This study evaluated the potential for the selective genetic improvement of the structural quality traits important in sawn Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) timber based on early and nondestructively assessed field traits. From a 34-year-old Norway spruce trial situated in southern Sweden, 401 butt logs were sampled and sawn to produce two 50 × 100 mm boards that were dried to an 18% moisture content. Structural quality traits were assessed, and genetic parameters were estimated, including additive genetic variance, heritability, and their genetic correlations with field traits. Board twisting, density, and modulus of elasticity (MOE, stiffness) were found to have appreciable heritabilities (0.23–0.44). Board twist was found to have a strong genetic correlation with grain angle measured under bark in the field (0.93), and both board MOE and density exhibited strong genetic correlations with field-assessed pilodyn penetration (–0.75 and –0.91, respectively). Although these observations were made on ...


The verbs of the fourth class of weak verbs in Gothic, the nan-class, have traditionally been labelled as inchoative, referring to the characteristic aspectual content of transition to a state. This semantically and formally defined class of verbs is rather well represented also in Old Nordic. In the West Germanic languages, on the other hand, these verbs are so poorly attested that it is doubtful that this class existed in Proto-Germanic in any more than an embryonic state. In more recent times, the valency-changing, essentially anticausative, property of these verbs has been stressed. The most basic explanation for the inchoative interpretation is then that change of state is such a wide-spread element of verbs in general. Extending insights by Hermodsson (1952), one may see the emergence of these verbs as one expression of a drift-like tendency in the history of the Germanic languages towards systematising the distinction between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs of the unaccusative (or anticausative) type. This may be seen as part of a typological transition from a verb system where aspect plays a fundamental role to one where valency is more highly valued. The emergence of the middle categories in Nordic and Old High German, constructed with the reflexive pronoun, may be seen as another effect of this tendency. The middle is overtly marked like the nan-verbs, but the form is more flexible than that of the former, which involved synchronically rather opaque ablaut alternations. Yet another effect of this drift-like tendency is the extension of the class of verbs with both a transitive and an intransitive-unaccusative version, but without a morphological distinction ("double-function" or labile verbs). This development is most pronounced in languages without the two overt expressions of this distinction (the anticausative middle and nan-verbs), such as English. In this paper, these three lines of development will be put into the context of other means of distinguishing transitives and intransitives, most importantly the so-called ja-causatives and "impersonal" constructions where the case of the object of the transitive verb is retained in the monovalent verb.


Visual Question Answering (VQA) is a notoriously challenging problem because it involves various heterogeneous tasks defined by questions within a unified framework. Learning specialized models for individual types of tasks is intuitively attracting but surprisingly difficult; it is not straightforward to outperform naive independent ensemble approach. We present a principled algorithm to learn specialized models with knowledge distillation under a multiple choice learning (MCL) framework, where training examples are assigned dynamically to a subset of models for updating network parameters. The assigned and non-assigned models are learned to predict ground-truth answers and imitate their own base models before specialization, respectively. Our approach alleviates the limitation of data deficiency in existing MCL frameworks, and allows each model to learn its own specialized expertise without forgetting general knowledge. The proposed framework is model-agnostic and applicable to any tasks other than VQA, e.g., image classification with a large number of labels but few per-class examples, which is known to be difficult under existing MCL schemes. Our experimental results indeed demonstrate that our method outperforms other baselines for VQA and image classification.


UN listing of al Qaeda and Taliban affiliates under the Security Council resolution 1267 system has been controversial, in large measure because of the absence of due process and the secrecy surrounding the decisions made by the sanctioning committee. There have been a number of successful domestic challenges to the implementation of this system at the national and supranational level. If domestic and supranational courts continue to invalidate domestic implementation of 1267 listings, there will be a disconnect between the global 1267 list and certain domestic lists. The 1267 process may be able to survive some domestic challenges and exemptions, but criticisms by domestic judges will erode support for the 1267 system. This may not in itself be a bad development, as 1267 listing, with its focus on al Qaeda and the Taliban, is only a partial response to international terrorism. Even apart from the human rights implications of listing, it is not clear that listing and related terrorism financing and travel ban interventions are particularly effective means to combat today's decentralized and often homegrown terrorism. Listing may be an example of fighting the last war against al Qaeda rather than deploying tools to forestall the next form of terrorism.This Article explores these issues in four parts. In Part I, we provide a brief overview of the 1267 system and its origins and operations. In Part II, we examine the substantive international law that may apply to the Security Council as well as the jurisdictional basis for (and possible constraints on) the 1267 system. The focus here is on the possibility of applying due process protections derived from various forms of international law to the 1267 listing process. In Part III, we examine some of the "dualist" defenses of due process, examining domestic and supranational court decisions in the European Union, the United States, and Canada. In Part IV, we discuss some of the lessons that can be drawn from both international and domestic attempts to increase the fairness of terrorist listing processes. This includes the common and difficult challenge in both the international and domestic realms of providing for adversarial challenges to secret intelligence that is said to justify listing. Finally, we reflect on the implications of these challenges to the sustainability of listing processes, terrorism financing, and judicial review of counterterrorism actions in general.


Audio/video discussion has been used increasingly in online courses due to its affordances in enhancing online communication. However, whether learners of different characteristics can benefit from this discussion modality has not been investigated extensively. This study examined whether gender plays a role in learners' preferences and perceptions of audio/video discussion as compared to text discussion. The survey data of thirty-six participants' perceptions were collected and studied after they participated in an audio/video discussion activity. The findings show that females preferred audio/video discussion more than males did, and more females reported that audio/video discussion strengthened their connection with peers. The top three benefits of audio/video discussion perceived by females and males are presented in this paper. Overall, using audio/video discussion to augment online communication and to connect learners is likely to be more effective and perceived more positively by female students than male students. The findings in this study could provide implications for sound pedagogical decisions that satisfy student preferences.


This book is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to voice user interface (VUI) design. The VUI is perhaps the most critical factor in the success of any automated speech recognition (ASR) system, determining whether the user experience will be satisfying or frustrating, or even whether the customer will remain one. This book describes a practical methodology for creating an effective VUI design. The methodology is scientifically based on principles in linguistics, psychology, and language technology, and is illustrated here by examples drawn from the authors' work at Nuance Communications, the market leader in ASR development and deployment.The book begins with an overview of VUI design issues and a description of the technology. The authors then introduce the major phases of their methodology. They first show how to specify requirements and make high-level design decisions during the definition phase. They next cover, in great detail, the design phase, with clear explanations and demonstrations of each design principle and its real-world applications. Finally, they examine problems unique to VUI design in system development, testing, and tuning. Key principles are illustrated with a running sample application.A companion Web site provides audio clips for each example: www.VUIDesign.orgThe cover photograph depicts the first ASR system, Radio Rex: a toy dog who sits in his house until the sound of his name calls him out. Produced in 1911, Rex was among the few commercial successes in earlier days of speech recognition. Voice User Interface Design reveals the design principles and practices that produce commercial success in an era when effective ASRs are not toys but competitive necessities.


Development of the tourism industry in Malaysia is a recent phenomenon. Today, the industry is one of the major revenues of the Malaysian economy. As elsewhere, the Malaysian tourism industry is labour intensive; much of its future success depends significantly on the quality of its labour. While industrial growth generally is making great impact on the Malaysian economy, there has been considerable debate about the contribution of Malaysian higher education, including hotel management education. Critics have commented that graduates lack certain basic competences and that higher education providers have not kept up with the times. Educational institutions have been criticised for not developing appropriate competences required by industry, especially for the entry-level management position.At the same time, the current state-of-the-art in the hotel business is becoming more sophisticated and complex in today's robust business environment. This poses additional challenges for hospitality management educators in developing nations. It is widely acknowledge that today's entry-level managers need a diversity of competences in order to meet the demands of the industry. In this respect, an effective hotel management education programme must be able to respond to the demands of the competitive business environment. At the same time, the rapid development of new hotel or hospitality management programmes, not to mention the enrolment figures of existing hotel schools, has led to an increased concern about programme credibility and effectiveness. Educational institutions must respond to the requirements and needs by developing relevant knowledge and competences. This research project proposes that actual needs (based on the Malaysian context) should be investigated and referred to in curriculum planning. These needs should be drawn from relevant key stakeholders based in industry and wider areas of society.The study does not attempt to empirically investigate the pedagogical issues related to curriculum planning or provide a total definition of a curriculum. Nevertheless, the findings of this study do provide a concrete foundation and aspiration for educators to consider when designing hotel management curriculum. However, the issues of learning, teaching and assessment have been incorporated in developing a conceptual curriculum planning model in order to provide a comprehensive view of the planning process.To collect the data, the research project utilised a combined-method approach: mailed questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Factor Analysis was conducted on the data. The analysis reveals that the one hundred and four (104) competence statements were represented by twenty-five (25) factors (loading factor of greater than .40). These factors captured 73.2 per cent of the total variance. Of the twenty-five (25) factors,thirteen (13) factors had a single loading, presumably error factors. However, they were included in the discussion since they provided useful dimensions of this study. These competence statements were further treated by one-way ANOVA to determine the differences among stakeholders. Overall, most of the differences were detected between students and educators and students and industry professionals. Differences between educators and students and educators and industry professionals were also detected, but to a lesser extend. Overall, the results have indicated that even though there are differences in the stakeholders' expectations, there is consensus regarding the central themes of hotel management education. Stakeholders considered personal (self) development and communication as crucial ('soft' domain). At the same time, the results revealed that technical (operation), and functional competences are equally crucial in developing future managers.The outcomes of this study lead to the development a conceptual curriculum planning model for hotel management curriculum relevant to the needs of Malaysia (or elsewhere), as well as in other vocational areas. The model can be applied in the ongoing evaluation of hotel management education programme.


