More extended reach wells, highly deviated and ultra deep are being drilled to meet the world's continuously increasing energy demand. Hole cleaning remains one of the greatest challenges throughout drilling operations, as material from the formation is generated during the entire drilling process. Depending on several parameters like rate of penetration, flow rate and mud rheology, the cuttings concentration will fluctuate throughout the wellbore. Insufficient hole cleaning may result in a number of drilling problems. Satisfactory cuttings transport is therefore essential to avoid problems associated with poor hole cleaning, and it is important to reduce non-productive time associated with downhole failures and wellbore integrity. The objective of the present study was to observe and estimate an effect from cuttings on equivalent circulating density, and to find the amount of cuttings in the vertical part of the wellbore at a certain time. This was attempted by calculating the length of displacement of generated cuttings from the horizontal part within each section, and the amount of time required for these cuttings to be transported upwards the annulus, to the vertical part of the wellbore. This has been done for both observed and theoretical values. The effects of cuttings on equivalent circulating density have been observed and estimated, based on data from the drilling operation of well NO-34/10-C-47 in the North Sea. Twenty different cases were chosen, and standpipe pressure information was gathered from real time drilling data. The cuttings concentrations were then calculated. The same procedure was then performed theoretically, where data from the Final Well Report were used. The results of observations and estimations were compared to evaluate the quality of the results. Also, extensive research of published knowledge has been made, along with interpretation of already existing cuttings transport models. The parameters affecting hole cleaning are presented to give an overview of the complexity of the subject. The main conclusions obtained in the present study are: • Effects of cuttings on equivalent circulating density were successfully observed and estimated. • Good consistency of model results when comparing the observed and estimated values for lengths of displacement. • The field data provided relevant information. However, field data from several wells would have been preferable for increased reliability. • The model calculations were not able to account for transient effects, which limits the results significantly. • Simple theoretical models were made for clarity, but more complex and detailed descriptions are required, accounting for transient effects.


Over the past two decades, the failure of the United States to ratify a string of global multilateral environmental agreements has become a significant source of frustration for environmentalists and diplomats. The common perception is that Washington politics is to blame. The problem has even led to scholarly suggestions that any new climate agreement coming out of the Paris negotiations later this year could be entered into by the U.S. as an Executive Agreement rather than a Senate-approved treaty. Delay has been uniquely serious, however, with respect to the 1989 Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes. Signed under the elder President Bush and approved by the Senate in 1992, the agreement has remained stuck in legal limbo for almost a quarter of a century – unratified and thus without U.S. membership. In this article, we dispute the common perception that politics is the sole reason for ratification delays. Rather, a legal issue, which has received little attention, has proven to be an equally significant impediment whether U.S. law provides adequate authority for domestic agencies to carry out treaty obligations. With respect to Basel Convention ratification, it has been commonly believed that further implementing legislation is necessary. Similar assessments of inadequate domestic implementing authority apply to other pending MEAs. We make two central points in this article. First, with respect to the Basel Convention specifically, a careful review of existing legal authorities reveals that the Executive Branch already has, at this point in time, sufficient authority to implement Convention obligations. Second, we argue that the Executive Branch needs to reconsider the underlying premises for ratification. Instead of conditioning ratification on the ability to achieve perfect compliance or "over-compliance," we argue that a more appropriate standard is "substantial compliance." The relaxed standard would ease ratification not only for Basel but other MEAs as well. It would also ensure that breach avoidance, the purpose of over-compliance, does not simply become treaty avoidance. Ultimately, the promise that multilateral environmental agreements hold for helping our global environment lies both in the specific rules and obligations that they create for immediate action as well as in their development of institutions and entrenchment of environmental norms and values necessary for long-term behavior change. Effective realization of that promise, however, will require the full commitment of the U.S., which can only come with full membership.


In this paper, a statistic that has been introduced to test for space-time correlation is considered in a time series context. The null hypothesis is white noise; the alternative is any kind of continuous functional dependence. For an autoregressive process close to the null hypothesis, a bound on the distance between the distribution of the statistic and a Poisson distribution is proved, using the Stein-Chen method. The main difficulty in the proof is that the dependence in the time series is not locally restricted. The result implies asymptotically certain discrimination for a reasonable choice of the thresholds.


Usernames and passwords form the most widely used method of user authentication on the Internet. Yet, users still find compliance with password guidelines difficult. The primary objective of this research was to investigate how compliance with password guidelines and password quality can be improved. This study investigated how user perceptions of passwords and security threats affect compliance with password guidelines and explored if altering these perceptions would improve compliance. This research also examined if compliance with password guidelines can be sustained over time. This study focuses on personal security, particularly factors that influence compliance when using personal online accounts.

The proposed research model is based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) (Rogers, 1975, 1983), a model widely used in information systems security research. As studies have failed to consistently confirm the association between perceived vulnerability and information security practices, the model was extended to include exposure to hacking as a predictor of perceived vulnerability. Experimental research was used to test the model from two groups of Internet users, one of which received PMT based fear appeals in the form of a password security information and training exercise. To examine if password strength was improved by the fear appeals, passwords were collected. A password strength analysis tool was developed using Shannon's (2001) formula for calculating entropy and coded in Visual Basic. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model.

The proposed model explains compliance intentions moderately well, with 54% of the variance explained by the treatment model and 43% explained by the control group model. Overall, the results indicate that efficacy perceptions are a stronger predictor of compliance intentions than threat perceptions. This study identifies three variables that predict user intentions to comply with password guidelines as particularly important. These are perceived threat, perceived password effectiveness and password self-efficacy. The results show no association between perceived vulnerability to a security attack and a user's decision to comply. The results also showed that those who are provided with password information and training are significantly more likely to comply, and create significantly stronger passwords. However, the fear appeals used in this study had no long-term effects on compliance intentions. The results on the long-term effects of password training on the participants' ability to remember passwords were however promising. The group that received password training with a mnemonic training component was twice as likely to remember their passwords over time.

The results of this research have practical implications for organizations. They highlight the need to raise the levels of concern for information systems security threats through training in order to improve compliance with security guidelines. Communicating to users what security responses are available is important; however, whether they implement them is dependent on how effective they feel the security responses are in preventing an attack. Regarding passwords, the single most important consideration by a user is whether they have the ability to create strong, memorable passwords. At the very least, users should be trained on how to create strong passwords, with emphasis on memorization strategies. This research found mnemonic password training to have some long-term effects on users' ability to remember passwords, which is arguably one of the most vexing challenges associated with passwords. Future research should explore the extent to which the effects of PMT based information systems security communication can be maintained over time.


Theory predicts that performance pay boosts wage dispersion. Workers retain a share of individual productivity shocks and high-efficiency workers receive compensation for greater effort. Collective bargaining can mitigate the effect of performance pay on wage inequality by easing monitoring of common effort standards and group-based pay schemes. Analyses of longitudinal employer–employee data show that the introduction of performance-related pay raises wage inequality in non-union firms, but not in firms with high union density. Although performance-related pay appears to be on the rise, the overall impact on wage dispersion is likely to be small, particularly in European countries with influential unions.


On December 12, 2000, a controversial decision by the Supreme Court of the United States effectively ended the disputed presidential contest between George W. Bush and Albert Gore Jr. with a 5-4 ruling that revealed the court to be as bitterly divided as the electorate. Four days earlier, the Florida Supreme Court had abruptly changed the dynamics of the election by reversing a lower court and ordering hand recounts of ""undervotes"" statewide. The U.S. Supreme Court quickly stepped in to halt the recounts and agreed to hear Bush v. Gore. After brief oral arguments and a short period of deliberation, the high court reversed the state court decision. The justices in both cases were bitterly divided, and passionate language emerged in both the majority rulings and the dissents. The drama and divisiveness of this extraordinary saga come to life in the rulings, opinions, and dissents from these two cases: U.S. Supreme Court case 00-949 (Bush v. Gore) and Florida Supreme Court case 00-2431 (Gore v. Harris). The first section of this volume gathers the complete text of both rulings, along with selections from oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court case. The second section of the book gathers the most significant opinion pieces from journalists and scholars on both sides of the political fence. Selected and organized by political analysts E.J. Dionne and William Kristol, these articles illuminate the perspectives of both sides about the various twists and turns in the post-election campaign, and the landmark judicial intervention. A companion website will provide links to documents from additional legal proceedings and other related documents and writings. The legal and historical significance of the 2000 election will be studied and debated for years to come. This volume combines the most important source documents with the most intelligent opinion and analysis about the conflict and its controversial resolution.


Large-scale distributed video surveillance systems pose new scalability challenges. Due to the large number of video sources in such systems, the amount of bandwidth required to transmit video streams for monitoring often strains the capability of the network. On the other hand, large-scale surveillance systems often rely on computer vision algorithms to automate surveillance tasks. We observe that these surveillance tasks present an opportunity for trade-off between the accuracy of the tasks and the bit rate of the video being sent. This paper shows that there exists a sweet spot, which we term critical video quality that can be used to reduce video bit rate without significantly affecting the accuracy of the surveillance tasks. We demonstrate this point by running extensive experiments on standard face detection and face tracking algorithms. Our experiments show that face detection works equally well even if the quality of compression is significantly reduced, and face tracking still works even if the frame rate is reduced to 6 frames per second. We further develop a prototype video surveillance system to demonstrate this idea. Our evaluation shows that we can achieve up to 29 times reduction in video bit rate when detecting faces and 16 times reduction when tracking faces. This paper also proposes a formal rate-accuracy optimization framework which can be used to determine appropriate encoding parameters in distributed video surveillance systems that are subjected to either bandwidth constraints or accuracy constraints.


