The phenomenon of blogs is growing rapidly and is expected to increase even in a more rapid pace (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss; blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers, as customers want to be talked with, not to. Companies have newly started to pay attention to this and as a result, the concept of blog marketing has been born. The little research that has been done on blog marketing has been done from a company perspective. However, no or little research has yet considered how consumers use blogs. In order to use blogs as a communication tool, it is of huge importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Hence the purpose is; "To explore how and why consumers use blogs in their decision making process" In order to answer this purpose we conducted nine interviews on young adults, as previous research suggests that this population use blogs the most (Tremayne, 2007). From the collected data a qualitative analyse was made in which the empirical findings was analysed with support of the theoretical framework. From the analysis we found that consumers use blogs throughout their decision making. Within the consumers' decision making, collaborative blogs was mostly used as the consumers could get more input from a larger audience and because this type of blog tended to cover a specific topic of interest for the consumers. Consumers were found mainly writing in the blogs when they had knowledge to contribute with or when they needed information that they could not otherwise find in the blogs. We also noticed that consumers turned to groups they belonged to, so called normative group, or they turned to groups that they did not belong to, so called comparative groups. These groups influenced the consumer by providing them with knowledge and by giving them positive and negative confirmation on their choice of purchase. However normative groups also persuaded the consumer to buy products in order to belong to the group. Besides this, a pattern of characteristics of the individuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the vast majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant product experiences. The consumers also seem to blog more with certain individuals, whose opinions were valued more. These individuals often shared the latest information on products. Lastly we found that consumers seemed to be selective when reading blog posts. The blog posts needed to contain detailedand up-to-date information. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as more credible then companies. The consumers also chose to read blog posts that show similarities between the consumer and the blogger in terms of either usage pattern of product or preference for product choices.


The main purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework on the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in enhancing marketing innovation performance in the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as it has been recommended to improve SMEs performance as a result of adopting the three principal business procedure. The paper was motivated by the importance of SMEs towards job creation, poverty reduction and economic development in most economies particularly among the developing countries. The SMEs sector has more flexibility in the face of environmental change when worldwide competition is becoming more powerful. At this edge of an economy, the level of innovation is the key to their success, growth, and survival. Thus achieving a workable marketing innovation system as well as improving services delivery are becoming critical. The existing literature demonstrates that the effectiveness of SMEs is reliant on the state of environmental influences. The environmental dynamism shapes the achievement of SMEs objectives and overall innovation performance. This study proposes the research framework on the effect of EO on marketing innovation performance. As postulated in the study, EO standin through the five measurements of autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness enables a firm to act resourcefully and organize its resources in a way that contributes to marketing innovation performance due to the tendency to act autonomously, the trend to be aggressive toward competition, to proactively pursue market opportunities, and to have the willingness to innovate and bear the risk. On this basis, this study further postulated that environmental dynamism moderates the relationships between the five dimensions of EO and marketing innovation performance.


Stomatal conductance of individual leaves was measured in a maize field, together with leaf water potential, leaf turgor, xylem ABA concentration and leaf ABA concentration in the same leaves. Stomatal conductance showed a tight relationship with xylem ABA, but not with the current leaf water status or with the concentration of ABA in the bulk leaf. The relationship between stomatal conductance and xylem [ABA] was common for variations in xylem [ABA] linked to the decline with time of the soil water reserve, to simultaneous differences between plants grown on compacted, non-compacted and irrigated soil, and to plant-to-plant variability. Therefore, this relationship is unlikely to be fortuitous or due to synchronous variations. These results suggest that increased concentration of ABA in the xylem sap in response to stress can control the gas exchange of plants under field conditions.


Computerized systems for automated assessment of writing and speaking create a situation in which Burkean symbolic action confronts nonsymbolic motion. What is at stake in such confrontations is rhetorical agency. In this article, an informal survey that asked teachers of writing and speaking about automated assessment informs an analysis of agency that contrasts writing and speaking along the dimensions of performance, audience, and interaction. The analysis suggests that agency can be understood as the kinetic energy of performance that is generated through a process of mutual attribution between rhetor and audience. Agency is thus a property of the rhetorical event, not of agents, and can best be located between the two traditional ways of defining agency: as rhetorical capacity and as rhetorical effectivity. Unwillingness to attribute agency to automated assessment systems makes them rhetorically ineffective and morally problematic.


In this paper, the settlement (or settlements) located on the Anavlochos ridge and its community (or communities) are considered in the geographical frame of the Mirabello region (Fig. 1) and in the historical context of the formation process of the Greek city-state between the 13th and the 7th c. BC. It intends to show how the archaeological data so far collected on the Anavlochos ridge may, or may not, document social structures and political organisations during this formative stage of the human past. Abstract In this paper, the settlement(s) located on the Anavlochos massif and its community(ies) are considered in the geographical frame of the Mirabello region and in the historical context of the formation process of the polis (13th-7th c. BC). The Anavlochos mountain range consists of a 5-km-long North-West/South-East crest of limestone extending above the village of Vrachasi. Earlier excavations by Pierre Demargne and more recent investigations have revealed that the site was settled between the Late Minoan IIIC period and the beginning of the 7th c. BC. This naturally defensible ridge controls the major communication axis linking Central and Eastern Crete. To the North, it overlooks the coastal plain of Milatos, where a Greek city-state was established from the 7th c. BC onwards, and the Late Bronze Age (1350-1250 BC) settlement of Sissi, whereas the urban centre of the Archaic polis of Dreros is located less than 10 km to the SouthEast. Since 2015, an archaeological, topographical and geomorphological survey of the Anavlochos massif has been carried out by the French School at Athens. The first results allow some preliminary observations on the settlement pattern on the massif, where a Protogeometric nucleation is clearly observable. The size and organisation of the Geometric settlement which developed in the central canyon also deserves to be considered: the urban planning, the seemingly lack of a central public space, and the existence of a potential sanctuary overlooking the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age cemetery which was visited until the Classical period, after the settlement was abandoned, all account for critical social and political changes in the early stages of the Greek city-state. Residential, funerary and religious evidence indicates that in the Late Geometric period a community was in formation, forging its identity and probably marking its territory.


A polyglutamine repeat–containing protein functions in developmentally programmed, nonapoptotic cell death in the nematode. Protein domains rich in glutamine, such as those found in prion proteins, can form coiled-coil secondary structures that promote protein aggregation, and expansion of polyglutamine repeats is associated with several proteins that cause neurodegenerative disease. It has been proposed that proteins containing polyglutamine repeats play a normal role in inducing cell death and that expansion of these repeats in some proteins, such as huntingtin, induce aberrant cell death. Blum et al. report that a polyglutamine repeat–containing protein plays a role in a developmentally programmed cell death event in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. During development of the male reproductive tract in the fourth larval stage (L4), the linker cell, which is located at the distal tip of the gonad, undergoes cell death so that the gonad can connect to the cloaca. Linker cell death does not require caspases or other known apoptotic machinery and is characterized by morphological changes typical of necrotic cell death. In an RNA interference screen, the authors found that a protein isoform produced from the pqn-41 locus (PQN-41C) acted cell autonomously to promote death of the linker cell; however, knocking down pqn-41 prevented linker cell death in only 20% of animals. PQN-41C contains polyglutamine repeats that are predicted to form coiled coils, and green fluorescent protein–tagged PQN-41C formed cytoplasmic aggregates in the linker cell. Truncating the pairs of polyglutamine domains, which is predicted to disrupt the formation of coiled coils, abrogated the ability of transgenically expressed PQN-41C to rescue linker cell death in pqn-41 mutants. In contrast to other proteins containing polyglutamine repeats, overexpression of PQN-41C was not toxic, because it did not induce precocious linker cell death when expressed in male L2 larvae nor did it induce cell death when expressed in the gonad distal tip cells of hermaphrodites. Beginning in the embryo, pqn-41 was expressed in most cells but only activated in the linker cell shortly before its death. PQN-41C acted independently of the transcription factor LIN-29, a known regulator of linker cell death, but downstream of two proteins involved in innate immunity and the stress response—the Toll–interleukin 1 scaffolding protein TIR-1 and the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase SEK-1. Given that PQN-41C cannot induce cell death on its own, it likely functions with other factors to induce this nonapoptotic form of developmentally programmed cell death. Linker cell death shares some morphological features with polyglutamine expansion diseases, suggesting that polyglutamine repeat–containing proteins may play a similar role in promoting nonapoptotic cell death in other species (see the Perspective by Link and Saldi). E. S. Blum, M. C. Abraham, S. Yoshimura, Y. Lu, S. Shaham, Control of nonapoptotic developmental cell death in Caenorhabditis elegans by a polyglutamine-repeat protein. Science 335, 970–973 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text] C. D. Link, T. K. Saldi, Cell death by glutamine repeats? Science 335, 926–927 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text]


A BSTRACT South Africa ' s export farms have shifted from racialised paternalism to corporate managerialism. But how have workforce dynamics changed? This article offers an ethnographic perspective on agriculture on the transient Zimbabwean border. An ' actor-centred ' approach examines the causes and extent of transformation. Who furthers managerial logics? Why? With what effects? White farmers emphasise impersonal, rationalised business for diverse reasons. What looks like part of a single global process of neoliberalisation is an accidental result. At the same time, foreign supermarket-funded development projects become subjected to logics of work-force paternalism. Managerialism itself has limited effect on labour arrangements. Workers ' hierarchies and cross-border networks are built on different principles from global supply chains. From within each network, it is as if the other were invisible.