A receptor senses glucose and contributes to metabolic regulation in the fruit fly. BOSS (bride of sevenless) is not your average signaling protein. It belongs to the family of heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding proteins characterized by their seven transmembrane-spanning segments. But BOSS was originally characterized for its role in differentiation of the eye in Drosophila, not as a receptor but rather as a ligand for the receptor tyrosine kinase Sevenless. Whether it has its own ligand or what its own receptor function might be was unclear until Kohyama-Koganeya et al. tracked down the reason for the reduced size of boss-deficient flies. They detected abundant expression of BOSS in the fat body, the fly equivalent of the liver in mammals. Another hint as to BOSS's function was that a BLAST search showed similarity to the trehalose taste receptor and a transporter molecule (CG152210) that carries small molecules, including sugars. When transfected into human HEK293 cells, BOSS conferred activation of a reporter gene in response to glucose but not to other sugars. BOSS was also internalized after exposure of cells to glucose. Mutant boss1 flies had reduced amounts of circulating sugar and lipid in the hemolymph and increased amounts of triacylglycerol, indicative of impaired lipid metabolism. These characteristics are shared by flies with disrupted insulin signaling, and indeed boss mutant flies showed reduced activity of phosphoinositide 3-kinase and reduced phosphorylation of the kinase Akt, enzymes normally activated in response to insulin. The authors point out that humans have a receptor, GPRC5B, that shares sequence similarity with BOSS. Thus, they propose that the role of BOSS as a glucose sensor could be relevant to understanding disorders like obesity and diabetes. A. Kohyama-Koganeya, Y.-J. Kim, M. Miura, Y. Hirabayashi, A Drosophila orphan G-protein coupled receptor BOSS functions as a glucose-responding receptor: Loss of boss causes abnormal energy metabolism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 15328-15333 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Advanced breeding lines of spring and winter wheat with several effective resistance genes to stem rust, including its aggressive race Ug99, were developed for the first time for the non-Chernozem zone of Russia. Modern wheat varieties cultivated in this region have high productivity and grain quality. However, they are susceptible to fungal diseases and therefore are cultivated using frequent fungicides treatments. The introgression wheat lines with multiple alien translocations ("Arsenal" collection) have been developed in the Moscow Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture "Nemchinovka" by using gamma irradiation of pollen of wild wheat relatives (Aegilops speltoides, Ae. triuncialis, Triticum kiharae, Secale cereale). Initial material with several effective Sr resistance genes for wheat breeding was developed using donors from the "Arsenal" and the VIR collections. The created initial material can compete with modern varieties, as it has resistance to leaf rust and powdery mildew, high productivity and numerous other advantages. On this basis, a new direction in breeding of spring and winter wheat is developed for this region, that is, creation of wheat cultivars with resistance to fungal diseases. This allows to reduce the fungicide load during cultivation with the goal of producing ecologically clean grain for healthy diet.


Biogeographic Patterns of Reef Fish Communities in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea May Roberts As a region renowned for high biodiversity, endemism and extreme temperature and salinity levels, the Red Sea is of high ecological interest. Despite this, there is relatively little literature on basic broad scale characteristics of the biodiversity or overall reef fish communities and how they change across latitude. We conducted visual transects recording the abundance of over 200 species of fish from 45 reefs spanning over 1000 km of Saudi Arabian coastline and used hierarchical cluster analysis to find that for combined depths from 0m-10m across this geographical range, the reef fish communities are relatively similar. However we find some interesting patterns both at the community level across depth and latitude as well as in endemic community distributions. We find that the communities, much like the environmental factors, shift gradually along latitude but do not show distinct clusters within the range we surveyed (from Al-Wajh in the north to the Farasan Banks in the south). Numbers of endemic species tend to be higher in the Thuwal region and further south. This type of baseline data on reef fish distribution and possible factors that may influence their ranges in the Red Sea are critical for future scientific studies as well as effective monitoring and in the face of the persistent anthropogenic influences such as coastal development, overfishing and climate change.


Psychophysical measurements using achromatic grating resolution acuity in peripheral vision show a prominent retinal asymmetry in acuity which is consistent with predicted values based on available estimates of midget ganglion cell density. Recent studies have shown that peripheral grating resolution acuity values for short-wavelength-sensitive (SWS) isolating gratings in normal observers are closely related to predicted values based on the underlying small bistratified ganglion cell density. By measuring SWS resolution acuity at different locations across the visual field, we wished to see if any significant acuity asymmetry exists for the short-wavelength system. In addition to this, we wanted to compare SWS and achromatic resolution acuity at different retinal locations of equal eccentricity. SWS and achromatic grating resolution acuity was measured in two observers at a number of different retinal meridians of 10- and 25-deg eccentricity from the fovea, and out to 35-deg eccentricity along the horizontal meridian. Achromatic resolution acuity was higher than SWS resolution acuity at all locations. At 10-deg eccentricity there was slight radial asymmetry in SWS and achromatic acuity, both displaying highest acuity along the horizontal meridian. At 25-deg eccentricity, SWS and achromatic acuity showed significant asymmetry with acuity being higher in the nasal retina compared to the temporal retina and with higher acuity in the superior retina compared to the inferior retina. At 35-deg eccentricity, the acuity asymmetry along the horizontal meridian was maintained with acuity for both significantly higher in the nasal retina. The SWS acuity changes with eccentricity and meridian were qualitatively similar to that found for achromatic acuity at the majority of retinal locations. Like achromatic acuity, SWS acuity shows significant asymmetry at different retinal locations of equal eccentricity. This suggests that both the midget and small bistratified ganglion cell population density changes significantly with retinal location and eccentricity. SWS acuity appears to change in parallel with achromatic acuity for the majority of retinal locations measured, although the amount of nasotemporal asymmetry appears to be slightly less for the SWS system at 25- and 35-deg eccentricity.


This paper looks at two types of dissent that are generally described as conscientious, namely, civil disobedience and conscientious objection. Both practices raise pressing normative questions about the proper parameters of dissenters' rights and duties in a reasonably good society. They also raise questions about both the scope of legitimate toleration of assertions of conscientiousness and the appropriate legal and political responses to conscientious disobedience. The paper gives a qualified endorsement of the moral justifiability of these two practices. It also explores their credentials as moral rights and their legal defensibility. The paper challenges the dominant liberal view that, in relation to both moral rights and legal defenses, a more compelling case can be made for private conscientious objection than for civil disobedience.


The context for this research proposal is an area of work that seeks to replace the current state of access-control for email, in which an arbitrary message sender enjoys unregulated "append" access to message recipient's email mailbox, with a policy framework, in which each principal involved in a message exchange—namely the sender, the sender's service provider, the recipient's service provider, and the recipient, can articulate its interests for regulating access to resources under its control. Though there exist a vast number of automatic control techniques to limit transmission of email messages, specifically, to stop unwanted messages reaching a recipient, they are still prone to dropping some desirable messages. This often prompts recipients and other principals to relax the message acceptance requirements. This in turn makes them easy targets for sending commercial or fraudulent mail. We propose a novel scheme to overcome this handicap. Our scheme makes the transmission mechanism aware of the documentation required with a message to make it acceptable downstream. For instance, if a recipient wishes to receive only those messages that have a monetary guarantee, also known as a bond, then the transmission system must be made aware of this fact so that desirable messages can satisfy this requirement. Consequently, recipients and other principals can express and enforce precise acceptance requirements, through explicit policies, and gain control over their resources.
In addition to the problem of enforcing precise acceptance requirements in the transmission process, there exists no means of flexibly combining available email-control techniques tailored to the needs of a particular recipient or its service provider. This is the primary reason for the inability to express requirements suited to a particular individual. For instance, currently it is not possible to state a requirement like 'allow messages, initiated by a human sender affiliated with George Mason University, even though the spam filter ranks them as possible spam'. In our view a policy-based approach is well-suited to attain this objective. The use of these control-techniques leads to significant deviation of behavior from what is prescribed in the current email delivery protocol. In other words, the protocol lacks significantly in representing the current delivery requirements. Clearly, it requires an overhaul to correspond to current requirements and reduce ambiguities during protocol play; a goal that we propose to research in this study.
We propose using constraint logic programming (CLP) to articulate and evaluate different types of policies. This is because the way messages are constructed and acceptance conditions are evaluated, a CLP approach seems a natural way to model these operations. In addition, CLP approach promises to simplify the task of providing feedback for rejected messages, so that they can be revised and retransmitted. Since declarative policies can describe control on a very high-level, we also propose to study refinements of these high-level directives to protocol level actions.


