Shear Strength Prediction Methods for Grouted Masonry Shear Walls Patrick B. Dillon Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy The research in this dissertation is divided between three different approaches for predicting the shear strength of reinforcement masonry shear walls. Each approach provides increasing accuracy and precision in predicting the shear strength of masonry walls. The three approaches were developed or validated using data from 353 wall tests that have been conducted over the past half century. The data were collected, scrutinized, and synthesized using principles of meta-analysis. Predictions made with current Masonry Standards Joint Committee (MSJC) shear strength equation are unconservative and show a higher degree of variation for partially-grouted walls. The first approach modifies the existing MSJC equation to account for the differences in nominal strength and uncertainty between fullyand partially-grouted walls. The second approach develops a new shear strength equation developed to perform equally well for both fullyand partially-grouted walls to replace and improve upon the current MSJC equation. The third approach develops a methodology for creating strut-and-tie models to analyze or design masonry shear walls. It was discovered that strut-and-tie modeling theory provides the best description of masonry shear wall strength and performance. The masonry strength itself provides the greatest contribution to the overall shear capacity of the wall and can be represented as diagonal compression struts traveling from the top of the wall to the compression toe. The shear strength of masonry wall is inversely related to the shear span ratio of the wall. Axial load contributes to shear strength, but to a lesser degree than what has been previously believed. The prevailing theory about the contribution of horizontal shear reinforcement was shown to not be correct and the contribution is much smaller than was originally assumed by researchers. Horizontal shear reinforcement principally acts by resisting diagonal tensile forces in the masonry and by helping to redistribute stresses in a cracked masonry panel. Vertical reinforcement was shown to have an effect on shear strength by precluding overturning of the masonry panel and by providing vertical anchorages to the diagonal struts.


Background: Although many studies have highlighted the association between obesity and vitamin D, the results remain inconsistent. Therefore, we assessed this correlation in association with other parameters. Our objectives in this study were to demonstrate the relationship between gender and vitamin D deficiency, to examine the association of age with vitamin D deficiency and to investigate the correlation between body mass index and vitamin D deficiency. Methods: The levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-VitD), age, gender and body mass index (BMI) of the 422 participants were analysed by T- test, ANOVA and multiple regressions using the Statistics Package for Social Sciences. Results: Overall, 84.4 per cent of study participants had either mild or severe vitamin D deficiency using a cut-off level of 25-OH-VitD of ≤ 30 ng/ml. The statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant correlation between gender and 25-OH-VitD levels. Conversely, no significant correlations of age and BMI with 25-OH-VitD were recognized. Furthermore, the directions of the correlations of 25-OH-VitD levels with the independent variables were as follows: positive with gender, negative with age and negative with BMI. Conclusion: The levels of 25-OH-VitD were influenced significantly by gender but not by BMI and age. Female patients seem to suffer more from vitamin D deficiency than do males. High BMI decreases the levels of 25-OH-VitD, pushing the body towards vitamin D deficiency. The same effect is reported for the patient age. The effect of gender on the 25-OH-VitD levels is higher than the effects of BMI and age.


ABSTRACT Individual strains of Staphylococcus aureus have different capacities to become internalized by osteoblasts. Here we report that the levels of σB expressed by S. aureus correlate with the capacity of this bacterium to be internalized by osteoblasts. However, σB is not essential for internalization and does not necessarily account for the differences in the capacities of strains to be internalized.


Different markets are cleared by different types of prices---seller-specific prices that are uniform across buyers in some markets, and personalized prices tailored to the buyer in others. We examine a setting in which buyers and sellers make investments before matching in a competitive market. We introduce the notion of premuneration values---the values to the transacting agents prior to any transfers---created by a buyer-seller match. Personalized price equilibrium outcomes are independent of premuneration values and exhibit inefficiencies only in the event of "coordination failures," while uniform-price equilibria depend on premuneration values and in general feature inefficient investments even without coordination failures. There is thus a trade-off between the costs of personalizing prices and the inefficient investments under uniform prices. We characterize the premuneration values under which uniform-price equilibria similarly exhibit inefficiencies only in the event of coordination failures.


Purpose: Cerebellar medulloblastoma is a highly malignant, invasive embryonal tumor with preferential manifestation in children. Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS) with NBS1 germ-line mutations is a rare autosomal recessive disease with clinical features that include microcephaly, mental and growth retardation, immunodeficiency, increased radiosensitivity, and predisposition to cancer. There may be functional interactions between NBS1 and the TP53 pathways. The objective of the present study is to assess whether NBS1 mutations play a role in the pathogenesis of sporadic medulloblastomas. Experimental Design: Forty-two cases of medulloblastomas were screened for mutations in the NBS1 gene (all 16 exons) and the TP53 gene (exons 5-8) by single-stranded conformational polymorphism followed by direct DNA sequencing. Results: Seven of 42 (17%) medulloblastomas carried a total of 15 NBS1 mutations. Of these, 10 were missense point mutations and 5 were intronic splicing mutations. None of these were reported previously as germ-line mutations in NBS patients. No NBS1 mutations were detected in peritumoral brain tissues available in two patients. Of 5 medulloblastomas with TP53 mutations, 4 (80%) contained NBS1 mutations, and there was a significant association between TP53 mutations and NBS1 mutations (P = 0.001). Conclusions: We provide evidence of medulloblastomas characterized by NBS1 mutations typically associated with mutational inactivation of the TP53 gene.


Mid-aged rats were either adrenalectomized and chronically maintained, or left intact and treated daily for a 9- to 10-month period with a potent analog of the peptide adrenocorticotropin (residues 4 to 9), which has some stimulant properties, or with the neural stimulant pentylenetetrazole. All three treatments reduced hippocampal morphologic correlates of brain aging (neuronal loss, glial reactivity). The pentylenetetrazole and peptide treatments also improved reversal learning. These results suggest that certain endogenous peptides, with stimulant properties, may also exert long-term, trophic effects on brain structure and function.


Airport performance benchmarking increasingly requires level-of-service (LoS) indicators for a fair comparison among members of the same peer group. For a true performance analysis such inclusion of quality measures is necessary to differentiate airports with similar pure output quantities, i.e. number of aircraft movements. Since variation of scheduled times versus actual times could substantially cause accumulating operating costs for carriers and could furthermore pose the risk and inconvenience of missed connections for the passengers, this article examines determinants of flight delays at airports, and thereby developing performance indicators such as slot capacity utilization, queueing time and punctuality. The essence of underlying phenomena in queueing theory such as Little's Law, arrival and departure distributions, and cumulative throughput and demand diagrams are briefly explained. This work's aim is the exploration of ways of measuring and observing performance quality from actual flight schedules with a focus on usability for subsequent airport benchmarking and traffic modeling.