Type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease are commonly occurring polygenic diseases, which are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. The identification of people at risk for these conditions has historically been based on clinical factors alone. Advances in genetics have raised the hope that genetic testing may aid in disease prediction, treatment, and prevention. Although intuitive, the addition of genetic information to increase the accuracy of disease prediction remains an unproven hypothesis. We present an overview of genetic issues involved in polygenic diseases, and summarize ongoing efforts to use this information for disease prediction.


In this paper, we study the problem of active visual search (AVS) in large, unknown, or partially known environments. We argue that by making use of uncertain semantics of the environment, a robot tasked with finding an object can devise efficient search strategies that can locate everyday objects at the scale of an entire building floor, which is previously unknown to the robot. To realize this, we present a probabilistic model of the search environment, which allows for prioritizing the search effort to those parts of the environment that are most promising for a specific object type. Further, we describe a method for reasoning about the unexplored part of the environment for goal-directed exploration with the purpose of object search. We demonstrate the validity of our approach by comparing it with two other search systems in terms of search trajectory length and time. First, we implement a greedy coverage-based search strategy that is found in previous work. Second, we let human participants search for objects as an alternative comparison for our method. Our results show that AVS strategies that exploit uncertain semantics of the environment are a very promising idea, and our method pushes the state-of-the-art forward in AVS.


Two disparate sedimentological and stratigraphic models have been presented for the interpretation of the Upper Cretaceous, Sites Member of the Cortina Formation. This study addresses these discrepancies and proposes a unifying model. The first model is a qualitative-based interpretation of depositional environment by Ingersoll (1978), which focuses on analysis of process faciesand sedimentary body-scale attributes. The second model, presented by Murray et al. (1996), is statistically-based and exclusively focuses on sedimentation event-scale attributes. Ingersoll (1978) interpreted the Sites Member as a series of asymmetric, thickeningand coarsening-upward turbidite packages. However, Murray et al. (1996) interpreted the Sites Member to represent a turbidite sequence in which sedimentary event beds thin-upward as commonly as they thicken-upward. In this study the methods and results of Ingersoll (1978) and Murray et al. (1996) were reproduced and an integrated hierarchical stratigraphic framework is presented. One continuous sedimentological section, totaling 223.2 m, of the middle Sites Member was measured along the northern bank of Cache Creek, California, and was used to classify sedimentary process facies, sedimentation events, and sedimentary bodies. A three-fold hierarchical stratigraphic framework was constructed by correlating upsection changes in these sedimentary attributes. Low-order cyclicity, defined by a regional interpretation of depositional environment, shows that the middle Sites Member represents a component of an overall prograding submarine fan system. Intermediate-order cyclicity, defined by changes in subenvironment, shows that the middle Sites Member represents longitudinal oscillations within the unconfined outer fan environment. High-order cyclicity, defined by statistical analysis, is representative of autogenic compensational lobe stacking. If any of these scales of cyclicity are interrogated in isolation, a unique and misrepresentative interpretation is likely. These three orders of cyclicity combine to form an integrated hierarchical stratigraphic framework that resolves the interpretive discrepancies between Ingersoll (1978) and Murray et al. (1996). Additionally, it was determined that at the event bed-scale, multi-scale and coincident, allogenic and autogenic mechanisms are responsible for hierarchical nested cyclicity. Therefore, event bed thickness is an unreliable criterion for interpretation of profile position and for cycle definition. Instead, grain size is a more consistent proxy for profile position and changes in system energy.


The ten week period from 9th October to 19th December 1982 was spent as Visiting Fellow at Leeds University at the Institute for Transport Studies; to examine the opportunities for research into the effects of information technology on transport and the interactions between them. This Fellowship was sponsored by the Science and Engineering Research Council (UK) and the Australian Road Research Board with additional support from Oxford Sytematics (Australia).

This report reviews the scope for research in this area; with particular emphasis on identifying workable project directions in the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS). Appropriate contacts and related work are given. Topics covered include data acquisition systems (including the potential for hand-held data capture devices; and the use of aural, visual and micro-wave wavelengths in capturing data): data processing and comunications policy appropriate to the Institute' s requirements; the role of knowledge-based systems; and the analysis of the relation between communications and transport activities in respect of time-use and expenditure patterns.

A number of the research proposals raised and put to ITS staff during the period are summarised in an Annex to this report (ITS technical Note TN 126). The summaries and texts of a series of seminars given during November-December 1982 at ITS are covered in a companion document (ITS Working Paper WP169).


The hollow-stem auger drilling technique has an inherent limitation of disturbing large volumes of subsurface materials around the borehole, thereby possibly affecting local permeabilities and creating annular channels for the movement of contaminants into previously clean strata. At hazardous waste sites where hydrogeologic conditions are not well defined, or where a known or suspected contaminated aquifer is perched above an important aquifer, the hollow-stem augering technique may not be advisible. Air rotary and cabletool drilling use a temporary casing that shields one strata from another, and allows the emplacement of an adequate filter pack. Air rotary drilling may result in the emission of noxious vapors from the borehole when contaminated strata are encountered, however; and may result in undesirable invasions of the near-borehole environment when water is used. The recommendations given to date regarding sampling devices may not have adequately considered the performance of mechanically-driven positive-displacement devices. A limited field test indicates that more work should be done in this area. Such work may have implications for the treatment of data from private wells, that are often included in contaminant plume definition efforts.


In this project an experimental investigation consisting on the measurement of the wave
patterns and their transformation from offshore into surfzone in the Australian coastline is
presented. The interest of this study is to validate a procedure to obtain field data under
storm conditions that can be compared with mathematical models that need to be improved
and validated for prediction of big natural disasters.
The objectives of the work are first to set up the facility that consists in a series of manometer
tubes ending at different lengths on the sea bed and covering the nearshore and the
surfzone up to 500m. The beginning of the manometer tubes and the recording system are
housed in a bunker buried into the sand. Second, it is intended to process the signals by the
use of sensor calibrations, gain functions and local approximations to estimate the surface
elevation. Finally, the sensor data is to be analysed in the time and frequency domains to
extract the wave patterns and main parameters.
The final tests have been carried out under no extreme weather conditions and the mean
water levels and sensor signals have been recorded. After processing all the measurements,
the mean water levels have been successfully compared to tide levels from a broadwater
buoy. Moreover, wave heights and wave periods have been obtained with different analysis
methods that are presented and discussed in the main text. Interesting wave height
differences between the readings at the 500m tube and at the Gold Coast wave rider buoy
have also been observed. These differences have been compared with the predictions of a
numerical simulation done with SWAN software.
In summary, the system capability and easiness to record data have been proved and
profited to obtain measurements. Furthermore, the signal processing has been successfully
applied to obtain relevant information about nearshore mean water levels and wave
parameters. To finish, future perspectives for following investigations are given.


'Can fashion start from zero?' is a question that, as observed by theorists, historians and curators, ultimately haunts those radical sartorial projects embodying a 'new' vision of the world. In the experimental overalls designed at the beginning of the twentieth century by Thayaht in Italy, and Stepanova, Rodchenko and Popova in Russia, it is possible to follow and progressively unfold the aspiration to a total renovation and re-organization of life. The differences between the artistic contexts to which these artists belong – Italian Futurism and Russian Constructivism - have often induced critics to separately discuss their sartorial proposals, overlooking their points of convergence. Within this article, the overalls by Thayaht and the Russian Constructivists are instead analysed in relation to each other, as agents of change, or rather as instances of a 'utilitarian outrage' (Davis, 1992). In examining their biographies, the article questions the newness of these creations, the rhetoric of the 'new' that accompanied them, and their status as 'anti-fashion' projects. Combining material culture with cultural history, it argues that their iconoclasm and utopian potential, resides precisely in their proposing a rationalization of clothing, and in 'questioning the very fashion project itself' (Wilson, 2003), in both its symbolic and tangible presence. Finally, on the basis of archival research and interviews conducted at the Thayaht-RAM Archive, Florence, the characterization of Thayaht's tuta as a Futurist creation, which has often been taken for granted, is reconsidered and problematized further.


Background: During adolescence, that the child is heavily influenced by his surroundings and attempts to change his or her habits and take on to newer habits. This has made relevant the emphasis of safe health behaviour in school and incorporation of stress assessment and subsequent counselling among the adolescent age group. The current study was planned among mid adolescent age group boys and girls, both from government and private schools of Bhubaneswar. Aims & Objectives: To see the association of socio-demographic characteristics with perceived stress among the adolescent children and to find the association of safe health behaviour with perceived stress among the adolescent children and determine the significant factors. Material & Methods: A total of 480 students (240 boys and girls each) selected randomly from 4 government and private schools were included in the study and administered a self-marking questionnaire which elicited information regarding safe health behaviour and also stress scores by using the Perceived Stress Scale which is a 10 points item. Results: Type of school and mother's education emerged most significant in the sample in terms of stress experienced by the children. Children who were verbal abused by the teachers had higher stress (28.9%) compared to who were not abused (p = 0.012). In terms of health history, any report of sickness or illness in the past 3 months accounted for significantly higher stress levels (37%) compared to the group with no such history (22.5). Conclusion: These findings hint that school environment has a major role to play on the adolescent's stress levels.


Oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) were a frequent occurrence
in the Cretaceous greenhouse ocean. Based on a variety of
paleoredox indicators, euxinic water column conditions are
commonly invoked for these OAEs. However, in a high
resolution study of OAE3 deep sea sediments [1], revised
paleoredox indicators suggest that euxinic conditions
fluctuated with anoxic ferruginous conditions on orbital
timescales. Building upon this, we here present new data for a
continental shelf setting at Tarfaya, Morocco, that spans a
period prior to, and during, the onset of OAE2. We again find
strong evidence for orbital transitions from euxinic to
ferruginous conditions. The presence of this distinct cyclicity
during OAE2 and OAE3 in shallow and deep water settings,
coupled with its occurrence on the anoxic shelf prior to the
global onset of anoxia, suggests that these fluctuations were a
fundamental feature of anoxia in the Cretaceous ocean.
The observed redox cyclicity has major implications for
the cycling of phosphorus, and hence the maintenance and
longevity of OAEs. However, despite this significance,
controls on the observed redox cyclicity are essentially
unknown. Here, we utilize S isotope measurements (pyrite S
and carbonate-associated S) from the deep sea and shelf
settings to model oceanic sulphate concentrations across the
redox transitions. Perhaps surprisingly, we find no evidence to
suggest that ferruginous conditions arose due to extensive
drawdown of seawater sulphate (as pyrite-S and organic-S)
under euxinic conditions. Instead, S isotope systematics in the
deep sea imply increased sulphate concentrations during
ferruginous intervals. Based on these observations and other
major element data, we infer that the redox cyclicity instead
relates to orbitally-paced fluctuations in continental hydrology
and weathering, linking the redox state of the global ocean to
climate-driven processes on land.
[1] Marz et al (2008) GCA, 72, 3703-3717.


Air-conditioners use a spirally coiled capillary tube as an expansion device to enhance compactness of the unit. However, most empirical correlations in open literature were developed for straight capillary tubes without considering coiled effects on the mass flow rate. The objectives of this study are to investigate the flow characteristics of coiled capillary tubes and to develop a generalized correlation for mass flow rate through coiled capillary tubes. The mass flow rates through the coiled capillary tubes and straight capillary tubes were measured by varying operating conditions and tube geometry. The condensing temperatures varied at 40.5, 47.5 and 54.5℃, and subcoolings altered at 3.5, 6.5 and 11.5℃. The mass flow rates of the coiled capillary tubes decreased by 5 to 16% compared with those of the straight capillary tubes at the same operating conditions. An empirical correlation was developed by introducing equivalent length of capillary tube with non-dimensional parameters for coiled shape. The present correlation predicts the data with average and standard deviations of 0.33% and 3.24%, respectively.


Trammel net is one of the fishing gears operated by small
scale fishermen along the coast of Java, in particular in the Semarang Municipality. For the past seven years, trammel net
has been developed into the main gear used to exploit shrimp
resource in waters around the municipality
This study aims to examine the economics of trammel net
fishery in the Semarang Municipality wit h an emphasis on cost structure analysis and determination of profit. In addition,
the study also attempts to determine factors responsible for
the continued existence of resource rent and factors affecting
variations in catch among fishermen. The cost structure analysis examined the cost incurred for
every factor of production and its importance to total cost as
expressed in cost indices. The profitability of the gear was
determined by means of cost and return analysis. The factors
affecting variations in catch among fishermen were determined
by means of a regression analysis.
Of the two trammel nets, i.e. the medium and the small
scales, the latter net was found to be more profitable. Owners
of small trammel nets earned the largest rent and non-family
labour of medium trammel net earned the smallest rent.
The number of net and time spent fishing were two variables
found positively related to catch per trip in the peak season.
Cost of buying boat and engine were found to be negatively
related to catch for the medium trammel net but positively
related to catch for the small trammel net. Size of fishermen
household was negatively related to catch for both the medium
and small trammel nets . In addition, fishing experience was
also found to be significantly related to catch for the medium
trammel net and the relationship was positive.
The small trammel net was recommended for development in
Semarang waters especially during the peak season. In order to
achieve a rational exploitation of shrimp resource in the areas, appropriate management mechanisms should be instituted
following a more intensive effort to assess
availability and potential.


1. The problem: Words are a pervasive unit of syntax and yet the dominant theory of them, the X0 theory, is problematic, predicting more parallels between phrasal and head movement than are observed. Phrasal movement approaches to word formation fare even worse on that score. Mirror Theory (MT) also has shortcomings, for example in relying on an unmotivated notion of specifier. 2. The solution: A theory of how syntactic structures are mapped onto functional and lexical words, positing syntactic features w for lexical access points and @ for linearization points. The theory draws on the late insertion of DM, the cycles of phase theory, the direct linearization principles of MT, and the non-terminal spell-out of Nanosyntax, separating word formation from linearization and appealing to spans (head-complement sequences) as the units of cyclic lexical access and storage.


Subclinical hypothyroidism of chronic autoimmune thyroiditis must be distinguished from the rare condition of thyroid resistance to TSH in which variable degrees of congenital insensitivity of the thyroid to a biologically active TSH molecule are present. We studied 42 subjects with slight to moderate elevations of circulating TSH and normal free thyroid hormone levels in whom the diagnosis of autoimmune thyroid disease had been excluded using the best of the currently available laboratory and instrumental techniques. In three families (A, B, and C), which included 8 of the 42 cases, other members besides the propositus were found to have isolated hyperthyrotropinemia. The entire coding regions of the TSH receptor (TSHr) gene were sequenced, and TSHr mutations were found in five subjects from families A and B. No mutations were identified in the two members of family C, in one member of family A, and in the 34 remaining cases of isolated hyperthyrotropinemia. A previously described P162A mutation was found in the proband (homozygous state), the son, and the mother of family A (both in the heterozygous state). A new inactivating heterozygous mutation was found in the proband and the mother of family B and consisted of the substitution of a leucine in place of a highly conserved proline at position 252 (L252P) in the extracellular portion of the TSHr. After transfection in COS-7 cells, the mutant L252P displayed a low expression at the cell surface and a reduced response to bovine TSH in terms of cAMP production. A structural defect of the mutant TSHr protein was probably responsible for the poor routing of the receptor to the cell membrane. In conclusion, in two of three families, but in none of 34 sporadic cases of isolated hyperthyrotropinemia, inactivating mutations of the TSHr were identified. The question of whether the latter cases represent subtle forms of autoimmune thyroiditis or might bear as yet unidentified genetic defects remains a matter of future studies.


The third world brain drain problem contains elements of economic, social and political complexities. The neo-classical economic theory may, therefore, be deficient in explaining brain drain. A number of studies have focused on the effects of brain drain rather than the causes. Moreover, data availability was a problem in previous studies. This paper is concerned with a dis aggregated analysis of the determinants of immigration of engineers and scientists to the U.S. from the third world countries. Attempt has been made to explain the third world professional immigration to the U.S. with a variant of Arrow-Capron model (1959). This analysis supports the view that labor market shortages explain the immigration of engineers and scientists to the U.S. An immigrant income taxation proposal may be effective in compensating the third world countries and in stopping professional immigration .


Much scholarly attention has focused on the incremental extension of criminal liability for 'terroristic speech' (reflecting the widely acknowledged preventive turn in criminal law). This thesis examines the case law of Turkey's Yargitay (Court of Cassation) and Constitutional Court on 'terroristic speech' in the light of regional (the European Court of Human Rights), and international (Human Rights Committee and CERD) standards. While this corpus of human rights law has obtained some positive traction in Turkey (resulting, for example, in the passage of a number of progressive Constitutional amendments), it is argued that the modern day regulation of 'terroristic speech' resembles in many ways the now outmoded offence of 'sedition' for silencing political dissent. It must of-course be recognized that Turkey has experienced a protracted conflict, and that recent 'terror' attacks in European capital cities have reinvigorated the international 'War on Terror'. At a deeper level, however, this observation evidences a troubling state of affairs, for, even in this 'human rights era', the imposition of far-reaching restrictions on speech continues seemingly without contradiction. Indeed, in many cases, the relevant criminal law offences, especially those pertaining to indirect incitement, were themselves been introduced at the behest of international instruments such as the UN Security Council Resolution 1624 (2005); the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, 2005; and the European Union Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism, 2008. It is argued that the regulation of 'terroristic speech' epitomizes the state-centricity of human rights norms; (a phenomenon which Leigh and Lustgarten colourfully describe as assigning 'the safekeeping of children in a school playground to a pit-bull terrier'). Moreover, it also reflects the fundamental inability of the international community to agree upon a definition of 'terrorism'. The thesis thus draws on recent scholarship (Stampnitzky) to chart the 'invention' of 'terrorism' as a fundamentally political term involving moral judgment. It is argued that the infusion of this political concept into legal reasoning is inherently problematic. The binary nature of 'terrorism' belies the more spectral nature of 'political violence', and it is the latter which ought to inform a more nuanced judicial response to 'terroristic speech'.


This paper theoretically investigates the following empirical phenomenon: given a high-complexity network with poor generalization bounds, one can distill it into a network with nearly identical predictions but low complexity and vastly smaller generalization bounds. The main contribution is an analysis showing that the original network inherits this good generalization bound from its distillation, assuming the use of well-behaved data augmentation. This bound is presented both in an abstract and in a concrete form, the latter complemented by a reduction technique to handle modern computation graphs featuring convolutional layers, fully-connected layers, and skip connections, to name a few. To round out the story, a (looser) classical uniform convergence analysis of compression is also presented, as well as a variety of experiments on cifar and mnist demonstrating similar generalization performance between the original network and its distillation.