Purpose Design, validation and application of an accelerated fast spin-echo (FSE) variant that uses a split-echo approach for self-calibrated parallel imaging. Methods For self-calibrated, split-echo FSE (SCSE-FSE), extra displacement gradients were incorporated into FSE to decompose odd and even echo groups which were independently phase encoded to derive coil sensitivity maps, and to generate undersampled data (reduction factor up to R = 3). Reference and undersampled data were acquired simultaneously. SENSE reconstruction was employed. Results The feasibility of SCSE-FSE was demonstrated in phantom studies. Point spread function performance of SCSE-FSE was found to be competitive with traditional FSE variants. The immunity of SCSE-FSE for motion induced mis-registration between reference and undersampled data was shown using a dynamic left ventricular model and cardiac imaging. The applicability of black blood prepared SCSE-FSE for cardiac imaging was demonstrated in healthy volunteers including accelerated multi-slice per breath-hold imaging and accelerated high spatial resolution imaging. Conclusion SCSE-FSE obviates the need of external reference scans for SENSE reconstructed parallel imaging with FSE. SCSE-FSE reduces the risk for mis-registration between reference scans and accelerated acquisitions. SCSE-FSE is feasible for imaging of the heart and of large cardiac vessels but also meets the needs of brain, abdominal and liver imaging.


Regularly conducted by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, the survey into the teaching of music, dance and the dramatic arts examines changes relating to student and teacher numbers, subjects taught and institutions'operational budgets. In metropolitan France, there were 36 regional conservatories (conservatoires a rayonnement regional, or CRR), and 101 departmental conservatories (conservatoires a rayonnement departemental, or CRD) teaching music, dance and the dramatic arts to around 155,000 students over the academic year 2008-2009. Student numbers were up 8% compared with the academic year 2006-2007, when the previous survey was conducted. The majority of students (86%) opted to study music, although the numbers studying dance and dramatic arts have shown a significant upturn of 7% and 20% respectively. Over 9000 teachers across all disciplines teach within the institutions covered by the survey. 79% of the financing for these establishments comes from local and regional authorities.


Health is an asset with an intrinsic value as well as an instrumental value. Good health is a source of wellbeing and highly valued throughout the world. Health is not only the absence of illness, but capacity to develop a person's potential. Health is also an important determinant of economic growth. Given the importance of health, both as a source of human welfare and a determinant of overall economic growth, the Popular Health Insurance (Seguro Popular) was first introduced in Mexico as a pilot programme by the federal government in 2001, becoming part of the formal legislation in 2003. This study looks at the current situation, and some of the early findings and improvements made so far with regard to public health coverage in Mexico.


Treatment of maxillofacial patients needs a multidisciplinary approach of several expertise based on the complexity of the case. Prosthodontists often work together with e.g. ENT, oral or plastic surgeons to provide patient with better prosthesis and optimum treatment. Case report: A 55 years old male was referred to Dental Teaching Hospital of Universitas Indonesia for facial prosthesis fabrication. Patient had undergone squamous cell carcinoma ablation surgery that encompassed nose, cheek, sinuses, upper lip and most of the hard palate. Due to the extensive nature of the defect, Department of Prosthodontics collaborated with Department of Biomedical Engineering to employ 3D printing technique using general purpose machine for fabricating the trial pattern for the prosthesis, with attention given especially to margin areas and facial contours. This technique helps for prosthesis fabrication of this patient because manual wax carving is no longer necessary. Wax carving usually is a labor/skill intensive step and takes longer time. Conclusion : 3D printing of the trial pattern for the prosthesis help minimizes the labor/ skill intensive part of facial prosthesis fabrication.


AI is undergoing a paradigm shift with the rise of models (e.g., BERT, DALL-E, GPT-3) that are trained on broad data at scale and are adaptable to a wide range of downstream tasks. We call these models foundation models to underscore their critically central yet incomplete character. This report provides a thorough account of the opportunities and risks of foundation models, ranging from their capabilities (e.g., language, vision, robotics, reasoning, human interaction) and technical principles(e.g., model architectures, training procedures, data, systems, security, evaluation, theory) to their applications (e.g., law, healthcare, education) and societal impact (e.g., inequity, misuse, economic and environmental impact, legal and ethical considerations). Though foundation models are based on standard deep learning and transfer learning, their scale results in new emergent capabilities,and their effectiveness across so many tasks incentivizes homogenization. Homogenization provides powerful leverage but demands caution, as the defects of the foundation model are inherited by all the adapted models downstream. Despite the impending widespread deployment of foundation models, we currently lack a clear understanding of how they work, when they fail, and what they are even capable of due to their emergent properties. To tackle these questions, we believe much of the critical research on foundation models will require deep interdisciplinary collaboration commensurate with their fundamentally sociotechnical nature.


Finding explicit extractors is an important derandomization goal that has received a lot of attention in the past decade. Previous research has focused on two approaches, one related to hashing and the other to pseudorandom generators. A third view, regarding extractors as good error correcting codes, was noticed before. Yet, researchers had failed to build extractors directly from a good code without using other tools from pseudorandomness. We succeed in constructing an extractor directly from a Reed-Muller code. To do this, we develop a novel proof technique. Furthermore, our construction is the first to achieve a degree close to linear. In contrast, the best previous constructions brought the log of the degree within a constant of optimal, which gives polynomial degree. This improvement is important for certain applications. For example, it follows that approximating the VC dimension to within a factor of N/sup 1-/spl delta// is AM-hard for any positive /spl delta/.


We describe the performance of a second-harmonic interferometer (SHI) to measure, on an optical path exceeding 12 m, the electron plasma density of two plasmoids formed in separate theta-pinch chambers and then merged in a central compression chamber after undergoing acceleration and compression. The excellent mechanical stability and a time resolution better than 50 ns suggest the application of SHI, especially in pulsed plasma devices with limited optical accesses.


Liver transplantation is the only available therapy for any acute or chronic condition resulting in irreversible liver dysfunction. The liver allocation system in the U.S. is administered by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a scientific and educational nonprofit organization. The main components of the organ procurement and transplant network are Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs), which are collections of transplant centers responsible for maintaining local waiting lists, harvesting donated organs and carrying out transplants. Currently in the U.S., OPOs are grouped into 11 regions to facilitate organ allocation, and a three-tier mechanism is utilized that aims to reduce organ preservation time and transport distance to maintain organ quality, while giving sicker patients higher priority. Livers are scarce and perishable resources that rapidly lose viability, which makes their transport distance a crucial factor in transplant outcomes. When a liver becomes available, it is matched with patients on the waiting list according to a complex mechanism that gives priority to patients within the harvesting OPO and region. Transplants at the regional level accounted for more than 50% of all transplants since 2000.This dissertation focuses on the design of regions for liver allocation hierarchy, and includes optimization models that incorporate geographic equity as well as uncertainty throughout the analysis. We employ multi-objective optimization algorithms that involve solving parametric integer programs to balance two possibly conflicting objectives in the system: maximizing efficiency, as measured by the number of viability adjusted transplants, and maximizing geographic equity, as measured by the minimum rate of organ flow into individual OPOs from outside of their own local area. Our results show that efficiency improvements of up to 6% or equity gains of about 70% can be achieved when compared to the current performance of the system by redesigning the regional configuration for the national liver allocation hierarchy.We also introduce a stochastic programming framework to capture the uncertainty of the system by considering scenarios that correspond to different snapshots of the national waiting list and maximize the expected benefit from liver transplants under this stochastic view of the system. We explore many algorithmic and computational strategies including sampling methods, column generation strategies, branching and integer-solution generation procedures, to aid the solution process of the resulting large-scale integer programs. We also explore an OPO-based extension to our two-stage stochastic programming framework that lends itself to more extensive computational testing. The regional configurations obtained using these models are estimated to increase expected life-time gained per transplant operation by up to 7% when compared to the current system.This dissertation also focuses on the general question of designing efficient algorithms that combine column and cut generation to solve large-scale two-stage stochastic linear programs. We introduce a flexible method to combine column generation and the L-shaped method for two-stage stochastic linear programming. We explore the performance of various algorithm designs that employ stabilization subroutines for strengthening both column and cut generation to effectively avoid degeneracy. We study two-stage stochastic versions of the cutting stock and multi-commodity network flow problems to analyze the performances of algorithms in this context.


The influence of early graft surface thromboreactivity on long-term arterial polyester (Dacron) graft patency was investigated with separate ex vivo and in vivo animal models. First, parallel, flow-regulated external aortocaval fistulae were created in five pigs with use of paired 8 mm X 35 cm crimped, warp-knitted, low-profile filamentous velour Dacron tubes: one tube preclotted with autologous blood, the other autoclaved after being soaked in human albumin. Autologous radiolabeled platelets, red cells, and radiolabeled human fibrinogen were injected at initiation of graft flow, with timed graft samples submitted for isotope gamma well-counting. Flow surface accumulation of radiolabeled blood elements was greater on the preclotted graft limb at-all time intervals studied, greatest after 5 minutes of flow initiation with RBC accumulation on the preclotted limb 5.19 +/- 0.84 (x +/- S.E.), platelet accumulation 5.57 +/- 1.00, and fibrinogen accumulation 1.82 +/- 0.14 times greater than that on the albumin-treated limb. Second, bilateral iliofemoral artery bypass grafts were placed in 12 mongrel dogs using 6 mm X 10 cm externally supported, noncrimped, warp-knitted, low-profile filamentous Dacron tubes. Before implant in each dog, one graft limb was clotted with autologous blood and the other was autoclaved after being soaked in 25% human albumin. Fresh autologous radiolabeled platelets were injected after wound closure in seven of these dogs. Postimplant graft imaging at 24 and 72 hours showed radiolabeled platelet accumulation to be 1.43 +/- 0.21 and 2.05 +/- 0.18 times greater on the preclotted graft limb. Six of 12 preclotted graft limbs and 7 of 12 albumin-treated graft limbs were patent when animals were killed 5 to 6 months after implant (not significant). Heat-denatured albumin-coated Dacron surfaces have a reduced early thromboreactivity but do not appear to greatly potentiate long-term arterial graft patency.