From Tunapuna, Trinidad, Winifred Atwell (c. 1914-1983) was a classically trained ragtime and boogie-woogie style pianist who gained quite remarkable popularity in Britain, and later also Australia, in the 1950s, in live and recorded music, as well as in the developing television industry. In this chapter I outline her extraordinary international musical biography as a chart-topping pop and television star—innovative achievements for a black migrant female musician which are arguably thrown into more dramatic light by virtue of the fact that Atwell has been Wiinifred Atwell and her 'other piano' with rhythm accompaniment (no. 1, 1954)and remains a neglected figure in media and popular music (let alone jazz) history. I pay particular attention to her performative tactics and repertoire, developing material I introduced first in Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain. But our interest in Atwell should stem not only from her position as a significant figure neglected by history, for she speaks also to definitional issues of jazz. The chapter progresses into a discussion of the extent to which Atwell is a limit case of jazz in the developing pop world of the 1950s on…. Atwell topped the British singles charts twice, with 14 other top-30 singles during the 1950s, and she was also the first black million-selling singles artist in British pop history. Most of these achievements were the result of her playing jazz-derived instrumental music (solo or with a trio or quartet: piano-guitar-bass-drums). (Here you can read an interview I did with her drummer from the period, Colin Bailey.) Hers was a striking early example of a multiplatform media and music success: prestigious live performances and international tours, hit records, pop-jazz and classical repertoires, radio broadcasts, sheet music and piano instruction book sales, television presenter fronting her own series (on both main British channels and in Australia), and film appearances on screen and in the soundtrack…


Predator prey models have been used for years to model animal populations. In recent years they have begun to be applied to economic situations. However, the stock market has remained largely untouched. We examine whether the success of competitive corporations such as Target and Walmart, as measured by the indicators of price per share, market share, and volume, can be modeled by various predator prey models. We consider the basic Lotka-Volterra model and the two-predator, one-prey model, as well as a ratio-dependent model. We discuss the use of numerical techniques and regression analysis as tools to estimate model parameters. For Target and Walmart, the predator prey models mentioned above do not accurately fit the stock market data. In order to more fully explore the use of predator prey models in the stock market, we have examined several other competing companies using a simple Lotka-Volterra model, and found that critical model parameters were not statistically significant. While not statistically significant, these results help reinforce the unpredictability and complexity of markets and provide insight for future research.


Fifteen patients with acquired spinal subarachnoid cysts (14 surgically proved, one presumed) were evaluated preoperatively with immediate and/or delayed CT myelography (seven patients), MR (11 patients), or both (three patients). CT myelography separated subarachnoid cyst from myelomalacia and/or intramedullary cysts in four cases but failed to diagnose them in three, while MR accurately diagnosed subarachnoid cyst in all 10 cases that were also surgically proved. The results of these preoperative examinations were evaluated to determine the efficacy of each study in diagnosing subarachnoid cysts, ascertaining their extent and internal architecture, and detecting associated abnormalities of the spinal cord. In addition, during surgery these cysts were studied with sonography to gain an understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in their formation and propagation and to guide the surgeon in their decompression. On the basis of our experience, MR appears to be the most efficient preoperative study in diagnosing and characterizing acquired subarachnoid cyst and associated abnormalities. Intraoperative sonography provides a reliable means of ensuring adequate decompression of these cysts.


Democracy and Slavery in Frontier Illinois: The Bottomland Republic. By James Simeone. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000. Pp. x, 289. Maps, illustration, notes, sources, index. Cloth, $38). James Simeone, Associate Professor of Political Science at Illinois Wesleyan University, has written a stimulating and rather complex study of the events, issues, and key people surrounding the debate over whether to call a constitutional convention in Illinois in 1824. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had prohibited slavery in the territory, which included what later became Illinois, exempting those slaves already residing in the new area. This Ordinance was reaffirmed in the 1790s and the first Illinois Constitution (1818) did not alter this position. But by 1824 the "white folks" (chiefly poor upland southerners) wanted to change this Constitution to make Illinois a slave, rather than a free, state. The outcome of the efforts of the "white folks" is well-known: on August 2, 1824 the call for a convention was defeated by a vote of 6,640 to 4,972. As traditional narrative points out, Illinois was thereby saved from slavery and the non-conventionist group of "big folks" (including elite northerners and abolitionists) were the saviors of the Prairie State. When the Missouri Compromise of 1820 allowed Missouri to become a slave state, the "white folks" became concerned about whether they could compete economically with Missouri without the further importation of slaves into the fertile bottomlands in the southern part of Illinois. Professor Simeone argues that the "white folks," who were bottomland republicans, believed that their egalitarian ideals would be strengthened by allowing slaveholders to migrate to Illinois. The "white folks" wanted slavery for the short-term, not necessarily forever. They needed slaves now to ease the present labor shortage, to protect the commonalty, to enhance the status of the poor whites and, most essentially, to do the extremely difficult work of clearing the bottomlands to make agriculture possible. Simeone explains that the problems of the period 1819-1823 were so overwhelming to the "white folks" that they sought to make Illinois a slave state in order to assure their own equality. The legislature of 1822-23 focused on the convention issue; factions were formed and infighting began between the conventionists and the nonconventionists. In his discussion of the debate over the convention and the structuring of Illinois politics, Simeone introduces many individuals who play key roles in the Early National Period of Illinois. The information which Simeone provides on Ninian Edwards, Jesse B. Thomas, Daniel Pope Cook, Nathaniel Pope, Elias Kent Kane, John Reynolds, John Mason Peck, and a host of other key figures is a major strength of his book. …


In the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, opinion makers and policy makers, alike, have worked internationally to pique interest in thorium as a possible alternative fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. The key question posed has been: Could a thorium-based fuel provide advantages if deployed in current reactors? A full thorium-driven cycle used to produce and use uranium-233 for power generation has been understood to possess a range of benefits for many decades. To fully assess the practical utility of thorium use in existing light water reactors, it is necessary to critically dissect the promoted benefits of the thorium fuel cycle. The potential advantages of thorium are relatively small, the author writes, when viewed through the lens of current infrastructure and economic and political realities.


The adoption of low carbon technologies needs to go hand in hand with an increased awareness of climate change and its consequences and solutions. Attitudes toward climate change are influenced by a variety of factors, most notably educational attainment and exposure to climatic events attributable to climate change. However, less is known about the effect of technology adoption on climate change beliefs and support for mitigating measures. Through a longitudinal, incentivized field experiment with Chinese households, we assess attitudes toward climate change before and after adopting efficient lighting technology. The results show differential patterns of attitudinal change: while belief in the reality of climate change and willingness to adopt energy-efficient appliances increase, support for energy taxes does not. We attribute the attitudinal change to the adoption of LED light bulbs. Further evidence suggests that experience with efficient technology, rather than knowledge acquisition, drives this change. These results highlight the importance of action-initiating behavioral intervention to complement educational programs aimed at improving knowledge.


A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with NH2 column and 75% acetonitrile eluate to determine the insecticide cyromazine residues in poultry meats and eggs was developed. Samples were treated with NaOH, extracted with acetonitrile containing 20% concentrated NH4OH, and cleaned up through C18 Sep-Pak cartridge. The peaks of cyromazine and its metabolite melamine were successfully separated within 12 min and cleanly differentiated from interfering peaks of the samples. The detection limit of both compounds was 0.02 ppm. Recoveries of cyromazine and melamine ranged from 92.8-97.3% and 91.0-96.1% at fortified levels of 0.20.7 ppm, respectively. Each reaction coefficient of linear standard curve of cyromazine and melamine was better than 0.999. Using this HPLC determination, only one beef sample from 46 tested samples was detected to contain 0.04 ppm cyromazine. This was further confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy.


A rootstock field trial was conducted in the Yakima Valley, southeastern Washington, with three Vitis vinifera cultivars (Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay). Vines were grown on their own roots or field-grafted to the rootstocks 5C, 99R, 140Ru, 1103P, 3309C, and an unnamed rootstock from Cornell University (here termed 101CU) that is a likely sibling or seedling of 101-14 Mgt. Repeated scion dieback due to cold injury to 99R led us to abandon this rootstock. Vine phenology, vigor, water status, yield formation, and fruit ripening and composition were evaluated during three years beginning in the vineyard's ninth year. Own-rooted Merlot and Chardonnay grew more shoots than grafted vines, and 140Ru and 1103P tended to reduce pruning weights. However, 3309C was the rootstock associated with the highest pruning weights in Syrah and the lowest in Chardonnay. Rootstocks usually did not impact vine phenology, fruit set, and plant water status, although there was a trend for stem water potential to be highest with 3309C and lowest with 5C. The rootstock effect on yield formation depended on the scion cultivar, and variations in different yield components often cancelled out each other, but 3309C (Merlot and Syrah), 5C (Merlot and Chardonnay), and own roots (Chardonnay) were often associated with high yields. Nevertheless, the rootstocks had only minor effects on fruit ripening and did not consistently alter soluble solids, TA, K+, or anthocyanin pigments, but the pH was higher in fruit from own-rooted vines compared with grafted Merlot and Chardonnay. Overall, scion effects and differences due to yearly climate variation far outweighed any differences due to rootstock.