Elastic shape analysis on non-linear Riemannian manifolds provides an efficient and elegant way for simultaneous comparison and registration of non-rigid shapes. In such formulation, shapes become points on some high dimensional shape space. A geodesic between two points corresponds to the optimal deformation needed to register one shape onto another. The length of the geodesic provides a proper metric for shape comparison. However, the computation of geodesics, and therefore the metric, is computationally very expensive as it involves a search over the space of all possible rotations and re- parameterization. This problem is even more important in shape retrieval scenarios where the query shape is compared to every element in the collection to search. In this paper, we propose a new procedure for metric approximation using the framework of kernel functions. We will demonstrate that this provides a fast approximation of the metric while preserving its invariance properties.


Different types of neurological deficits and sequels in the upper extremities that affect the activities of daily living in patients who have undergone stroke, have been analyzed from a subjective clinical point of
view. Prognosis recovery after stroke depends on many factors, among which are included individualized program of rehabilitation and cooperation of patients.
Simulation patients in the beginning of stroke. The aim of this work is to show a novel environment to simulate the initial improvement upper limb functions a few days after stroke and simulate the functional
recovery of patients under a rehabilitation program. Twenty-nine patients in the first four days post stroke were selected. Inclusion criteria were: over
eighteen years of age, collaborative patients, and neurological deficits in upper extremities post stroke without a previous history of stroke of motor sequelae second to other neurological or osteoarticular diseases that might identify pre-existing disability. Assessments were performed with 3-4 days and 7 days and 1, and 3 months post
stroke recording the following variables: demographics, stroke type, stroke classification according to the Oxford
scale, neurological deficit determined by the NIHSS, disability measures (Barthel's Index, Rankin Scale), assessment of the motor dysfunction of the upper extremities according to the Fugl-Meyer Scale as well as
muscle tone (Ashworth's Scale) and muscle balance of the upper extremities. We measured the deficits of angles, lengths and range of motion for the arm and hand affected. These measures were implemented in a virtual environment with 29 DOF for each arm and hand. The different types of deficit and sequelae seen in the upper extremities of stroke patients impairing their activities of daily living have been analysed from a subjective clinical standpoint based on clinical and functional assessments. The prognosis for recovery of each patient very much depends on many
factors, which can be found in the rehabilitation program and individual goals together with the collaboration afforded by the patients themselves while they are unaware a priori of the objective outcome of the rehabilitation process.


A novel statistical channel model for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) free-space optical (FSO) communication systems impaired by atmospheric and misalignment fading is developed. A slow-fading channel model is considered and the outage probability is derived as a performance measure. The diversity gain defined as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) exponent at high SNR is analyzed. Interestingly in the presence of misalignment fading the diversity gain depends only on the misalignment variance and is independent of the number of transmitters M and receivers N. Increasing the number of transmitters and receivers only results in a lower probability of outage for a given SNR, however, the rate of change is unaffected. Contrary to this case, the diversity gain of MIMO FSO systems in the presence of atmospheric fading and no misalignment is shown to be proportional to the number of transmitters and receivers, in particular the product MN.


A tree expert who made sales calls by strolling through unfamiliar towns and striking up conversations with strangers on the street; a manufacturer of outdoor goods who insisted that his company's label be sewn into all clothing he made for the U.S. Army; a pair of inventors whose new electrical insulation material turned out to be a terrific waterproof laminate for all sorts of household and commercial surfaces: These are just a few of the 500-plus empire builders you'll meet in the Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs--men and women whose talent, drive, and ingenuity not only made their own dreams come true but also created lasting benefits for their industries, their nation, and, in many cases, the world. This book profiles the most exciting and inspiring American entrepreneurs of the past two centuries, from legendary masters of the business world, such as F. W. Woolworth, Walter Percy Chrysler, and Arthur Andersen, to unsung heroes who sowed the seeds that blossomed into empires. These entrepreneurs made their marks in every conceivable industry, from postage meters to personal fitness, from retailing to recycling, from healthcare to heavy equipment. If their stories have a common theme, it is that there is no single pathway to success, nor a clear set of rules to follow to get there. Each of these entrepreneurs saw opportunities that others missed, responded quickly and effectively to changes in the market, and was willing to be unconventional when circumstances required. Featuring personal background, tales from each entrepreneur's early struggles and eventual success, and the current status of the business empires these pioneers created, the Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs is an inspiration for those who wish to follow in the footsteps of giants and a valuable reference for researchers, students, and history buffs. ENTREPRENEUR Magazine is the banner publication of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. It has the largest newsstand circulation of any business monthly with a total ABC-audited circulation of 510,000. A deep well of information and inspiration As you read about the more than 500 legendary entrepreneurs profiled in this encyclopedia, you'll learn a great deal about how each of these trailblazers carved a path to success. Many of the lessons that these entrepreneurs learned are timeless truths that can help you achieve success in your own entrepreneurial endeavors. You'll also discover that, for the vast majority of these heroes of free enterprise, success meant more than simply developing a superior product or service, building a solid company, and amassing a great fortune. Virtually every one of these entrepreneurs sought to help build a better world, both through the businesses they founded and through abiding personal commitment to their fellow citizens. Compiled from thousands of sources in business, government, civic life, and academia, this encyclopedia presents an avalanche of information in an extremely user-friendly format, featuring two alphabetical indexes that make it easy to look up a specific company or an entrepreneur whose name may not appear in primary listings. More than 60 photographs bring you closer to many of the entrepreneurs and give you a sense of the environment in which they made their way. After reading even a handful of these compelling profiles, you'll understand that entrepreneurship is more than an avenue through which ambitious people can accomplish their goals: It is a vocation that contributes texture, color, and strength to the fabric of American life and culture. Bringing Your Product to Market The Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Advisor The Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Answer Book Guide to Integrated Marketing Guide to Professional Services Guide to Raising Money Human Resources for Small Businesses Making Money with Your Personal Computer Organizing and Promoting Seminars Small Business Legal Guide Starting a Home-Based Business Starting an Import/Export Business Successful Advertising for Small Businesses.


Scanner data for breakfast cereals are used to estimate demand elasticities for six supermarket stores in two distinct socioeconomic areas. Three stores are in lowincome locations and three are in high-income locations. A time series cross-section model is estimated for five product categories across six cross sections over forty-two weeks. Results show lower-income shoppers to have more elastic demands for four of the five product categories: private label cold cereals, the top ten brands of cold cereals, all other brands of cold cereals, and hot cereals. Price is not statistically significant for a fifth product category, snack cereals.


It has long been established that for a Positive Displacement (PD) compressor or expander such as reciprocating or rotary screw type, the thermodynamic process is adiabatic when compressor or expander discharge pressure is equal to system back pressure (or 100% internal compression or expansion). At this design point, compressor or expander efficiency and noise are most desirable. But more often, PD compressor or expander operates at off-design points where the discharge pressure is either lower or higher than the system back pressure caused by the inherent nature of possessing a fixed built-in volume ratio. The resulting processes are often called an Under-Compression abbreviated as UC (or Over-Expansion, OE) and an Over-Compression, OC (or Under-Expansion, UE), and the thermodynamic process suddenly changes to iso-choric (constant volume). The compressor or expander efficiency and noise become worse at these off-design conditions and some type of controls are always desired such as a variable geometry in order to minimize the losses. On the other hand, there have been test observations that seem to contradict the conventional theory, pointing to the dramatic difference of the thermodynamic processes between an UC and internal compression. So questions arise: What is the true thermodynamic process of an UC? What really does the compression at the instant when the gas is exposed to higher system pressure? How is energy exchanged during an UC cycle? And why does UC possess the unique self-adjusting capability to different system pressures? This paper attempts to re-exam these questions by applying the 1 st Law of Thermodynamics to UC (or OE) mode. It will be demonstrated that an UC (or OE) may inherently be an adiabatic process with compression achieved by a "flexible" backflow rather than a "rigid" piston or lobe. The energy exchange, in addition to work input from shaft to gas, is assisted by a dynamic process of "borrow and return" with the discharge system. It will be further explored that the mechanism of backflow compression is in essence a wave compression as illustrated by the Shock Tube Theory. Potential efficiency of an UC or OE could be close to the classical internal compression if the high velocity backflow is managed properly. But the best or maybe the most overlooked property seems to be its "feedback" capability, that is, an UC is a self-correcting, negative feedback control loop capable of meeting different system back pressures without using any variable geometry. A Roots type blower is used as an extreme example of UC to illustrate the new theory.


Defeasible Logic Programming (DeLP) is a knowledge representation and reasoning formalism that by combining Logic Programming with Defeasible Argumentation is able to represent incomplete and potentially contradictory information. Within the field of Logic Programming, most of the implementations of Prolog and its variants are based on an abstract machine defined by D. Warren (nowadays known as WAM, standing for Warren's Abstract Machine), that sits between the program and the actual hardware executing it. This separation of concerns allows the developer to focus mainly on the aspects related to the language being implemented, and not on the distinctive characteristics of the available hardware. In this paper we summarize how an abstract machine can also help in the context of DeLP, exploring the points of contact between WAM and a particular abstract machine defined for this theory called JAM.


Campbell, Sally J.; Wanek, Ron; Coulston, John W. 2007. Ozone injury in west coast forests: 6 years of monitoring. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-722. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 53 p. Six years of monitoring for ozone injury by the Pacific Northwest Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis Program are reported. The methods used to evaluate injury, compute an injury index, and estimate risk are described. Extensive injury was detected on ozone biomonitoring sites for all years in California, with ponderosa and Jeffrey pines, mugwort, skunkbush, and blue elderberry showing injury. Little or no injury was detected in Oregon and Washington. The relation of observed injury to ambient ozone levels is discussed. The areas with the highest modeled risk of ozone injury are the areas east of Los Angeles, the southern Sierra Nevada, and portions of the central coast.