The Internet has become the latest medium for communication through the
advanced features available on the internet such as file transfer, transaction application,
advertising and much more. Recent years have been people use it also for remote
control and monitoring devices.
With advances in the Internet technologies, a lot of electronic goods such as
laser printers, fax machines, computers, VCRs, TV, security monitors and other home
appliances will be connected by a global network called the Embedded Internet.
These systems can be built with improved diagnostic features and flexibility in
terms of configuration parameters. Efficient methods of monitoring/configuring such systems are the subject of current research and development. Remote monitoring and
configuration of such systems is of great interest and importance
A web-based device monitoring and control system has been developed.
This project is an integration of three systems, i.e. computer-based control system,
Small web server and Internet . This integration is achieved by the use of the small web
server and a designed web page using HTML, SiteObject, java script and java applet.
The developed system when connected to the network via another network or
internet allows users to remotely control and monitoring home appliances. The device
can be controlled via serial port of the small server and can be controlled through the
designed web page. A server program was installed in the web server to instruct the
small web server to perform a particular function.


This paper examines the effect of increased local supply of schooling on intergenerational mobility in education in Jordan. We use a unique data set that links individual data on own schooling and parents' schooling for adults, from a household survey, with the annual supply of schools in the sub-district of birth, from a school census. We identify the effect by exploiting the variation in the supply of basic and secondary public schools across cohorts and sub-districts of birth in Jordan, controlling for both cohort and sub-district of birth fixed effects. School availability is determined based on the number of sex-appropriate public schools in the individual's sub-district of birth at the time the individual was ready to start that schooling stage. Our findings show that the local availability of basic public schools does in fact increase intergenerational mobility in education. For instance, an increase in the supply of basic public schools of one school per 1,000 people reduces the father-son and mother-son associations of schooling by 10 percent and the father-daughter and mother-daughter associations by nearly 30 percent. However, an increase in the local supply of secondary public schools does not seem to have a similar effect on intergenerational mobility in education.


Although cellular automata have been widely studied as a class of the spatio temporal systems, very few investigators have studied how to identify the CA rules given observations of the patterns. A solution using a polynomial realization to describe the CA rule is reviewed in the present study based on the application of an orthogonal least squares algorithm. Three new neighbourhood detection methods are then reviewed as important preliminary analysis procedures to reduce the complexity of the estimation. The identification of excitable media is discussed using simulation examples and real data sets and a new method for the identification of
hybrid CA is introduced.


Coroners Acts in New South Wales ('NSW') and the Australian Capital Territory ('ACT') confer on coroners jurisdiction to conduct inquests into certain kinds of death. As the outcome of a hearing, a coroner is tasked by their legislation to reach and record prescribed findings relating to the deceased, their death, and its manner and cause. These determinations enable that death to be registered under the relevant Birth, Deaths and Marriages legislation. If, though, this information can be established from preliminary investigations, a coroner has the discretion to dispense with an inquest hearing, unless the death investigated is of a category for which the legislation specifically requires one to be held. One such category is the death of a person in custody.


Kenya, like many African countries, has faced enormous challenges in the production of and access to quality relevant teaching and learning materials and resources in her primary and secondary school classrooms. This has been occasioned by a plethora of factors which include, but are not limited to a lack of finances, tradition, competence, and experience to develop such resources. Such a situation has persisted despite the existence and availability of many Open Educational Resources (OERs) that have been developed by many education stakeholders at enormous costs. Such freely available resources could potentially improve the quality of existing resources or help to develop new courses.  Yet, their uptake and reuse in secondary and primary schools in Kenya continues to be very low. This paper reports the findings of a study in which Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT) developed by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada, were piloted in sampled fifty (50) Kenyan secondary schools. The study applied the Model 1 – Distance and Dependence (Zhao et al 2002)  model to investigate the challenges that hinder instructors to adopt and use ORELT materials. The study reported that poor infrastructure, negative attitudes, lack of ICT competencies, and other skill gaps among teachers and lack of administrative support are some of the implementation challenges that have continued to dog the implementation, adoption and use of OERs in Kenyan schools. The findings of the present study will go a long way in providing useful insights to the developers of OERs and Kenyan education stakeholders in devising strategies of maximum utilisation of OERs in the Kenyan school system.


In applying reinforcement learning to agents acting in the real world we are often faced with tasks that are non-Markovian in nature. Much work has been done using state estimation algorithms to try to uncover Markovian models of tasks in order to allow the learning of optimal solutions using reinforcement learning. Unfortunately these algorithms which attempt to simultaneously learn a Markov model of the world and how to act have proved very brittle. Our focus differs. In considering embodied, embedded and situated agents we have a preference for simple learning algorithms which reliably learn satisficing policies. The learning algorithms we consider do not try to uncover the underlying Markovian states, instead they aim to learn successful deterministic reactive policies such that agents actions are based directly upon the observations provided by their sensors. Existing results have shown that such reactive policies can be arbitrarily worse than a policy that has access to the underlying Markov process and in some cases no satisficing reactive policy can exist. Our first contribution is to show that providing agents with alternative actions and viewpoints on the task through the addition of active perception can provide a practical solution in such circumstances. We demonstrate empirically that: (i) adding arbitrary active perception actions to agents which can only learn deterministic reactive policies can allow the learning of satisficing policies where none were originally possible; (ii) active perception actions allow the learning of better satisficing policies than those that existed previously and (iii) our approach converges more reliably to satisficing solutions than existing state estimation algorithms such as U-Tree and the Lion Algorithm. Our other contributions focus on issues which affect the reliability with which deterministic reactive satisficing policies can be learnt in non-Markovian environments. We show that that greedy action selection may be a necessary condition for the existence of stable deterministic reactive policies on partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). We also set out the concept of Consistent Exploration. This is the idea of estimating state-action values by acting as though the policy has been changed to incorporate the action being explored. We demonstrate that this concept can be used to develop better algorithms for learning reactive policies to POMDPs by presenting a new reinforcement learning algorithm; the Consistent Exploration Q(λ) algorithm (CEQ(λ)). We demonstrate on a significant number of problems that CEQ(λ) is more reliable at learning satisficing solutions than the algorithm currently regarded as the best for learning deterministic reactive policies, that of SARSA(λ).


The world's trade landscape is being shaped by global value chains, which present new opportunities as well as challenges to developing countries. While large developing countries are leveraging the benefits of global value chains, smaller economies have been less successful. In this paper we examine the constraints faced by Nepal, a land-locked least developed country, in participating in global value chains. We find that weak and ineffective industrial policy has led to de-industrialization, which in turn has reduced productive capacity. The high cost of transport and energy, inadequate provision of public goods and low levels of investment reduce the country's ability to participate in global value chains. As a land-locked country, Nepal is dependent on regional neighbors for access to global markets. Shallow regional integration, the prevalence of non-tariff barriers, and inefficient transit trade further disadvantage Nepal.


This study investigated the effects, on the shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets, of using an antimicrobial selenium-containing sealant (DenteShieldTM) to serve dual functions of priming enamel prior to bonding and as a protective barrier against whitespot lesion formation.

 A total of 150 extracted human premolars were randomly assigned into 10 groups (n=15/group). Stainless steel brackets were bonded with two adhesive systems (DenteShieldTM or Transbond XT) after the enamel was conditioned with a primer (DenteShieldTM or Assure Universal) or a filled resin sealant (DenteShieldTM, Pro SealTM or Opal SealTM). The specimens were stored in deionized water at 37 °C for 24 hours and debonded with a universal testing machine.

 The use of DenteShieldTM adhesive to bond orthodontic brackets to the enamel surface resulted in a significantly lower (P<0.05), but clinically acceptable, shear bond strength (mean & SD: 14.5±1.6 MPa) as compared with Transbond XT group (mean & SD: 19.3±1.7 MPa). DenteShieldTM sealant used as primer resulted in shear bond strength values comparable to those of Pro SealTM and Opal SealTM. All adhesive-sealant and primer-sealant combinations tested in this study exhibited shear bond strength values greater than 9.6 MPa, sufficient for clinical orthodontic needs.

 DenteShieldTM sealant can serve as primer as well as anti-demineralization sealant during orthodontic treatment without adversely affecting the shear bond strength of the bracket.


An analysis of early Tertiary palaeomagnetic data from the Pacific, North America, Greenland and European plates is presented. A correction for discrepancies in palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions of this age resulting from plate motions has been attempted by means of two independent techniques: (i) palaeoequator determinations from Deep Sea Drilling Project Pacific cores, and (ii) identification of the Icelandic hot spot as a fixed reference frame. The corrected palaeomagnetic data from the Pacific and North American plates are inadequate to allow firm conclusions to be drawn, but the data from Greenland and Europe appear to indicate that the time-averaged departures of the geomagnetic field from a centred axial dipole configuration during the past 25 Ma, identified by R. L. Wilson (1970), might in fact have persisted for at least 53 Ma.