Contributors. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part I: Preoperative and Operative Considerations. 1. Long-term outcome following open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (Audra A. Noel). 2. Durability of Endovascular repair of infrarenal aortoiliac aneurysms: what lessons have been learned (Josef Klocker and Albert G. Hakaim). 3. Imaging techniques and protocols for endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (Ricardo Paz-Fumagalli J. Mark Mckinney, and Andrew H. Stockland). 4. Essential operating room equipment, personnel, and catheter inventory for endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (Peter A. Schneider and Michael T. Caps). 5. Essential interventional suite design, equipment, personnel, and catheter inventory for endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (Eric Huettl, William M. Stone, and Richard J. Fowl). 6. Diagnosis, management, and prevention of atheroembolization and contrast media-induced renal insufficiency during endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (Andrew Wasiluk and William E. Haley). 7. Anesthetic management for endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (Monica Myers Mordecai, Perry S. Bechtle, and Bruce J. Leone). Part II: Commercially available stent graft systems. 8. Commercially available endovascular stent grafts (Timothy A. Hipp and Albert G. Hakaim). 9. Ancure endograft (Thomas C. Noslund). 10. AneuRx stent graft system (John W. York and Samuel R. Money). 11. Excluder bifurcated endoprosthesis system (Eric T. Choi and Gregorio A. Sicard). 12. Zenith AAA endovascular graft (Beate Neuhauser, W. Andrew Oldenburg, and Albert G. Hakaim). 13. PowerLink stent graft system (Edward B. Diethrich). Part III: Investigational Stent Graft Devices. 14. Lifepath AAA bifurcated graft system Sashi Kilaru and K. Craig Kent). 15. Talent LPS endoluminal stent graft (Sherry D. Scovell, Lisa Jordan, and Roy K. Greenberg). 16. Balloon-expendable stent and polytef-based endograft for repair of complex and ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (Takao Ohki and Frank J. Veith). 17. Custom Dacron-stainless steel stent grafts (Albert G. Hadaim and Timothy M. Schmitt). Part IV: Intraoperative ancillary procedures. 18. Use of intravascular ultrasonography in endovascular intervention (Jonathan D. Woody, George E. Kopchok, James T. Lee, and Rodney A. White). 19. Intentional occlusion of the internal iliac artery to facilitate endovasuclar repair of aortoiliac aneurysms (Alfio Carroccio, Peter L. Faries, MIchael L. Martin, Osvaldo Juniti Yano, adn Larry H. Hollier). 20. Arterial access for endovascular aneurysm repair (Timothy A.M. Chuter). 21. Ancillary interventions to provide proximal and distal endograft fixation (L. Louis Lau, and Albert G. Hakaim). 22. Prevention, diagnosis, and management of endoleaks (Srinivasa Rao Vallabhaneni, Martin Malina , Bjorn Sonesson, and Krassi Ivancev). Part V: Appendix. Reporting standards for endovascular aneurysm repair (Albert G. Hakaim). Index.


Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models have long been considered as one of the most successful families of approaches for volatility modeling in financial return series. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach based on methodologies widely used in the field of statistical machine learning. Specifically, we propose a novel nonparametric Bayesian mixture of Gaussian process regression models, each component of which models the noise variance process that contaminates the observed data as a separate latent Gaussian process driven by the observed data. This way, we essentially obtain a Gaussian process-mixture conditional heteroscedasticity (GPMCH) model for volatility modeling in financial return series. We impose a nonparametric prior with power-law nature over the distribution of the model mixture components, namely the Pitman-Yor process prior, to allow for better capturing modeled data distributions with heavy tails and skewness. Finally, we provide a copula-based approach for obtaining a predictive posterior for the covariances over the asset returns modeled by means of a postulated GPMCH model. We evaluate the efficacy of our approach in a number of benchmark scenarios, and compare its performance to state-of-the-art methodologies.


A Wirtinger presentation of a knot group is obtained from a diagram of the knot. T. Yajima showed that for a 2-knot or a closed oriented surface embedded in the Euclidean 4-space, a Wirtinger presentation of the knot group is obtained from a diagram in an analogous way. J. S. Carter and M. Saito generalized the method to non-orientable surfaces in 4-space by cutting non-orientable sheets of their diagrams by some arcs. We give a modification to their method so that one does not need to find and describe such arcs on the diagram. This method is easily generalized to higher dimensional manifold knots, which may not be locally flat.


The Sulitjelma fold nappe represents part of a Caledonian marginal basin obducted during the closure of the Iapetus Ocean and collision between Laurentia and Baltica. Metamorphic pressure-temperature (P-T) paths indicate that various parts of the Sulitjelma fold nappe followed characteristic clockwise P-T paths involving prograde burial followed by prograde exhumation and then near-isothermal exhumation prior to cooling. Geochronological results indicate that foreland rocks followed this general P-T path before more hinterlandward rocks, such that foreland rocks underwent exhumation while hinterlandward rocks were still being buried. This is consistent with the fold nappe passing through a collisional orogen; burial and ultimately prograde metamorphism were terminated sequentially by exhumation as a given part of the fold nappe came into contact with the lower plate, basement ramp (Baltica) and was driven upward. Burial, heating, exhumation, and cooling were thus diachronous within a single tectonic unit.


Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa face a constant challenge: to choose between many, often competing, social, economic and environmental objectives while also meeting expectations to intensify their farming practices sustainably. Farmers manage this situation by making trade-offs; choosing and prioritising goals based on household circumstances and by weighing immediate productivity/financial gains against long-term goals. But at present, several factors combine to deter farmers from prioritising long-term sustainability objectives, including limited resources, agricultural policies promoting short-term productivity that depends on environmentally damaging inputs, and adoptionfocused interventions that ignore household diversity. These barriers loom largest for those with limited access to productive resources, including women and young people. This paper summarises a study about how farmers in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Malawi manage trade-offs and suggests what governments, donors and development agencies can do to support more sustainable choices.


The face recognition with expression and occlusion variation becomes the greatest challenge in biometric applications to recognize people. The proposed work concentrates on recognizing occlusion and seven kinds of expression variations such as neutral, surprise, happy, sad, fear, disgust and angry. During enrollment process, principle component analysis (PCA) detects facial regions on the input image. The detected facial region is converted into fuzzy domain data to make decision during recognition process. The Haar wavelet transform extracts features from the detected facial regions. The Nested Hidden markov model is employed to train these features and each feature of face image is considered as states in a Markov chain to perform learning among the features. The maximum likelihood for the input image was estimated by using Baum Welch algorithm and these features were kept on database. During recognition process, the expression and occlusion varied face image is taken as the test image and maximum likelihood for test image is found by following same procedure done in enrollment process. The matching score between maximum likelihood of input image and test image is computed and it is utilized by fuzzy rule based method to decide whether the test image belongs to authorized or unauthorized. The proposed work was tested among several expression varied and occluded face images of JAFFE and AR datasets respectively.


Although analysts expect the majority of enterprises to tread slowly into migration, there certainly will be early adopters, as there are with any system or device. Because Microsoft has announced that it will support Windows 2000 only until the year 2010, enterprises using older versions of Windows will not have much time for leisurely testing and pilot projects before they need to seriously consider migrating to and deploying Windows Vista. Deploying Windows Vista will require an entirely new set of skills for IT departments called on to migrate from older versions of Windows. Any IT professional looking to the future of their enterprise network deployment will benefit from the advice, tips, and reliable information contained in this resource. The book covers all the important security issues that are top of mind in today's IT world, as well as troubleshooting practices to help get issues resolved in less time. A valuable CD ROM contains tools and utilities to help IT professionals as they deploy Windows Vista for the first time.


After Marx, dissenting economics almost always used 'the labour theory' as a theory of value. This paper develops a modern treatment of the alternative labour theory of property that is essentially the property theoretic application of the juridical principle of responsibility: impute legal responsibility in accordance with who was in fact responsible. To understand descriptively how assets and liabilities are appropriated in normal production, a 'fundamental myth' needs to be cleared away, and then the market mechanism of appropriation can be understood. On the normative side, neoclassical theory represents marginal productivity theory as showing that (a metaphorical version of) the imputation principle is satisfied ('people get what they produce') in competitive enterprises. Since that shows the moral commitment of neoclassical economics to the imputation principle, the labour theory of property is presented here as the actual non-metaphorical application of the imputation principle to property appropriation. The property-theoretic analysis at the firm level shows how the neoclassical (and much heterodox) analysis in terms of 'distributive shares' wholly misframed the basic questions. Finally, the paper shows how the imputation principle (modernised labour theory of property) is systematically violated in the present wage labour system of renting persons. The paper can be seen as taking up the recent challenge posed by Donald Katzner for a dialogue between neoclassical and heterodox microeconomics.