Community and public engagement (CPE) is increasingly becoming a key component in global health research. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is one of the leading funders in the UK of global health research and requires a robust CPE element in the research it funds, along with CPE monitoring and evaluation. But what does "good" CPE look like? And what factors facilitate or inhibit good CPE? Addressing these questions would help ensure clarity of expectations of award holders, and inform effective monitoring frameworks and the development of guidance. The work reported upon here builds on existing guidance and is a first step in trying to identify the key components of what "good" CPE looks like, which can be used for all approaches to global health research and in a range of different settings and contexts. This article draws on data collected as part of an evaluation of CPE by 53 NIHR-funded award holders to provide insights on CPE practice in global health research. This data was then debated, developed and refined by a group of researchers, CPE specialists and public contributors to explore what "good" CPE looks like, and the barriers and facilitators to good CPE. A key finding was the importance, for some research, of investing in and developing long term relationships with communities, perhaps beyond the life cycle of a project; this was regarded as crucial to the development of trust, addressing power differentials and ensuring the legacy of the research was of benefit to the community.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of protease inhibitors on lipid and lactate levels and gastrointestinal symptoms in pregnancy. METHODS: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) A5084 was an observational cohort study of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–infected pregnant women. Women recruited between 20 and 34 weeks of gestation were required to be on a stable, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen, stratified by protease inhibitor compared with no protease inhibitor regimens. Interval history was assessed, and lipid and lactate levels were drawn every 8 weeks during pregnancy and 12 weeks postpartum, with levels closest to delivery and postpartum used for analysis. Statistical comparisons used Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher exact tests. RESULTS: One-hundred fifty-eight women were evaluated. Total cholesterol levels (median 230 mg/dL, interquartile range [197, 259], compared with 212 [179, 246] mg/dL, P=.042) and triglycerides (median 224 mg/dL, interquartile range [187, 288], compared with 185 [142, 230] mg/dL, P<.001] were elevated in the protease inhibitor group during pregnancy and remained higher in this group after delivery (total cholesterol 185 [163, 224] mg/dl compared with 171 [140, 190] mg/dL, P<.004; triglycerides 122 [87, 175] mg/dL compared with 89 [66, 150] mg/dL, P=.02). No difference was seen in lactate levels or rates of gastrointestinal symptoms between groups. Obstetric outcomes were similar between the two groups. A higher number of low birth weight infants were born to women in the highest twentieth percentile of triglycerides compared with the lowest across medication groups. CONCLUSION: Cholesterol and triglycerides were higher in protease inhibitor–treated women in pregnancy. Lactate and gastrointestinal symptoms were not different. A higher number of low birth weight infants were noted in women with high triglycerides, but other elevated lipid levels did not affect pregnancy outcomes. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00017797 LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II


AIMS
The aim of the present study was to determine the mediating role of affiliation with cannabis-using peers in the pathways from various dimensions of temperament to life-time cannabis use, and to determine if these associations also contributed to the development of regular cannabis use.

METHODS
Objectives were studied using data from 1300 participants of the Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a large, general population study of Dutch adolescents. We used parent-reports on the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire to assess the dimensions of high-intensity pleasure, shyness, fearfulness, frustration and effortful control at age 10-12 years. By means of self-reports, life-time and regular cannabis use were determined at age 15-18 years, and proportion of substance-using peers was determined at ages 12-15 and 15-18 years. Models were adjusted for age, sex, intelligence and parental cannabis use.

RESULTS
High-intensity pleasure [odds ratio (OR) = 1.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.05-1.13] and effortful control (OR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.89-0.96) affected the risk for life-time cannabis use through their influence on affiliation with cannabis-using peers. Shyness affected this risk independently from peer cannabis use. Only the pathway from effortful control was associated additionally with the development of regular cannabis use (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.89-0.98).

CONCLUSIONS
Peer cannabis use and, to a lesser extent, certain temperamental characteristics affect an adolescent's risk of cannabis use, and should be considered in prevention programmes. We recommend future research to focus upon factors that potentially modify the association between temperament, affiliation with cannabis-using peers and cannabis use.


Feature Issue on Optical Interconnection Networks (OIN). We describe hybrid
 optical-electrical systems that perform header processing and buffering of
 ultrafast, asynchronous optical packets. Our systems are enabled by three key, novel
 devices: an all-optical serial-to-parallel converter, an optical clock-pulse
 generator, and a photonic parallel-to-serial-converter. These devices allow
 utilization of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology for compact,
 highly functional optical packet processing. A simplified node architecture for
 asynchronous, optical- packet-switched networks is made possible by these systems
 with all the necessary node functions integrated compactly. We also demonstrate an
 optical label swapper and a photonic random access memory for 40-Gbit/s, 16-bit,
 asynchronous optical packets.


As the causes and mechanisms of male erectile dysfunction (ED)
were unravelled, it became more and more obvious that ED is an
important marker of underlying physical or psychological pathology.
The importance of sexual function as part of quality of life is reflected
in the World Health Organisation's definition of health as not merely
the absence of disease, but total physical, emotional and social
wellbeing. Research during the past two decades has uncovered much
concerning sexual function. The impact of sexuality on any society
is illustrated by the multitude of references to sexuality observed
in everyday life. Because male sexual dysfunction is made more
obvious by the absence of an erection and societies are usually
male dominated, research was initially directed at male sexual
dysfunction. The increased awareness of sexuality led to an
increase in research on other aspects of sexuality, including female
sexual function.


The paper questions the need to reassess conceptual art in terms of old political debates. It proposes that the materialist/idealist dichotomy of 20th century philosophy might offer a basis on which to reconsider emerging political issues to which conceptual art might contribute. The work of Robert Smithson is examined in a new light, as an early practitioner of a conceptual environmental art. The methodological rigour and originality of the paper lay in its use of materialism and idealism as a new basis on which to catagorise this highly contentious body of work


Abstract Using a unique sample of Russian immigrants and native Israelis, we examine the return to English knowledge. Panel and cross-section estimates of the return to English are substantial for highly educated immigrants and natives. Hebrew and English language acquisition contribute to immigrant/native earnings convergence, but most convergence is explained by other factors. While immigrants with low levels of education do not benefit from knowing English, native Israelis may. Conditional on occupation, English and Hebrew acquisition are largely orthogonal. Therefore earlier work on the importance of knowledge of the host-country language (Hebrew) is not significantly biased by unmeasured English knowledge.


This paper investigates the sources and size of trade barriers at the industry level. We derive a micro-founded measure of industry-specific bilateral trade integration that has an in-built control for time-varying multilateral resistance. This trade integration measure is consistent with a broad range of recent trade models including the Anderson and van Wincoop (2003) framework, the Ricardian model by Eaton and Kortum (2002) and heterogeneous firms models. We use it to explore trade barriers for manufacturing industries in European Union countries between 1999 and 2003. We find a large degree of trade cost heterogeneity across industries. The most important trade barriers are transportation costs and policy factors such as Technical Barriers to Trade. Trade integration is generally lower for countries that opted out of the Euro or did not abolish border controls in accordance with the Schengen Agreement. Reductions in trade barriers explain about one-half of the growth in trade over the period 1999-2003 and are therefore a major driving force of the EU Single Market. JEL Code: F10, F15.


Trend analyses of meteorological variables play an important role in assessing the long-term changes in water levels for sustainable management of shallow lakes that are extremely vulnerable to climatic variations. Lake Mogan and Lake Eymir are shallow lakes offering aesthetic, recreational, and ecological resources. Trend analyses of monthly water levels and meteorological variables affecting lake levels were done by the Mann-Kendall (MK), Modified Mann-Kendall (MMK), Sen Trend (ST), and Linear trend (LT) methods. Trend analyses of monthly lake levels for both lakes revealed an increasing trend with the Mann-Kendall, Linear, and Sen Trend tests. The Modified Mann-Kendall test results were statistically significant with an increasing trend for Eymir lake levels, but they were insignificant for Mogan lake due to the presence of autocorrelation. While trend analyses of meteorological variables by Sen Test were significant at all tested variables and confidence levels, Mann-Kendall, Modified Mann-Kendall, and Linear trend provided significant trends for only humidity and wind speed. The trend analyses of Sen Test gave increasing trends for temperature, wind speed, cloud cover, and precipitation; and decreasing trends for humidity, sunshine duration, and pan evaporation. These results show that increasing precipitation and decreasing pan evaporation resulted in increasing lake levels. The results further demonstrated an inverse relationship between the trends of air temperature and pan evaporation, pointing to an apparent "Evaporation Paradox", also observed in other locations. However, the increased cloud cover happens to offset the effects of increased temperature and decreased humidity on pan evaporation. Thus, all relevant factors affecting pan evaporation should be considered to explain seemingly paradoxical observations.