A novel strategy to access a large variety of tungsten oxo pre-catalysts for olefin metathesis involving post-treatment of [(SiO)W(O)(CH2SiMe3)3], 1b, with the desired spectator ligands is presented. This method allowed establishing structure–reactivity relationships in propylene metathesis as a function of the spectator ligands of tungsten oxo species. Thus, the novel pre-catalysts [(SiO)W(O)R2X], 2a–c (X = 2,6-dimethylphenoxide, 2-trifluoromethylphenoxide, pentafluorophenoxide), are obtained by modification of well-defined monopodal species 1b by substituted phenols along with TMS release. These were demonstrated by mass balance analysis, elemental analysis, IR, advanced solid-state NMR (1D and 2D 1H, 13C and 19F) and EXAFS. The modified materials were proved to lead to stable and efficient supported tungsten oxo catalysts for propene metathesis under dynamic conditions at 80 °C.


Exposure to a patch of dots produces a repulsive shift in the perceived numerosity of subsequently viewed dot patches. Although a remarkably strong effect, in which the perceived numerosity can be shifted by up to 50% of the actual numerosity, very little is known about the temporal dynamics. Here we demonstrate a novel adaptation paradigm that allows numerosity adaptation to be rapidly induced at several distinct locations simultaneously. We show that not only is this adaptation to numerosity spatially specific, with different locations of the visual field able to be adapted to high, low, or neutral stimuli, but it can occur with only very brief periods of adaptation. Further investigation revealed that the adaptation effect was primarily driven by the number of unique adapting events that had occurred and not by either the duration of each event or the total duration of exposure to adapting stimuli. This event-based numerosity adaptation appears to fit well with statistical models of adaptation in which the dynamic adjustment of perceptual experiences, based on both the previous experience of the stimuli and the current percept, acts to optimize the limited working range of perception. These results implicate a highly plastic mechanism for numerosity perception, which is dependent on the number of discrete adaptation events, and also demonstrate a quick and efficient paradigm suitable for examining the temporal properties of adaptation.


Pulmonary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue-derived (MALT) lymphoma is a rare disease. This disorder is considered to be a model of antigen-driven lymphoma, which is driven either by autoantigens or by chronic inflammatory conditions. Low-grade B-cell MALT lymphoma may develop from a nonneoplastic pulmonary lymphoproliferative disorder, such as lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis (LIP). A recent estimate predicts that less than 5% of LIP patients acquire malignant, low-grade, B-cell lymphoma. In Korea, there has been no previous report of malignant low-grade, B-cell lymphoma, acquired from LIP. Here, we present the case of a patient with LIP that developed into pulmonary MALT lymphoma, six years after diagnosis.


There are few areas of anaesthesia management more frightening and more difficult than the child with acute respiratory distress. In addition to the anatomical differences among infants, children and adults, the problem is compounded by the inability to reason with the child to obtain his or her cooperation. The object of this presentation is to define the important anatomical differences that make the paediatric patient unique. An understanding of normal airway anatomy and physiology facilitates better management of difficult airways.


Abstract:Asian courts have mitigated the individual harms and institutional uncertainties associated with the judicial use of delayed remedies by incentivizing the government to comply with the court's ruling or putting in place judicial safeguards against any legislative delinquency. Expedited remedies like remedial reinterpretation and judicial directives in certain contexts may also be necessary or desirable, even if the judicially imposed result may not be what the enacting legislature had originally intended. Insofar as the legislature can respond and amend these judicial reinterpretation or directives by ordinary legislation, the judiciary does not have the final word and has merely facilitated a constitutional dialogue on rights with the current legislature.


The object of this thesis is to form an understanding of the origin of the problems associated with proton-exchanged waveguides, and to investigate possible solutions. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the properties of lithium niobate, and discusses the methods available for fabricating optical waveguides in the bulk material, with particular emphasis on waveguide fabrication by the proton-exchange process. Some of the devices which have been fabricated by proton-exchange are discussed. The problems associated with proton-exchanged waveguides are reviewed. Chapter 2 deals with the physical and chemical characterisation of proton-exchanged waveguides fabricated using neat benzoic acid melts. The extent of proton-exchange is determined as a function of fabrication time and temperature using optical waveguide prism-coupler measurements, infrared absorption spectroscopy, and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Chapter 3 is concerned with the problem of waveguide mode-index stability. Using a hydrogen isotopic-exchange reaction, the extent of which is obsrved via infrared absorption spectroscopy, information on the (room-temperature) mobility of protons within the guiding layer is obtained for waveguides fabricated using neat benzoic acid melts. The recently reported process of fabricating waveguides in lithium niobate by deuterium-exchange is investigated. The behaviour of proton-exchanged and deuterium-exchanged waveguides with respect to reaction with atmospheric water vapour is investigated, and the optical properties of deuterium-exchanged waveguides are studied. In Chapter 4, a study of annealed and dilute-melt proton-exchanged waveguides is presented. It is shown, using prism-coupler measurements and infrared absorption spectroscopy, that ennealed and dilute-melt waveguides can have very similar optical properties, depending on the amount of annealing and the lithium benzoate mole-fractions used. The extent of proton-exchange is determined with time (between 215oC and 235oC) for dilute-melt waveguides produced using lithium benzoate mole-fractions of up to 1.1%. Isotopic-exchange in annealed and dilute-melt waveguides is also investigated, both at room-temperature and at temperatures commonly used for annealing. A possible explanation for the poor optical properties of (neat-melt) proton-exchanged waveguides is given. Chapter 5 deals with a study of propagation losses (using the two-prism method) and the electro-optic effect in x- and z-cut proton-exchanged waveguides. Measurements of r33 (in proton-exchanged waveguides) and r22 (in titanium-indiffused waveguides) are carried out using an external interferometric method designed by the author. The results of Chapter 4 are used to establish a method by which losses below 0.5dB/cm and a substantially restored electro-optic effect can be achieved (using a combination of dilute-melt fabrication with post-exchange annealing). Prior to the waveguide measurements, the bulk electro-optic effect is investigated for congruent, incongruent, MgO-doped, and annealed (high-temperature) crystals. Finally, in Chapter 6, a summary of the thesis is presented, and suggestions for future work are given.


The organotin complex, [SnBu2(pir)]n, of the potent and widely used anti-inflammatory drug piroxicam, H2pir, was obtained and a crystal structure determination showed that in this complex the ligand is doubly deprotonated at the oxygen and amide nitrogen atoms. There are two similar molecules in the asymmetric unit. The isolated molecules of Sn(1) or Sn(2) are arranged in polymers in a head to tail fashion with a stacking of alternate parallel chains. Extended networks of Sn–O–Sn, C–H· · ·O and C–H· · ·π contacts lead to aggregation and a supramolecular assembly. Real concentration protonation constants for the zwitterionic form (pyridyl group) and the protonated piroxicam (enolic group) were determined spectrophotometrically in pure aqueous solutions of constant ionic strength. It is the first example where piroxicam is proved to act as a doubly deprotonated tridentate ligand.


A convenient reference, this book provides essential information about international economic organizations -- agencies that promote economic cooperation by studying and taking action on such issues as international economic relations, currency stabilization, trade barriers, capital assistance, labor relations, and macro-economic adjustment policies.Presented in an accessible fact-sheet format, the listings contain each organization's objectives, membership, structure, activities, address, and telephone, telex, and fax numbers. Where relevant, the entries also offer information about vocational training, scholarship, prizes, and awards.Appendices feature a chronology of international economic cooperation, a guide to abbreviations, and tables of membership.


Compared to the evaluation of new pharmaceutical drugs, the assessments of the design and results of clinical trials for medical devices are not well established. For medical devices, the definition of the benefit-risk balance assessed during approval by regulatory agencies is not clear, which may result in subjectivity of the decision-making process. It is possible to hypothesize that the newly approved medical device should be superior in both risk and efficacy to the already existing device, which is used as control. To test this hypothesis, we performed an independent analysis of the premarket approvals (PMA) of therapeutic medical devices based on assessment review of reports of a regulatory agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A total of 74 studies that tested various medical devices for PMA were selected. For each clinical trial, the study design was evaluated with particular emphasis on its nature (retrospective or prospective). presence of a control arm, randomization, and masking. We performed an objective analysis of the benefit-risk balance between effectiveness and safety in the test arm compared to that in the control arm, using an original method for data evaluation. Of the 74 studies, 56 (76%) were prospective, 1 was purely retrospective (1%). 15 were mixed (20%), and 2 (3%) did not specify the nature of study. Only 46 studies (62%) included a comparative control group, 26 of which (57%) demonstrated "equivalence" but not "superiority" of the primary effectiveness measure. Depending on the evaluation criteria (mortality, complications, adverse effects, others) the results of safety assessment revealed advantage of the test arm in only 16-38% of comparative studies. The designs of the protocols for testing therapeutic medical devices and the criteria of objective evaluation during approval for broad clinical practice are not standardized. For PMA approval, FDA does not ultimately require better effectiveness and/or safety of the new device compared to the existing control device.


