not the total size of a program, is associated with decreased reliability.


A unified approach to the problem of the spatial resolution of near-field optical and tunneling microscopes is proposed. The recording of an optical signal is regarded as plotting the intensity distribution of the electromagnetic field along the trajectory of a virtual infinitely sharp point. Its distance from the sample surface depends on the shape of the field lines and is the main factor that limits the resolution of the device. Estimates are made of the limiting resolution when various types of optical probes are used. © 2004 Optical Society of America


During the years 2006-2007, three teams of scientists (archaeologists with geophysicists) detected the archaeological surface of the Late Antique villa at Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (Siena, Tuscany) using GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar), Resistivity and Magnetometry. Their aim was to identify archaeological remains and consequently spend less time and money on digging. At the conclusion of the fieldwork and data treatment, they used a CAD program to overlap geophysical and archaeological layers and check geophysical results on archaeological remains. Despite surveys in many other archaeological sites, they obtained few results: surveys located anomalies in less than 1/4 of the archaeological remains excavated in 2008 and 2009. In this paper the authors attempt to analyze (and try to find better solutions for the future) errors in the geophysical surveys caused by incorrect calibration of the database, low accuracy of grid intersections and excessively long grid lines, in relationship to site conditions and the kinds of archaeological remains. These technical problems in fact certainly create a less than optimal operational synergy between archaeologists and geologists during the post-processing of the data: an analysis of these problems may help to improve future projects of this type.


Since the first appearance of computers half a century ago, computing technology has evolved rapidly, and it continues to do so. Having the most powerful and fastest computers is no longer the only goal for a successful computer system. A common characteristic of successful computer systems in the modern era is the ability to utilize vast amounts of information efficiently.
We introduce two important concepts from sociology into computer science: human capital and social capital. In a society, people who possess high human capital are individuals with more ability. They are more intelligent, more attractive, more articulate, and more skilled. In the human capital metaphor, these people are more likely to do better than others. Social capital is the contextual complement to human capital. In the social capital metaphor, people who do better are somehow better connected. The asset they possess is an advantageous location in the society. Today's computer systems exhibit a strong resemblance to human society. The linkage relationships among nodes in a system affect the performance of the system to a large extent. A well-connected system can outperform a collection of powerful nodes.
In this dissertation, we present results of applying the social capital metaphor to two kinds of computer systems: focused web crawling and peer-to-peer systems. We have designed and implemented a novel focused crawler that captures the topical linkage in the web. We have introduced the notion of "topical link". Topical links connect pages with similar content. By combining topical links with hyperlinks, the connectivity of the web graph is greatly enhanced. In our study of peer-to-peer systems, we have introduced the concept of "buddy net". Buddy net connects peers with similar interests in a peer-to-peer system. It is an interest-based overlay on top of the physical overlay of a peer-to-peer system. With the help of buddy net, the efficiency and robustness of a peer-to-peer system is greatly improved.


This study used a modern theory of stress as a framework to strengthen the understanding of the relationship between neurobehavioural problems of TBI, family functioning and psychological distress in spouse/caregivers. The research was an ex post facto design utilising a cross-sectional methodology. Path analysis was used to determine the structural effect of neurobehavioural problems on family functioning and psychological distress. Forty-seven female and 17 male spouse/caregivers of partners with severe TBI were recruited. Spouse/caregivers who reported partners with TBI as having high levels of behavioural and cognitive problems experienced high levels of unhealthy family functioning. High levels of unhealthy family functioning were related to high levels of distress in spouse/caregivers, as family functioning had a moderate influence on psychological distress. Furthermore, indirect effects of behavioural and cognitive problems operating through family functioning intensified the level of psychological distress experienced by spouse/caregivers. Additionally, spouse/caregivers who reported high levels of behavioural, communication and social problems in their partners also experienced high levels of psychological distress. This study was significant because the impact of TBI on the spouse/caregiver from a multidimensional perspective is an important and under-researched area in the brain injury and disability field.