Excavations at Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria, in 2002 and 2004 revealed that the elite Tomb 1 discovered on the site acropolis in 2000 was part of a mid to late third-millennium B.C. mortuary complex devoted to individuals of high rank. The complex included a sequence of at least six tombs as well as installations with evidence of the ritual sacrifice of equids and perhaps human infants. Mortuary data allow for the consideration of the role of social status, gender, ideology, and other variables in the development of local complex society. It is hypothesized that elite ancestor veneration served to reinforce and legitimize local authority, and tomb disturbances are interpreted as desecrations intended to sever the connection between the interred ancestors and the living community. Following the period of the mortuary complex, a large, circular stone platform designated Monument 1 was constructed above it, indicating the continued special character of the Umm el-Marra acropolis in the early second millennium B.C. and the uses of social memory by the authorities of that period.


Non-compulsory educational programs including extracurricular school activities, child day care centers, and non-formal educational programs, such as sports or music activities outside of school, make an important contribution to social integration. But to what extent do children and their families actually make use of these voluntary programs? On the basis of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the joint migration survey of the SOEP and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the present report seeks to address this question for the first time with a specific focus on children with a refugee background. The study shows that these children participate in some voluntary educational activities such as extracurricular school activities just as frequently as or even more frequently than other children. However, they are less likely to participate in a parent-child group or to attend a day care center, particularly those under the age of three, than their peers. Further, at both primary and secondary school age, children of refugees participate less often in sports activities outside of school. Efforts to integrate those with a refugee background should therefore also focus on these non-formal educational activities held outside of school and specifically target these children, adolescents, and their families. When it comes to extracurricular school activities, however, a great deal has already been achieved—it is important that we make full use of and continue to tap into this potential.


Someone has been supplying Class A illegal human power sources to the goblins. Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit is sure that her arch-enemy, thirteen-year-old Artemis Fowl, is responsible. But is he? Artemis has his own problems to deal with: his father is being held to ransom and only a miracle will save him. Maybe this time a brilliant plan just won't be enough. Maybe this time Artemis needs help...


Next generation of the Web builds upon technologies such as Semantic Web and Intelligent Software Agents. These technologies aim at knowledge representation that allows both humans and software agents to understand and reason about the content on the Web. In this paper, we propose an agent-based approach for collaborative distributed semantic search of the Web resources. Our approach enables a human user to semantically describe his search interest to an agent. Depending on the interests of their users, the agents evolve their ontologies and create search concepts. Based on these search concepts, the agents coordinate and compose virtual communities. Within these communities, agents with similar interests interact to locate and share URLs relevant to search interests of their users. Through these interactions, shared vocabularies are cooperatively emerged by agents to communicate properly within the communities. Our empirical evaluations and analysis of the proposed approach show that our approach combines Semantic Web technologies and multi-agent systems in a novel way to enable users to find and share the URLs relevant to their search interests.


The linear viscoelastic dynamic modulus, |E∗|, has become the primary material property of interest for asphalt concrete mixtures. The shift towards linear viscoelastic characterization of asphalt concrete is due in large part to national efforts to develop new fundamentally based pavement design tools and techniques. Within the pavement community, there is a substantial interest in using predictive models to estimate | E∗| because key structural design decisions are based on its value. Moreover, for many projects, these critical decisions must be made even before the materials are selected. In response to the need for predictive capability, numerous equations have been developed, but most require knowing the asphalt binder shear modulus, |G∗|. This property is currently measured as part of the purchase specification process, but it is not measured at enough temperatures and frequencies to be directly useful with these predictive models. Instead, agencies that want to use the predictive equations must complete additional testing that may require several days to complete and requires the purchase of more sophisticated equipment. It is the purpose of this paper to show ways that the specification data can be processed to provide nearly the same information as a more complete testing suite. This effort is possible because although the specification data are sparse, they still cover the range of conditions that need to be assessed. Additional surrogate models are needed to fully apply the proposed methodology, and the development and verification of these models are presented as well. The ability of the limited data calibration process to match characterization from more complete testing is demonstrated. Finally, it is shown that observed differences between the complete and limited calibration processes are reduced when applying two |E∗| predictive models.


A thesis submitted to the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Master of Philosophy Degree in Agronomy (Plant Breeding), 2015


The frequency response and bandwidth of multimode silica glass fibers are investigated in this paper. The theoretical model incorporates both wavelength and modal effects including power coupling from random microbends. The 3-dB bandwidth is examined through the study of the fiber transfer function which introduces the wavelength and modal effects as two separate filter functions. The formal derivation of the chromatic transfer function is analytical. On the other hand, the modal bandwidth is obtained by numerically solving the power flow equation in the frequency domain using the Crank-Nicholson method. As an application, the transfer function is illustrated and subsequently discussed with special focus spent on analyzing the influence of the fiber size in combination with the launching conditions. We show in particular that the larger the core, the greater the bandwidth potential of the fiber when operated under selective mode excitation. Some measurements are also carried out and excellent agreement between this model and data is achieved.


Touchless gestures are used for input when touch is unsuitable or unavailable, such as when interacting with displays that are remote, large, public, or when touch is prohibited for hygienic reasons. Traditionally user input is spatially or semantically mapped to system output, however, in the context of touchless gestures these interaction principles suffer from several disadvantages including memorability, fatigue, and ill-defined mappings. This thesis investigates motion correlation as the third interaction principle for touchless gestures, which maps user input to system output based on spatiotemporal matching of reproducible motion. We demonstrate the versatility of motion correlation by using movement as the primary sensing principle, relaxing the restrictions on how a user provides input. Using TraceMatch, a novel computer vision-based system, we show how users can provide effective input through investigation of input performance with different parts of the body, and how users can switch modes of input spontaneously in realistic application scenarios. Secondly, spontaneous spatial coupling shows how motion correlation can bootstrap spatial input, allowing any body movement, or movement of tangible objects, to be appropriated for ad hoc touchless pointing on a per interaction basis. We operationalise the concept in MatchPoint, and demonstrate the unique capabilities through an exploration of the design space with application examples. Finally, we explore how users synchronise with moving targets in the context of motion correlation, revealing how simple harmonic motion leads to better synchronisation. Using the insights gained we explore the robustness of algorithms used for motion correlation, showing how it is possible to successfully detect a user's intent to interact whilst suppressing accidental activations from common spatial and semantic gestures. Finally, we look across our work to distil guidelines for interface design, and further considerations of how motion correlation can be used, both in general and for touchless gestures.


[About the book]:

- Describes a variety of practical therapeutic approaches for supporting bereaved children and young people

- Contains contributions from experts in the field of support of bereaved children, young people and families

- Written in an accessible style and includes personal perspectives from the bereaved themselves

New to this edition

- New chapters on sociological perspectives, learning disability and working with very young children. Other chapters have been completely updated to reflect developments in the field

Recent years have seen increasing interest in the needs of children facing bereavement, and a corresponding increase in services to support them. This book addresses and explains the theoretical concepts and practical implications behind the idea of brief work with bereaved children and families. Flexible and accessible short term services delivered at the right time underpin the strengths of bereaved children, supporting their recovery rather than pathologising the grief process. In this way the book also speaks to the current interest in the concept of resilience and working with families' strengths and possibilities, rather than merely identifying their problems.

This second edition continues to be a unique book within the growing filed of childhood bereavement, and the new chapters added to this edition discuss managing situations with learning disability, supporting very young children and emotional literacy. The book also presents cases from the service user's perspective. It looks at different approaches to intervention, such as the importance of assessment and the value of groupwork, and also covers work with children and families before a death.