When conducting usability validation testing, representative users must use the device in the expected conditions of use in the field. There is usually a period of time—days or weeks—between the point in time a user is trained, and the moment they use the device for the first time. For this reason, the FDA acknowledges the need for "training decay" as part of usability validation testing, but manufacturers face challenges simulating real-time decays. In response to challenges associated with lags of days or weeks between training and usability validation testing, medical device manufacturers typically simulate shortened training decay periods. This paper discusses the theory behind the shapes of various training decay curves and the variables that drive differences between training decay curves. The author proposes to use a task-based approach for defining training decay curves in usability validation studies and sets out generalized training decay curves at a high level. Future research could reveal detailed and generalizable training decay curves. Identifying generalizable training decay curves could standardize the usability testing required for medical devices, and ultimately improve use error identification while avoiding an undue toll on manufacturer resources.


In 1977, a young instructor of social work was quietly working in his office, when a full professor of history popped his head in and asked, "Did you know that the first social worker bore your name?" The quick and intelligent reply was, "Huh?!" However, the curiosity had been wetted and the professor was asked to stop and explain. He said, "I don't have much information, but I do know that the first deacons of the church functioned as social workers. You really should read The Acts Apostles and look into it." In fact, diving into it led to a full weekend at the Library of Congress, and an interest that has lasted for years. The following is an effort to draw a picture of the person known as the first social worker, and the environment surrounding him.


Recent research has shown that it is possible to automatically detect clinical depression from audio-visual recordings. Before considering integration in a clinical pathway, a key question that must be asked is whether such systems can be easily fooled. This work explores the potential of acoustic features to detect clinical depression in adults both when acting normally and when asked to conceal their depression. Nine adults diagnosed with mild to moderate depression as per the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) were asked a series of questions and to read a excerpt from a novel aloud under two different experimental conditions. In one, participants were asked to act naturally and in the other, to suppress anything that they felt would be indicative of their depression. Acoustic features were then extracted from this data and analysed using paired t-tests to determine any statistically significant differences between healthy and depressed participants. Most features that were found to be significantly different during normal behaviour remained so during concealed behaviour. In leave-one-subject-out automatic classification studies of the 9 depressed subjects and 8 matched healthy controls, an 88% classification accuracy and 89% sensitivity was achieved. Results remained relatively robust during concealed behaviour, with classifiers trained on only non-concealed data achieving 81% detection accuracy and 75% sensitivity when tested on concealed data. These results indicate there is good potential to build deception-proof automatic depression monitoring systems.


Article is devoted to studying specific needs of persons also their interests affecting quality of their life are more senior than working-age. The purpose of work is to reveal the core vital values and requirements defining quality of life of country people is more senior than working-age of the Kaliningrad region. Within the project of Partnership "Northern measurement" in the field of health care and social wellbeing in 2019 the social research among 211 villagers aged from 60 up to 88 years is conducted. Methods of carrying out work: sociological, analytical, mathematical statistics. Distribution of age and gender structure of the interviewed population reflects universal trends. Social and demographic and medico-social characteristics of country people are studied. Results of a research showed that the quality of life of persons is more senior than working-age most is defined by priority vital values and requirements: state of health and level of material welfare; loneliness; difficulties in use of digital technologies; the disrespect shown from youth i.e. quite objective reasons which solution generally depends on the state measures for support of the senior generation. Significant first 10 vital values at elderly people during the different periods of time are tracked.


Abstract The Amalaoulaou Neoproterozoic island-arc massif belongs to the Gourma belt in Mali. The metagabbros and pyroxenites forming the main body of this arc root show the pervasive development of garnet. In the pyroxenites, the latter has grown by reaction between pyroxene and spinel during isobaric cooling. By contrast, in the metagabbros, garnet textures and relations to felsic veins exclude an origin through solid-state reactions only. It is proposed that garnet has grown following dehydration and localized melting of amphibole-bearing gabbros at the base of the arc. The plagioclase-saturated melts represented by anorthositic veins in the metagabbros and by trondhjemites in the upper part of the massif provide evidence for melting in the deep arc crust, which locally generated high-density garnet–clinopyroxene–rutile residues. Garnet growth and melting began around 850 °C at 10 kbar and the tonalitic melts were most probably generated around 1050 °C at P ≥ 10 kbar. This HT granulitic imprint can be related to arc maturation, leading to a P–T increase in the deep arc root and dehydration and/or dehydration-melting of amphibole-bearing gabbros. Observation of such features in the root of this Neoproterozoic island arc has important consequences, as it provides a link to models concerning the early generation of continental crust.


We examined the role of the ligand for c‐mpl, thrombopoietin (TPO), in murine early haemopoiesis, using a serum‐free culture system. TPO in combination with the ligand for c‐kit (SF) or interleukin‐3 (IL‐3) supported colony formation by marrow cells of 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU)‐treated mice, whereas TPO alone yielded no colony. When blast cell colonies grown in the presence of TPO plus SF or TPO plus IL‐3 were individually replated in suspension cultures containing serum and several growth factors, various combinations of myeloid lineages were seen, indicating that the progenitors supported by TPO plus SF or TPO plus IL‐3 are multipotential. Delayed addition experiments demonstrated that TPO has the potential to effectively support the survival of haemopoietic progenitors. We then studied the effects of TPO on proliferative kinetics of cycling progenitors. TPO hastened IL‐3‐dependent growth of progenitors by shortening the time required for cell cycling. These results suggest that TPO, as a single factor, can support the survival of haemopoietic progenitors and TPO synergizes with SF or IL‐3 to act on early multipotential haemopoietic progenitors.


The easiest way to order : w w w.karger.com/moors The hippocampus is one of the most intriguing structures of the human brain. Damage to this part causes symptoms ranging from transient disorders accompanied by tiny lesions to severely debilitating cognitive disorders with marked tissue loss. This publication provides a predominantly clinical approach to the complex workings of the hippocampus from different perspectives, ranging from basic principles to specific diseases. The first part of the book summarizes current knowledge regarding the structure and physiology of the hippocampus and establishes the ties to basic neuroscience. The second part deals with the function and assessment of the human hippocampus, including memory function, neuropsychological measures, and conventional and functional imaging studies. The chapters of the third part are devoted to the hippocampus in neurological disorders, e.g. the interaction between stress and memory function, and the pathological conditions of common as well as selected rare neurological diseases affecting the hippocampus. The book is highly recommended to clinical neurologists who wish to gain a broad understanding of this complex and fascinating organ in terms of basic principles, modern imaging findings, and specific diseases.


In response to the aggressive global spread of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an accurate and accessible diagnostic tool is of high importance. CHIKV, an arthritogenic alphavirus, comprises three genotypes: East/Central/South African (ECSA), West African (WA), and Asian. A previous rapid immunochromatographic (IC) test detecting CHIKV E1 protein showed promising performance for detection of the ECSA genotype. Unfortunately, this kit exhibited lower capacity for detection of the Asian genotype, currently in circulation in the Americas, reflecting the low avidity of one of the monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in this IC kit for the E1 protein of the Asian-genotype because of a variant amino acid sequence. To address this shortcoming, we set out to generate a new panel of broad-spectrum mouse anti-CHIKV mAbs using hybridoma technology. We report here the successful generation of mouse anti-CHIKV mAbs targeting CHIKV E1 and capsid proteins. These mAbs possessed broad reactivity to all three CHIKV genotypes, while most of the mAbs lacked cross-reactivity towards Sindbis, dengue, and Zika viruses. Two of the mAbs also lacked cross-reactivity towards other alphaviruses, including O'nyong-nyong, Ross River, Mayaro, Western Equine Encephalitis, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis viruses. In addition, another two mAbs cross-reacted weakly only with most closely related O'nyong-nyong virus. Effective diagnosis is one of the keys to disease control but to date, no antibody-based rapid IC platform for CHIKV is commercially available. Thus, the application of the mAbs characterized here in the rapid diagnostic IC kit for CHIKV detection is expected to be of great value for clinical diagnosis and surveillance purposes.


Disaster management and disaster medicine are well-established disciplines for responding to disasters and providing care for individuals whose health and wellbeing has been affected. However, these disciplines have different origins, development, and priorities so that communication and coordination across them during disasters is often lacking, leading to delayed, sub-standard, inappropriate, or even unavailable. Moreover, neither discipline exploits the new range of ehealth technologies such as the electronic health record or telehealth and mobile health that are revolutionizing non-disaster healthcare. We need a new paradigm that applies information and e-health technologies to improve disaster health planning and response. This paper describes the initial stages of a project to develop such a paradigm by scoping and developing the area of disaster e-health.


Potato production and consumption play a big role in the central highlands of Ecuador. Two main biotic constraints hinder the development of potato crops on the field: the Late Blight (Phytophtora infestans) and the Andean potato Weevil (Premnotrypes vorax). The use of agro‐chemicals started in Ecuador during the agrarian reform in the sixties, and still nowadays small‐scale potato producers
customarily apply pesticides to reduce their losses. Overuse/abuse of pesticides in Ecuador represents
a threat to human health, to the environment, and a high production cost for some farmers. It can cause the development of pest resistance in crops, and it influences negatively the national food sovereignty. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)has already been proved to be a valid solution to avoid the negativities connected to pesticide use. Yet IPM is not widely employed by potato farmers in
Ecuador, and a call for a more holistic IPM evaluation is felt necessary by many stakeholders to move forward.