The effort to legislate family and medical leave policies in the United States illustrates a dilemma at the heart of the American political process. Faced with strong opposition from business lobbies, proponents of leaves in the late 1980s and early 1990s had to balance their desire to pass the policy they wanted against the desire to pass a policy at all. In this lucid and timely book, Anya Bernstein analyzes how this "moderation dilemma" played out at the federal level and in four states. In so doing, she develops a new model of policy innovation based on the debate between the ideologically committed who want all or nothing (and often get nothing) and compromisers who will settle for less (and often get a lot less). Hers is a unique perspective on one of the few major policy innovations of the 1990s, and on the contentious issue of the role of the state in American family life. Based on interviews with activists, legislators, staff members, and observers, "The Moderation Dilemma" uncovers the process by which advocates for family and medical leave determined what they would propose, chose their strategies, lobbied, and bargained. Bernstein found that groups were successful when they had access tosubstantial resources, were willing to frame their proposals in culturally appropriate ways, and fit their strategies to the political context. In the case of family and medical leave, this meant co-opting the tactics of the new right and framing family leave as family values, as well as making significant compromises. But not all groups were willing to make these compromises. The fact that the laws mandating family and medical leaves cover barely half the population, and are unpaid, raises questions about the costs and benefits of moderation. Bernstein also takes a fresh look at women s movement groups in the 1990s. She compares those who have learned to work within the political system (insiders) with those that still focus on challenging it (outsiders). The women s groups that led the fight to pass family and medical leave had to rethink their goals as supporters both of equality for women and of accommodation for women s role as mothers. "The Moderation Dilemma" examines that transition and its debates, as well as the implications for the women s movement as a whole. Students and professionals in political science, sociology, and organizational theory will want to read "The Moderation Dilemma," as will anyone concerned with the behavior of interest groups and social movements."


The number of nonprofit and social agencies relying on the help of volunteers has grown enormously in recent decades. This has lead to increased competition between these organisations for the limited resources available, and the growing adoption of what have traditionally been considered 'commercial' business techniques such as marketing. There have been calls for greater and more sophisticated use of 'tried and tested' marketing concepts such as competition, segmentation and positioning to help volunteering organisations manage this pressure effectively. This study shines the spotlight on individuals who volunteer for multiple types of organisations in an effort to determine which organisations are competing for the same volunteers. More specifically:

Factor analyses are computed and four segments of volunteers are identified: 'altruists', 'leisure volunteers', 'political volunteers' and 'church volunteers';

Positioning maps are constructed to illustrate the proximity of each organisation type in relation to key competitors; and

Detailed profiles are provided for each segment to provide insight into the nature of the groupings.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Semiregular models are an important subset of models in computer graphics. They are typically obtained by applying repetitive regular refinements on an initial arbitrary model. As a result, their connectivity strongly resembles regularity due to these refinement operations. Although data structures exist for regular or irregular models, a data structure designed to take advantage of this semiregularity is desirable. In this paper, we introduce such a data structure called atlas of connectivity maps for semiregular models resulting from arbitrary refinements. This atlas maps the connectivity information of vertices and faces on separate 2D domains called connectivity maps. The connectivity information between adjacent connectivity maps is determined by a linear transformation between their 2D domains. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our data structure on subdivision and multiresolution applications.


This thesis investigates the representation of femininity within a variety of cultural sources including the earlier novels of Jeanette Winterson and the films of Walt Disney. This juxtaposition parallels images of female development and ego formation bringing to the fore the adolescent heroine's ancient roots in mythology, horror and the fairy story. As a cultural studies project, the thesis deploys the critical techniques of poststructuralism in conjunction with psychoanalysis, feminist theory and film analysis. This is necessary to demonstrate to full potential the heterogeneous quality of the revisioned models of heroinism. My analysis is focused on both popular and literary texts, with Winterson's early fiction in particular selected as a sophisticated and developed example of the ways in which current theory can chart the evolution of a contemporary female literary voice. This thesis carefully scrutinises traditional strategies concerned with literary discourse in order to show how phallocentric structures infiltrate and reflect postcolonial, popular culture. This is achieved through an initial concentration upon mass representation of the female form. This is a necessary analysis as one cannot demonstrate how contemporary women authors revise traditional models of heroinism without first defining what has gone before.Building on the work of Elisabeth Bronfen, this thesis examines how contradictory narratives construct a double opposition, overlapping the dead and the feminine against the living and the masculine, to defend against the knowledge of an incommensurable difference at the origin of life. By representing the narrative of double castration, this is a thorough examination of a movement away from biologically scripted models of castration anxiety, as with Freud, relocating identity at the site of the navel. This enables the subject to move beyond the division of sexuality as presented within patriarchal, heterosexual orthodoxies and to allow for a notion of femininity which is subversive because of its very willingness to explore and inhabit abject/deject states. For the purposes of my investigations, these tradtionally disturbing 'liminalities' will be understood in both psychic and cultural terms, but will focus, in particular on female adolescene.In conclusion, the revisionary heroine marks the dissolution of the certainty once associated with the ancient constructed ideal of femininity. She does not place herself in opposition to the traditional figure, more than that, she surfaces within the broader frame of Western culture as something different, some 'thing' else in the psychoanalytical sense to the 'Other'. My analysis of the figure of the revisionary heroine demonstrates the ways in which both the creation and the interpretation of art and theory can be inflected towards an inversion of the dominant structures of knowledge and power without simply reproducing them.


Purpose of review Cushing's syndrome results from prolonged and inappropriately high exposure of tissues to glucocorticoids. Biochemical tests are always needed to confirm the clinical suspicion: these include measurement of excess total endogenous cortisol secretion assessed by 24-h urinary free cortisol (UFC), loss of the normal feedback of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis assessed by suppressibility after dexamethasone testing, and disturbance of the normal circadian rhythm of cortisol secretion assessed by midnight serum or salivary cortisol. This review focuses on recent data emerging on the value of UFC as a screening test for Cushing's syndrome. Recent findings Considerable evidence has emerged regarding the utility of UFC in the diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome because of its long-term use in clinical practice. Despite the fact that UFC assesses the active (free) component of cortisol, the methodological difficulties in 24-h urine collection and in assay precision have rendered this screening technique increasingly unpopular. Furthermore, the increased prevalence of mild, preclinical or cyclic Cushing's syndrome along with the fact that cortisol is not uniformly secreted during the day do not support its use as a screening test, although strikingly high levels can be useful. Summary Since the sensitivity and specificity of UFC are less than ideal when compared with other diagnostic modalities, we suggest the use of other more novel tests as first-step diagnostic tests to screen for hypercortisolaemia.


There has been an almost sustained rise in the international gold prices since 2002, with just one deep correction in 2008. As gold is an integral part of savings of a large number of investors, this has raised apprehensions whether any correction in gold prices will have destabilising implications on the financial markets. In this backdrop, the paper makes an attempt to analyse the implications of the correction in gold prices on financial stability in India.The paper covers empirical analysis on the inter-linkages between domestic and international gold prices and then it examines the nature of changes in the factors affecting international gold prices during the last two decades. While validating empirically the existence of complete inter-linkages between domestic and international gold prices, the paper goes on to conclude that there has been a structural shift in the factors affecting international gold prices in 2003. Short-run volatility in international gold prices used to be traditional factors such as international commodity prices, US dollar exchange rate and equity prices. However, since 2003, the same is largely due to the volatility in the US dollar exchange rate and mildly due to volatility in equity prices.In conclusion, the findings of the paper show that domestic and international gold prices are closely interlinked. Based on empirical evidences, the paper also concludes that implications of correction in gold prices on the Indian financial markets are likely to be muted.


Not long ago, neighborhoods such as the South Bronx, South Central Los Angeles, and Boston's Roxbury were crime-ridden wastelands of vacant lots and burned-out buildings, notorious symbols of urban decay. In House by House, Block by Block, Alexander von Hoffman tells the remarkable stories of how local activists and community groups helped turn these areas around. For sixty years, federal policy has attempted with little success to solve the problems of housing and poverty in America's inner cities. Yet increasingly, local organizations are picking up where Washington has left off. In a series of dramatic and colorful narratives, von Hoffman shows how these groups are revitalizing once desperate neighborhoods in five major cities: New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. The unlikely heroes include: the tough-talking Bronx priest who made apartment buildings for low-income people glisten in the midst of ruins and despair; the "crazy white man" who scrambled to save Chicago's historic Black Metropolis from the wrecking ball; the Boston cops who built a task force that put the brakes on youth gangs. Thanks to locally-based, bootstrap efforts like these, in inner-city neighborhoods across the country, crime rates are falling, real estate values are rising, and businesses are returning. Von Hoffman also shows that grass-roots work can't do it alone: successful revitalization needs the support of local government and access to business and foundation capital. Based on years of research and more than a hundred interviews, this book is the first systematic account of the dramatic urban revival now going on in the United States. House by House, Block by Block will be a must-read for anyone who cares about the fate of America's cities.


