—Formal methods, such as Event-B provide a means for system-level specification and verification supported by correctness proofs. However, the formal Event-B specification of a system requires background knowledge, which prevents a fruitful communication between the developer and the customer. In addition, scalability and reusability are limiting factors in using formal methods, such as Event-B in complex system development. This paper presents an approach to facilitate scalability of formal development in Event-B. Our aim is to build a formal library of parameterized visual components that can be reused whenever needed. Each component is formally developed and proved correct by utilizing the advantages of Event-B. Furthermore, each component has a unique graphical representation that eases the rigorous development by applying the "drag-and-drop" approach and enhances the communication between a developer and a customer. We present a subset of components from the digital hydraulics domain and outline the compositionality mechanism.


The third issue of the SAJHE for 2009 deals with the challenges facing career counselling at South African institutions of higher education in the 21st century. The interested reader will encounter an absorbing compilation of national, international, transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions. Individually, these contributions represent the fruits of months, if not years, of dedication and application in different research contexts. Collectively, they provide an imposing collage of perspectives on 21st century career counselling. Crafting their distinctive contributions with enthusiasm and sensitivity, and locating themselves in a predominantly qualitative research tradition, the authors have produced a set of discussions (and follow-up discussions) that help us understand and appreciate postmodern career counselling at South African institutions of higher education. The authors focus on a number of pressing contemporary research developments in the field that span the spectrum of psychological investigation.


This chapter, which discusses the development of historical and anthropological jurisprudence, first identifies the characteristics that distinguish the Western legal tradition from other systems. It then discusses the German Romantic Movement, which found its most powerful spokesman in jurist, Friedrich Karl von Savigny; its foremost champion in England was Sir Henry Maine. Maine exercised a significant influence over what has come to be called anthropological jurisprudence or legal anthropology, an approach to law that developed in the twentieth century and which was recognized as essential to an understanding of law by the American realist judge Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.


As many commentators have pointed out, the mass media has helped to shrink the world to a global village, producing new forms of social relationships where people appear to achieve 'intimacy at a distance' with famous people. Richard Dyer for example, notes that the media construction of stars encourages us to think in terms of what they are 'really like', and to uncover the 'real' person behind the public appearance. Such examination of the star system and modern society's growing fixation and fascination with a wide range of stars can also be applied in some measure to the media persona of the politician and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern. With frank and deeply revealing interviews from family, political colleagues, former constituency activists and commentators, this new four-part series asks: who really is Bertie Ahern? The promotional blurb goes on to foreground how the enigmatic politician remains a mass of contradictions, including purporting to be a self-proclaimed socialist who governed as a laissezfaire capitalist. The documentary uses extensive interviews with his family and friends to provide some insight into what makes this complex man tick, and most surprisingly how his close supporters, nicknamed the 'Drumcondra Mafia', helped to force his way to the very top of the political ladder. Audiences were afforded a comprehensive look behind the scenes at the last three decades of Irish politics, and witnessed Bertie's successes and failures, which culminated in his resignation from the post of Taoiseach on 6th May 2008 after eleven years in the job; second only to Eamon DeValera in terms of longevity. In particular much time was given to the Planning/Mahon Tribunal which was set up in 1998 to enquire into political corruption allegations. Nearly a decade later it would focus on Ahern's missing bank accounts and a pattern of lodgements and withdrawals with various interviews and media interventions used to explain his 'irregular affairs', with the infamous term 'dig out' entering Irish political folklore. First broadcast on RTE on 3rd November 2008, the series secured viewing figures of 601,000, which went down slightly from there in subsequent episodes. Nonetheless, it has become a very successful RTE series during 2008. While episode one traced Ahern's life up to the general election of 1989--when he got elected to the Dail on his first attempt--episode two commenced with the 1990 Irish presidential election in which Mary Robinson became the country's first female president, and followed Ahern's career up to his appointment as leader of the Fianna Fail political party in 1994. The third episode focused on the period from 1994 when Ahern very nearly formed a coalition Government with Labour. There was also the major issue of alleged corruption and a briefcase full of cash delivered to Celia Larkin--his then partner--who lodged it in a bank account. The final episode covered the period from early 1999 up to the present day. Ahern's crowing achievement, acknowledged by all, remains the Northern Ireland Peace Process, which he worked on patiently over a period of many years. His tenacity in that endeavour received surprising accolades from his erstwhile nemesis in the North, Ian Paisley, alongside Tony Blair, then Prime Minister of Britain. Ahern was born on the 12th September 1951 and was elected the sixth leader of Fianna Fail in 1994 at the comparatively young age of 43. He has since secured his place in party history as one of their most hallowed and respected leaders. His parents were both from Cork and his father ended up as a farm manager at All Hallows College, Drumcondra. Bertie marred Miriam Kelly in 1972 and had two daughters, Georgina who is now wife of Westlife member Nicky Byrne and Cecelia who is a best selling author. In 1992 he separated from his wife and until 2003 maintained a relationship with Celia Larkin, who becomes the femme fatale of this story, if one was to adapt a film noir analogy. …


This collection considers issues that have emerged in Early Modern Studies in the past fifteen years relating to understandings of mind and body in Shakespeare's world. Informed by The Body in Parts, the essays in this book respond also to the notion of an early modern 'body-mind' in which Shakespeare and his contemporaries are understood in terms of bodily parts and cognitive processes. What might the impact of such understandings be on our picture of Shakespeare's theatre or on our histories of the early modern period, broadly speaking? This book provides a wide range of approaches to this challenge, covering histories of cognition, studies of early modern stage practices, textual studies, and historical phenomenology, as well as new cultural histories by some of the key proponents of this approach at the present time. Because of the breadth of material covered, full weight is given to issues that are hotly debated at the present time within Shakespeare Studies: presentist scholarship is presented alongside more historically-focused studies, for example, and phenomenological studies of material culture are included along with close readings of texts. What the contributors have in common is a refusal to read the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries either psychologically or materially; instead, these essays address a willingness to study early modern phenomena (like the Elizabethan stage) as manifesting an early modern belief in the embodiment of cognition.


Robotics Programming 101 shows you how to plan your first robotics program, pick a brain, language and operating system for your first robot. This book is also filled with programming examples in PBASIC, Arduino, Java and JRuby. Some of these examples include: serial communication, servo and microcontroller programs, sensors like sonar and a digital compass, text-to-speech, speech-recognition, computer-vision, differential drives, robot arms, basic navigation, and much more! The reader should have a basic understanding of robot parts, like servos, sonars, and microcontrollers (BASIC Stamp & Arduino) and the Java or Ruby programming language. Table of Contents 1. Quick Start 2. Planning 3. Brains 4. Languages 5. Operating Systems 6. Sample Robots 7. Serial Ports 8. Servo Controllers 9. Microcontrollers 10. Sonar 11. Compass 12. Everything Together 13. Text-To-Speech 14. Speech Recognition 15. Image Acquisition 16. Image Processing 17. Motion Examples 18. Navigation Examples 19. Wrap-Up


Unrestricted Travel in Solar Cells In the past 2 years, organolead halide perovskites have emerged as a promising class of light-harvesting media in experimental solar cells, but the physical basis for their efficiency has been unclear (see the Perspective by Hodes). Two studies now show, using a variety of time-resolved absorption and emission spectroscopic techniques, that these materials manifest relatively long diffusion paths for charge carriers energized by light absorption. Xing et al. (p. 344) independently assessed (negative) electron and (positive) hole diffusion lengths and found them well-matched to one another to the ~100-nanometer optical absorption depth. Stranks et al. (p. 341) uncovered a 10-fold greater diffusion length in a chloride-doped material, which correlates with the material's particularly efficient overall performance. Both studies highlight effective carrier diffusion as a fruitful parameter for further optimization. Spectroscopy pinpoints facile carrier diffusion as a key factor in the efficiency of perovskite solar cells. [Also see Perspective by Hodes] Low-temperature solution-processed photovoltaics suffer from low efficiencies because of poor exciton or electron-hole diffusion lengths (typically about 10 nanometers). Recent reports of highly efficient CH3NH3PbI3-based solar cells in a broad range of configurations raise a compelling case for understanding the fundamental photophysical mechanisms in these materials. By applying femtosecond transient optical spectroscopy to bilayers that interface this perovskite with either selective-electron or selective-hole extraction materials, we have uncovered concrete evidence of balanced long-range electron-hole diffusion lengths of at least 100 nanometers in solution-processed CH3NH3PbI3. The high photoconversion efficiencies of these systems stem from the comparable optical absorption length and charge-carrier diffusion lengths, transcending the traditional constraints of solution-processed semiconductors.


This selection of writings from the sixth and seventh century AD provides a powerful insight into the early history of the Christian Church in England and Ireland. From Bede's Life of Cuthbert and Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow to the anonymous Voyage of St Brendan a whimsical mixture of fact and fantasy that describes a quest for paradise on earth these are vivid accounts of the profoundly spiritual and passionately heroic lives of Christian pioneers and saints. Both vital religious writings and a revealing insight into the reality of life at a formative time for the church, they describe an era of heroism and bitter conflict, and the rapid spread of the Christian faith.