The overarching objectives of this thesis are 1) to assess in which way the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach could evaluate consequences of IPM potential adoption for Late Blight and Andean potato Weevil and 2) to investigate how this potential adoption could influence the livelihood assets of the farmers part of the IssAndes project. To reach these objectives, five research questions were
developed on 1) the perceived change over time regarding farming practices, pest/disease gravity and farming knowledge, 2) current pest/disease management practices, 3) current sources of information on pest/disease management, 4) perception on IPM, 5) the most relevant livelihood assets to evaluate IPM adoption in this specific context.
To address these questions, focus groups, semi‐structured interviews and PRA methods were carried out with six farmer groups living in the provinces of Tungurahua, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo. Here potato production and pesticide use add to issues related to poverty and social exclusion of indigenous
groups. Moreover, key informants and experts were consulted to acquire deep information about the potato sector.

As it turns out, farmers perceived, during the last three/four decades, an overall simplification of farming practices, an increased attack of pests and diseases, and a progressive loss of farming knowledge. They nowadays apply many different chemical inputs, that ranges from slightly to very toxic. They acquire information about pest/disease management using formal and informal networks, and they value more positively information coming from other farmers, and from technicians during demonstrative harvests/sowings. Respondents knew only few IPM methods, but they showed a big interest in implementing new technologies that could eventually lower the amount of pesticides they spray; they would do it mainly 1) for the health hazards related to pesticide use, 2) for the high cost of pesticides, 3) and to preserve their natural resource base. The human (i.e. decision making capacity
and farming knowledge)and social (i.e. networking capacity)assets resulted to be most significant to
evaluate IPM in this specific context.

IPM adoption carried out with participatory approaches could trigger experiential learning processes among farmers, enabling them to create valuable local knowledge, thus increasing their access to the human asset. It could also engage them to participate in common activities, creating trust between different communities, thus helping them to expand their networks, and increasing their access to the social asset. This process would have as a livelihood outcome to reduce the vulnerability felt by some
farmers towards increasing pest/disease gravity, and the social exclusion experienced by some groups, particularly indigenous.


ABSTRACT The initiation of political reforms and a peace process in Myanmar has fundamentally altered the conditions for Burmese diasporic politics, and diaspora groups that have mobilized in Myanmar's neighbouring countries are beginning to return. This article explores how return to Myanmar is debated within the Burmese women's movement, a significant and internationally renowned segment of the Burmese diaspora. Does return represent the fulfilment of diasporic dreams; a pragmatic choice in response to less than ideal circumstances; or a threat to the very identity and the feminist politics of the women's movement? Contrasting these competing perspectives, the analysis offers insights into the ongoing negotiations and difficult choices involved in return, and reveals the process of return as highly conflictual and contentious. In particular, the analysis sheds light on the gendered dimensions of diaspora activism and return, demonstrating how opportunities for women's activism are challenged, debated and reshaped in relation to return.


This paper reports on a major UK initiative to address deficiencies in understanding the hydro-ecological response of groundwater-dominated lowland catchments. The scope and objectives of this national programme are introduced and focus on one of three sets of research basins – the Pang/Lambourn Chalk catchments, tributaries of the river Thames in southern England. The motivation for the research is the need to support integrated management of river systems that have high ecological value and are subject to pressures that include groundwater abstraction for water supply, diffuse pollution, and land use and climate change. An overview of the research programme is provided together with highlights of some current research findings concerning the hydrological functioning of these catchments. Despite the importance of the Chalk as a major UK aquifer, knowledge of the subsurface movement of water and solutes is poor. Solute transport in the dual porosity unsaturated zone depends on fracture/matrix interactions that are difficult to observe; current experimental and modelling research supports the predominance of matrix flow and suggests that slow migration of a time-history of decades of nutrient loading is occurring. Groundwater flows are complex; catchments vary seasonally and are ill-defined and karst features are locally important. Groundwater flow pathways are being investigated using natural and artificial geochemical tracers based on experimental borehole arrays; stream-aquifer interaction research is using a combination of geophysics, borehole array geochemistry and longitudinal profiles of stream flow and solutes. A complex picture of localised subsurface inflows, linked to geological controls and karst features, and significant longitudinal groundwater flow below the river channel is emerging. Management implications are discussed. Strategies to control surface application of nutrients are expected to have little effect on groundwater quality for several decades, and new modelling tools for decision support have been developed to represent these effects. Conventional modelling approaches are limited by the complexities of the subsurface system; catchment areas are difficult to define, hence tracking pollutant pathways to stream receptors is also problematic. Conventional distributed groundwater models have difficulty in capturing key aspects of the groundwater system. This raises important questions concerning the confidence that can be placed in models as routinely used for decision support and the level of knowledge required for catchment management to be placed on a secure scientific foundation.


The parabolic algebra Ap and the hyperbolic algebra Ah are nonselfadjoint w*-closed operator algebras which were first considered by A. Katavolos and S. C. Power. In [KP97] and [KP02] they showed that their invariant subspace lattices are homeomorphic to compact connected Euclidean manifolds, and that the parabolic algebra is reflexive in the sense of Halmos. We give a new proof of the reflexivity of the parabolic algebra through analysis of Hilbert-Schmidt operators. We also show that there are operators in Ap with nontrivial kernel. We then consider some natural "companion algebras" of the parabolic algebra which leads to a compact subspace lattice known as the Fourier-Plancherel sphere. We show that the unitary automorphism group of this lattice is isomorphic to a semidirect product of R2 and SL2(R). A proof that the hyperbolic algebra is reflexive follows by an essentially identical analysis of Hilbert-Schmidt operators to that which was used to establish the reflexivity of Ap. We also present a transparent proof of a known result concerning a strong operator topology limit of projections. Both of the Katavolos-Power algebras are generated as w*-closed operator algebras by the image of a semigroup of a Lie group under a unitary-valued representation. Following [KP02], we call such operator algebras Lie semigroup operator algebras. We seek new examples of such algebras by considering the images of the semigroup SL2(R+) of the Lie group SL2(R) under unitary-valued representations of SL2 (R). We show that a particular Lie semigroup operator algebra A+ arising in this way is reflexive and that it is the operator algebra leaving a double triangle subspace lattice invariant. Surprisingly, A+ is generated as a w*-closed algebra by the image of a proper subsemigroup of SL2(R+).


We consider the general problem of fitting a parametric density model to discrete observations, taken to follow a non-homogeneous Poisson point process. This class of models is very common, and can be used to describe many astrophysical processes, including the distribution of protostars in molecular clouds. We give the expression for the likelihood of a given spatial density distribution of protostars and apply it to infer the most probable dependence of the protostellar surface density on the gas surface density. Finally, we apply this general technique to model the distribution of protostars in the Orion molecular cloud and robustly derive the local star formation scaling (Schmidt) law for a molecular cloud. We find that in this cloud the protostellar surface density, $\Sigma_\mathrm{YSO}$, is directly proportional to the square gas column density, here expressed as infrared extinction in the $K$-band, $A_K$: more precisely, $\Sigma_\mathrm{YSO} = (1.65 \pm 0.19) A_K^{(2.03 \pm 0.15)}$ stars pc$^{-2}$.


Advanced electrode materials have been intensively explored for next‐generation lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs), and great progresses have been achieved for many potential candidates at the lab‐scale. To realize the commercialization of these materials, industrially‐viable synthetic approaches are urgently needed. Spray pyrolysis (SP), which is highly scalable and compatible with on‐line continuous production processes, offers great fidelity in synthesis of electrode materials with complex architectures and chemistries. In this review, motivated by the rapid advancement of the given technology in the battery area, we have summarized the recent progress on SP for preparing a great variety of anode and cathode materials of LIBs with emphasis on their unique structures generated by SP and how the structures enhanced the electrochemical performance of various electrode materials. Considering the emerging popularity of sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs), recent electrode materials for SIBs produced by SP will also be discussed. Finally, the powerfulness and limitation along with future research efforts of SP on preparing electrode materials are concisely provided. Given current worldwide interests on LIBs and SIBs, we hope this review will greatly stimulate the collaborative efforts among different communities to optimize existing approaches and to develop innovative processes for preparing electrode materials.


Echocardiography is the key diagnostic modality for the assessment of aortic stenosis (AS) with a number of parameters available to estimate stenosis severity. Morphological criteria including calcification and reduced leaflet mobility are supplemented by flow dependent (jet velocity and mean pressure gradient) and largely flow-independent parameters (aortic valve area, aortic valve area index and velocity ratio).1 2 In the majority of patients, consistent results regarding stenosis severity will be obtained over the range of parameters. However, depending on the population under study, up to 30% of patients will demonstrate discrepant stenosis severity between flow-dependent (eg, mean pressure gradient) and flow-independent (aortic valve area) markers, with the latter commonly indicating a higher grade stenosis.3

Two developments over the last decades have augmented the problem of discrepant stenosis severity. First, there has been a trend in guidelines towards easing the partition values for the assessment of AS severity with an emphasis on aortic valve area .1 2 The threshold for severe stenosis according to mean pressure gradient moved from 50 mm Hg to 40 mm Hg and according to aortic valve area from <0.8 cm2 to <1 cm2 (with an often unrecognised twitch from <1 to ≤1 cm …


The history of the creation of the names and symbols of elements resulting in the current form approved by IUPAC is long and interesting. A small number of elements have been known since ancient times and civilizations, from where they brought their names. Other elements were gradually being discovered from the 17th to the beginning of the 21st century. New elements have been variously named and subsequently provided with international names. In Bohemia, the need to find Czech names for new elements appeared in the 19th century. An important creator of these names was Jan Svatopluk Presl. Some of its names are still used in Czech. Other Czech names were suggested by Karel Slavoj Amerling. Another notable creator of Czech chemical terminology, Vojtěch Šafařík, replaced some peculiar Czech names of elements with international ones, and only 19 of them have been keeping their original Czech names till present. After Šafařík's reform, Czech chemical terminology has been stabilized and remained essentially unchanged.