Introduction: The potential toxicity of Acrylamide (ACR) in humans had become apparent with the detection of this substance in some processed foods. ACR due to the cooking method are increasingly used.
Aims: This study designed to investigate the effects of maternal ACR consumption on choroid plexus volume and capillaries and ventricular changes in rat embryonic.
Methods: Female pregnant Wistar rats were divided into two groups; an experimental and the control group (n=10). Animals in control group received drinking water while rats in experimental group were orally administered 10 mg/kg ACR solution. Pregnant rats were sacrificed on the 15th day of gestation. Their fetuses were taken out and after head fixation and tissue processing, serial sections were prepared and stained with haematoxylin-eosin (H & E). Choroid plexus and lateral ventricle volume and branches and length of the capillaries were measured and the results were analysed using SPSS version 21 and ANOVA statistical test.
Results: Results showed a significant reduction in Choroid plexus volume and capillaries length in experimental group compared to control group (pE'0.05), the branches of capillaries showed significant decrease (pE'0.001). Volume of lateral ventricle showed increase in experimental group compared to control group (pE'0.001).
Conclusion: Maternal ACR has toxic effect on the nervous system and induces structural changes in the development of choroid plexus and lateral ventricle.


A new model; WORLD6 was developed. WORLD6 differs from the earlier system dynamics world models in several aspects. Several modules link the economy, materials, metals, energy, population and politics in a dynamic system. The present version is a result of a dismantling of the World3 model (Meadows et al., 1972, 1992, 2004) with an extension and substitution of its resource module and economy module. The WORLD6 model has several sub-modules at present which are all dynamically linked: 1. Population and food module: The module contains the original World3 model from 1972 model and used again in 1992 and 2004. This was enhanced with a new module for phosphate rock extraction, fertilizer production and an agricultural unit of WORLD6. 2. Materials and metals module a. Materials: Phosphorus, cement, sand, gravel and cut stone. b. Metals: Copper, zinc, lead, silver, gold, Iron, chromium, manganese, nickel, aluminium, stainless steel, antimony, bismuth, cobalt, gallium, germanium, indium, cadmium, tellurium, selenium, lithium, platinum, palladium, rhodium, molybdenum, rhenium, niobium, tantalum, tin, wolfram (tungsten), titanium, zirconium, hafnium and rare earth metals.3. Economy module: The model has a new simplified global economy module, considering the major actors like households, businesses, and government. Disposable funds, investments and market price for every resource is simulated endogenously in the model for every resource: metals, materials, food and commodities. 4. Energy module: An energy model including the extraction of fossil fuels. Different types of oil, gas, and coal as well as the extraction dynamics and reprocessing of uranium and thorium, used in conventional and breeder reactor technologies, technological energy harvests and renewable energy. 5. Climate and biosphere module: A simplified CLIMATE change module, converting CO2 emissions to CO2 in the atmosphere, with increase in temperature and sea level rise. (Less)


Non-linear Compton scatter (NCS) and bremsstrahlung radiation both contribute to the X-rays produced in laser-solid interactions. While it is expected that NCS will efficiently generate X-rays for next generation lasers, the weaker NCS yields from laser-solid interactions in existing facilities have not yet been observed due to the bremsstrahlung background. This work attempts to derive a quantitative description of the bremsstrahlung efficiency, for interactions between ultrahigh-intensity short-pulse lasers and thin-foil targets. This model was tested against simulations from the particle-in-cell code EPOCH, which has been extended to include bremsstrahlung modelling capabilities. The relative efficiencies of bremsstrahlung and NCS will be compared to seek NCS signatures for experimental observation.


Background and Objectives: Because of impairment of testosterone production and occurrence of oxidant disorders in testis of varicocele (VCL) patients, these patients are treated with testosterone and various antioxidant. This study was performed with the objective of determining the effect of co-administration of these two drugs on the serum biochemical parameters of rats. Methods: In this study, 30 male rats were divided into 5 groups (n=6, each) of control-sham and test groups. In the control-sham group, only simple laparotomy was performed. In the test groups, experimental VCL was induced in all test groups. No treatment was performed for the first test group. The second test group was treated with testosterone (44µg/kg, ip), the third group with vitamin E (150mg/kg, orally) and the fourth group with co-administration of testosterone and vitamin E. After the end of treatment period, anesthesia and heart blood sampling were performed, and after serum separation, serum levels of glucose, creatinine, urea, total cholesterol, and triglyceride were measured. The data were analyzed using two-way variance analysis. The significance level was considered to be p<0.05. Results: In this study, the serum levels of the glucose, creatinine, urea, total cholesterol, and triglyceride significantly increased following VCL induction, as compared to control group (p<0.05). This was while single administration of testosterone and co-administration with vitamin E significantly reduced the serum levels of mentioned parameters (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that co-administration of testosterone and vitamin E, in comparison with separate administration of each compound, improved the serum biochemical parameters in VCL-induced animals.


The recording on high‐resolution broadband seismic networks of several great interface subduction earthquakes during the last decade provide an excellent opportunity to extend source‐scaling relations to very large magnitudes and to place constraints on the potential range of source parameters for these events. At present, there is a wide range of uncertainty in the median rupture areas predicted for any given seismic moment by current relationships between magnitude and rupture area for subduction interface earthquakes. Our goal is to develop an updated set of earthquake source‐scaling relations that will reduce this current large degree of epistemic uncertainty and improve the accuracy of seismic‐hazard analysis and the prediction of the strong‐motion characteristics and tsunamis of future subduction earthquakes. To achieve this goal, we compiled a database including slip models of interface earthquakes that occurred worldwide with moment magnitudes ranging from M  6.75–9.1. We characterized the seismic sources based on well‐established criteria to estimate the asperity areas as well as the average slip on the faults, and we used these parameters to compute an updated set of magnitude scaling relations of the various characteristics of the fault. Additionally, we followed an alternative approach to quantifying slip models for use in developing characteristic slip models of future earthquakes. This involved analyzing the 2D Fourier transforms of the slip functions in the compiled database and deriving a wavenumber spectral model of the slip distribution.


In current wireless communication systems, demands for extremely high data rates, along with spectrum scarcity at the microwave bands, make the millimeter wave (mmWave) band very appealing to provide these extremely high data rates even for a massive number of wireless devices. MmWave communications exhibit severe attenuation, vulnerability to obstacles (called blockage), and sparse-scattering environments. Moreover, mmWave signals have small wavelengths that allow the incorporation of many antenna elements at the current size of radio chips. This leads to high directivity gains both at the transmitter and at the receiver, directional communications, and, more importantly, possible noise-limited operations as opposed to microwave networks that are mostly interference-limited.These fundamental differences between mmWave networks and legacy communication technologies challenge the classical design constraints, objectives, and available degrees of freedom. The natural consequence is the necessity of revisiting most of the medium access control (MAC) layer design principles for mmWave networks, which have so far received less attention in the literature than physical layer and propagation issues. To address this important research gap, this thesis investigates the fundamental MAC layer performance metrics, including coverage, fairness, connection robustness, collision probability, per-link throughput, area spectral efficiency, and delay. The original analysis proposed in this thesis suggests novel insights as to the solutions for many MAC layer issues such as resource allocation, interference management, random access, mobility management, and synchronization in future mmWave networks.A first thread of the thesis focuses on the fundamental performance analysis and mathematical abstraction of mmWave wireless networks to characterize their differences from conventional wireless networks, i.e., high directivity, line-of-sight communications, and occurrence of deafness (misalignment between transmitters and receivers). A mathematical framework to investigate the impact of beam training (alignment) overhead on the throughput is established, which leads to identify a new alignment-throughput tradeoff in mmWave networks. A novel blockage model that captures the angular correlation of line-of-sight conditions using a new notion of "coherence angle" is proposed. The coverage and delay of directional cell discovery are evaluated, and an optimization approach to maximize long-term throughput of users with fairness guarantees is proposed. In addition, this thesis develops a tractable approach to derive the collision probability, as a function of density of the transmitters, transmission power, density and size of the obstacles, operating beamwidth, and sensitivity of the receiver, among the main parameters. The collision probability allows deriving closed-form expressions for the per-link and network throughput of mmWave networks, and thereby identifying that, contrary to mainstream belief, these networks may exhibit a non-negligible transitional behavior of interference from a noise-limited to an interference-limited regime.The second thread of the thesis builds on the previous fundamental performance analysis and modeling to establish new, efficient MAC protocols. The derived collision probability is used to evaluate per-link throughput, area spectral efficiency, and delay performance of common MAC protocols such as TDMA and slotted ALOHA, and to provide a fundamental comparison between pros and cons of contention-free and contention-based MAC protocols. The results suggest the use of on-demand interference management strategy for future mmWave cellular networks and collision-aware hybrid MAC protocols for mmWave ad hoc networks to reliably deliver messages without sacrificing throughput and delay performance. Moreover, the transitional behavior, together with significant mismatch between transmission rates of control and data messages, imposes the development of new hybrid proactive and reactive control plane architecture. This thesis identifies the prolonged backoff time problem, which happens in mmWave networks due to blockage and deafness, and proposes a new collision notification signal to solve this problem. Motivated by the significant mismatch between coverage of the control and data planes along with delay analysis of directional cell search, a novel two-step synchronization procedure is proposed for mmWave cellular networks. Also, the impact of relaying and multi-hop communication to provide reliable mmWave connections, to alleviate frequent handovers, and to reduce the beam training overhead is investigated.The investigations of this thesis aim to demystify MAC layer performance of mmWave networks and to show the availability of many new degrees of freedom to improve the network performance, e.g., in terms of area spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, robustness, delay, coverage, and uniform quality of service provisioning. The results reveal many special behaviors of mmWave networks that are largely ignored in design approach of the current mmWave networks. Given that the standardization of mmWave wireless cellular networks has not started as yet, and that existing standards of mmWave ad hoc networks are highly sub-optimal, the results of this thesis will provide fundamental design guidelines that have the potential to be very useful for future mmWave standardizations.