Brief interventions with bereaved children will appeal to practitioners, educators and service providers managing scarce resources. The editors have more than twenty-five years experience as practitioners within the field, as service providers and educators. The book features chapters from distinguished contributors with backgrounds in healthcare, education, social work and the police, alongside theoretical and practice-based chapters from workers in the field of bereavement care for children.

Readership: Those running and working in services supporting bereaved children and their families, child and adolescent mental health teams, social workers, psychologists, therapists, counsellors and school counsellors/teachers/education support workers.


This study was an investigation into the Factors that Influence University Student Throughput and Dropout focusing on the University of KwaZulu-Natal, College of Humanities. The study focused on students who dropped out even though they did not owe the university and were also in good standing academically. It must be noted though that the literature of this study did not reveal much about the students in good academic and financial standing as the university data revealed that all types of students (those performing poorly and owe the university and those in good academic and financial standing) do drop-out for different reasons. There were two theoretical frameworks guiding this study, namely: the Theory of students Integration by Tinto (1975) and the Pathway Study by Letseka (2009). These two theories advocate for good integration of students in both the institutional and social culture of the university. The Integration theory broadly articulates this view in a global perspective whilst the Pathway Study articulates this view from a South African perspective. This study utilized both the Qualitative and the Quantitative methodologies. This was done through the snowball sampling and the document analysis methods respectively. The study population was the students who dropped-out, the UKZN management, the SRC and the Counselling Department. These participants provided informative and interesting insights on the issue at hand. This study identified numerous factors that influence students to drop-out and these factors are similar to those that obtain in the literature of this study. Notably, there were also new factors that influence students to drop-out which were established by this study. One such factor is the issue of sicknesses requiring serious traditional intervention. Lastly, the study concluded by recommending that the institutional support mechanism at UKZN be reviewed towards the development of specific policies that can address the issue of drop-outs.


For β cells in the pancreas to respond in a coordinated manner to changes in glucose status, cell communication is essential. In fact, the cells need to be in contact with one another for maximal secretion, because when β cells are separated (in culture, for example) insulin secretion is lower. Konstantinova et al. show that an Eph and ephrin system of cell-attached ligands and receptors mediates β cell communication regulating insulin secretion. The Eph-ephrin system exhibits bidirectional signaling, with a receptor tyrosine kinase pathway downstream of Eph (each Eph is activated by specific ephrin) and another signaling pathway downstream of the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored ephrin (activated by the cognate Eph). Ephrin-A5 and EphA5 were present in higher abundance in the islets than in the surrounding exocrine tissue in mouse and human pancreas. In the MIN6 β cell line, although ephrin-A5 and EphA5 were colocalized in regions of cell contact, ephrin-A5 was more abundant at the plasma membrane and EphA5 in insulin secretory granules. Ephrin-A5 signaling was necessary for proper regulation of insulin secretion because islets from ephrin-A5−/− mice or MIN6 cells in which ephrin-A5 was knocked down with RNAi showed increased basal insulin secretion and reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Forward signaling through the receptor tyrosine kinase EphA5 and reverse signaling through ephrin-A5 were isolated using fusion-protein ligands (ephrin-A5-Fc to stimulate EphA5 forward signaling and EphA5-FC to stimulate ephrin-A5 reverse signaling). In mouse and human pancreatic islets or in the MIN6 cells, activation of EphA5 inhibited glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, and activation of ephrin-A5 enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Secretion was monitored by measuring released insulin and by monitoring vesicle fusion by total internal reflection-fluorescence microscopy, thereby showing that Eph-ephrin signaling regulates vesicle release, not insulin production. Consistent with a role in regulating vesicle fusion, EphA5 forward signaling increased F-actin polymerization (known to inhibit vesicle fusion), whereas ephrin-A5 reverse signaling promoted F-actin rearrangements and decreased F-actin intensity. The cytoskeletal regulator Rac1 was involved in Eph-ephrin regulation of insulin secretion, with ephrin-A5 stimulating Rac1 activity and EphA5 inhibiting Rac1 activity. How, if these two proteins are present on adjacent cells and delivering opposing signals, does one outsignal the other? Dephosphorylation of EphA5 in response to glucose appears to tip the balance in favor of the stimulatory reverse signaling through ephrin-A5. Kulkarni and Kahn discuss the implications of this work. I. Konstantinova, G. Nikolova, M. Ohara-Imaizumi, P. Meda, T. Kučera, K. Zarbalis, W. Wurst, S. Nagamatsu, E. Lammert, EphA-ephrin-A-mediated β cell communication regulates insulin secretion from pancreatic islets. Cell 129, 359-370 (2007). [Online Journal] R. N. Kulkarni, C. R. Kahn, Ephs and ephrins keep pancreatic β cells connected. Cell 129, 241-243 (2007). [Online Journal]


Computer adaptive testing is an important research field in educational measurement, and simulation studies play a critically important role in CAT development and evaluation. Both Monte Carlo and Post Hoc simulations are frequently used in CAT studies in order to investigate the effects of different factors on test efficiency and to compare different test designs. Although there are several softwares for CAT simulations, R is preferred since it includes many free packages and gives researchers opportunity to write their own functions according to their own requirements besides being free. The purpose of this study is to make an introduction and demonstration of how to use catR package in CAT simulations. Different examples were provided in the context of this study and R codes were presented with explanations. Then, the output files were briefly explained. It is thought that this paper is helpful for the researchers who are interested in CAT simulations.


An electrode was stereotaxically implanted in the mesencephalic ventromedial tegmentum (VMT) [A:4~4.5,L:2~2.5,H:-5.0~-5.5] of each of ten cats. Subsequently two electrodes were placed in the rostomedial [A:14~15,L:4~5,H:4~5] and anteroventral [A:17~19,L:4~5,H:4~5] parts of the head of the ipsilateral caudate nucleus (CN). Four or five days later the VMT was electrically stimulated in three cats to induce behavioral changes which apparantly resembled human athetoid and choreiform movements. Square pulse current was 2-10 volt, 0.5-1.0 msec in duration and 20-100/sec in frequency. 1) The results of high frequency stimulation of the VMT were as follows. 1 Arrest of all kinds of voluntary movements, and ipsilateral miosis with adduction were observed immediately after the start of stimulation. 2 Turning or circling to the opposite side, elevation or choreo-athetoid movements of contralateral forelimb, and licking or chewing followed two to four seconds later. These movements continued during the electrical stimulation and lasted even after cessation of the stimulation. 3 Vegetative phenomena such as tachycardia or urination were also seen occasionally. 2) Decapitation was performed after irrigation of the brain by 10% formalin. Histological study revealed that the tip of the electrode was stituated in the VMT containing the dorsomedial part of the substantia nigra. 3) High frequency stimulation of the VMT led to numerous firing of neurons of the rostromedial part of the ipsilateral CN, which lasted for several seconds after cessation of the stimulation. Electrical stimulation of the rostromedial part of the CN induced choreo-athetoid movements and turning, which were quite similar to those produced by stimulation of the VMT. 4) Additional CN stimulation altered the involuntary movements induced by stimulation of the VMT. Namely, stimulation of the rostromedial part of the CN increased both choreo-athetoid movements and turning in cats. On the other hand, stimulation of the anteroventral part of the CN decreased them in cats. 5) Finally, turning and circling induced by the VMT stimulation intensified following parenteral administration of L-Dopa, and diminished with haloperidol. These results suggest that the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system plays an important role in the production of circling and choreo-athetoid movements. Especially, the caudate neurons which fired abnormally following repetitive VMT stimulation might be a trigger of these movements.