It has long been understood that programmed cell death is an active process that requires protein synthesis. Although overall rates of translation are decreased in apoptosis, a subset of proteins bucks the trend and continues to be made, or is even more abundant, in cells destined to die. Bushell et al. explored how the mRNAs encoding these proteins are differentially regulated. They screened polysomal RNAs on microarrays to identify those whose translation was maintained or increased in cells of the human breast cancer-derived cell line MCF7 that were induced to undergo apoptosis by treatment with the cytokine TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand). About 3% of all mRNAs were maintained or recruited onto polysomes in the TRAIL-treated cells. Of these, about a third encoded proteins known to function in organization of chromatin or regulation of transcription. Also overrepresented were mRNAs encoding proteins of the Notch signaling pathway. Of 11 mRNAs examined in detail, 8 contained internal ribosomal entry sites (IRESs) that allow internal recruitment of ribosomes for initiation of translation. There is specificity within the IRES sequences, however, as not all mRNAs with functional IRESs were maintained on polysomes in the apoptotic cells. The function of the IRESs that promoted synthesis in the apoptotic cells appeared to require PTB (polypyrimidine tract-binding protein), a factor known to enhance IRES function. Expression of PTB was increased in TRAIL-treated cells. Furthermore, reduced expression of PTB after treatment of cells with siRNA inhibited apoptosis in response to TRAIL. Thus IRESs, which are often activated in conditions of cell stress, provide one mechanism by which translation is maintained of proteins that accumulate during cell death. M. Bushell, M. Stoneley, Y. W. Kong, T. L. Hamilton, K. A. Spriggs, H. C. Dobbyn, X. Qin, P. Sarnow, A. E. Willis, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein regulates IRES-mediated gene expression during apoptosis. Mol. Cell 23, 401-412 (2006). [PubMed]


In this article, I consider to what extent, and in which senses, nuclear constructions assume the role of a monument, whether in terms of relatively concrete structures or as ephemeral reproductions in public culture. The overbearing notion of the monument applies to edifices that have lost their functionality, as with ancient monuments, or serve as mnemonics to notable person(s), event(s), or occasion(s), as with war memorials. They then become pointers to a cascade of meanings displaced through time and/or space. Whilst they are monuments in and of themselves – as conjured up by the notion of the monumental, a phenomenal sight to behold, as part of the picturesque aesthetic – they are also monuments to something, transferences that are not necessarily conveyed through visual perceptions but also historical, social, and political accretions that impinge on the experience of encountering and interpreting them. The theme addressed here is how structures that are overdetermined by their functional contemporaneity such as dams, nuclear reactors, and other industrial structures can be also seen as monuments in this dual sense. The argument recalls early twentieth-century discourses associated with artistic constructions applied to industry, as with the works of Russian artists such as Aleksandr Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, where the function of art took precedence over the aesthetic aspects of objects, the latter castigated as a bourgeois ideology, rarefied and removed from the circuits of utility as if they were sacred objects. Here, I attempt to traverse shifting territories: one territory that tries to move away from the aestheticised and historicised realms of monumentality that developed in South Asia under the influence of colonial epistemologies; another that tries to unpack the functional overdetemination of modernist monuments, greatly influenced by modernist aesthetics that developed in the post-independence period as a new nation strived to throw off the carcass of colonial historicisation. In so doing, I outline three main registers of nuclear monuments that have developed in postcolonial India: 'nuclear realist', 'anti-realist', and 'post-liberal kitsch'.


Prevoicing is the presence of vocal fold vibration during the closure of initial voiced plosives (negative VOT). The presence or absence of prevoicing is generally used to describe the voicing distinction in Dutch initial plosives. However, a phonetic study showed that prevoicing is frequently absent in Dutch. This article discusses the role of prevoicing in the production and perception of Dutch plosives. Furthermore, two cross-modal priming experiments are presented that examined the effect of prevoicing variation on word recognition. Both experiments showed no difference between primes with 12, 6 or 0 periods of prevoicing, even though a third experiment indicated that listeners could discriminate these words. These results are discussed in light of another priming experiment that did show an effect of the absence of prevoicing, but only when primes had a voiceless word competitor. Phonetic detail appears to influence lexical access only when it helps to distinguish between lexical candidates.


COVID-19 has posed several challenges at the national level with governments adopting
various policies to counter its spread. Nonetheless, the transnational nature of pandemics
requires a coordinated regional response and cross-border cooperation. This article aims to
examine the initial responses and the development of regional policies of the two most
successful examples of regional organisations; EU and ASEAN. This comparative analysis
accounts for the different forms of integration and the varying COVID-19 spread levels
between them. The documentation of the respective policies highlights the different
approaches and mechanisms employed. The study also showcases the divergence in
perceptions and acts of solidarity while dealing with COVID-19 as a communicable disease.
The findings further indicate that both organisations need to acquire a more proactive role
in health and crisis management.


The problem of making predictions from theories that have landscapes of possible low energy parameters is reviewed. Conditions for such a theory to yield falsifiable predictions for doable experiments are given. It is shown that the hypothesis of cosmological natural selection satisfies these conditions, thus showing that it is possible to continue to do physics on a landscape without invoking the anthropic principle. In particular, this is true whether or not the ensemble of universes generated by black holes bouncing is a sub-ensemble of a larger ensemble that might be generated by a random process such as eternal inflation.
A recent criticism of cosmological natural selection made by Vilenkin in hep-th/0610051 is discussed. It is shown to rely on assumptions about both the infrared and ultraviolet behavior of quantum gravity that are very unlikely to be true.


This essay considers how collective memory works to develop and sustain a group identity in Gloria Naylor's 1980 novel, The Women of Brewster Place. Using post-structural theorist Bronwyn Davies's collective biography project as a model through which to understand Naylor's work, it becomes clear how collective remembering in the novel prompts the women characters to become aware of the hegemonic forces shaping their lives. As Naylor's characters voice the variable, otherwise-silenced stories of the African American women who reside in Brewster Place, Naylor emphasizes the importance of the personal memories and stories of each resident, while at the same time illustrates the need for communal support and shared remembering in each woman's life. Indeed, being part of a community that shares collective memories and histories can provide a nurturing, legitimating experience that fosters a sense of belonging, but it can also be limiting of an individual's personal recollections that stand in opposition to or outside of the official collective memory. Ultimately, it is the characters' recognition of the collective nature of the women's memories and dreams that creates the possibility of active resistance and supports them in their quest for enhanced agency within the broader society.


Data Protection regulations, like GDPR, mandate security controls to secure Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of the users which they share with service providers. With the volume of shared data reaching exascale proportions, it is challenging to ensure GDPR compliance in real time. We propose a novel approach that integrates GDPR Ontology with Blockchain to facilitate real time automated data compliance. Our framework ensures data operation is allowed only when validated by data privacy policies in compliance with privacy rules in GDPR. When a valid transaction takes place the PII data is automatically stored off-chain in a database. Our system, built using Semantic Web and Ethereum Blockchain, includes an access-control system that enforces data privacy policy when data is shared with third parties.


UNLABELLED
The development of fundamental movement skills (FMS) is associated with positive health-related outcomes. Children do not develop FMS naturally through maturational processes. These skills need to be learned, practised and reinforced. The objective was to determine the effectiveness of motor skill interventions in children. The following databases were searched for relevant articles: Academic Search Premier, PsycArticles, PsycInfo, SportDiscus and ERIC. No date range was specified and each search was conducted to include all possible years of publication specific to each database. Key terms for the search included motor, skill, movement, intervention, programme or children. Searches were conducted using single and combined terms. Pertinent journals and article reference lists were also manually searched.

INCLUSION CRITERIA
(1) implementation of any type of motor skill intervention; (2) pre- and post-qualitative assessment of FMS; and (3) availability of means and standard deviations of motor performance. A significant positive effect of motor skill interventions on the improvement of FMS in children was found (d= 0.39, P < 0.001). Results indicate that object control (d= 0.41, P < 0.001) and locomotor skills (d= 0.45, P < 0.001) improved similarly from pre- to post-intervention. The overall effect size for control groups (i.e. free play) was not significant (d= 0.06, P= 0.33). A Pearson correlation indicated a non-significant (P= 0.296), negative correlation (r=-0.18) between effect size of pre- to post-improvement of FMS and the duration of the intervention (in minutes). Motor skill interventions are effective in improving FMS in children. Early childhood education centres should implement 'planned' movement programmes as a strategy to promote motor skill development in children.


Sardinian is an endangered Romance language spoken in Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The Autonomous Region of Sardinia is part of the Italian Republic and it is located south of Corsica, west of the Italian peninsula, to the north of Tunisia and east of the Balearic Islands. Sardinian received official recognition from the Italian Republic as late as the end of the 20th century (Cf. Law 482/1999). Despite its official status, Sardinian is classified as endangered by UNESCO due to the loss of intergenerational transmission (Moseley 2007). Nowadays, the relative standing of Sardinian and Italian has been strongly unbalanced in favour of Italian. The domains of use have been drastically restricted (Marongiu 2007), children are no longer able to speak the language of their parents and most young people can be classified as imperfect learners (Rindler-Schjerve 1998, 2000).
 To prevent the decline of Sardinian, the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (henceforth ARS) has developed a standard orthography called ʽLimba Sarda Comuna' (henceforth LSC). LSC was presented as a mere orthographic standard for the administrative use of ARS but in fact, its purported domain of use has gradually broadened well beyond official administrative use. In the last few years, over 70% of linguistic projects funded by the ARS have focused on LSC rather than on any attested dialect (Corongiu 2013). LSC lends itself to criticism on at least two different grounds. First, it can be shown that LSC is not merely a reference orthography but a true standard language, involving standardization of both the lexicon and the grammar. In fact, it is closely modelled on a north-western Sardinian dialectal group and it does not represent the rest of the island, as the central and southern communities have complained. In this situation the imposition of LSC would encourage, rather than prevent, the abandonment of the local dialects. Second, LSC might not be in the best interest even of the speakers of north-western Sardinian. The reason is that LSC deliberately avoids recording a number of phonological processes of Sardinian. The sharp interruption of intergenerational transmission posits problems to children that learn Sardinian mainly from the official, exclusively written LSC: it is likely that in the lack of any relevant data, the phonological processes would simply get lost in the acquisition of the youngest generations. Once again, LSC could prove counterproductive to the safeguard of Sardinian. References
 Corongiu, G., 2013. Il sardo: una lingua "normale". Manuale per chi non ne sa nulla, non conosce la linguistica e vuole saperne di piu o cambiare idea. Cagliari: Condaghes. Marongiu, M.A., 2007. Language Maintenance and Shift in Sardinia: A Case Study of Sardinian and Italian in Cagliari. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
 Moseley, Ch., (ed.) 2007. Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. London-New York: Routledge. Rindler Schjerve, R., 1998. "Codeswitching as an indicator for language shift? Evidence from Sardinian-Italian bilingualism" in R. Jacobson (ed.), Code switching Worldwide, pp. 221-247.
 Rindler Schjerve, R., 2000. "Inventario analitico delle attuali trasformazioni del sardo", Revista de Filologia Romanica No 17, pp. 229-246.