These are not your parents' financial markets. A generation ago, the image of Wall Street was one of floor traders and stock brokers, of opening bells and ticker symbols, of titans of industry and barbarians at the gate. These images reflected the prevailing view in which stock markets stood at the center of the financial universe. The high point of this equity-centric view coincided with the development of a significant body of empirical literature examining the efficient market hypothesis (EMH): the prediction that prices within an efficient stock market will fully incorporate all available information. Over time, this equity-centric view became conflated with these empirical findings, transforming the EMH in the eyes of many observers from a testable prediction about how rapidly new information is incorporated into stock prices into a more general – and generally unexamined – statement about the efficiency of financial markets.In their seminal 1984 article The Mechanisms of Market Efficiency, Ron Gilson and Reinier Kraakman advanced a causal framework for understanding how new information becomes incorporated into stock prices. Gilson and Kraakman's framework provided an institutional explanation for the empirical findings supporting the EMH. It has also played an influential role in public policy debates surrounding securities fraud litigation, mandatory disclosure requirements, and insider trading restrictions. Yet despite its enduring influence, there have been few serious attempts to extend Gilson and Kraakman's framework beyond the relatively narrow confines in which it was originally developed: the highly regulated, order-driven, and extremely liquid markets for publicly-traded stocks. This article examines the mechanisms of derivatives market efficiency. These mechanisms respond to information and other problems not generally encountered within conventional stock markets. These problems reflect important differences in the nature of derivatives contracts, the structure of the markets in which they trade, and the sources of market liquidity. Predictably, these problems have led to the emergence of very different mechanisms of market efficiency. This article describes these problems and evaluates the likely effectiveness of the mechanisms of derivatives market efficiency. It then explores the implications of this evaluation in terms of the current policy debates around derivatives trade reporting and disclosure, the macroprudential surveillance of derivatives markets, the push toward mandatory central clearing of derivatives, the prudential regulation of derivatives dealers, and the optimal balance between public and private ordering.


The good use of cultural or agronomic practices is fundamental to the production of high yields and quality of American Pima cotton. In order for Pima farmers to maintain viable production operations, a continual review and improvement upon the existing set of cultural practices are in order. Basic aspects of crop production such as planting date management, soil fertility and plant nutrition, plant growth regulator use, crop termination, and defoliation are reviewed in this paper in relation to American Pima cotton production. Specific attention is also given to potassium (K) fertility management and Alternaria leaf spot regarding new aspects of potential management needs.


ABSTRACT Tidal-flat facies of the Middle Ordovician (Chazyan) New Market Limestone (0-67 m), southwestern Virginia. are fenestral. pellet-intraclast packstone/wackestone and lime mudstone. The unit unconformably overlies Lower Ordovician dolomites (Knox Group), interfingers with laterally equivalent skeletal limestone and is overlain by skeletal wackestone (Lincolnshire Limestone). Fenestral fabrics consist of: (1) tubular fenestrae (0.1-2 mm dia.), subvertical, cylindrical and straight to curved; (2) laminoid fenestrae (0.1-1 mm high), parallel to curved and less than 15 mm long; (3) irregular fenestrae (0.5-5 mm dia.), equidimensional to irregular. Counts of the fenestrae in two measured sections indicates that all three fenestral types occur together forming complex fabrics; the fabrics are not cyclically repeated but are influenced by depositional fabric. Tubular fenestrae probably formed by burrowing organisms in soft, wet intertidal and/or shallow subtidal sediments. Irregular and laminoid fenestrae formed by desiccation/lithification in more frequently exposed sediments resulting in hard, indurated surfaces in tidal flats, which inhibited further burrowin . New Market fenestral fabrics suggest that tidal flat sedimentation kept pace with subsidence or sea level rise so that the depositional surface remained in tidal/supratidal zones for long periods, causing complex overprinting of fabrics. General absence of cryptalgalaminates reflects intense browsing/burrowing probably related to non-hypersaline tidal waters. Associated diagenetic features (abundant vadose silt; commonly pendant equant calcite cements, equant calcite cements which predate vadose silt; molds of shells; and solution-enlarged molds of shells) indicate early lithification and widespread vadose-meteoric diagenesis. Rare beds containing columnar (fibrous) calcite cements suggest precipitation of cements from more saline waters. Intra-and interformational erosional surfaces that truncate grains and diagenetic fabrics are further evidence of early lithification. Fenestral and associated vadose diagenetic fabrics, and the lack of dolomites, evaporites, intraclast breccias and cryptalgal sediments indicate that New Market sediments formed under the influence of non-hypersaline (normal marine to meteoric) tidal and ground waters and "wet" climatic conditions. Such fabrics may characterize other carbonate tidal deposits formed under similar conditions.


This paper presents results of a study that examined the perceptions and preferences of identified "responsible, sustainable consumers" with respect to functional products. The study is part of a larger research program that looks at material cultures and product design in relation to sustainable production and consumption. Based on empirical data gathered from among citizens attempting to follow sustainable lifestyles, the authors reflect on how the adoption of sustainable consumption patterns can not only be motivated by altruistic and environmental considerations, but also, significantly, by perceived personal benefits, including an expected increase in personal well-being. These motivations, together with how they unfold into preferences for particular product characteristics, are discussed. The paper concludes that the understanding of such motives, along with their implications for the ways in which products and services are conceived and positioned, may warrant further research as it can represent a key incentive for change towards a more sustainable future.


Abstract In sexual reproduction the genetic similarity or dissimilarity between mates strongly affects offspring fitness. When mating partners are too closely related, increased homozygosity generally causes inbreeding depression, whereas crossing between too distantly related individuals may disrupt local adaptations or coadaptations within the genome and result in outbreeding depression. The optimal degree of inbreeding or outbreeding depends on population structure. A long history of inbreeding is expected to reduce inbreeding depression due to purging of deleterious alleles, and to promote outbreeding depression because of increased genetic variation between lineages. Ambrosia beetles (Xyleborini) are bark beetles with haplodiploid sex determination, strong local mate competition due to regular sibling mating within the natal chamber, and heavily biased sex ratios. We experimentally mated females of Xylosandrus germanus to brothers and unrelated males and measured offspring fitness. Inbred matings did not produce offspring with reduced fitness in any of the examined life-history traits. In contrast, outcrossed offspring suffered from reduced hatching rates. Reduction in inbreeding depression is usually attributed to purging of deleterious alleles, and the absence of inbreeding depression in X. germanus may represent the highest degree of purging of all examined species so far. Outbreeding depression within the same population has previously only been reported from plants. The causes and consequences of our findings are discussed with respect to mating strategies, sex ratios, and speciation in this unusual system.


In the winter of 1997, a pair of front page articles in The News Journal portrayed a state-run paratransit system under fire from its ridership. `They've taken me places before, and I'd have to wait for more than an hour for them to come back and pick me up,' explained one user (Montgomery, 1997, p. A1). In another article by Montgomery, (1997), others complained about being unable to access the telephone-based scheduling system, the alleged unfairness of the so-called `did-not-go' (DNG) policy, and the apparent lack of concrete rules for both riders and administrators. The message was clear: The system which many seniors and people with disabilities depend on for their basic mobility, one faced with both rising demands and costs, was perceived by many to be unreliable, lacking clear direction on key issues of service, and in dire need of reform. While the potential effect of such press accounts is undeniable, it must be recognized that the anecdotal information on which they are based is of limited value where issues of policy are concerned. What is required instead is a systematic investigation into consumer satisfaction with paratransit service; one that objectively examines and documents the situation. Such an investigation will provide the basis on which informed public policies can be developed. The research reported here examined consumer satisfaction of a demand-responsive, call-in-advance, door-to-door paratransit service available in the state of Delaware. The public transit system, operated as DART First State, is a state owned and operated system that includes both fixed-route and paratransit. The State has three counties and a total population of approximately 725,000. At the time of the study, (1997), 110 paratransit vehicles provided slightly more than 336,000 trips per year. The number of trips are twice the number provided in 1991, and are about half of those expected by 2002. The average cost per trip was over $26.00 with a fare box of $2 per trip in two of the three counties in the state. The consumers in the third county only pay $1.00 per trip. Questions addressed in the study included the following: What constitutes consumer satisfaction of a public service of this nature? What are measures of consumer satisfaction for this population? Are these measures appropriate, given that most consumers almost always want higher levels of service when, in fact, transit providers need meet only the minimum standards prescribed by law? When such extremes exist, is it fundamentally appropriate to use consumer input in the planning and delivery of publicly funded services? If so, how should the information be used in shaping coherent public policies that seek to mollify these two extremes? Consumer Satisfaction Studies Jonathan Barsky (1995) asserts that `you can measure how satisfied customers are with your product, service, company, and personnel by considering how well their expectations are being met and what is important to them.' Healthy profit margins, past experience, and even a manager's `gut feeling' are not adequate measures of service quality. `Quality, in the final analysis, is defined by customers' (Murphy & Taylor, 1995). Routine assessments of consumer satisfaction can also alert personnel to potential problems before they become real problems. There are some researchers, however, whose belief in the utility of consumer satisfaction measures is less absolute. Robert Pasikoff (1997) warns that any organization depending on assessed levels of customer satisfaction to `position a new product line, correct a marketing misstep, or get a jump on the competition ... is asking too much of an instrument that looks through the rear-view mirror rather than the windshield.' To ensure survival, an organization should concentrate less on meeting expectations (satisfaction) and more on exceeding them, which Pasikoff associates with the truest measure of success: customer loyalty. …


Hemoglobin (Hb, Mw: 64 500) and albumin (Mw: 66 500) are major protein components in our circulatory system. On the basis of bioconjugate chemistry of these proteins, we have synthesized artificial O(2) carriers of two types, which will be useful as transfusion alternatives in clinical situations. Along with sufficient O(2) transporting capability, they show no pathogen, no blood type antigen, biocompatibility, stability, capability for long-term storage, and prompt degradation in vivo. Herein, we present the latest results from our research on these artificial O(2) carriers, Hb-vesicles (HbV) and albumin-hemes. (i) HbV is a cellular type Hb-based O(2) carrier. Phospholipid vesicles (liposomes, 250 nm diameter) encapsulate highly purified and concentrated human Hb (35 g/dL) to mimic the red blood cell (RBC) structure and eliminate side effects of molecular Hb such as vasoconstriction. The particle surface is modified with PEG-conjugated phospholipids, thereby improving blood compatibility and dispersion stability. Manipulation of physicochemical parameters of HbV, such as O(2) binding affinity and suspension rheology, supports the use of HbV for versatile medical applications. (ii) Human serum albumin (HSA) incorporates synthetic Fe(2+)porphyrin (FeP) to yield unique albumin-based O(2) carriers. Changing the chemical structure of incorporated FeP controls O(2) binding parameters. In fact, PEG-modified HSA-FeP showed good blood compatibility and O(2) transport in vivo. Furthermore, the genetically engineered heme pocket in HSA can confer O(2) binding ability to the incorporated natural Fe(2+)protoporphyrin IX (heme). The O(2) binding affinity of the recombinant HSA (rHSA)-heme is adjusted to a similar value to that of RBC through optimization of the amino acid residues around the coordinated O(2).