We study reinforcement learning (RL) for text-based games, which are interactive simulations in the context of natural language. While different methods have been developed to represent the environment information and language actions, existing RL agents are not empowered with any reasoning capabilities to deal with textual games. In this work, we aim to conduct explicit reasoning with knowledge graphs for decision making, so that the actions of an agent are generated and supported by an interpretable inference procedure. We propose a stacked hierarchical attention mechanism to construct an explicit representation of the reasoning process by exploiting the structure of the knowledge graph. We extensively evaluate our method on a number of man-made benchmark games, and the experimental results demonstrate that our method performs better than existing text-based agents.


ABSTRACT This study is based on a detailed international comparison of the elite sport policies of 15 nations as part of the SPLISS (Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success) study. It aims to provide deeper insights into the phenomena of convergence and divergence of elite sport policies. The research uses a mixed methods approach based on document reviews, interviews with high performance directors and surveys of 3142 athletes, 1376 coaches and 246 performance directors. There appears to be no generic blueprint for achieving international sporting success. Nations that perform well in international competition show varying patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses across nine pillars, 96 critical success factors, and 750 sub-factors. While the basic raw ingredients of the recipe might be common in broad terms, the combinations in which they are mixed are diverse. Much of this diversity appears to be driven by social, cultural and political factors.


The subject matter of sovereign contingent liability (CL) risk management has been receiving increasing attention, since it is widely acknowledged that it poses potential hidden fiscal risks. These risks arise as a result of the uncertainty of: (i) whether the CL risk event(s) will materialise; (ii) the precise timing of the occurrence of the event leading to ownership of an obligation; and (iii) the exact amount of this obligation. Notwithstanding this, it is unsurprising that more countries are making use of contingent liabilities. The primary reason for this is that they are balance sheet neutral (from a cash-based accounting perspective), which provides the incentive to use this mechanism over direct lending to achieve policy objectives.
This paper presents a framework within which active risk management of contingent liabilities can be undertaken in a manner that covers the lifespan of the liability and which also incorporates the portfolio effects of other liabilities. This is achieved by providing various frameworks for the calculation of provisions, as well as a general framework for CL risk management.


Purpose

Recovery is an important concept within mental healthcare policy. There is a growing expectation that clinicians adopt approaches that align with the recovery principles, despite significant disagreements about what recovery-oriented interventions might look like in practice. It is also unclear how recovery may be relevant to personality disorder. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 16 clinicians were interviewed at two mental health services in Melbourne, Australia. These clinicians had specialist training and experience in the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and provided insight regarding the meaning and relevance of the recovery paradigm in the context of BPD. Thematic analysis within a grounded theory approach was used to understand key themes identified from the interview data.

Findings

Thematic analysis suggested that clinicians understand recovery in three distinct ways: as moving towards a satisfying and meaningful life, as different ways of relating to oneself and as remission of symptoms and improved psychosocial functioning. Clinicians also identified ways in which recovery-related interventions in current use were problematic for individuals diagnosed with BPD. Different approaches that may better support recovery were discussed. This study suggests that practices supporting recovery in BPD may need to be tailored to individuals with BPD, with a focus on cultivating agency while acknowledging the creative nature of recovery.

Originality/value

Clinicians are in a strong position to observe recovery. Their insights suggest key refinements that will enhance the ways in which recovery in BPD is conceptualized and can be promoted.


U.S. consumers and Canadian pharmacies have rushed to take advantage of the opportunity presented by price differences in patented pharmaceuticals. This rapidly growing parallel trade has brought the Canadian and U.S. systems for determining pharmaceutical pricing under increased scrutiny, and the pressure for change seems to be building. This paper examines why parallel trade in pharmaceuticals has grown and considers some of the policy options confronting both countries. To do this we begin by identifying similarities and differences in the Canadian and U.S. regulatory frameworks governing trade in pharmaceuticals. While the differences are considerable, we show that they are not the only reason for the emergence of the price disparity that has fuelled the growth in parallel trade. In particular, we argue that the price discrimination strategies of pharmaceutical manufacturers and exchange rate fluctuations have played an underappreciated role. Following this, we examine the claims that this trade represents a threat to American and Canadian interests, and find that there are good reasons for policy makers on both sides of the border to be concerned. Unchecked, this rising trade presents a threat to R&D funding and continued Canadian consumer access to pharmaceutical products.


Media activists who are women, queer, trans*, Indigenous and/or people of colour are shifting mediascapes through intersectional autonomous journalism practices. This community-based co-research project analyses data from six semi-structured focus group workshops with media activists, who identify a contradictory logic between mainstream and alternative journalism. Two distinct autonomous journalism practices emerge that complement and extend traditional horizontal prefigurative media activist practices through an attentiveness to intersectional identities and interlocking systems of oppression. In rooted direct-action journalism, grassroots autonomous journalists collectively report from a perspective rooted in the concerns of the movement, creating media as a direct-action tactic; whereas in solidarity journalism, autonomous journalists report across movements in solidarity with intersectionally marginalised groups and communities. We argue that, emphasising intersectional mutual aid, relationship building, consent, accountability and content co-creation, these value-based practices have begun to shift dominant media and cultural logics. Finally, we offer critical reflections on some of the challenges inherent in these practices, including a meta-analysis of the intersectional value practices in our activist co-research methodology.


The impact of technological progress on jobs and wages has been subject to much empirical and some theoretical work. However, most of this literature has not addressed the general equilibrium interplay between the productive factors that are affected, the sectors in which these factors are used, and the consequent changes in the structure of employment and factor returns. This paper draws on tools from general equilibrium trade theory to provide an integrated approach to these issues. The analysis centres around three key elasticities linking technological change to jobs – the jobs-displacing substitution effect, the job-creating demand effect, and the general-equilibrium effects, through which factors are reallocated between sectors. The results highlight the role of relative factor intensities and the importance of openness in determining the effects of technology on jobs, wages, and structural change. The implications of interaction between non-tradable and tradable sectors are analysed.


We present a sequence-to-action parsing approach for the natural language to SQL task that incrementally fills the slots of a SQL query with feasible actions from a pre-defined inventory. To account for the fact that typically there are multiple correct SQL queries with the same or very similar semantics, we draw inspiration from syntactic parsing techniques and propose to train our sequence-to-action models with non-deterministic oracles. We evaluate our models on the WikiSQL dataset and achieve an execution accuracy of 83.7% on the test set, a 2.1% absolute improvement over the models trained with traditional static oracles assuming a single correct target SQL query. When further combined with the execution-guided decoding strategy, our model sets a new state-of-the-art performance at an execution accuracy of 87.1%.


Background: Raw or minimally processed vegetables can be important vehicles of food-borne parasites. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the parasitic infections in raw vegetables from Kermanshah, Western Iran and their relation with season and washing procedures. Methods: From January to December 2013, raw vegetable samples were collected from Kermanshah, Western Iran. The samples were divided in three different groups, including unwashed, traditionally washed, and standard washed groups. After preparation of the samples, they were examined microscopically for the presence of parasites. Using Chi-square test, the analysis was carried out by SPSS software for windows (version 16.0). Results: With regards to washing procedures of vegetable samples, intestinal parasites were found in 63.7, 49.1, and 36.9% of unwashed, traditionally washed, and standard washed samples, respectively showing a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). A meaningful difference (p<0.05) was observed in the contamination rate of samples during various seasons as summer>spring>autumn>winter. However, no significant relationship was found between contamination rates and types of vegetables (p>0.05). Conclusion: Raw vegetables sold in major markets in Kermanshah, Western Iran could be considered as potential vehicles for transmission of parasitic infections to consumers. Regular education must be applied about standard washing and disinfecting procedures of the raw eaten vegetables to reduce exposure of Iranian population to the vegetable-borne parasites.