Purpose: Reduced macular pigment optical density (MPOD) has been associated with age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). MP spatial profiles tend to follow either an exponential curve or exhibit a secondary peak up to 2° eccentricity in 40% to 50% of Caucasian subjects. A higher incidence of secondary peak profiles has been reported in ethnicities with low ARMD prevalence using fundus autofluorescence image analysis. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of MP spatial profiles in healthy Asian subjects.

Methods: MP spatial profiles were measured using heterochromatic flicker photometry (Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 30:470-483,2010) in 55 Asian subjects (mean age 21 ± 3 years). Secondary peak classification was based on the MPOD at 0.8° or at 1.8° being 0.10 log units (the average within subject standard deviation at each location) greater than the value predicted by the exponential fit. The remaining subjects were allocated to the single peak subgroup. The average blue light transmittance (Tav) and the average MPOD (ODav) between 0° and 1.8° were calculated.

Results: According to our criterion, 25 subjects (45%) had secondary peak spatial profiles. Mean MPOD at 0.8° was significantly higher in subjects with a secondary peak (0.52 ± 0.12 log units) when compared to the single peak subgroup (0.41 ± 0.12 log units; t = -3.53, p = 0.001), but not at 0° (0.61 ± 0.13 log units versus 0.53 ± 0.19 log units; t = -1.79, p = 0.08, respectively). Percentage Tav was significantly Abstract Print View 07/01/2015 13:40 http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/AbstractPrintView.aspx?mID…ac-84e1-16d2b30126d4c t = 2.31, p = 0.03). ODav was significantly greater in subjects with secondary (0.41 ± 0.09) versus single peak profiles (0.35 ± 0.10; t = -2.29, p = 0.03).

Conclusions: Significant differences in blue light transmittance and average MPOD up to 1.8° were found between exponential and secondary peak MP profiles. Subjects exhibiting a secondary peak were better protected against the damaging effects of blue light. However, the incidence of secondary peak MP profiles in Asian subjects was similar to that previously recorded in Caucasians, suggesting that factors other than racial differences in secondary peak frequency may explain the ethnic influence on ARMD prevalence.


Abstract Anaerobic reductive dechlorination of 2,3-dichlorophenol (2,3DCP) and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6TCP) was investigated in microcosms from River Nile sediment. A stable sediment-free anaerobic microbial consortium reductively dechlorinating 2,3DCP and 2,4,6TCP was established. Defined sediment-free cultures showing stable dechlorination were restricted to ortho chlorine when enriched with hydrogen as the electron donor, acetate as the carbon source, and either 2,3-DCP or 2,4,6-TCP as electron acceptors. When acetate, formate, or pyruvate were used as electron donors, dechlorination activity was lost. Only lactate can replace dihydrogen as an electron donor. However, the dechlorination potential was decreased after successive transfers. To reveal chlororespiring species, the microbial community structure of chlorophenol-reductive dechlorinating enrichment cultures was analyzed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Eight dominant bacteria were detected in the dechlorinating microcosms including members of the genera Citrobac- ter, Geobacter, Pseudomonas, Desulfitobacterium, Desulfovibrio and Clostridium. Highly enriched dechlorinating cultures were dominated by four bacterial species belonging to the genera Pseudomonas, Desulfitobacterium, and Clostridium. Desulfitobacterium represented the major fraction in DGGE profiles indicating its importance in dechlorination activity, which was further confirmed by its absence resulting in complete loss of dechlorination. Reductive dechlorination was confirmed by the stoichiometric dechlorination of 2,3DCP and 2,4,6TCP to metabolites with less chloride groups and by the detection of chlorophenol RD cprA gene fragments in dechlorinating cultures. PCR amplified cprA gene fragments were cloned and sequenced and found to cluster with the cprA/pceA type genes of Dehalobacter restrictus.


Introduction Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 9p21 are associated with coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes and several cancers. The mechanisms mediating these associations are unknown, but risk variants are mainly non-coding and may act through regulation of gene expression in cis. We investigated whether 9p21 SNPs were associated with total and allelic expression of the three nearest genes; the cell-cycle inhibitors CDKN2A/CDKN2B, and a non-coding RNA of unknown function, ANRIL. Methods We genotyped 56 SNPs, selected to tag the common variation in the region and include SNPs with reported functional effects. We studied peripheral blood expression in two populations of healthy volunteers: 177 British Caucasians and 310 mixed-ancestry South Africans. Total expression was measured using TaqMan real-time PCR. Allelic expression was quantified by mass spectrometry (Sequenom) and analysed by novel methodology using data from two transcribed SNPs per gene. Association between mapping SNPs and expression was assessed using likelihood ratio tests. Results Total expression of CDKN2A, CDKN2B and ANRIL was correlated (p<0.05), suggesting that they are co-regulated. Allelic expression was also correlated (p<0.05), suggesting that transcription is influenced by shared cis acting elements. SNP associations mapped by total and allelic expression were similar (r=0.96, p=2×10−92), but the power to detect effects was greater for allelic expression, indicating the presence of substantial trans-acting effects on expression. The proportion of expression variance attributable to cis-acting effects was 8% for CDKN2A, 5% for CDKN2B, and 20% for ANRIL. SNP associations were similar in the two populations (r=0.94, p=1×10−72) which permitted analysis of the combined dataset (Abstract C figure 1). Multiple SNPs were independently associated with expression of each gene (p<0.01), suggesting that several sites may modulate disease susceptibility. Risk SNPs for coronary disease and stroke were all highly associated with allelic expression of ANRIL (all p<1×10−7), whilst association with the other two genes was only detectable for some. Risk alleles all correlated with ANRIL under-expression (up to 1.9-fold). Individual SNPs were associated with opposite effects on ANRIL and CDKN2B expression, suggesting a possible role of ANRIL in CDKN2B regulation. Abstract C Figure 1 Significance of association for each SNP (−log p Value). Conclusions Multiple independent cis-acting SNPs influence CDKN2A, CDKN2B and ANRIL expression. Risk SNPs correlate with reduced ANRIL expression, suggesting that ANRIL down-regulation mediates susceptibility to atherosclerosis; this pathway may be an important target for future therapies. Allelic expression has greater power than total expression for mapping cis-acting effects; this has implications for future studies investigating SNP effects on gene expression at other loci.


This paper expands upon the complementarysystems model of speech perception by proposing that exemplar encoding is filtered by native language phonolgy through differential attentional weighting of particular acoustic cues. Phonetic processing in a second language is presumed to rely on an L2 phonological system that is not native-like due to the persistent effects of this attentional filtering. In learning to either re-weight attention or work around this filtering effect, individuals may vary with respect to their ability to exploit the exemplar store in L2 processing, leading to differences in long-term ability to develop native-like L2 phonologies.


Abstract In 1873, Qing, a young man of Bushman background, recounted a cycle of stories and commented on some of the rock paintings he and the magistrate Joseph Orpen saw on a journey through the Maloti mountains. A year later Qing's narratives and comments on rock art, as recorded by Orpen, were published along with Orpen's account of the journey in an article in The Cape Monthly Magazine. The article is a blend of European and indigenous discourses and forms of knowledge, the latter mediated by the processes of recording, translation, writing and publication. This essay explores the different sorts of knowledge that are represented in the text, in Orpen's statements about his research and in Qing's stories in particular. It uses the literary technique of close reading in order to open the text up to different possibilities of reading and interpretation.


Grain boundaries (GBs) of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers (MLs) play an important role in many charge transport phenomena observed in 2D materials. Herein, nanoscale resolution current mapping by conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) is used for direct probing of the resistance associated with GBs in ML MoS2 grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) onto a SiO2/Si substrate. Local current–voltage (I–V) characteristics acquired within individual adjacent MoS2 domains allow extracting the metal/MoS2 Schottky barrier height (ΦB ≈ 0.3 eV), as well as the intradomains and GB resistance contributions. The high value of GB resistance (≈6 times the value measured on an individual domain) can be responsible, in part, for the low field‐effect mobility (μ ≈ 0.12 cm2 V−1s−1) measured on back‐gated ML CVD MoS2 field‐effect transistors.


Finding issues in software usually requires a serie of comprehension tasks. After every task, an engineer explores the results and decides whether further tasks are required. Software comprehension therefore is a combination of tasks and a supported exploration of the results typically in an adequate visualization. In this paper, we describe how we simplify the combination of existing automated procedures to sequentially solve common software comprehension tasks. Beyond that we improve the understanding of the outcomes with interactive and explorative visualization concepts in a time efficient workflow. We validate the presented concept with basic comprehension tasks in an extended CocoViz tool implementation.