Two different types of the generalized perfect shuffle (GPS) and the generalized inverse shuffle (GIS) are considered in this paper: the standard symmetric GPS and GIS where a common basis exists for the numbering of both coordinates of the data array and the nonsymmetric GPS and GIS where each coordinate has a different basis. Additionally, the GPS is combined with the GIS providing the generalized mixed shuffle pattern. These shuffle patterns are transformed into their isomorphic 2-D counterparts and classified with respect to the number of standard perfect shuffle steps obtained by factorizing the permutations.


Chromium(VI) is a reactive and highly toxic pollutant species which is present in certain industrial effluent streams as well as sea water and polluted ground water. Chromium(III), however, is relatively inert and less toxic. Conventional methods used to eliminate Cr(VI) from aqueous phase include its reduction to Cr(III) at acidic pH by reaction with strong reducing agents such as thiosulphate, FeSO4 and SO2, followed by precipitation as hydroxide in alkaline media. However, this procedure is not suitable for Cr(VI) elimination in dilute aqueous solutions. Thus, semiconductor photocatalysis has been studied as a possible alternative.
Photocatalysis is the process of using light to promote catalysis of reactions and normally involves the photoexcitation of a semiconductor catalyst. During photocatalysis, light of a wavelength corresponding to an energy greater than that of the band gap, Eg, of the material is incident on the catalyst, resulting in electrons being excited from the semiconductor valence band to its conduction band. These electrons can then reduce the Cr(VI) to Cr(III).
The semi-conductor used consists of nanoparticulate iron oxide embedded in a clay matrix. Clays are micro-crystalline layered minerals. This gives rise to interlayer spaces in which the iron oxide is 'grown'. The clay structure restricts the growth of the iron oxide, resulting in nano-particulate sized semiconductor particles.
To monitor the changes in Cr(VI) concentration, a new, stable potentiometric method has been developed that involves the successful use of a gold electrode to measure Cr(VI) concentration, that has to date, not been reported elsewhere in literature. Results show that the nanocomposite does photo-reduce Cr(VI) to Cr(III) and does photo-oxidise ethanol. Modelling of the time dependence of the measured (photo-induced) potential has allowed for the extraction of key rate parameters for the Cr(VI) reduction process with a view to system optimisation.


This thesis focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of supramolecular structures containing p-carboxylatocalix[4]arenes with pyridine derivative guest molecules. X-ray diffraction was predominantly utilised to help with the characterisation of these molecules. This thesis contains five chapters dealing with the synthesis and applications of novel p-carboxylatocalix[4]arenes. Chapter 1 gives a short overview of supramolecular chemistry, calixarene synthesis and their conformational properties. In addition, the supramolecular chemistry of several p-carboxylatocalix[4]arenes are also summarised. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterisation of a variety of lower-rim difunctionalised p-carboxylatocalix[4]arenes. The lower-rim groups include alkyl, polyethylene glycol and alkenyl chains. With only one crystal structure generated containing a pyridine derivative, it is difficult to say if the other molecules synthesised will display the same behaviour. In the solid state this system was found to assemble via both the CO2H ... CO2H homosynthon and the Py ... CO2H heterosynthon and packed in a common bi-layer arrangement. Chapter 3 describes the effects of pyridine on the formation of a non-covalent assembly based on p-carboxyethylcalix[4]arene, which was found to pack in bi-layer arrays. Tetra-O-propoxy-p-carboxylatocalix[4]arene was synthesised in a different manner and was found to give a partial-cone conformation and when crystallised from DMF, gave a hydrogen-bonded head-to-head dimer through function of CO2H ... CO2H interactions. Chapter 4 deals with calix[4]arenes fixed in a rigid cone conformation by selective lower-rim functionalisation. The effects of pyridine templates on the formation of noncovalent assemblies based on di-O-propoxy-di-p-carboxylatocalix[4]arene-crown-4 and p-carboxylatocalix[4]arene-biscrown-3 are described. These structures assemble via the Py ... CO2H heterosynthon and the CO2H ... CO2H homosynthon respectively. The latter compound was also used to form transition metal complexes/coordination polymers. Chapter 5 describes the effects of pyridine templates (including 2-AP) on the formation of non-covalent assemblies based on Suzuki cross-coupled tetra(p-benzoic acid)tetrapropoxycalix[4]arene and di(p-benzoic acid)-tetrapropoxycalix[4]arene (and derivatives). The majority of these structures assemble via the Py ... CO2H heterosynthon. DECLARATION STATEMENT (Research Thesis Submission Form should be placed here)


We present a technique to visualize the streamline-based mapping between the boundary of a simply-connected subregion of arbitrary 3D vector fields. While the streamlines are seeded on one part of the boundary, the remaining part serves as escape border. Hence, the seeding part of the boundary represents a map of streamline behavior, indicating if streamlines reach the escape border or not. Since the resulting maps typically exhibit a very fine and complex structure and are thus not amenable to direct sampling, our approach instead aims at topologically consistent extraction of their boundary. We show that isocline surfaces of the projected vector field provide a robust basis for stream-surface-based extraction of these boundaries. The utility of our technique is demonstrated in the context of transport processes using vector field data from different domains.


This paper examines how farmers adapt, in the short-run, to extreme heat. Using a production function approach and micro-data from Peruvian households, we find that high temperatures induce farmers to increase the use of inputs, such as land and domestic labor. This reaction partially attenuates the negative effects of high temperatures on output. We interpret this change in inputs as an adaptive response in a context of subsistence farming, incomplete markets, and lack of other coping mechanisms. We use our estimates to simulate alternative climate change scenarios and show that accounting for adaptive responses is quantitatively important.


The gradual character of the Chinese transition process was much more successful than the transition in Russia. The basis for high growth in China can be found in high investment. The latter was driven by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). But since several years SOEs have been realising high losses and have to be restructured. China seems to enter a new stage of development towards a capitalistic economy. These developments are not without economic and political risks. Traditional development theories have great difficulties to understand and to explain the Chinese development.


Identification of elderly individuals with low and high risk for future dementia has emerged as an important clinical and public health issue. To address this issue, we assessed neuropsychological performance in 317 initially nondemented elderly persons between 75 and 85 years of age and followed them for at least 4 years as part of the Bronx Aging Study. Four measures of cognitive function from the baseline assessment (delayed recall from the Buschke Selective Reminding Test, recall from the Fuld Object Memory Evaluation, the Digit Symbol subtest from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and a verbal fluency score) can identify one subgroup with an 85% probability of developing dementia over 4 years and another with a 95% probability of remaining free of dementia. The model achieved an overall positive predictive value of 68%, or three times the base rate, for prediction of the development of dementia in our sample. The overall negative predictive value for prediction of absence of dementia was 88%. Baseline measures of cognitive function, often performed many years before the actual diagnosis of dementia, can provide important information about dementia risk. The group likely to develop dementia becomes a target for preventive or early therapeutic interventions, and the group unlikely to develop dementia can be reassured.


Handbook of Media Economics provides valuable information on a unique field that has its own theories, evidence, and policies. Understanding the media is important for society, and while new technologies are altering the media, they are also affecting our understanding of their economics. The book spans the large scope of media economics, simultaneously offering in-depth analysis of particular topics, including the economics of why media are important, how media work (including financing sources, institutional settings, and regulation), what determines media content (including media bias), and the effects of new technologies. The book provides a powerful introduction for those interested in starting research in media economics.Helps academic and non-academic economists understand recent rapid changes in theoretical and empirical advances, in structural empirical methods, and in the media industry's connection with the democratic processPresents the only detailed summary of media economics that emphasizes political economy, merger policy, and competition policyPays special attention to the economic influences of the Internet, including developments in social media, user-generated content, and advertising, as well as the Internet's effects on newspapers, radio, and television


This dissertation consists of three empirical papers about the determinants and consequences of financial market development in an international context. It aims to contribute to our understanding of the functioning of global financial markets. Each chapter provides evidence of a different issue related to a specific stage of financial market development.
Chapter 2 provides an evaluation of the relative importance of structural and policy determinants of financial sector development by analyzing the success and failure of 59 newly established ("nascent") stock markets since 1975. The results point to a more important role of banks, demand factors, and early success in fostering long-term stock market development, rather than structural factors such as legal and political institutions.
Chapter 3 examines the political consequences of opening a stock exchange in 34 African countries over 1960-2016. This chapter shows that political leaders stay longer in office when they open a stock exchange if local political institutions are autocratic. Moreover, opening a stock exchange in autocracies is associated with slower subsequent democratization of political institutions. This result is surprising, because it suggests that incumbent elites may actually have incentives to support financial development, rather than opposing it.
Chapter 4 investigates the role of institutional investors on the governance of listed US firms, by analyzing the impact of ties between index and non-index funds within the same mutual fund family on the value of firms in which both funds invest. This chapter shows that family ties are associated with higher non-index fund ownership. Furthermore, firms held by funds with family ties are more profitable and have higher valuations.