This article examines the use of social science research in case level decision-making and adjudication in public and private family law proceedings from the perspectives of judges and lawyers in England and Wales. To provide a context for our analysis, we first review a limited, but nevertheless important, body of international literature concerned with the place of social science in the family courts. We then turn to our empirical material, drawn from a scoping study commissioned by the Nuffield Foundation, to inform the design of a new family justice observatory for England and Wales. The study found that judges and lawyers in England and Wales described similar obstacles to the use of social science evidence at a case level as their international counterparts, despite differences in jurisdictional rules and norms. Specifically, they were concerned with due process and the admissibility of research evidence, as well as the potential for advocacy bias, given the contested nature of social science evidence. Questions about how to apply population data to the specifics of an individual case were also raised. However, analysis also revealed further contextual obstacles in England and Wales resulting from radical changes to the family justice system, following comprehensive review in 2011. Judges and lawyers indicated that a reduction in experts and far shorter timescales for the completion of public law cases, together with an influx of self-representing litigants in private law, have created a context that is less, rather than more receptive to interdisciplinary knowledge, including research evidence.


Assembled class I histocompatibility molecules, consisting of heavy chain, beta 2-microglobulin, and peptide ligand, are transported rapidly to the cell surface. In contrast, the intracellular transport of free heavy chains or peptide-deficient heavy chain-beta 2-microglobulin heterodimers is impaired. A 90-kilodalton membrane-bound chaperone of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), termed calnexin, associates quantitatively with newly synthesized class I heavy chains, but the functions of calnexin in this interaction are unknown. Class I subunits were expressed alone or in combination with calnexin in Drosophila melanogaster cells. Calnexin retarded the intracellular transport of both peptide-deficient heavy chain-beta 2-microglobulin heterodimers and free heavy chains. Calnexin also impeded the rapid intracellular degradation of free heavy chains. The ability of calnexin to protect and retain class I assembly intermediates is likely to contribute to the efficient intracellular formation of class I-peptide complexes.


Preface. Introduction and how to use the book. Chapter 1 Starting chemistry. 1.1 Terminology and processes used in chemistry. 1.2 Atoms and things. 1.3 Chemical reactions and the Periodic Table Chapter 2 Covalent Compounds and Organic Molecules. 2.1. How to make stable molecules. 2.2 Covalent compounds. 2.3 General Properties of Covalent Compounds. 2.4 Characteristic shapes and bond angles within covalent molecules. 2.5 Some Covalent bonds with slight ionic character. 2.6 Double bonded Carbon Compounds or unsaturated bonds. 2.7 Some further compounds of carbon. 2.8 The carbon cycle. 2.9 Isomerism. Some Different arrangements of atoms within a molecule. 2.10 Naming Organic compounds. 2.11 Ring Structures. 2.12 Compounds of carbon containing other groups 2.13 Some further examples with explanations. Chapter 3 Organic compounds containing carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. alcohols and ethers. 3.1 Alcohols, CnH2n+1OH. 3.2 Properties of monohydric alcohols (one oh group). 3.3 Other alcohols. di and tri hydric alcohols (two and three oh groups). 3.4 Aromatic oh compounds, phenols. 3.5 Ethers as isomers of alcohols. Chapter 4 Carbonyl Compounds, compounds containing C=O group. 4.1 Aldehydes and Ketones Carboxylic acids and esters. 4.2 Carbohydrates or mono-saccharides. 4.3 Di-saccharides. 4.4 Digestion of sugars. 4.5 More about sugars. 4.6 Carboxylic acids. 4.7 Salts and esters. 4.8 Lipids or fats. 4.9 Chemical energy in cells. 4.10 Chemicals in Food. 4.11 Soaps. Chapter 5 Organic compounds containing nitrogen. 5.1 Amines and Amino acids. 5.2 Amino acids. 5.3 Peptide formation and protein synthesis. 5.4 Hydrolysis (action of water) of peptides. 5.5 Other properties of amino acids. 5.6 Protein metabolism. 5.7 Nucleic acids, DNA and RNA. Chapter 6 Vitamins, Steroids, Hormones and Enzymes. 6.1 Vitamins. 6.2 Steroids and Hormones. 6.3 Enzymes. Chapter 7 Ions, Electrolytes, metals, and ionic bonding. 7.1 Introduction to ionic bonding. 7.2 Some common properties of Ions and ionic bonds. 7.3 Electrolytes and ions of the body. 7.4 Major cations in the body. 7.5 Anions in body fluids. 7.6 Balance between Fluids. 7.7 Essential elements present in small quantities, micro nutrients and minerals. 7.8 Cancer treatments and chemotherapy that use metal compounds. Chapter 8 Water. 8.1 Water introduction, what makes water so unique?... 8.2 Chemical reactions in aqueous solution. 8.3 Dissolving and solubility. 8.4 Osmosis. 8.5 Dialysis. 8.6 Colloids. 8.7 Water, washing and Detergents. 8.8 Water Vapour. 8.9 Evaporation from skin. 8.10 Solid Water. 8.11 Hydrolysis. Chapter 9 Acids and Bases. 9.1 Acids, PH. 9.2 Bases AND ALKALI 9.3 Bases containing nitrogen. 9.4 Amino acid and Zwitter ions. 9.5 Salts. 9.6 Neutralisation. 9.7 Buffer solutions. 9.8 Buffers in the body. 9.9 Digestion and acid attack. 9.10 Acids in the Environment. Chapter 10 Oxidation and Reduction. 10.1 Definition of oxidation and reduction. 10.2 Burning and Oxidation. 10.3 Some applications of redox reactions to metabolic processes, superoxides. 10.4 Nitric Oxide. 10.5 Oxygen gas. Chapter 11 Analytical Techniques. 11.1 The need for analysis 11.2 Mass Spectroscopy. 11.3 Chromatography. 11.4 Spectroscopy of various types. Infra red, ultra violet and visible. 11.5 Electron Microscopes and scanning electron microscopy(sem). 11.6 Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). 11.7 Some general conclusions. Chapter 12 Radioactivity. 12.1 Introduction to the effects of radiation. 12.2 Isotopes and Radioactivity. 12.3 Splitting the nucleus of atoms. 12.4 Properties of alpha, beta and gamma radiation. 12.5 Half Life. 12.6 Radiation everywhere. 12.7 Some conclusions. Chapter 13 Rates of chemical reactions. 13.1 Effect of temperature on recations and on metabolism. 13.2 Why does a reaction slow down on cooling ? 13.3 Free radicals. 13.4 Effect of concentration on chemical reactions. 13.5 Catalysts and enzymes. 13.6 How catalysts and enzymes work. 13.7 Application of chemical reactions to drug use. Chapter 14 Overview of chemicals fighting disease. 14.1 Drugs ancient and modern. 14.2 Cancer treatments. 14.3 Pain killers. 14.4 Stopping attack by 'aliens' to our bodies: viruses and bacteria. 14.5 Aids and HIV. 14.6 Gene therapy. 14.7 Some existing drugs and their change of use. Chapter 15 Numbers and quantities. 15.1 Standard notation and powers of 10. 15.2 Moles. 15.3 Powers of numbers and logarithm. 15.4 Moles in formulae and equations. 15.5 Moles in solution. 15.6 Concentration in parts per million. 15.7 Dilutions. 15.8 Percentage by mass. Appendices. 1. The Periodic Table of elements. 2. List of atomic masses of the elements. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.