Context. The spatial power spectrum of supergranulation does not fully characterize the underlying physics of turbulent convection. For example, it does not describe the non-Gaussianity in the horizontal flow divergence.
Aims. Our aim is to statistically characterize the spatial pattern of solar supergranulation beyond the power spectrum. The next-order statistic is the bispectrum. It measures correlations of three Fourier components and is related to the nonlinearities in the underlying physics. It also characterizes how a skewness in the dataset is generated by the coupling of three Fourier components.
Methods. We estimated the bispectrum of supergranular horizontal surface divergence maps that were obtained using local correlation tracking (LCT) and time-distance helioseismology (TD) from one year of data from the helioseismic and magnetic imager on-board the solar dynamics observatory starting in May 2010.
Results. We find significantly nonzero and consistent estimates for the bispectrum using LCT and TD. The strongest nonlinearity is present when the three coupling wave vectors are at the supergranular scale. These are the same wave vectors that are present in regular hexagons, which have been used in analytical studies of solar convection. At these Fourier components, the bispectrum is positive, consistent with the positive skewness in the data and consistent with supergranules preferentially consisting of outflows surrounded by a network of inflows. We use the bispectral estimates to generate synthetic divergence maps that are very similar to the data. This is done by a model that consists of a Gaussian term and a weaker quadratic nonlinear component. Using this method, we estimate the fraction of the variance in the divergence maps from the nonlinear component to be of the order of 4–6%.
Conclusions. We propose that bispectral analysis is useful for understanding the dynamics of solar turbulent convection, for example for comparing observations and numerical models of supergranular flows. This analysis may also be useful to generate synthetic flow fields.


Article peer evaluated SUMMARY: 1. Introduction – 2. Degree of the subject study – 3. - Legal framework, empirical, and other source basis of the research – 4. Conclusions. ABSTRACT: The article is devoted to research of the texts of foreign laws, regulations, and concordats on property relations between the state and religious institutions, on property rights of religious institutions and property relations in religious institutions (regarding property objects for religious purposes), on the status of some property objects for religious purposes. The author of the research analyzed the features of legal and contractual regulation of property relations of religious institutions and the status of property objects for religious purposes. The methodological foundation of the research presented has comparative and legal research method as the basis.


This study assessed the operation and impact of staff performance and service delivery of the Inservice training programme for Junior Library Assistants of the Ghana Library Authority. The ever increasing growth in the volume of publications in all fields of knowledge coupled with the advent of information and communication technologies in libraries has widened the scope of library services. There is therefore the need for public libraries to train their staff in order to perform effectively and efficiently. The survey method was used and data was collected using open and closed ended questionnaires and interviews. In all, 80 questionnaires were administered to 47 staff and 33 ex-workers of the Ghana Library Authority. The findings showed that most Junior Library Staff of the Authority lack basic skills in library routine work and this could be attributed to the suspension of the GLA In-service training programme. The study also revealed that the bulk of the Junior Staff at the GLA had qualifications ranging from GCE O' level and SSSCE to Diploma. The study further revealed that the suspension of the programme was as a result of several factors such as the absence of a Board, training budget and a non-functioning training department. The study recommended among other things the resumption of the In-service training programme to enable all untrained Junior Library Staff receive training.


Controlled propagation speed of individual magnetic domains in metal channels at the room temperature is obtained via the non-volatile field effect associated with the switchable polarization of P(VDF-TrFE) (polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) ferroelectric polymer. Polarization domains directly written using conducting atomic force microscope probe locally accelerate/decelerate the magnetic domains in the 0.6 nm thick Co film. The change of the magnetic domain wall velocity is consistent with the magnetic anisotropy energy modulation through the polarization upward/downward orientation. Excellent retention is observed. The demonstrated local non-destructive and reversible change of magnetic properties via rewritable patterning of ferroelectric domains could be attractive for exploring the ultimate limit of miniaturization in devices based on ferromagnetic/ferroelectric bilayers.


We present an end-to-end trained memory system that quickly adapts to new data and generates samples like them. Inspired by Kanerva's sparse distributed memory, it has a robust distributed reading and writing mechanism. The memory is analytically tractable, which enables optimal on-line compression via a Bayesian update-rule. We formulate it as a hierarchical conditional generative model, where memory provides a rich data-dependent prior distribution. Consequently, the top-down memory and bottom-up perception are combined to produce the code representing an observation. Empirically, we demonstrate that the adaptive memory significantly improves generative models trained on both the Omniglot and CIFAR datasets. Compared with the Differentiable Neural Computer (DNC) and its variants, our memory model has greater capacity and is significantly easier to train.


Male and female European Robins Erithacus rubecula display their red breasts in year‐round territorial contests. Despite the clear signalling role of the red breast, little is known about its sexual dimorphism or trends in size when Robins age. We studied these patterns in resident and migrant Robins in a Mediterranean population. Both male and female first‐year Robins had smaller red breasts than second‐year individuals. Females, but not males, showed a reduction in badge area after the second year of life, leading to sexual dimorphism in red breast area in the oldest Robins. The grey fringe around the red breast showed a steady increase in width in males when ageing, but not in females, also leading to sexual dimorphism in this trait among oldest Robins. The contrast between the red breast and its surrounding grey fringe was higher than that between the breast and the back at both high and low environmental light intensities. This suggests that the grey fringe could function as a frame to highlight the perimeter of the red breast, and that the Robin's plumage is equally suited to display in open areas and forest understoreys. Our study suggests that the extent of the red breast and its grey frame could confer information about the age and sex of the birds, and thus be used as a signal in territorial contests and mating decisions.


PI3Kα controls several cellular processes and its aberrant signalling is implicated in tumorigenesis. One of its hotspot mutations, E545K, increases PI3Kα lipid kinase activity, but its mode of action is only partially understood. Here, we perform biased and unbiased molecular dynamics simulations of PI3Kα and uncover, for the first time, the free energy landscape of the E545K PI3Kα mutant. We reveal the mechanism by which E545K leads to PI3Kα activation in atomic-level detail, which is considerably more complex than previously thought.


The study of probabilistic secret sharing schemes using arbitrary probability spaces and possibly infinite number of participants lets us investigate abstract properties of such schemes. It highlights important properties, explains why certain definitions work better than others, connects this topic to other branches of mathematics, and might yield new design paradigms.
A probabilistic secret sharing scheme is a joint probability distribution of the shares and the secret together with a collection of secret recovery functions for qualified subsets. The scheme is measurable if the recovery functions are measurable. Depending on how much information an unqualified subset might have, we define four scheme types: perfect, almost perfect, ramp, and almost ramp. Our main results characterize the access structures which can be realized by schemes of these types.
We show that every access structure can be realized by a non-measurable perfect probabilistic scheme. The construction is based on a paradoxical pair of independent random variables which determine each other.
For measurable schemes we have the following complete characterization. An access structure can be realized by a (measurable) perfect, or almost perfect scheme if and only if the access structure, as a subset of the Sierpi\'nski space $\{0,1\}^P$, is open, if and only if it can be realized by a span program. The access structure can be realized by a (measurable) ramp or almost ramp scheme if and only if the access structure is a $G_\delta$ set (intersection of countably many open sets) in the Sierpi\'nski topology, if and only if it can be realized by a Hilbert-space program.


Traditional development models assume that countries of the Global South will undergo an economic trajectory roughly equivalent to that of the Global North. The reality of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels raises the prospect that a new model, founded on renewable and sustainable energy will have to be designed. At the same time, rural locations in North, face devastating economic consequences of an industrial model that has left them behind. Our international, transdisciplinary research team, working in Eastern and Southern Africa on sustainable biomass energy and in New Kensington, PA on rural small town renewal, seeks to understand the intersection of community preferences, technological innovation, gender relations and environmental sciences to develop socio/technological interventions. We flip the development model, bringing African expertise to bear on US-based problems and US-based insights to understand subculture specific cultural preferences in Kenya. This presentation outlines how we work together, the methods we use to engage in creative problem solving and the unique "kitchen laboratory" used on the Kenyan side to assess cooking energy needs.