Detailed mapping of the Neogene deposits on Zakynthos Island shows that the Messinian primary evaporite basins, formed over Ionian basement, are delimited by the westernmost outcrop of the Triassic evaporitic diapirs, located west of the Kalamaki-Argasi Messinian gypsum unit. The post-Miocene external Ionian thrust is emplaced west of the Triassic diapirs. Planktonic foraminifera biostratigraphy indicates that primary evaporite accumulation took place probably during the first stage of the Messinian salinity crisis (5.96-5.60 Ma), in shallower parts of a foreland basin, formed over the Pre-Apulian and the Ionian zone basement. Establishment of these depositional environments, before the Ionian thrust emplacement, was probably due to the particularities of the foreland basin, which extended from the external Ionian to the internal Pre-Apulian zone. Field observations, borehole data and an onshore seismic profile show that the Neogene sediments over the Pre-Apulian basement correspond to the foredeep through forebulge domain of the foreland basin, as it is documented from their spatial thickness distribution. In contrast, the Neogene sediments over the Ionian basement correspond to the wedge top of the foreland basin, which was less subsiding, as it is deduced by their reduced thickness. This lower subsidence rate was the result of the concurrent diapiric movements of the Ionian Triassic evaporites. In Agios Sostis area, located over Pre-Apulian basement, the Neogene sequence is intercalated by decametre-thick resedimented blocks consisting of shallow water selenite. To the southeast, this mass-wasting Messinian gypsum passes to mainly gypsum turbidite. In Kalamaki-Argasi area, located over Ionian basement, the shallow water environment led to the deposition of the observed primary gypsum. Erosion of the primary gypsum of both forebulge and wedge top supplied the foreland basin's depocenter with gypsum turbidites.


On the GAMMA 10 tandem mirror, Magneto Hydro Dynamic (MHD) stabilization is kept with high pressure plasmas in the minimum-B anchor cell. To enhance ion heating in the anchor cell, direct anchor heating is introduced with an anchor antenna. The enhancement of the anchor heating is clearly observed. However, the antenna loading is very small in the case of strait bar-type antenna. In this paper, a newly designed antenna is introduced for the anchor heating. The antenna shape is improved to be an elliptical shape for matching the plasma shape. Three dimensional numeral simulation is introduced for the evaluation antenna loading with the antenna shape. Remarkable improvement is observed both in the experiment and in the simulation.


Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was classified into the order
Mononegalavirales, family Paramyxoviridae, su b-famil y Paramyxovirinae and
genus Avulavirus. The genome consists of a single stranded, non-segmented,
enveloped negative sense RNA which consists of about 15 kb, encoding six
viral proteins which are the phosphoprotein (P), matrix protein (M), fusion
protein (F), hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein (HN), polymerase (L) and
nucleoprotein (NP). NDV causes a highly contagious, generalized virus disease
of domestic poultry and wild birds but only mild conjunctivitis and laryngytis in
humans. Inoculation of live NDV strain V4(UPM), a local heat resistant variant
of the Queensland vaccine strain, V4HR, showed visible cytolytic effects on
CEM-SS and HL-60 leukemic cells. Therefore, three approaches were taken to
study the effect of V4 (UPM) against the two leukemic cell lines which are via
morphological observation, cytopathic effect and biochemical study. The
morphological changes observed via inverted light microscopy include cell shrinkage and blebbing of the cell membrane as well as membrane-bound
apoptotic bodies. Results obtained from microtetrazolium cytotoxicity assay
showed a titre of 110.6 and 150.9 HAUIml of the virus reducing the cell
population to 50% viability for HL 60 and CEM-SS, respectively. The virus
affects cell proliferation in a way that it reduces viability abruptly at 24 hours
postinoculation in HL 60 cell population while in CEM-SS cell population
proliferation was inhibited almost immediately after inoculation. Morphological
observation using the differential uptake of acridine orange and propidium
iodide dyes showed the cells were undergoing apoptosis. The early apoptotic
cells which which had intact membranes but have started to fragment their
DNA, still had green cytoplasm and nuclei but condensation of the chromatin
were visible as bright green patches at the brim of the nucleus membrane.
lnvagination of plasma membrane or blebbing appearance on the cell surface
was also apparent. Late apoptosis showing bright red cells surrounded with
apoptotic bodies were also observed in cell populations inoculated with the
virus. The DNA of infected CEM-SS and HL 60 cells produced a DNA laddering
profile on agarose-gel electrophoresis, a biochemical marker which is frequently
regarded as the biochemical hallmark of apoptosis. Electron microscopy also
confirmed the morphological structures indicating apoptosis was involved in the
death of cells treated with the virus. In conclusion, based on the findings of
these experiments, the mechanism by which live NDV strain V4(UPM) can
induce cytolysis in CEM-SS and HL-60 cells is via apoptosis. Thus, it may be
possible to further develop V4(UPM), a local oncolytic NDV vaccine strain, for
the future choice of treatment in cancer patients


Studies of economic development and economic history have long been concerned with the relationship between the transparent and supposedly anonymous forces of markets, rules and bureaucracies, on the one hand, and membership in groups, such as local communities, associations, or networks. For some, they are necessary underpinnings for the market, providing trust and social capital which in turn reduce transactions costs and moral hazards and hence promote development; for most, they are seen as archaic factors, leading to nepotism, rentseeking and institutional rigidity. Each position in this theoretical standoff underestimates the contributions of either society or community to economic development. This is because both society and community have potentially positive and negative effects; together, however, they can act as mutual checks and balances on their potentially negative effects, while reinforcing the positive contributions of each of them to economic efficiency.


A database for the 3D structures of available compounds is essential for the virtual screening by molecular docking. We have developed the LigandBox database (http://ligandbox.protein.osaka-u.ac.jp/ligandbox/) containing four million available compounds, collected from the catalogues of 37 commercial suppliers, and approved drugs and biochemical compounds taken from KEGG_DRUG, KEGG_COMPOUND and PDB databases. Each chemical compound in the database has several 3D conformers with hydrogen atoms and atomic charges, which are ready to be docked into receptors using docking programs. The 3D conformations were generated using our molecular simulation program package, myPresto. Various physical properties, such as aqueous solubility (LogS) and carcinogenicity have also been calculated to characterize the ADME-Tox properties of the compounds. The Web database provides two services for compound searches: a property/chemical ID search and a chemical structure search. The chemical structure search is performed by a descriptor search and a maximum common substructure (MCS) search combination, using our program kcombu. By specifying a query chemical structure, users can find similar compounds among the millions of compounds in the database within a few minutes. Our database is expected to assist a wide range of researchers, in the fields of medical science, chemical biology, and biochemistry, who are seeking to discover active chemical compounds by the virtual screening.


Tissue culture technique was used to obtain salt tolerant variants from embryogenic calluses of sugarcane (Saccharum sp. var. CP48-103) that cultured on a selective medium containing different levels of NaCl (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8% NaCl). A total of four plants regenerated from the tolerant calluses were selected but the best of them in vigor grown in in vitro and hydroponic systems under salinity stress to comparison with source variety. With increasing supply of NaCl in both systems, root growth was more adversely affected than was shoot growth. Chlorophyll contents showed a decreasing trend and dry matter yield of plants reduced but in a slow rate in tolerant somaclonal than source variety. The biochemical analysis showed that at high salt concentration, Cl− and Na+ content in shoot and root increased. With rising salt concentration from 0 to 0.8%, content of Cl− in shoot and root of tolerant variant changed lower than parent showed that this variant had genetic lowest ratio of shoot/root chloride and had minimum transport of Cl− to shoots. Also this variant had high content of Ca2+ in shoot and high K+/Na+ ratio at all salinity levels. Thus it probably has genetic potential to avoid harmful ions uptake.


Methane (CH4) has been underrepresented as a contributor to the global warming effect related to carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide is about 200 times as abundant in the atmosphere, however volume alone does not give a clear picture of its environmental impact. Methane is much more immediate in the way it damages the earth as a greenhouse gas, with most of its absorbed heat generated in the first 20 years after emission where carbon dioxide has an environmentally damaging "slow burn" over what typically lasts several hundred years. When methane is removed from the atmosphere, we will see the effect much more immediately, and have a chance to help generations in the much less distant future. The objective of this study was to develop a novel, low-cost biotrickling filter able to degrade methane as well as co-metabolize carcinogenic chlorinated hydrocarbons. While methanotrophic bioremediation has been adapted for in situ degradation in freshwater, there has never been an ex situ remediation system tailored for the degradation of methane in marine environments. The dynamic and modular biotrickling filter demonstrates the feasibility of methanotrophic bioremediation for the degradation of oceanic methane and chlorinated hydrocarbons in our waterways and oceans.