Objectives: The World Health Organization predicts the rise of the global burden of depression to become the leading cause of disability by 2030. The study aimed to 1) address a gap in the literature in terms of baseline data for assessing the burden and impact of depression in the South African workplace, and 2) quantify the links between depression, cognitive dysfunction, absenteeism and presenteeism by means of the Impact of Depression in the Workplace in Europe Audit (IDEA) online survey.
Methods: 1061 employed adults in South Africa were recruited for the IDEA online survey. Self-reported answers were recorded for various demographic variables, diagnosis of depression, number of days taken off for depression (absenteeism), and work performance ratings and behaviours while working with depression (presenteeism). The responses pertaining to absenteeism and presenteeism were analysed according to the presence or absence of cognitive dysfunction.
Results: 278 or 26.2% of respondents reported an experience of diagnosed depression. Depression was significantly associated with being older, female, divorced and working in a small company compared to a large company. Cognitive dysfunction while depressed had a highly significant association with presenteeism, as shown by a substantial drop in subjective ratings of job performance (p < 0.001) and significantly poorer working behaviours. Respondents without cognitive dysfunction were absent from work for fewer days than those with cognitive dysfunction (13.2 versus 21.5 days) but this did not reach significance.
Conclusion: Presenteeism is a more pressing concern than absenteeism in the South African workplace. There is a vital need to improve employees' access to quality treatment preferably through programs based on integrated care models


Financial products and transfer schemes are often designed to help individuals improve welfare by following through on intertemporal plans. This paper implements an artefactual field experiment in Malawi to test the ability of households to manage a cash windfall. This study varies whether 474 households receive a payment in cash or through direct deposit into pre-established accounts at a local bank. Payments are made immediately, with one day delay, or with eight days delay. Defaulting the payments into savings accounts leads to higher bank account balances, an effect that persists for several weeks. However, neither savings defaults nor payment delays affect the amount or composition of spending, suggesting that households manage cash effectively without the use of formal financial products.


The Queen Maud block of Arctic Canada is central to understanding the Proterozoic tectonic history of northwestern Laurentia, but its crustal history is largely unknown. Results of an in situ U-Pb zircon, monazite, and whole-rock Sm-Nd study through the central and eastern Queen Maud block indicate: (1) widespread 2.46–2.50 Ga magmatism derived from Neoarchean source rocks, (2) an extensive NE-trending 2.44–2.39 Ga sedimentary belt characterized by 2.45–2.50 Ga detritus, and (3) regional ca. 2.39 Ga granulite metamorphism. There is no evidence of metamorphic or magmatic activity at 1.9–2.0 Ga, concurrent with orogenesis in the adjacent Taltson-Thelon belt. We propose that the eastern Queen Maud block was the site of an incipient continental rift ca. 2.5 Ga. Exhumation of 2.46–2.50 Ga granitoids produced in the early stages of rifting provided detritus to a short-lived basin that underwent granulite metamorphism ca. 2.39 Ga.


The anti-inflammatory and anti-hepatotoxic effects of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (A.bre) have been well known in folk medicine. An ethanol-extract of A.bre has been reported to inhibit carbon tetrachloric acid induced hepatic injury, suggesting that extracted components from A.bre could potentially treat inflammatory disease. To test this hypothesis, in this study, we extracted polysaccharide components from leaves of A.bre and investigated the anti-inflammatory effects in PMA stimulated THP-1 cells. THP-1 cells activated by PMA in the presence or absence of A.bre demonstrated that a water-extract of A.bre inhibited the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β and chemokine CCL-5 in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, A.bre suppressed production of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in THP-1 cells activated by PMA. Moreover, A.bre markedly down-regulated the expression of p-JNK1/3, whereas it did not inhibit production of the phosphorylated form of p38 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase in THP-1 cells treated by PMA. Particularly, A.bre inhibited the translocation of transcription factor NF-κB from the cytosol into the nucleus in PMA-stimulated THP-1 cells. Collectively, our data showed that water-extracted A.bre inhibited the protein kinase C-JNKs/NF-κB signaling pathways, resulting in the suppression of IL-1β, CCL-5, and COX-2 expression. This study suggests that water extracted A.bre may be a therapeutic agent against inflammatory disease.


Sometimes people create conflicts during a project that only serve to get in the way of making meaningful things together. Or in other words, unnecessary and petty battles make work not fun and not productive.

But why would people create such conflict?

Perhaps a project was plagued by one, all, or some of the following factors: requirements were not collected or understood clearly, the core of the offering was not defined properly, there was too much distance between the customer and the project goals, too much money had been spent already for the project to fail, or it could be as simple as people just not knowing how to get along. All of these factors can make an environment of fear and uncertainty that prevents people from working together to create wonderful products and services.

What elements of a project should we all be thinking about to help bring people together to make meaningful things together?


Multifunctionality in agriculture indicates the performance of various functions of positive externalities. However, unless these externalities are internalized in farming activity, they will not be sustainable over the long term. In the livestock farming arena, a program was started in Japan in 2000 whereby dairy farmers would offer farm experiences mainly to youngsters. Although this service is considered to be a by-product of dairy farming with positive externalities, this subject has received minimal attention. Therefore, this paper sheds light on how dairy farmers cope with this new situation by empirically examining national survey data on this activity, presenting study cases, and conceptualizing problems and ways to find solutions. The main findings were as follows: 1) Dairy farms providing farming experiences play a positive role in teaching about farm life, how food is produced and the stress relief provided by the rural environment, especially for compulsory school-age children at elementary and junior high schools in local communities. To cope with the rising number of visitors, minimal necessary facilities such as toilets should be prepared. 2) Farming experiences have an educational effect not only on visitors, but also on the farmers themselves. This is because farmers can discover new possibilities for agriculture, which eventually leads to a deepening realization of new environmental and educational services that benefit society. 3) However, it is often difficult for farmers to harmonize the provision of the service of a farming experience to visitors with performance of their own farming activity. Farmers often face the dilemma of whether to offer farming experience services on a voluntary basis free of charge or to sell such services as a new farm product, such as traditional milk products, in exchange for money. Therefore, it is necessary to raise the social recognition of the educational function generated by those farmers who provide farming experience services.


Background & Objective: Unknown mechanisms are involved in neuropathic pain. Among the non-pharmacological treatments, it seems that physical activity improves neuropathic pain. However, the possible reasons for the effectiveness of regular physical activity on neuropathic pain are unknown. Therefore, the present study was performed to determine the effects of two-week swimming training on the expression of GAD65 enzyme and P2X3 receptor in Chronic Constriction Injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve. Materials & Methods: 40Wistar adult rats were divided into five groups randomly: 1) CCI neuropathic pain with swimming training (CCIST2); 2) CCI neuropathic pain without swimming training (CCI); 3) No CCI neuropathic pain with swimming training (ST2); No CCI neuropathic pain without swimming training (control group); 5) CCI sham surgery (Sham CCI). CCI and CCIST2 groups underwent peripheral nerve injury by four loose ligatures around sciatic nerve. Swimming program included two weeks with five sessions per week, and 30-60 min per session. The protein expressions of GAD65 enzyme and P2X 3 receptor were evaluated by western blotting technique. Results: CCI surgery decreased the expression of GAD65, but two weeks swimming training increased expression of GAD65 comparing to CCI and Sham CCI groups (P≤0.001), but P2X 3 receptor expression were not significantly different among groups in lumbar segment of rats (P>0.05). Conclusion: Totally, our findings showed that two-week swimming training improves neuropathic pain possibly through maintenance of inhibitory neurons and subsequently increased GAD65, which converts glutamate excitatory neurotransmitter to GABA inhibitory neurotransmitter.


Abstract: Automatic Street Light Control System is a simple yet powerful concept, which uses transistor as a switch. By using this system manual works are 100% removed. It automatically switches ON lights when the sunlight goes below the visible region of our eyes. This is done by a sensor called Light Dependant Resistor (LDR) which senses the light actually like our eyes. It automatically switches OFF lights whenever the sunlight comes, visible to our eyes. By using this system energy consumption is also reduced because nowadays the manually operated street lights are not switched off even the sunlight comes and also switched on earlier before sunset. In this project, no need of manual operation like ON time and OFF time setting. This project clearly demonstrates the working of transistor in saturation region and cut-off region. The working of relay is also known.


The master pacemaker in the mammalian brain resists the resetting effect of temperature to provide a universal entraining signal. Daily cycles in environmental temperature are an important cue for many organisms to synchronize their endogenous circadian clock. However, mammals do not respond to this cue. Studying mouse tissue, Buhr et al. (see the Perspective by Edery) find that this resistance to temperature is a feature specific to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a region of the mammalian brain that functions as the body's master clock. In contrast, the clocks in peripheral tissues (for example, lung and liver) are fully capable of resetting in response to temperature changes and do so by a mechanism involving the heat shock pathway. The SCN drives daily rhythms in body temperature, and SCN-driven changes in temperature may synchronize the body's peripheral clocks. Without its intrinsic resistance to temperature, the SCN could be subject to disruptive feedback effects. E. D. Buhr, S.-H. Yoo, J. S. Takahashi, Temperature as a universal resetting cue for mammalian circadian oscillators. Science 330, 379–385 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] I. Edery, Temperatures to communicate by. Science 330, 329–330 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Within the last fifty years, the Brazilian share of South American power has increased from one-third to one-half of the overall material capabilities in the region. Such a significant change in the regional power structure cannot have gone unnoticed by Brazil's neighbors. The article addresses the main question related to South American unipolarity (1985–2014): Why have most countries in the region not implemented any consistent balancing or bandwagoning strategies vis-à-vis Brazil? Drawing on neoclassical realism, the article proposes that certain domestic variables – government instability, limited party-system institutionalization, and powerful presidents – have diverted the attention of political elites and foreign policy executives from the challenges generated by a rising Brazil. Crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis is used to test this hypothesis and other, alternative explanations for the regional imbalance.