ABSTRACT We review work from persuasion science relevant to reducing prejudiced attitudes. We begin by introducing the idea that the thoughts people generate – their number and valence – are critical for understanding when responding to persuasive attempts will result in egalitarian attitudes. A focus on thinking highlights the importance of understanding short and long-term attitude change in promoting diversity. How much people think is also consequential for spreading of initial change to more distal attitudes and generalization of change to other judgments. The second section describes a process of thought validation that emphasizes the importance of considering what people think and feel about their own thoughts. This meta-cognitive process is shown to make a difference in producing consequential changes in reducing prejudiced attitudes toward African Americans, immigrants, refugees, individuals with disabilities, and beyond. The conditions under which variables such as minority status and stigmatized sources affect elaboration and validation are also specified. The fourth section explores how these two processes are relevant for understanding explicit and implicit ambivalence and change in the domain of prejudiced attitudes. We highlight the utility of a process-oriented approach for designing future research and promoting more inclusive attitudes and actions.


With developments like smart phones, social media, mobile connectivity, big data, and speech analytics, businesses have more opportunities to enhance the customer experience than ever before. Not only that...customers expect more. Unfortunately, many companies fail to take advantage of and properly manage the tools that now exist, delivering a series of frustrating, disjointed transactions that drive people away.

 Customer Experience 3.0 provides firsthand guidance on what works, what doesn't--and the revenue and word-of-mouth payoff of getting it right. The book contains an innovative customer-experience framework and step-by-step roadmap, showing readers how to:

 Design and deliver flawless services and products while setting honest customer expectations

 Create and implement an effective customer access strategy

 Capture and leverage the voice of the customer to set priorities and improve products, services and marketing

 Use CRM systems, cutting-edge metrics, and other tools to deliver customer satisfaction.

 Great companies provide seamless experiences, seeming to know what customers want before they know it themselves...while others set up fancy Facebook pages and then drop the ball. This groundbreaking guide reveals how to delight customers using the best tools available.


Traces conceptions of sovereignty and federalism especially as shaped by events that took place in and around Charleston Harbor. Eighteenth century understanding of sovereignty drew sharp lines between state and national authority, and the Eleventh Amendment reflects that division. The belief that state sovereignty retains force even within the context of supreme federal authority did not exist when the Constitution was drafted, arose in part as a defense of slavery in the 1820s, and framed the classic debates in the 1830s between Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster and South Carolina Senators John C. Calhoun and Robert Y. Hayne. Following the Civil War (which began when shots were fired in Charleston harbor), Congress adopted the Fourteeth Amendment Privileges or Immunities Clause to resolve prior debates and put to rest state claims of a right to resist federal authority. By focusing attention on the history of Charleston Harbor, the author explains why Congress sought to bury the pro-slavery conception of federalism, and how recent Supreme Court decisions (including the decision immunizing South Carolina from federal administrative proceedings involving ships that dock in Charleston Harbor) revived that conception. The author concludes by discussing how nineteenth century lessons apply to development of a credible twenty-first century framework for federalism.


A thermostable lipolytic endospore forming Bacillus sp. strain L2 was isolated from a hot
spring (91oC) in Slim River, Perak, Malaysia. Nutritional studies showed that casamino
acid was the best nitrogen source while trehalose and Tween 60 were the best carbon
source and substrate respectively, for lipase production. The enzyme production was
promoted in the presence of metal ions such as Ca2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Co2+, Zn2+, and Sr2+. The
optimum lipase production was obtained in the presence of CaCl2. Physiological study
indicate that, this strain showed optimal lipase production after 28 h of incubation at 70
oC with 1% starting inoculum. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity by ammonium
sulphate precipitation and affinity column chromatography (Heparin), with 3 fold
increase in specific activity and 48.9 % recovery. The purified enzyme produced a single
band on SDS-PAGE. Its molecular mass was estimated to be 43 KDa. The optimum pH
and temperature for L2 lipase were determined to be 7.0 and 80 oC, respectively. The
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lipase was very stable for 2 h at 80 oC. The stability at higher temperature was shown to
be calcium dependent. The lipase activity was enhanced by Fe2+and Ca2+ while Cu2+
inhibited it. The enzyme activity was strongly inhibited by PMSF and completely
inhibited by pCMB. Substrates such as olive oil and sesame oil enhanced the lipase
activity.


Background: Children and infant immunization are often viewed as the symbol of preventive medicine and health service. Furthermore, immunization coverage is often used as an indicator of health service achievement. Recognizing the determinants associated with infant and children immunization status is one of the efforts to increase immunization coverage. Objectives: To know the immunization coverage in Yogyakarta province and determinants associated with coverage and age on immunization. Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study on children 12-23 months of age living in Yogyakarta municipality and other four districts in Yogyakarta province. Subjects were selected using proportional probability multistage cluster random sampling from 30 clusters each representing rural and municipality as urban area. Results: The coverage in municipality as well as in urban areas exceed 90%. The coverge is too high to allow analysis on unimmunized children. We found no statistically significant difference of coverage between rural educational level and though there was a significant difference in parental educational level and occupation distance to nearest health center and age on immunization (p>0.05). There is a statistically significant difference between age on BCG and hepatitis B immunization with place of immunization (p<0.05). Conclusion: Immunization coverage in Yogyakarta province based on survey exceeded 90%. Determinant associated with age on immunization was place of immunization. Key words : immunization coverage - determinant - age on immunization.


The role of channels and their management in the eBusiness era is becoming increasingly important to customer relationship management. Traditional use of the application portfolio approach has been concerned with providing an appropriate basis for making investment decisions about IT applications for the firm. This paper argues that there is a gap between the established IS portfolio application theory and the requirements to support management investment decisions about eBusiness applications; Therefore, the paper proposes a channel benefits portfolio (CBP) approach to inform managers' channel investment decisions concerning business‐to‐customer channel interface. The suggested approach provides a conceptual framework and means to facilitate the alignment of the firm's portfolio with their customers' portfolio. The paper reports exploratory findings regarding customer channel preference and customer channel choice behaviour in the information search and purchasing stages during the customer decision‐making process on the basis of the CBP.


This paper deals with the measurements and modelling of attenuation and near-end (NEXT) and far-end (FEXT) crosstalk for cascaded metallic transmission lines. The transmission parameters of homogenous metallic line can be easily described by telegraph equations or cascade matrix; there are also several models for NEXT and FEXT frequency dependence. But these models and equations could not be applied in the situation of two or more different cascaded transmission lines, because these cascaded lines do not meet the essential condition of overall homogenous transmission line. However in such case, it is still possible to estimate the overall transmission characteristics of the whole combination thanks to the characteristics of each separate element. This paper brings the description of complex measurements performed for the combination of three different metallic cables and based on these measurements, several conclusions about the possibilities of modelling the attenuation and NEXT and FEXT crosstalk for cascaded transmission lines are presented.


ICT and availability of open sources software packages has enabled most of the institutions to maintain institutional repository or archive to collect, preserve, and make accessible the intellectual output created by their scholarly communities. There are more than 1800 Institutional Repositories (IRs) world wide of which more than 50% are in USA, UK, Germany and Spain. There has been relatively little systematic examination of the actual state of deployment of IRs in Asian countries. This study attempts to identify the present status of IRs in the countries of Asia. Data of repositories was collected from various directories of IRs. Data is analyzed in terms of quantity of IRs increased during last five years, country-wise IRs and number of objects, types of materials archived, subject coverage, software used, language of interface, host domains, and policy maaters. The results of the study suggest healthy growth in terms of quantity of IRs in Asian countries. The subject analysis of the IRs indicates that the institutes in the field of sciences and technology are more interested to create IRs than social sciences, arts and humanities. Currently the IRs mostly housed traditional (print-oriented) scholarly publications and grey literature, using DSpace software and most of these materials were of English language. However, the policy of content inclusion, submission and preservation is yet to be well defined in IRs.


The article presents an analysis of evolution of the conception of selection and arrangement of regional education themes in Poland in 1960–2008 with special consideration for the understanding of territory and region in geographical education. Nowadays, at the time of an intense globalisation process taking place, the meaning of the delimitation of cognition space in science‐geographic education is changing. It can be observed, first and foremost in the reorientation of regional education targets. Extending knowledge of the world itself is no longer the most important target of regional education. Development of students' proper attitude towards multifaceted diversity of today's world has become the essential target of teaching. Space delimitation, so deeply ingrained in the tradition of Polish geography education at schools, seems to become more often not a target but a means of achieving the desired educational goals. Thus, it is correct to adopt a new concept of perception of territory, region, space and place in geographical education which is compatible with the concept of multicultural education defined as the rejection of space delimitations and opening students to otherness, developing the sense of tolerance towards other people, respect for themselves and protection of own dignity.


In the past, there have been many attempts to capture the size and shape information inherent in complex irregular objects by numerical representation. There is much to be gained in a biological sense by numerical description of complex forms, like the craniofacial complex, in the field of dentistry. This thesis aims to review, utilise and build on past research methods in an attempt to describe the size and shape changes of a sample of human mandibles from the age of 9 through to 15 years. Specifically, two methods are considered and contrasted, the elliptical Fourier function and Procrustes analysis (including Bookstein co-ordinates).

In chapter 1 the background and motivation for such an investigation is introduced, describing the need for a mathematical description of complex irregular forms with an emphasis on the importance of such models in dentistry with particular reference to the way in which the human mandible grows over time. The methodological and clinical issues of the problem are outlined, including a summary of up to date methods that have been used to capture size and shape information of a growing complex morphological form and an overview of the way in which the mandible grows. Both the so-called landmark dependent and landmark independent (boundary outline) methods are summarised. Whilst all the methods considered are not without constraint in describing the size and shape of complex forms, all have been seen in the past to be beneficial in some way in that they all model 'form' in one way or another at the very least.