The teaching article attempts to highlight the significance of introducing a class-centred approach (henceforth CCA) to L2 teaching in the Palestinian context. Additionally, it aims to pinpoint that experienced teachers can make their teaching strategies more motivating and more communicative, through intertwining their learners' pedagogical and social demands. It is centered on the EFL teachers' everyday behaviours in a language classroom. It tries to precisely give an explanation and a definition of the concept of (CCA) and its implication in classroom language learning  In addition, the article investigates the theoretical framework that underlie the CCA to teaching. In order to provide an overview of the present teaching preferences in L2 classroom conducted by EFL teachers at home, a questionnaire has been distributed to a sample population of EFL teachers from a Palestinian university. Meanwhile, the article tries to justify the need and the appropriateness of CCA to language teaching, with special focus on the Palestinian context. Alongside discussing and analyzing the questionnaire results, the article also makes use of major findings reached by many studies in this respect. Ultimately, it concludes discussion by confirming that language teachers' success in meeting and intertwining the learners' socio-pedagogic needs help EFL teachers cultivate and create a non-threatening classroom environment in which learners interact readily in the target language.


The forces of interaction were measured between the siderophore azotobactin and the minerals goethite (FeOOH) and diaspore (AlOOH) in solution using force microscopy. Azotobactin was covalently linked to a hydrazide terminated atomic force microscope tip using a standard protein coupling technique. Upon contact with each mineral surface, the adhesion force between azotobactin and goethite was two to three times the value observed for the isostructural Al-equivalent diaspore. The affinity for the solid iron oxide surface reflected in the force measurements correlates with the specificity of azotobactin for aqueous ferric iron. Further, the adhesion force between azotobactin and goethite significantly decreases when small amounts of soluble iron are added to the system suggesting a significant specific interaction between the azotobactin and the mineral surface. Changes in the force signature with pH and ionic strength were fairly predictable when considering mineral solubility, the charge character of the mineral surfaces, the molecular structure of azotobactin, and the intervening solution. Molecular and quantum mechanical calculations which were completed to further investigate the interaction between azotobactin and iron/aluminum oxide surfaces, and to more fully understand the force measurements, also showed an increased force affinity for Fe over Al. Ab initio calculations on siderophore fragment analogs suggest the iron affinity can be attributed to increased electron density associated with the Fe-O bond compared to the Al-O bond; an observation that correlates with iron's larger electronegativity compared to aluminum. Attachment of the ligand to each surface was directed by steric forces within the molecule and coulombic interactions between the siderophore oxygens and the metals in the mineral. Chelating ligand pairs coordinated with neighboring metal atoms in a bidentate, binuclear geometry. Upon simulated retraction of azotobactin from each surface, the Fe-O(siderophore) bonds persisted into a higher force regime than Al-O(siderophore) bonds, and surface metals were removed from both minerals. Extrapolation of the model to more realistic hydrated conditions using a PCM model in the quantum mechanical calculations and water clusters in the molecular mechanical model demonstrated that the presence of water energetically favors and enhances metal extraction, making this a real possibility in a natural system.


This article describes the prototypical peacekeeping soldier and his experiences, based on a sample of all male soldiers serving in mechanized infantry companies in the first four Swedish UN battalions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (N = 1,238). A questionnaire was administered as a part of the demobilization programme. The prototypical peacekeeper is male, 20–25 years old, single, serves in a mechanized infantry company, and is on his first UN mission. Four different types of motives for joining the service were identified. The degree of perceived family support co‐varied strongly with service experiences. Favourable evaluations of the service period were associated with good relations with commanders and peers, perceiving few tasks as boring, but also with a high exposure to stressful events. The positive association with stress exposure may be related to the fact that no Swedish peacekeepers were killed during this period, which in turn probably contributed to experiences of invulnerability among the exposed soldiers while also increasing their social status among peers.


Past research has indicated that it is essential for real estate programs to provide up-to-date, expert quality real estate education. One source of current market information is the industry professional. Our current research will examine the coalescence of industry and the classroom in 10 well-recognized real estate graduate programs from around the world. All of the academics that will be participating in the project are leaders within each of the sister societies that make up the International Real Estate Society (ARES, LaRES, ERES, AsRES, PRRES and AfRES). We will examine how the various programs are enhanced when professionals are directly incorporated in to the real estate course work. This study will summarize and compare the results of 10 in-depth surveys we will conduct on the coalescence of industry professionals and live projects into academic programs. These case studies will identify ways that real estate professionals are connected to the students, such as through project-based courses, mentoring programs, speaker series, shadow-an-executive programs, internships, networking events, executives-in-residence, career fairs, guest lecturers, and field trips. In summary, the study will compare and contrast the integration of industry and academics in ten graduate real estate programs.


Network softwarization has accelerated the research and development of network functions on commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Multicore scalability has been a key to achieve high-performance packet forwarding engines. However, resource efficiency and bottlenecks in multicore scaling have not been discussed in the past research. Therefore, different hardware configurations sometimes encounter serious performance degradation. This paper presents a design and implementation of the forwarding engine that efficiently scales on multicore systems. Exclusive CPU core utilization and buffer management enable concurrent processing without synchronization overheads between multiple CPU cores. Our experiments demonstrate that memory access in buffer handling is the bottleneck in multicore scaling, and thus, thorough buffer management to reduce cache misses of shared CPU caches is required to debottleneck it. We also exhibit that the efficiency of CPU resource utilization could be enhanced by taking the advantage of hyperthreading that alleviate the overheads of memory access latency. The implemented forwarding engine efficiently scales and achieves 0% loss routing against 143 mega-packets per second traffic on the backbone router's IPv4 routing table using twelve CPU cores.


The formation of total organic halogen (TOX), carbonaceous disinfection byproducts (DBPs) (trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs)), and nitrogenous DBPs (trichloronitromethane (TCNM) or chloropicrin, haloacetonitriles (HANs), and nitrosamines) was examined during the chlorination or chloramination of intracellular organic matter (IOM) extracted from Microcystis aeruginosa, Oscillatoria sp. (OSC), and Lyngbya sp. (LYN). The percentage of unknown TOX (22-38%) during chlorination indicated that the majority of DBPs were identified among THMs, HAAs, TCNM, and HANs. Bromide was readily incorporated into DBPs with speciation shifting slightly from dihalogenated species to trihalogenated species. During formation potential testing with chloramines, nitrosamine yields from IOM were measured for N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA, 10-52 ng/mgC), N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR, 14 ng/mgC), N-nitrosopiperidine (NPIP, 3.7-5.5 ng/mgC), and N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA, 2.1-2.6 ng/mgC). When IOM was added to a natural water matrix, the nitrosamine yields were not realized likely due to competition from natural organic matter. Ozonation increased NDMA and NMEA formation and reduced NPYR and NPIP formation during subsequent chloramination. In addition, ozone oxidation of IOM formed detectable concentrations of aldehydes, which may contribute to DBP formation. Finally, bioluminescence-based test results showed that >99% of the IOM extracted from OSC and LYN was biodegradable. Therefore, a biological treatment process could minimize this source of DBP precursor material during drinking water treatment.


Picosecond time-resolved photoluminescence is used to investigate the recombination dynamics of excitons in samples which ail contain four GaN-AlxGa1-xN quantum wells of respective widths of 4, 8, 12 and 16 molecular monolayers, grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The compositions and thicknesses of the barriers have been varied, in order to change the electric fields induced by piezo- and pyro-electric effects. The dependences of experimental decay times with barrier characteristics indicate the presence of efficient inter-well carrier escaping. Calculations of electronic tunneling times versus barrier width show that the present carrier escaping is enhanced by some additional process, such as scattering by impurities or composition fluctuations in the barriers.


AIMS
Local recurrence remains a challenging and common problem following curettage and joint-sparing surgery for giant cell tumour of bone (GCTB). We previously reported a 15% local recurrence rate at a median follow-up of 30 months in 20 patients with high-risk GCTB treated with neoadjuvant Denosumab. The aim of this study was to determine if this initial favourable outcome following the use of Denosumab was maintained with longer follow-up.