This research presents preliminary results generated from the semantic retrieval research component of the Illinois Digital Library Initiative (DLI) project. Using a variation of the automatic thesaurus generation techniques, to which we refer to as the concept space approach, we aimed to create graphs of domain-specific concepts (terms) and their weighted co-occurrence relationships for all major engineering domains. Merging these concept spaces and providing traversal paths across different concept spaces could potentially help alleviate the vocabulary (difference) problem evident in large-scale information retrieval. In order to address the scalability issue related to large-scale information retrieval and analysis for the current Illinois DLI project, we conducted experiments using the concept space approach on parallel supercomputers. Our test collection included computer science and electrical engineering abstracts extracted from the INSPEC database. The concept space approach called for extensive textual and statistical analysis (a form of knowledge discovery) based on automatic indexing and co-occurrence analysis algorithms, both previously tested in the biology domain. Initial testing results using a 512-node CM-5 and a 16-processor SGI Power Challenge were promising.


The 'Online Pestkoppenstoppen' program is an theory- and evidence-based, online tailored advice for cyberbullying victims (12-15 years). This program is developed according to the Intervention Mapping protocol. The purpose of this chapter is to give an integrative insight into the development of the 'Online Pestkoppenstoppen' (Stop Bullies Online/Stop Online Bullies) program, the program goals, relevant determinants and the intervention content. Program goals are statements of what the intervention should accomplish in cyberbullying victims. By specifying program goals, healthy and effective behaviors are described. Performance objectives are sub-behaviors, as specific as possible, of the health promoting behavior or environmental conditions. They are phrased in words of an end state, so what exactly the person has to do to perform the health-related behavior. Cyberbully victims need to do the performance objectives in order to reach the program goals. By crossing performance objectives with determinants (factors that are known to have an influence on the health behavior) change objectives are created. Change objectives are specificgoals that state what exactly should change on an individual and environmental level. The goal is to adapt methods and strategies to the change objectives. The strategies in its turn are then used in order to develop the program. The program consists of three advices delivered over three months. The first advice aims to teach participants how behavior is influenced by the thoughts they have. They will learn how to recognize and dispute irrational thoughts and how to form rational thoughts. In the second advice, participants will learn about the use of effective coping strategies in order to stop (online) bullying, how bullying emerges and how their behavior influences bullying. Tailored to their scores on problem behaviors (such as depression, social withdrawal and social problems) they receive additional extra lessons aimed at improving social skills (e.g. starting a conversation, asking questions, empathy, planning social activities). Finally, in the third advice, participants will learn how to use the Internet and mobile phones in a safe manner. Tailored to their performance, participants will also receive additional lessons in changing irrational thoughts and effective coping strategies. All learned skills are internalized via coping planning and implementation intentions. Each advice is tailored to personal characteristics such as self-efficacy, personality, coping strategies used and (type of) irrational thoughts.


In 1995, my colleague John Beckerman and I had an experience shared by very few legal academics. We wrote an article recommending dramatic changes in the manner securities class actions are organized and saw Congress enact into law a bill that included essentially all the recommendations we had made. The article was Let the Money Do the Monitoring: How Institutional Investors Can Reduce Agency Costs in Securities Class Actions, 104 Yale L.J. 2053 (1995); the law was the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PSLRA"); the relevant provisions, now generally known as "the lead plaintiff provisions," prescribe procedures for the selection of lead plaintiffs and lead counsel in securities class actions. In this Essay, I recount some aspects of the unique history of the lead plaintiff provisions and reflect on what has happened in the decade or so that they have been in effect. The Essay has six parts. Part I describes the questions that led Professor Beckerman and me to undertake research concerning the dynamics of securities class actions and summarizes our findings and recommendations. Part II sets forth our perspective on how our recommendations came to be enacted into law. Part III describes post-enactment developments that have been consistent with our expectations - most notably, the emergence of institutional investors as major players in securities class action litigation and the related increase in investors' recoveries. Part IV describes post-enactment developments that we did not anticipate, including one precipitated by the emergence of the Internet and another that involves the difficulty, which we should have anticipated, that courts have had in deciding which class member has the largest loss and therefore is the presumptive lead plaintiff. In Part V, we conclude that even had Congress followed a more deliberative process before enacting our recommendations into law, it probably would not have come up with a substantially better approach for organizing the process by which lead plaintiffs and lead counsel are appointed in securities class actions. In Part VI, we recommend that Congress clarify the language of the statute in one minor respect and that courts make changes in how they deal with two administrative issues relating to securities class action litigation.


With the growing attention for offshore wind energy seen today there is a need for a sophisticated, quantitative investigation of the opportunities for offshore wind energy. The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has therefore developed a computer program named OWECOP. The program couples a Geographic Information System (GIS database) with an Excel spreadsheet program. The GIS database contains relevant properties of the water area like ambient wind speed, dimensioning wave height, water depth, and distance to shore. The Excel spreadsheet program includes different engineering models to calculate the cost of the turbine, for the support structure, electrical infrastructure, transport, installation and operation and maintenance. The gross energy yield and overall efficiency of the farm are also calculated with Excel. After user defined choices have been made for the type of turbine, the farm lay out and the economic parameters, the cost and potential of wind energy in the water area can be calculated in Excel, based on the site-specific information in the GIS database. The transfer of information from the GIS database to the Excel calculation models goes automatically. Investigations have been done for the Netherlands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the North Sea. It takes several hours to complete one run. The OWECOP cost models are currently further improved in order to deal with some recognised deficiencies and will be finished by the end of 2001. Analysis for other European waters is envisaged.


Summary
Intradermal tests with an acid soluble protein fraction of Paragonimus westermani adults were performed on over 3,000 people. All those with proved infections gave positive dermal reactions. In most cases, it was possible to differentiate between paragonimiasis and clonorchiasis since the area of the wheal resulting from the homologous antigen was usually considerably larger than that resulting from the heterologous antigen. Among patients with proved double infections, the dermal reaction to the Paragonimus antigen was greater.
Information on the epidemiology of paragonimiasis came chiefly from surveys conducted in two provinces. The prevalence rates for different localities were related to the presence and availability of infected crabs and crayfish. In all age groups and all localities more males than females were found to be infected. An increase in prevalence of infection up to adulthood and a decrease afterwards were observed. In approximately 40 per cent of the positive dermal reactors, eggs could be recovered by a single sputum examination. A possible correlation between the intensity of infection and the mean area of the wheals was observed.
The highest percentage of asymptomatic individuals was in the younger age groups. The duration of complaints among symptomatic patients varied from 15 days to 20 years, the mean duration of symptoms increasing with age. The character and severity of symptoms depended largely upon the type of infection, i.e., pulmonary, generalized, pleural, renal, testicular, abdominal, or dermal. Radiography and tomography often revealed the location and character of lesions produced by worms in the brain and lungs, and may prove especially useful in differential diagnosis.
Leukocytosis and eosinophilia were present only in the early stages of infection. Serum electrophoresis indicated a significant increase in the proportion of gamma globulin. Numerous examinations were often required for the detection of eggs. In 8 per cent of the patients with extrapulmonary paragonimiasis, eggs were found by examination of specimens other than sputum.
Reactions to intradermal tests with Paragonimus antigen were more frequent among individuals receiving treatment for active tuberculosis than among those of the general population. Staining of sputa for the detection of acid-fast bacilli distorted P. westermani eggs, frequently beyond recognition.
The specific rate for all kinds of extrapulmonary lesions and the frequency of dermal reactors both showed a peak in the age group 25 to 35 years. This was taken as an indication that in this age group both the highest prevalence and intensity of infection are to be found.
Chloroquine was given by various routes to 116 patients with pulmonary and extrapulmonary paragonimiasis, and resulted in negative sputum and stool examinations for at least 6 months in only 12.5 per cent of the cases. The percentage of apparent cures among patients with a history of disease for less than 2 years was almost 3 times as great as that of those with symptoms of 5 years' duration or longer. Decreased dermal sensitivity to P. westermani antigen was observed in patients who had responded to treatment. Experience has shown that surgery often may be beneficial, and in some cases is the only available means of therapy.


This is the first study of processes of selfing and othering by speakers of a non-standard variety of Dutch. The group studied consists of young men in the Dutch city of Rotterdam who self-identify as Surinamese while having only very limited proficiency in what is considered their heritage language, Sranan. Applying a synthesis of principles and concepts from various semiotic approaches to the study of identification processes (Baumann 2004, Bucholtz & Hall 2005, Gal & Irvine 1995), it is shown that the youngsters in this study interweave categories of language, race, and place in assembling constantly changing multi-leveled identities that help to construct self and other. We will analyze the indexical workings of these interwoven categories and show how the constantly re-defined segmenting of these categories enables speakers to authenticate or denaturalize groups and individuals in changing discursive contexts.


Background
This study aims to investigate the effects of blunt lung trauma performed in experimental rat model on lung tissue and blood as well as proinflammatory cytokines, oxidant-antioxidant enzymes and histopathological parameters after Ngamma-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester and N-iminoethyl-L-ornithine administration.