Chapter 2 then considers in more depth, what is fast becoming a much-promoted method of describing irregular forms, the elliptical Fourier function (EFF). The use of conventional Fourier methods, as well as the newer EFF method in describing size and shape changes is reviewed. A suite of programs that have been specially written to apply the EFF method in the description of complex irregular forms is introduced and an overview of the specific routines available in the package is given.

The data sample available for investigation, which consists of a series of lateral head
cephalograms (x-rays) from the BC Leighton Growth Study, is described in Chapter 3.
The way in which a subset is selected following certain inclusion and exclusion criteria
from the available x-rays is outlined. The way in which the mandibular data is then
prepared for subsequent use in the EFF suite of programs, as well as with the method of
Procrustes (and Bookstein co-ordinates) is also described in some detail.
In Chapter 4, an error study is undertaken to investigate the reproducibility of the
tracings of the sample of mandibular outlines prepared in the previous chapter. Both
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within- and between-rater studies are looked at. The EFF method is then applied to the
sample of tracings collected by one observer to explore any changes in size and shape
that may occur as the mandible grows, concentrating on ages 9, 11, 13 and 15 years. As
well as producing some very informative plots of the observed and predicted mandibular
outlines, and centroid to boundary outline distances, the usefulness of the harmonic
information available from the EFF procedure for numerically describing size and shape
changes of a complex irregular form is investigated. Whether or not there are differences
between males and females in the data sample, in terms of the size and / or shape of the
mandible is also explored.
Finally, the method of Procrustes analysis (and Bookstein co-ordinates) is described in
more depth in Chapter 5. This particular method is also applied to the same sample of
mandibular outlines in order to investigate its usefulness in describing size and shape
changes of the human mandible from age 9 to 15 years. Shape variability within samples
is also explored by way of principal components analysis. In addition, the method of thin
plate splines (TPS) is applied in order to examine shape change between males and
females.
Similar observations were made about mandibular growth in the sample investigated
using both the EFF and Procrustes (along with Bookstein co-ordinates) procedures.
Overall, the mandible was observed to be 'growing' between ages 9 and 15 i.e. changing in both size and shape over a period of time. There was no difference in terms of the size
and shape of the bone between males and females in the sample, for each age. Further,
using Procrustes analysis (and Bookstein co-ordinates) there did not appear to be any
association between the size and shape of the mandibular outlines in either the male or
female samples, for all ages. In addition, investigating shape variability using Procrustes
methods by way of principal components analysis, resulted in broadly similar patterns for
males and females, as well as combined samples, and different age groups.
It is concluded in Chapter 6 that the methods of elliptical Fourier function and Procrustes
(and Bookstein co-ordinates) both provide a very useful framework in which to describe
the size and shape of complex irregular forms like the mandible. Although both methods
have their advantages and disadvantages, Procrustes (including the very useful method
using Bookstein co-ordinates) is preferred for statistical purposes.


Haemoglobin is an iron containing metalloprotein found in the red blood cells. It is red protein carries oxygen from the lungs to the body tissues. It carries oxygen from the respiratory organs to the tissues. To the tissues it releases oxygen to allow aerobic respiration to provide energy to functioning the organism. And it also transport the carbon dioxide out of the back to the lungs. Each red blood cell contains approximately 280 million haemoglobin molecules.


EU has a significant role in the world politics and economics. Τhe importance of Brexit is unquestionable for the world countries whether they are parts of the EU or not.Developments and events taken place in the EU affect politically and economically member states as well as other countries of the world.The Britain' exit from the EU is not expected to affect Britain and the EU only but all the countries which have economical and political relations with the EU. Britain's process of separation from the EU will have negative impacts on the EU's citizens who live in Britain, and the British citizens who live in the EU.The study aims to analyze the impacts of Brexit process for both sides.


Drifting pulsation structures (DPSs) are important radio fine structures usually observed at the beginning of eruptive solar flares. It has been suggested that DPSs carry important information on the energy release processes in solar flares. We study DPS observed in an X8.2-class flare on 2017 September 10 in the context of spatial and spectral diagnostics provided by microwave, EUV, and X-ray observations. We describe DPS and its substructures that were observed for the first time. We use a new wavelet technique to reveal characteristic periods in DPS and their frequency bands. Comparing the periods of pulsations found in this DPS with those in previous DPSs, we found new very short periods in the 0.09–0.15 s range. We present Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array images and spectra of microwave sources observed during the DPS. This DPS at its very beginning has pulsations in two frequency bands (1000–1300 MHz and 1600–1800 MHz), which are interconnected by fast drifting bursts. We show that these double-band pulsations started just at the moment when the ejected filament splits apart in a tearing motion at the location where a signature of the flare current sheet later appeared. Using the standard flare model and previous observations of DPSs, we interpret these double-band pulsations as a radio signature of superthermal electrons trapped in the rising magnetic rope and flare arcade at the moment when the flare magnetic reconnection starts. The results are discussed in a scenario with the plasmoid in the rising magnetic rope.


The conceptualization of the "field" in early Soviet ethnography had its own dynamics and elaborations within the discursive arenas of the Leningrad ethnographic school. Beginning with the prehistory of the idea of the field among the Enlightenment naturalists and travelers, we turn toward a description of long-term expeditions of the first generation of Soviet ethnographers of the North. Comparing field diaries, photographs, questionnaires, lectures, and textbooks, we consider the patterns and flexibility in the concept of the field in the first half of the twentieth century. We conclude with a discussion of how post–World War II Soviet anthropologists departed from the ideas of participant observation and long-term fieldworking prominent in earlier conceptualizations of fieldwork in Soviet ethnography.


The licensing of occupations—a very forceful intervention in markets—is pervasive and growing in modern economies. Yet the attention paid to it by economists and economics textbooks has been small. Highly welcome, therefore, has been the extensive and intensive work on this subject by Morris Kleiner. Kleiner's latest book, titled Stages of Occupational Regulation: Analysis of Case Studies (2013), explores the progression of occupational regulation, from mere registration to certification to outright licensing—three distinct stages. Kleiner carefully selects for his analysis a series of occupations representing the stages of regulation, devoting a chapter to each occupation. He uses a variety of statistical approaches to tease out, from numerous databases, what the impact of mild to heavy regulation on labor markets appears to be. Kleiner's work leads him to call for a pervasive review of occupational regulation in the United States, with a view towards replacing occupational licensure, which introduces the most inefficiency and welfare loss, with mere certification of occupations. That recommendation gains plausibility in an age where cheap computation and data mining makes it possible to protect consumers from low-quality and possibly dangerous services by providing robust, user-friendly information on the quality of services delivered by competing occupations, such as doctors and nurse practitioners.


In this article, I apply performance theory and analysis to the examination of a performative community-based water governance system in the Peruvian Andes. I weave together performance studies and natural resource governance practice through Jacques Derrida's concept of iterability – the inherent capacity of an iteration to be deciphered and re-iterated beyond its immediate, present context. I ask what idea and what practice of natural resource governance are enabled through the performative iterations of a rural community's ancient ritualised relationship with water. I focus my analysis on the town of Corongo, in Northern Peru, and its water management system, whose heritage status was globally recognised through its inclusion on UNESCO's 2017 Representative List of Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This analysis leads me to a wider consideration of some of the types of contributions that performance studies can make to environmental political theory and environmental policy making as well as to political and critical discussions about how to transition towards more environmentally sustainable societies. I argue that ritual performance is the language with which Coronguinos (people from Corongo) carry out water governance at a local level and the means by which they produce and transfer a consciousness of themselves as a water heritage community. Performance operates in Corongo by means of an ancient chain of restored behaviours, structuring Coronguinos' lived relationship with their natural environment as well as shaping their awareness of the key role that embodied, performative water governance plays in the definition of their cultural identity and heritage.


The ascidian tunicate Corella inflata is relatively transparent compared to other solitary tunicates and the circulatory system can be visualized by injecting high molecular weight fluorescein labeled dextran into the beating heart or the large vessels at the ends of the heart. In addition, after staining with neutral red the movement of blood cells can be followed to further define and characterize the circulatory system. The heart is a gently curved tube with a constriction in the middle and extends across the width of the animal. As in other tunicates, pumping is peristaltic and periodically reverses direction. During the abvisceral directional phase blood leaves the anterior end of the heart in two asymmetric vessels that connect to the two sides of the branchial basket (or pharynx), in contrast to the direct connection between the heart and the endostyle seen in the commonly studied tunicate Ciona intestinalis. In Corella inflata blood then flows in both transverse directions through a complex system of ducts in the branchial basket into large ventral and dorsal vessels and then to the visceral organs in the posterior of the animal. During the advisceral phase blood leaves the posterior end of the heart in vessels that repeatedly bifurcate to fan into the stomach and gonads. Blood speed, determined by following individual cells, is high and pulsatory near the heart, but decreases and becomes more constant in peripheral regions. Estimated blood flow volume during one directional phase is greater than the total volume of the animal. Circulating blood cells are confined to vessels or ducts in the visible parts of the animal and retention of high molecular weight dextran in the vessels is comparable to that seen in vertebrates. These flow patterns are consistent with a closed circulatory network.