Several old problems in the new countryside construction at present are analyzed. For instance the land transfer mechanism is not flexible, land problems have restricted the development of agricultural industrialization; farmers still have serious problems in income increase and lack the rational investment and consumption awareness; farmers receive low level of education and their cultural qualities are general poor; for a long time, legalization and democratization process of rural grass-roots organizations has been lagged behind. Causations for problems in the new countryside construction are various, such as lacking the subject consciousness, a long-term mechanism, industrial support and capital input. Finally, several new ideas about the construction of socialist new countryside are put forward, including speeding up the development of modern agriculture and doing everything possible to increase the income of farmers; paying attention to the development of civilized villages and towns and doing everything possible to enrich the knowledge of farmers; accelerating the establishment of long-term mechanism and gathering the ideas of farmers to the maximum extent; fully integrating project funds and constructing the socialist new countryside.


Ethnographic fieldwork can be a time of intense vulnerability for PhD students. Often alone and in an unfamiliar context, they may face challenges that their pre-fieldwork training has done little to prepare them for. This study seeks to document some of the difficulties that PhD anthropologists at three UK universities have faced. It describes a range of feelings as experienced by 16 interviewees: alone, ashamed, bereaved, betrayed, depressed, desperate, disappointed, disturbed, embarrassed, fearful, frustrated, guilty, harassed, homeless, paranoid, regretful, silenced, stressed, trapped, uncomfortable, unprepared, unsupported, and unwell. The paper concludes with a set of questions for prospective fieldworkers, a reflection on the dilemmas faced by supervisors and university departments, and a proposal for action.


Develop JSF web applications with Trinidad and Seam Develop rich client web applications using the most powerful integration of modern web technologiesCovers working with Seam security, internationalization using Seam, and moreGet well-versed in developing key areas of web applicationsA step-by-step approach that will help you strengthen your understanding of all the major concepts In Detail In today's world, JSF is one of the pivotal technologies for implementing middle- to large-scale web applications. With Trinidad, JSF developers have a powerful open source component framework at their fingertips.This book introduces Apache MyFaces Trinidad, a powerful JSF component framework and combines it with Seam, the next-generation Web Application Framework to achieve the most comprehensive and effective technology for the development of powerful rich-client web applications.In this book, you start out by learning where Trinidad comes from and what its aims are. You will learn how Facelets and Seam are used to get the most out of JSF. In addition, you will also learn the often occurring tag attributes, and, in particular, Trinidad's AJAX technology. You will implement login, authorization, navigation, internationalization, polling, and support for browser issues with the help of these technologies. You will then use Seam-gen for deployment.Next, you will develop a web application example where a series of selected Trinidad components are applied and their capabilities explored. Finally, you will master the Trinidad dialog framework, a key Trinidad technology that allows the application of dialogs. What you will learn from this book? Integrate Trinidad with Facelets and Seam to get the most out of JSFTackle web application issues with the help of SeamCreate a panel-based Trinidad user interface using Trinidad forms and Facelet input componentsCreate a wizard based on Trinidad componentsCreate pop-up or main browser window dialogs using Trinidad dialog frameworkWork with Trinidad's table technology features including the use of JSF bindingGet a grip on Trinidad's AJAX technology, or more adequately described, its partial page rendering technique (PPR)Deploy your web applications using Seam-genImplement login, authorization, navigation, internationalization, and moreMaster all the major concepts of Trinidad Chapter 1:In this chapter, we introduce you to the Trinidad component library. We give a general idea of this component library, which areas are covered by its components, and compare it to other libraries. Finally, the integration of Trinidad and Seam is discussed. Chapter 2:In this chapter, we take a look at Facelets as a basic means to structure and build pages using Facelet page composition, Facelet composition components, and JSTL. Chapter 3:In this chapter, we discuss the Trinidad tags and their attributes in a structured approach. You will gain an insight into the design of Trinidad allowing you to draw an efficient mental map of the library and make an effective selection and application of tags. Chapter 4:In this chapter, we introduce you to the Trinidad's AJAX technology, called PPR (Partial Page Rendering). PPR is inspected from two points of view - the pure tag-based partial rendering and the pure Java-side partial rendering techniques. Chapter 5:In this chapter, we develop the basic parts of the web application that serves as our Trinidad example. We present using Seam-gen to rapidly deploy after each change of any file. Chapter 6:In this chapter, we deal with Trinidad's panelAccordion and showDetailItem components to show how they can be combined to build panel-based, panel-wise collapsible content. Chapter 7:In this chapter, we discuss how to combine Trinidad's tags and Facelet composition components to build highly flexible and well-formatted forms including messaging support. Chapter 8:In this chapter, we deal with Trinidad's tree components and models and exemplify their application. We present an effective shortcut that makes Trinidad's tree support an easy and yet powerful technology. Chapter 9:In this chapter, we deal with Trinidad's table and treeTable components and exemplify their application. We apply the components in an increasingly refined way revealing most of their features, one at a time. Chapter 10:In this chapter, we deal with Trinidad's chart component and show its application. You will learn to competently set up representation parameters, so effectively achieving the intended representation focus and thus graphically materializing hidden information in an appropriate way. Chapter 11:In this chapter, we deal with Trinidad's components to implement a wizard and show their application. We present a solution to avoid an existing Facelet problem. Chapter 12:In this chapter, we discuss Trinidad's pop-up window techniques. We revisit Seam conversations to address Trinidad's and Seam's specific necessities for pop-up dialogs. We enhance the web application with a couple of pop-up windows including wizard pop-up support. Approach The book is a hands-on practical guide that stresses the discussion of code and builds up a sample application that illustrates all the standard UI types covered by Trinidad. Who this book is written for? This book is written for Java developers who are beginners at JSF and experienced web developers who are looking for an introduction into the world of open source JSF technology.


This study qualitatively examines how male individuals in subordinate positions in a Japanese workplace construct institutional identities in superior-subordinate interactions in the workplace. The analysis demonstrates that the male subordinates' use of the masu form (the addressee honorific form) in conjunction with their epistemic stance contributes to the display of different facets of institutional identities. It also shows that individuals in subordinate positions draw on various discourse strategies, such as incomplete phrases and the plain form (the non-honorific form), so as to obscure the social relationships between superiors and themselves, as well as to avoid performing the role of buka 'work subordinate', who is obligated to obey superiors. Confirming the findings of previous research on identity construction, this study demonstrates that by strategically manipulating their linguistic resources, male subordinates can display different institutional identities on a moment-by-moment basis in a given context. Furthermore, the study contributes to the examination of power relations in workplace discourse, as well as touching upon a gender difference in language use.


of fraudulent online marketing or as a type of exploitative digital labour based on an illegitimate business operation that produces 'click spam'. There has, however, been limited research on how these entities operate, who the actors are, and how the market is organised. In an ethnographic spirit, this essay takes click farmers not as an aberration, but rather as a starting point for approaching the 'like economy'. Johan Lindquist Illicit Economies of the Internet Click Farming in Indonesia and Beyond PC: Shutterstock.com


As evidenced by the success of the ICCBSS Conferences, the OTS (off-the-shelf)-based development community is constantly growing. Unfortunately, different development projects and organizations have adopted different terminology and reference models for the OTS-based tasks to be performed, work products to be produced, and roles to be played. Due to the current lack of standardization, these unnecessary differences have produced a growing confusion that has limited effective communication and have slowed the improvement and spread of OTS-based development methods. We believe it is feasible and the time is ripe to start reaching a consensus on a single common framework of reusable OTS-related method components.


Cyclin D1 G870A Variant is Associated with Increased Risk of Microsatellite Instability-Positive Colorectal Cancer in Young Male Patients Cyclin D1 (CCND1) is a cell cycle regulatory protein, which is often over expressed in human tumors and is associated with cell proliferation and poor prognosis. A common G870A single nucleotide polymorphism at codon 242 in exon 4 of the CCND1 gene is associated with an altered messenger RNA transcript and increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) and adenoma in some studies. Over expression of CCND1 modifies the effect of mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes, enhances microsatellite instability (MSI), and influences the age ofonset of hereditary non polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). We have extended our study that indicated that the CCND1 A variant may influence the age of onset of CRC in the Macedonian population only in patients who exhibit MSI tumors by a case control study of 331 randomly selected CRC patients and 101 controls without clinical diagnosis of CRC. We did not observe a significant difference in overall allelic frequencies and genotype distribution of affected and unaffected mutation carriers, but found a statistically significant risk of CRC in carriers of the CCND1 A allele when patients were grouped according to gender, age and MSI status. A higher risk was observed in patients with MSI-positive tumors and particularly in male patients under 60 years of age. The consequences of the above observation were reversed in female patients. These results indicate that the CCND1 A variant may enhance CRC progression through a pathway influenced by estrogens in colonic epithelia.