Methods
The study included 50 adult male Wistar albino rats (weighing 350 to 400 g). Rats were randomly allocated into four groups. Except in the control, moderate-level pulmonary contusion was created in all other groups. Intraperitoneal saline solution was performed in groups 1 and 2, 25 mg.kg-1 Ngamma-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester in group 3, and 20 mg.kg-1 N-iminoethyl-L-ornithine in group 4. Blood and lung tissues were studied biochemically and histopathologically.

Results
Best outcomes were recorded statistically significantly in groups with administration of Ngamma-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester and N-iminoethyl-L-ornithine when malondialdehyde response, mucous and histopathological values were examined. Significant improvement was detected in superoxide dismutase values in the group with administration of competitive nitric oxide synthase inhibitor Ngamma-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester. Nitric oxide values were substantially decreased in N-iminoethyl-L-ornithine group, while no significance was detected.

Conclusion
Free oxygen radicals and lipid peroxidation played a role in pulmonary contusion after blunt lung trauma. According to biochemical and histopathological outcomes, effects of inflammation were decreased and protective effects were formed with administration of both Ngammanitro- L-arginine methyl ester and N-iminoethyl-L-ornithine.


Official statistical agencies produce a number of data series that are more timely and of higher frequency than the published estimates of GDP growth. There are also numerous private-sector measures and surveys that provide a running commentary on economic developments. In this article we assess the extent to which the major economic indicators in the UK, US and euro area can be used to reduce uncertainty about the prevailing pace of economic growth. We find that, whatever timely indicators are used, uncertainty about GDP growth in the current quarter and in the recent past remains high, but that the most consistent stand-alone indicator of contemporaneous activity is industrial production. However, the low share of industry in the economic output of 'industrialised' economies means that sole reliance on IP as an indicator in predominantly services-based economies is unsatisfactory. We are, therefore, drawn towards the conclusion that more timely indicators of services activity – both in the form of official data and business surveys – would be helpful.


Background Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective HIV prevention strategy for men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM). The high cost of PrEP has until recently been a primary barrier to its use. In 2017, generic PrEP became available, reducing the costs by 90%. Aim Our objective was to assess cost-effectiveness and costs of introducing PrEP in Germany. Methods We calibrated a deterministic mathematical model to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic among MSM in Germany. PrEP was targeted to 30% of high-risk MSM. It was assumed that PrEP reduces the risk of HIV infection by 85%. Costs were calculated from a healthcare payer perspective using a 40-year time horizon starting in 2018. Results PrEP can avert 21,000 infections (interquartile range (IQR): 16,000–27,000) in the short run (after 2 years scale-up and 10 years full implementation). HIV care is predicted to cost EUR 36.2 billion (IQR: 32.4–40.4 billion) over the coming 40 years. PrEP can increase costs by at most EUR 150 million within the first decade after introduction. Ten years after introduction, PrEP can become cost-saving, accumulating to savings of HIV-related costs of EUR 5.1 billion (IQR: 3.5–6.9 billion) after 40 years. In a sensitivity analysis, PrEP remained cost-saving even at a 70% price reduction of antiretroviral drug treatment and a lower effectiveness of PrEP. Conclusion Introduction of PrEP in Germany is predicted to result in substantial health benefits because of reductions in HIV infections. Short-term financial investments in providing PrEP will result in substantial cost-savings in the long term.


Stroke welcomes Letters to the Editor and will publish them, if suitable, as space permits. They should not exceed 1,000 words (excluding references) and may be subject to editing or abridgment. Please submit Letters to the Editor in duplicate, typed double-spaced. Include an appropriate title and a fax number for the corresponding author. The American Heart Association requires that all authors sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement before publication. Fora copy of this agreement, contact the Stroke Editorial Office.


E. S. Rowland proved that $a_k= a_{k-1}+ \gcd(k,a_{k-1})$, $a_1= 7$ implies that $a_{k}-a_{k-1}$ is always 1 or prime. Conjecturally this property also holds for any $a_1>3$ from a certain $k$ onwards. We state some properties of this sequence for arbitrary values of $a_1$. Namely, we prove that some specific sequences contain infinitely many primes and we characterize the possible finite subsequences of primes.


The blood flow in the uvea in cats and monkeys during acute increases of arterial blood pressure is well controlled by a sympathetic mechanism protecting the eye from overperfusion. Ocular macrocirculation (ophthalmic artery) and ocular microcirculation (iris) were examined in 22 healthy subjects during acute increases of arterial blood pressure induced by physical exercise (125 W). With a data acquisition and storage software in real time mode several parameters of ocular perfusion and systemic functions were measured simultaneously. Blood flow parameters were measured in the ophthalmic artery by pulsed Doppler sonography and in the iris by laser Doppler flowmetry. Systolic, diastolic, and mean velocities of the ophthalmic artery peak velocity pulse curve, the ophthalmic artery mean velocity pulse curve, and the iris velocity pulse curve were estimated off line. The ophthalmic artery mean velocity pulse curve resembles the integrated velocity of all erythrocytes in the vessel including the slowly running cells near the vessel wall. The iris velocity pulse curve was calculated by a special statistic procedure (ALDF). After exercise there was a significant increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate. The pulse curve of the ophthalmic artery showed significantly increased systolic and decreased diastolic velocities. The vascular resistance of the branches of the ophthalmic artery increased significantly. The iridal vasculature showed no significant change in blood cell velocity but an increased vascular resistance. It was observed that the elevated perfusion pressure was associated with an increased vascular resistance and a constant mean blood velocity in the ophthalmic artery and iridal vessels. The parallel elevation of vascular resistance and blood pressure during exercise may be the reason for a constant blood flow in the ophthalmic artery and the iris. This may be accounted for by a sympathetic mechanism for protecting the eye from overperfusion.


Long term economic development depends on household investments in children's human capital. Social networks can affect demand for human capital investments by relaxing household time or budget constraints or by defining and reinforcing human capital preferences. Rebel activity in Northern Uganda, which forced households into Internally Displaced Persons camps, disrupted pre-existing social networks in ways that were exogenous to household human capital investment preferences. This paper uses the exogenous variation in network disruption to identify the impact of networks on child health outcomes. Using household survey data from the Uganda School-Based Feeding Evaluation, household data collected by the author, and administrative data from the World Food Programme and local governments, I show that an increase in the average household's network size by one household improves height-for-age zscores by .27 standard deviations for children born in the camp. JEL Codes: D13, I12, Z13


This research effort aims to create a new car-following model that accounts for the effects of emotion on driver behavior. This research effort is divided into eight research milestones: (1) the development of a segmentation and clustering algorithm to perform new investigations into driver behavior; (2) the finding that driver behavior is different between drivers, between car-following periods, and within a car-following period; (3) the finding that there are patterns in the distribution of driving behaviors; (4) the finding that driving states can result in different driving actions and that the same driving action can be the result of multiple driving states; (5) the finding that the performance of car-following models can be improved by calibration to state-action clusters; (6) the development of a psychophysiological driving simulator study; (7) the finding that the distribution of driving behavior is affected by emotional states; and (8) the development of a carfollowing model that incorporates the influence of emotions.


Polycrystalline materials with crystallite diameters below hundred nanometer exhibit extraordinary strength which goes along with a decrease in ductility. In order to tailor tough materials, which combine strength and ductility, the underlying deformation mechanisms have to be understood. Molecular dynamics suggested partial dislocation mediated plasticity in nanocrystalline face-centred cubic (FCC) metals in terms of 1) dislocation nucleation at the grain boundaries, 2) dislocation propagation through the nano-grain, and 3) eventual dislocation absorption in the neighbouring grain boundary network. The partial dislocation nucleation sites were seen to exhibit stress concentrations such as in triple junctions. Moreover, it has been shown that the partial dislocation nucleation is energetically related to the so-called general stacking fault energies (GSFEs). Transmission electron microscopy, in-situ X-ray diffraction, and deformation experiments can be interpreted in terms of the aforementioned dislocation processes. On basis of this knowledge this thesis utilizes atomistic simulation methods to extend the understanding of the fundamental deformation mechanisms which mediate the plasticity in bulk nanocrystalline FCC metals. In the first part of this thesis, ab-initio simulations are exploited to investigate the effect of the superimposed strains in Ni, Al, and Cu on the GSFEs, which describe the energy penalty for rigidly shearing of the crystal. The energy curves are discussed in terms of a) the second and third order elastic constants b) the energy difference between hexagonal closed packed and face centred cubic structures, c) the GSFE / unstable-twinning-fault-energy interdependence and c) the implication on dislocation nucleation. The second part explores the strain rate, temperature, applied stress, and grain size dependence of nanocrystalline Al utilizing classical molecular dynamics simulations. The deformation behaviour is examined on the basis of the underlying deformation mechanism. The higher the strain rate the more the onset of dislocation mediated plasticity is delayed. This can manifest itself into a stress overshoot that diminishes as the strain rate is lowered. The associated critical resolved shear stresses are seen to cause the strain rate sensitivity in the flow stress. In conjunction with the rate dependence of the critical resolved shear stresses, the temperature dependence of the flow stresses supports the picture of thermally activated dislocation processes which control the deformation of nanocrystalline Al in molecular dynamics. Moreover, the strain rate simulations evidence that a subset of dislocation processes operate at the athermal limit which indicates, once more, the difficulty to extrapolate from the high strain rate regime of molecular dynamics towards common experimental conditions. Furthermore, using an iterative strain/relaxation method, athermal critical stresses are calculated for an isolated nano-grain with a nucleated dislocation therein. Dislocation cross-slip is seen to enable a dislocation to by-pass stress concentration, which can hinder the dislocation propagation through the grain, and allows the dislocation to be deposited in preferred grain regions as e.g. triple junctions. This rationalized the observed lack of strain hardening in the molecular dynamics study. Additionally dislocation cross-slip is more pronounced at lower strain rates which indicate the growing importance of the grain boundary structure for dislocation motion as the stresses are lowered. Slip transfer through a high angle grain boundary is observed and is understood in terms of the grain boundary structure, which exhibits regions of preferred dislocation transmission sites. Such structural features are discussed by means of the implication on mesoscopic models of dislocation transmission. Moreover, the grain size study shows discrete stress-drops, which are associated with dislocation mediated processes, in the so-called "inverse" Hall-Petch regime. The deformation behaviour of nanocrystalline Al in molecular dynamics is rationalized in terms of thermally activated processes, and therein the implications of the grain size dependencies are qualitatively discussed.