This paper examines the macroeconomic policies and outcomes experienced by the Latin American economies during the period 1990-2010. Macroeconomic policies refer to exchange rates, monetary and aggregate fiscal policies, while macroeconomic outcomes, on the other hand, refer to the patterns of growth, inflation, employment, investment, balance of payments, and the evolution of external and public debts and international reserves. The analysis includes a discussion of the effects of macroeconomic outcomes on poverty rates. With regard to policy, the study examines the changes that took place in 1997-98, and then reviews the resulting new macroeconomic configuration that was established in 2002-03. This new configuration favoured the acceleration of output growth and employment creation, and contributed to reducing poverty rates.


Two-axis gimbals are frequently used to point cameras and telescopes at various points of interest for surveillance, science, and art. The rotation of a two-axis gimbal system is governed by nonlinear angular momentum equations of motion. This paper presents a method for slewing a telescope in space with a gimbaled sensor attached to a nominally non-rotating spacecraft using two seventh order polynomial input functions to characterize torques. To accomplish this task, picking the optimal coefficients of the seventh order polynomial was necessary. It was also desired to use constraint equations to limit the excursion, angular velocity, angular acceleration, and jerk of the gimbal. A Matlab code was developed for this purpose. Matlab's fmincon was used to do the optimization, and a comparison to a previously validated one-degree-of-freedom (DOF) model was presented for validation of the nonlinear, two-degree-of-freedom model. Results for a fully constrained 2 DOF slew maneuver were also shown. This thesis demonstrates that seventh order polynomial torques can be used to accurately slew a telescope in space using nonlinear equations of motion.


To support and improve the evaluation of the test results of wave energy and tidal energy generators, it is important to understand the detailed physical conditions at the test sites. EMEC has chosen DHI's MIKE modelling technologies for studying water levels, currents and waves at their test sites. DHI has assisted EMEC in constructing numerical hydrodynamic and wave models of the Orkney Islands using the flexible mesh version of MIKE 21. This model permits spatial varying resolution, so that the complex tidal channels and local topographic features that may influence the tidal and wave dynamics can be sufficiently resolved. This paper highlights the modelling activities for EMEC's two test sites.


Boehme's influence on Blake, although often acknowledged, is frequently underestimated and has never been comprehensively investigated. Much modern criticism regards Blake's work as non-transcendental, even secular. This is partly a reaction against earlier criticism, which was more sympathetic to Blake's connection with the mystical tradition. The argument of this thesis, however, is that Boehme exerted a continuous and pervasive influence on Blake, and that recognition of this can illumine some of the most difficult and contradictory elements in Blake's work. These include the attitude to the body and the senses, and the metaphysical status of the selfhood and the created world. Chapter One discusses Boehme's system, noting that it represents a synthesis of many different currents of thought, including the Dionysian via negative. the Hermetic tradition, the Kabbalah and the Lutheran faith. It is emphasized, however, that his philosophy arose from intense mystical experience rather than academic study, and that he chose to express it in symbolic and mythological terms rather than rational concepts. Chapter Two, on The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, suggests that Blake was pursuing his central concern, of how to unify existence without destroying its essential polarity, in the wake of a study of Boehme, Chapter Three views The Book of Urlzen against the background of Boehme's first four properties of Eternal Nature and his account of the fall of Lucifer and Adam. The final chapter presents a synoptic examination of The Four Zoas. Milton and Jerusalem, Among the topics discussed are: the designs by Dionysius Freher in the context of Blake's unfallen Albion; the Behmenist 'lightning-flash' compared to Blake's experiences as recorded in Milton; the concept of eternity, shared by Boehme and Blake, which combined stasis and activity; Blake's use of the 'language of nature' in the context of the risen Albion, and the connection between Blake's figure of Los and Boehme's Mercurius, as transmitters of the divine Word.


Objective: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a severe neurological demyelinating autoimmune disease that affects the optic nerves and spinal cord with no cure and no FDA-approved therapy. Research over the last decade revealed that the binding of NMO-IgG to the water channel protein astrocyte aquaporin 4 (AQP4) might be the primary cause of NMO pathogenesis. The purpose of this study was to identify potential blockers of NMO-IgG and AQP4 binding. Methods: We developed a two-step screening platform consisting of a reporter cell-based high-throughput screen assay and a cell viability-based assay. Purified NMO-IgG from NMO patient serum and transfected Chinese hamster lung fibroblast V79 cells stably expressing human M23-AQP4 were used for primary screening of 40,000 small molecule fractions from 500 traditional Chinese herbs. Results: Thirty-six positive fractions were identified, of which 3 active fractions (at 50 μg/ml) were found to be from the same Chinese traditional herb Mahonia japonica (Thunb.). A bioactivity-guided method based on a primary screening assay for blocking activity led to the isolation of an active single natural compound, isotetrandrine, from the 3 fractions. Our immunofluorescence staining results showed that isotetrandrine can block NMO-IgG binding to AQP4 without affecting the expression and function of AQP4. It can also inhibit NMO-IgG binding to astrocyte AQP4 in NMO patient sera and block NMO-IgG-dependent complement-mediated cytotoxicity with the IC50 at ∼3 μM. Conclusions: The present study developed a cell-based high-throughput screen to identify small molecule inhibitors for NMO-IgG and AQP4 binding, and suggests a potential therapeutic value of isotetrandrine in NMO.


The Norilsk-Talnakh ore district in the northwestern Siberian platform contains globally unique reserves of Cu-Ni-sulfides with Pt and, especially, Pd. The Oktyabrsk deposit, which is one of the largest in the district, is spatially and genetically associated with the Kharaelakh mafic-ultramafic intrusion and its exceptionally large metamorphic and metasomatic aureoles. In this study, we employed in situ laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry U-Pb isotope dating of apatite, titanite, garnet, and perovskite that cocrystallize with disseminated sulfides within the aureole of metasomatic and contact metamorphic rocks. The calculated isotopic ages for apatite (257.3 ± 4.5 and 248.9 ± 5.1 Ma), titanite (248.6 ± 6.8 and 249.1 ± 2.9 Ma), garnet (260.0 ± 11.0 Ma), and perovskite (247.3 ± 8.2 Ma), though with large uncertainties, indicate that sulfide mineralization within metasomatic and contact-metamorphic rocks is coeval with the emplacement of the Kharaelakh intrusion. These isotopic dates are in complete agreement with the published isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-Pb zircon ages for the Norilsk intrusions and, at the same time, notably older than available Re-Os isochron ages of sulfides. The latter ages have been long interpreted as evidence for a prolonged duration of magmatic ore-forming processes; however, our data narrow their life span. Trace elements in titanite and garnet allow distinguishing late- and postmagmatic grains, which show indistinguishable U-Pb isotope ages.


Small scaled image lost some important bits of information which cannot be recovered when scaled back. Using multi-objective genetic algorithm, we can recover these lost bits. In this paper, we described a genetic algorithm approach to recover lost bits while image resized to the smaller version using the original image data bit counts which are stored while the image is scaled. This method is very scalable to apply in a distributed system. Also, the same method can be applied to recover error bits in any types of data blocks. In this paper, we showed proof of concept by providing the implementation and results.


The floral and the geographical origins of honey can be determined
by microscopic examination of the pollen present, however this technique
cannot be applied to highly strained or pollen free honeys. Thus,
there is a need for a chemical technique that can be applied to such
samples. This present work was undertaken with the help of the British
Beekeepers Association and their members, who provided honey samples
of known origin within the United Kingdom for chemical evaluation
and comparison.
There were 192 samples of English honey from the U. K. survey
and an additional 69 samples including those of foreign origin obtained
from various sources.
A selection of 11 foreign and 5 English honeys were examined
for proteins present by the technique of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate. This approach
was abandoned since preliminary studies indicated that a correlation
between the proteins and the geographical origin was not possible.
For 256 samples out of the 261, the free amino acids and the
pollens present were examined.
The free ninhydrin positive substances were separated by ionexchange
chromatography and then concentrated. Forty ninhydrin positive
substances were detected by a combination of paper electrophoresis
and chromatography and 28 of these compounds were identified. quantitative
measurements of the concentration of 13 detectable amino acids were
made on an automatic amino acid analyser. The average concentration
of the 13 amino acids of the 191 samples of the U. K. survey and those
of the 5 predominant pollens of the U. K. have been given in Table A. The major floral sources of-each honey were confirmed by quantitative
pollen analysis of the original sample.
It was found that by performing discriminant analysis using
the computer package Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
that the amino acid concentration measurements could be correlated
to the floral source of the samples examined, provided the sub-group
samples were sufficiently large. The overall pattern of floral sources
coupled with the detection of ninhydrin positive substances can be
used successfully to categorise unspecified samples. This is then
followed by correlation, in some cases, with amino acid concentration
measurements using the SPSS to predict a definite geographical region.
The potential role of using the SPSS predictive classifications
to evaluate the following aspects of honey production were indicated
to be successful. These aspects were: honeydew and nectar honeyst
feeding sugar to honeybees, the effects of heating honey, adulteration
especially with foreign honeys and/or commercial sugar products, commercial
processing methods and floral source with reference to plant family.