A major problem early in prairie reconstruction is weed competition. Research has shown that mowing in the first year can increase establishment and survival of prairie plants. The use of nurse crops (companion crops) has been suggested as an alternative to mowing for weed suppression. The goal of this study was to examine various seeding rates of B. curtipendula, as a nurse crop in mowed and unmowed plots to determine if it suppressed weeds and aided in the establishment of natives. We hypothesized that increasing the seeding rate of B curtipendula will reduce weed growth and promote an increase in native seedling numbers. In addition we hypothesized that number of the native seedlings in mowed plots with no B. curtipendula seed will be similar to unmowed plots seeded with B. curtipendula. Seeds of 25 different species of grasses and forbs were broadcast on June 18th at Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge at a seeding rate of22 seeds/m. B. curtipendula was also broadcast seeded at rates of 0, 22, 43, 173, and 345 seeds/m. The site was mowed mid-August of the first growing season and approximately every three weeks of the second growing season. Sampling was done in early September 2005 and in June and mid August 2006. Native seedling counts, biomass clippings, basal cover, and photosynthetic light were measured. Varying seeding rates of Bouteloua curtipendula had no significant effect on native species composition or weed biomass. Mowing had negative effects on native species composition, especially native grasses. THE EFFECTS OF VARYING SEEDING RATES OF BOUTELOUA CURTIPENDULA AND MOWING ON NATIVE PLANT ESTABLISHMENT IN A NEW PRAIRIE RECONSTRUCTION


Visual object detection is an important issue of outdoor autonomous robots. The detection results can be used for recognizing an object, tracking a specified object and construction a map of environments, etc. In the substation surveillance application, the detection results can be used to locate the target object and segment out from the whole image for next analysis. Visual attention, which has drawn much attention of researchers in the machine vision field, is an effective tool for object detection. It tends to reduce the search area by simulating the mechanism of human vision which can focus on the significant target quickly and others are ignored. However, to compute the visual attention saliency map is a resource consumption work, the onboard hardware capacity limits the whole system performance. Additionally, hundreds of surveillance robots are working in different substation, a continually updated target library needs to be shared with each robot, it is impossible for the onboard resources to maintain all the historical data and learning from it. In this paper, a cloud based visual attention objects detection method was proposed. Cloud computing technology is adopted to extend the computing and storage ability of the local robots. All the data can save in the cloud and the computing resources can be on demand dynamically allocated. Furthermore, a visual attention based object detection algorithm is also proposed, to obtain the most salient region (MSR) in the whole image, then the SURF matching is implemented to detect the object, if the target object is inside MSR, it will be segmented out not only for analysis, but also used for update the target library. Finally, the implementation results are provided.


For accurate flood forecasts, or any distributed hydrological modelling exercise, distributed rainlall data are required as the basic input. Smoothing of the rainfall data rec,1ces peak flows due to the averaging of the rainfall-runoff process. Errors in rainfall sampling will reduce confidence in the optimized parameters. Locallt intense rainfall might be missed entirely by rain gages or an intense rainfall in the immediate vicinity of a rain gage might lead to an over estimation of rain' all on a watershed. These problems all lead to the conclusion that rainfall rates 1 1easured with weather radar could greatly improve hydrological modelling ant as a result, flood forecasts. Digital data from weather radar has been available for approximately 20 years but to date has not been widely applied to hydrologic applications. However, recent developments have made radar rainfall data readily available for hydrological applications, especially flood forecasting, in Southern Ontario. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a prototype on-line weather radar data acquisition system developed by the Atmospheric Environment Service (AES), Canada, for the flood forecasting purposes.


The traditional system of company‐centric value creation (that has served us so well over the past 100 years) is becoming obsolete. Leaders now need a new frame of reference for value creation. In the emergent economy, competition will center on personalized co‐creation experiences, resulting in value that is truly unique to each individual. The authors see a new frontier in value creation emerging, replete with fresh opportunities. In this new frontier the role of the consumer has changed from isolated to connected, from unaware to informed, from passive to active. As a result, companies can no longer act autonomously, designing products, developing production processes, crafting marketing messages, and controlling sales channels with little or no interference from consumers. Armed with new tools and dissatisfied with available choices, consumers want to interact with firms and thereby co‐create value. The use of interaction as a basis for co‐creation is at the crux of our emerging reality. The co‐creation experience of the consumer becomes the very basis of value. The authors offer a DART model for managing co‐creation of value processes.


The 'technological hypothesis' proposes that gestural language evolved in early hominins to enable the cultural transmission of stone tool-making skills, with speech appearing later in response to the complex lithic industries of more recent hominins. However, no flintknapping study has assessed the efficiency of speech alone (unassisted by gesture) as a tool-making transmission aid. Here we show that subjects instructed by speech alone underperform in stone tool-making experiments in comparison to subjects instructed through either gesture alone or 'full language' (gesture plus speech), and also report lower satisfaction with their received instruction. The results provide evidence that gesture was likely to be selected over speech as a teaching aid in the earliest hominin tool-makers; that speech could not have replaced gesturing as a tool-making teaching aid in later hominins, possibly explaining the functional retention of gesturing in the full language of modern humans; and that speech may have evolved for reasons unrelated to tool-making. We conclude that speech is unlikely to have evolved as tool-making teaching aid superior to gesture, as claimed by the technological hypothesis, and therefore alternative views should be considered. For example, gestural language may have evolved to enable tool-making in earlier hominins, while speech may have later emerged as a response to increased trade and more complex inter- and intra-group interactions in Middle Pleistocene ancestors of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens; or gesture and speech may have evolved in parallel rather than in sequence.


Large, institutional investors have come to wield great power over the shareholder votes in publicly held companies. These investors, with their enormous ownership shares, can dramatically influence issues put to a shareholder vote. And when deciding how to cast their ballots, institutional investors look to proxy advisory firms. These are entities that advise investors on which actions to take in shareholder votes. Because institutional investors prefer to focus on building portfolios, rather than on researching shareholder votes, they often outsource these duties to proxy advisory firms. As a result, financial industry and government leaders have voiced concern that proxy advisory firms exert too much power over corporate governance to operate unregulated. The Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the U.S. Congress have investigated and debated the merits of proxy advisory regulation. The U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing on the matter in June of 2013, and the SEC followed this hearing with a roundtable discussion in December of 2013. On June 30, 2014, the Investment Management and Corporate Finance Divisions of the SEC issued a bulletin outlining the responsibilities of proxy advisors and institutional investors when casting proxy votes. As of yet, no binding regulation has been promulgated, despite repeated calls for it. Rather than commenting on that debate, this Article urges policymakers to consider the potential for an Expectations Gap if proxy advisory regulation is adopted. An Expectations Gap arises when the parties interested in regulation, in this case particularly the mass media, academics, politicians and the general public, inaccurately estimate the efficacy of a regulatory regime. They typically overestimate a regulation's effectiveness, which in the proxy advisory context could actually lead to a responsibility deficit. Both proxy advisory firms and institutional investors could shift blame away from themselves in the event of a corporate governance failure stemming from poorly-cast shareholder votes or a lack of oversight. This deficit would severely hamper the effect of any future regulation, and steps must be taken to reduce the possibility of that occurrence. This Article is the first to examine this potentially serious negative consequence of proxy advisory regulation. It is also the first comprehensive scholarly writing to propose solutions for minimizing an Expectations Gap arising from new regulation. This Article applies the Expectations Gap theory to the current proxy advisor debate taking place, and uses the theory to develop mechanisms for making potential regulation more effective. Additionally, these suggestions are applicable to any new regulation that is susceptible to an Expectations Gap. Taken together or individually, these suggestions could improve information symmetry in the financial market and help prevent serious corporate governance failures.


We review previous work on the applicability and performance of integrated layer processing (ILP). ILP has been shown to clearly improve computer communication performance when integrating simple data manipulation functions, but the situation has been less clear for more complex functions and complete systems. We discuss complications when applying ILP to protocol stacks, the requirements of ILP on the communication subsystem, caching aspects, the importance of the processor registers, and a model for predicting the performance of data manipulation functions. We conclude that the main drawback of ILP is its limited applicability to complex data manipulation functions. The performance to expect from an ILP implementation also depends heavily on the protocol architecture and the host system architecture.


The importance of understanding the macro-economic impact of natural disasters cannot be overstated. Hurricane Iniki, that hit the Hawaiian island of Kauai on September 11th, 1992, offers an ideal case study to better understand the long-term economic impacts of a major disaster. Iniki is uniquely suited to provide insights into the long-term economic impacts of disaster because (1) there is now seventeen years of detailed post-disaster economic data and (2) a nearby island, Maui, provides an ideal control group. Hurricane Iniki was the strongest hurricane to hit the Hawaiian Islands in recorded history, and wrought an estimated 7.4 billion (2008 US$) in initial damage. Here we show that Kauai's economy only returned to pre-Iniki levels 7-8 years after the storm; though 17 years later, it has yet to recover in terms of its population and labor force. As we document, these long-term adverse impacts of disasters are 'hidden.' They are not usually treated as 'costs' of disasters, and are ignored when cost-benefit analysis of mitigation programs is used, or when countries, states, and islands attempt to prepare, financially and otherwise, to the possibility of future events.


RDF(S) and OWL 2 currently support only static ontologies. In practice, however, the truth of statements often changes with time, and Semantic Web applications often need to represent such changes and reason about them. In this paper we present a logic-based approach for representing validity time in RDF and OWL. Unlike the existing proposals, our approach is applicable to entailment relations that are not deterministic, such as the Direct Semantics or the RDF-Based Semantics of OWL 2.We also extend SPARQL to temporal RDF graphs and present a query evaluation algorithm. Finally, we present an optimization of our algorithm that is applicable to entailment relations characterized by a set of deterministic rules, such RDF(S) and OWL 2 RL/RDF entailment.


Ever since Tolkien's famous lecture in 1936, it has been generally accepted that the poem Beowulf is a fantasy, and of no use as a witness to real history. This book challenges that view, and argues that the poem provides a plausible, detailed, and consistent vision of pre-Viking history which is most unlikely to have been the poet's invention, and which has moreover received strong corroboration from archaeology in recent years. Using the poem as a starting point, historical, archaeological, and legendary sources are combined to form a picture of events in the North in the fifth and sixth centuries: at once a Dark and a Heroic Age, and the time of the formation of nations. Among other things, this helps answer two long-unasked questions: why did the Vikings come as such a shock? And what caused the previous 250 years of security from raiders from the sea?


We present one part of the results of an international survey exploring current and future nursing informatics (NI) research trends. The study was conducted by the International Medical Informatics Association Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group (IMIA-NISIG) Student Working Group. Based on findings from this cross-sectional study, we identified future NI research priorities. We used snowball sampling technique to reach respondents from academia and practice. Data were collected between August and September 2015. Altogether, 373 responses from 44 countries were analyzed. The identified top ten NI trends were big data science, standardized terminologies (clinical evaluation/implementation), education and competencies, clinical decision support, mobile health, usability, patient safety, data exchange and interoperability, patient engagement, and clinical quality measures. Acknowledging these research priorities can enhance successful future development of NI to better support clinicians and promote health internationally.


Based on the data from a territory-wide survey of Hong Kong residents conducted in 2006, this article explores the current attitudes of Hong Kong people toward social welfare, the differences between the social classes, and whether or not there are significant differences between different social classes with regard to welfarism. It finds that Hong Kong people apparently tend to have high expectations but a low level of commitment in their welfare attitudes, lacking the kind of unity on the issue of welfarism seen in Sweden, the model welfare state in the West. In addition, there are no significant differences among the classes in Hong Kong with regard to attitudes toward welfare. This is certainly not congruent with the situation in many Western welfare states, where the underprivileged classes are significantly more supportive of the welfare state than the privileged classes both in terms of expectation and commitment.


Tumor suppressor genes, whose products are required for the control of cell proliferation, have been identified by their mutant phenotype of tissue overgrowth. Here we describe recent work on the molecular identification of tumor suppressor genes that function in two different cell types of the Drosophila larva: the blood cells, and the undifferentiated epithelial cells of developing imaginal discs. Mutations in the aberrant immune respome8 (air8) gene lead to overproduction and precocious differentiation of blood cells. This gene encodes the Drosophila homolog of human ribosomal protein S6. The mutant phenotype is consistent with a role for S6 in the control of cell proliferation, and is compatible with findings from mammalian cells where alterations in S6 expression and phosphorylation are associated with changes in cell proliferation. Mutations in the discs large (dig) gene cause neoplastic overgrowth of imaginal discs in the larva. The mutant dises show loss of septate junctions and of apical-basal cell polarity, and they also lose the ability to differentiate cuticular structures. The dig protein product (DlgA) is localized at septate junctions between epithelial cells, and cDNA sequencing indicates that the gene product includes a domain with homology to guanylate kinase (GUK). Two mammalian homologs or this gene have been identified, and one of them (PSD-95/SAP90) encodes a component of synaptic densities in the brain; this protein therefore resembles the DlgA protein in being located in a specialized cell junction that functions in information transfer between cells. Mutations in the at gene cause hyperplastic imaginal disc overgrowth, in which the overgrowing disc tissue retains its epithelial structure and its ability to differentiate. Some of the excess disc tissue is shed as vesicles suggesting a loss of cell adhesion. In support of this hypothesis, the predicted gene product shows homology to cadherins in its extra-cellular domain. However, the fat protein is much larger than known cadherins. As in human cancer·, somatic loss of the normal alleles of tumor suppressor genes can lead to tumor formation in Drosophila; an example of this is provided by the warts (wts) locus. The wts gene was identified by the dramatic overgrowth of mitotic recombination clones that are homozygous for a wts deletion. In these clones the cuticle intrudes between epithelial cells, suggesting an alteration in cell adhesion. The study of these and other tumor suppressor genes in Drosophila is providing new evidence supporting the critical role of cell interactions and specialized apical junctions in controlling epithelial cell proliferation.


ABSTRACT Maeve Brennan's 1953 short story "The Bride," describes the isolation and complicated homesickness of a young Irish woman living as a domestic servant in New York. Taking Brennan's story as a starting point, this paper uses a designed and made object – a set of digitally modeled and 3D printed Home Charms –as research-creation based methodology to investigate the spatial, material, and performative implications of settlement in a new domestic space, especially for women who lived, worked, and were conceptually identified with the home, its architecture and material culture.


In this paper, we take a fresh look at stub-site multihoming within the paradigms of an identifier/locator split architecture. More specifically, we investigate the possibility of enabling multi-homed stub network sites to improve the performance of their end-to-end TCP flows by leveraging the path diversity of the underlying network. We design a host-network co-operative mechanism for end-to-end flow path switching based on reliable transport layer protocol "hints" indicating probable path problems. Our evaluations of actual Internet routing/topology data strongly suggest significant degree of path diversity across path switches available to multihomed stub networks, even within the restricted precincts of inter-domain policy routing. Additionally, we also address the problems of global routing scalability and inbound traffic engineering control as pertaining to stub-site multi-homing.


This study explores the theoretical construct of sports sponsorship and where they fit into general public relations, marketing and sports marketing theory. The direct expenditure in the local sports sponsorship industry is estimated at close to R2 billion compared to a world-wide figure of $20 billion. However, existing marketing and PR literature is inconclusive about the role of sports sponsorship in the marketing mix or PR strategy. The literature review found that marketing and PR texts do not significantly cover sponsorship. This means that the sponsorship body of knowledge as it relates to marketing and PR is largely uncharted.


CONTEXT
The effects of an exercise program (EP) for the treatment of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) are well known. However, the effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) are unclear.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of OMT versus EP on knee pain, functionality, plantar pressure in middle foot (PPMF), posterior thigh flexibility (PTF), and range of motion of hip extension in runners with PFPS.

DESIGN
This is a randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
Human performance laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 82 runners with PFPS participated in this study.

INTERVENTIONS
The participants were randomized into 3 groups: OMT, EP, and control group. The OMT group received joint manipulation and myofascial release in the lumbar spine, hip, sacroiliac joint, knee, and ankle regions. The EP group performed specific exercises for lower limbs. The control group received no intervention.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The main evaluations were pain through the visual analog scale, functionality through the Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale, dynamic knee valgus through the step-down test, PPMF through static baropodometry, PTF through the sit and reach test, and range of motion through fleximetry. The evaluations were performed before the interventions, after the 6 interventions, and at 30-day follow-up.

RESULTS
There was a significant pain decrease in the OMT and EP groups when compared with the control group. OMT group showed increased functionality, decreased PPMF, and increased PTF. The range of motion for hip extension increased only in the EP group.

CONCLUSION
Both OMT and EP are effective in treating runners with PFPS.


BACKGROUND Lead is able to pass through the placental barrier and interfere with fetal development. Red fruit has high antioxidant activity, due to carotenoids (pro-vitamin A), tocopherols (vitamin E) and unsaturated fatty acids. This study aims to examine the effect of red fruit oil towards placenta in pregnant mice before lead exposure. METHODS This was a laboratory experimental post test only study, using 20 pregnant mice (Mus musculus) that were randomized into five groups. The negative control group was not exposed to lead; intervention group 0 (P0) was exposed to lead at 0.011 mg/20 g BW/day on days 6-15 of gestation. The intervention groups P1-P3 were given red fruit orally at 0.3 mL/20 g BW/day, 0.8 mL/20 g BW/day, 0.9 mL/20 g BW/day, respectively, before lead exposure. Normal trophoblast cell count and caspase-9 expression of trophoblasts were calculated. One-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney tests were used to analyze the data. RESULTS The intervention groups P2 and P3 given red fruit at 0.8 mL/20 g BW/day and 0.9 mL/20 g BW/day showed a significant increase in normal trophoblast cell count of 88.2% (p=0.024) and a decrease in caspase-9 expression of 70.8% compared with P0 to which was not given red fruit (p=0.020). CONCLUSION Red fruit increased normal trophoblast cell count by 88.2% and decreased caspase-9 expression by 70.8% in pregnant mice before lead exposure. It should be noted that red fuit may prevent oxidative damage to cells.