METHODS
Patients with GCTB of the limb considered high-risk for unsuccessful joint salvage, due to minimal periarticular and subchondral bone, large soft tissue mass, or pathological fracture, were treated with Denosumab followed by extended intralesional curettage with the goal of preserving the joint surface. Patients were followed for local recurrence, metastasis, and secondary sarcoma.

RESULTS
A total of 25 patients with a mean age of 33.8 years (18 to 67) with high-risk GCTB received median six cycles of Denosumab before surgery. Tumours occurred most commonly around the knee (17/25, 68%). The median follow-up was 57 months (interquartile range (IQR) 13 to 88). The joint was salvaged in 23 patients (92%). Two required knee arthroplasty due to intra-articular fracture and arthritis. Local recurrence developed in 11 patients (44%) at a mean of 32.5 months (3 to 75) following surgery, of whom four underwent repeat curettage and joint salvage. One patient developed secondary osteosarcoma and another benign GCT lung metastases.

CONCLUSION
The use of Denosumab for joint salvage was associated with a higher than expected rate of local recurrence at 44%. Neoadjuvant Denosumab for joint-sparing procedures should be considered with caution in light of these results. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2021;103-B(1):184-191.


Information elicitation mechanisms, such as Peer Prediction [Miller 2005] and Bayesian Truth Serum [Prelec 2004], are designed to reward agents for honestly reporting their private information, even when this information cannot be directly verified. Information elicitation mechanisms, such as these, are cleverly designed so that truth-telling is a strict Bayesian Nash Equilibrium. However, a key challenge that has arisen is that there are typically many other non-truthful equilibrium as well, and it is important that truth-telling not only be an equilibrium, but be paid more than other equilibrium so that agents do not coordinate on a non-informative equilibria. Several past works have overcome this challenge in various setting using clever techniques, but a new technique was required for each new setting.
Our main contribution in this paper is providing a framework for designing information elicitation mechanisms where truth-telling is the highest paid equilibrium, even when the mechanism does not know the common prior. We define information monotone functions which can measure the amount of "information" contained in agents' reports such that the function is greater in the truthful equilibrium than in non-truthful equilibria. We provide several interesting information monotone functions ( f -disagreement, f-mutual information, f -information gain) in different settings. Aided by these theoretical tools, we (1) extend Dasgupta and Ghosh[2013]'s mechanism to the non-binary setting with an additional assumption that agents are asked to answer a large number of a priori similar questions; (2) reprove the main results of Prelec[2004], Dasgupta and Ghosh[2013] and a weaker version of Kong and Schoenebeck[2016] in our framework. Our framework thus provides both new mechanisms and a deeper understanding of prior results.


A toolkit known as apE is presented. Originally, this was an acronym for animation production environment, but apE has become known as a software designed for more than just animation. Previous work is briefly reviewed, and the processing of designing the system is discussed. Common elements in building any graphics system as well as elements particular to building a large system are examined. The design and construction of apE 1.1 and apE 2.0 are described. The policy governing the distribution of apE and the advantages of academic software development are discussed.<<ETX>>


Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease, and the accumulation of a toxic amyloid β peptide (Aβ) contributes to cell death. Smith et al. show that in cultured cell lines or primary cortical neurons, exposure to Aβ caused cell death and caused prolonged Ser36 phosphorylation of the adaptor protein p66Shc, which had been previously implicated in the cellular response to oxidative stress. Using PC12 cells overexpressing either wild-type p66Shc or a Ser36 to Ala mutant (p66ShcS36A), the authors showed that cells with the dominant-negative mutant were less susceptible to Aβ-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, overexpression of p66ShcS36A also reduced the abundance of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells exposed to Aβ compared with the amounts detected in cells overexpressing p66Shc or nontransfected cells. The SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line was used to investigate the role of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway in Aβ-stimulated p66Shc phosphorylation and cell death. Overexpression of a dominant-negative SEK1 (the kinase upstream of JNK) or pharmacological inhibition of SEK1 protected cells from Aβ-induced cell death and inhibited phosphorylation of JNK and p66Shc. Finally, transcription factors of the Forkhead (FKH) family, which are known to stimulate the expression of genes encoding ROS scavenging enzymes, were phosphorylated in response to Aβ exposure in SH-SY5Y and primary cortical neuron cultures. Phosphorylation of these transcription factors results in their sequestration in the cytosol and inhibition of expression of their target genes. Overexpression of p66ShcS36A in PC12 cells inhibited phosphorylation of FKHR, which suggests a link between p66Shc and regulation of ROS scavenging enzymes through FKH. Thus, the authors suggest that Aβ mediates its toxicity through an increase in ROS that in turn activates the JNK pathway, which results in phosphorylation of p66Shc and FKH, which decreases the cell's capacity to detoxify ROS. W. W. Smith, D. D. Norton, M. Gorospe, H. Jiang, S. Nemoto, N. J. Holbrook, T. Finkel, J. W. Kusiak, Phosphorylation of p66Shc and forkhead proteins mediates Aβ toxicity. J. Cell. Biol. 169, 331-339 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Out of all double tax treaties (DTTs) in force in 2012, around 41% are symmetric and 59% are asymmetric, i.e., they prescribe different dividend withholding tax rates (WTRs) depending on the foreign investor's ownership fraction. The paper investigates the reasons for this phenomenon, namely why some countries in their DTTs prefer homogenous withholding tax rates over separate rates for participation and portfolio dividends. In a theoretical model, I demonstrate why home countries may have an interest in a high withholding tax rate in the host country, even though they do not receive the revenue from this tax. Further, I find confirming evidence that a reason for having asymmetric withholding tax rates on dividends is an existing spatial dependence on the rates of the countries' peers that may be a driving factor for setting asymmetric rates. Finally, I confirm that the spread itself (i.e., the difference between the portfolio and participation dividends negotiated in the tax treaty) is also affected by the peer countries.


Human eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) binds to the mRNA cap structure and interacts with eIF4G, which serves as a scaffold protein for the assembly of eIF4E and eIF4A to form the eIF4F complex. eIF4E is an important modulator of cell growth and proliferation. It is the least abundant component of the translation initiation machinery and its activity is modulated by phosphorylation and interaction with eIF4E-binding proteins (4E-BPs). One strong candidate for the eIF4E kinase is the recently cloned MAPK-activated protein kinase, Mnk1, which phosphorylates eIF4E on its physiological site Ser209 in vitro. Here we report that Mnk1 is associated with the eIF4F complex via its interaction with the C-terminal region of eIF4G. Moreover, the phosphorylation of an eIF4E mutant lacking eIF4G-binding capability is severely impaired in cells. We propose a model whereby, in addition to its role in eIF4F assembly, eIF4G provides a docking site for Mnk1 to phosphorylate eIF4E. We also show that Mnk1 interacts with the C-terminal region of the translational inhibitor p97, an eIF4G-related protein that does not bind eIF4E, raising the possibility that p97 can block phosphorylation of eIF4E by sequestering Mnk1.


Background: Many clinicians and researchers believe that "craving" an abusable substance is a central phenomenon related to addiction. Craving for alcohol appears to be intimately related to the loss of control over consumption and to compulsive alcohol use.
Aim: To compare the scores of obsessive compulsive drinking scale with visual analogue scale, severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire and addiction severity index.
Materials and methods: Literate patients who met DCR-ICD-10 criteria for alcohol dependence syndrome were taken in the study. They must have been drinking alcohol daily till 1 week ago and the subjects were required to consume at least 6 standard drinks per day over the last month.
Instruments used in this study were Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale – OCDS, Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire - SADQ, Addiction Severity Index - ASI , Visual Analogue Scale - VAS, Mini Mental Status Examination - MMSE, Timeline Method - TL
Result: Among 40 patients, the mean age of these patients was 38 years (38.55+9.60). 95% of them were Hindus and 5% Christians. 82.5% were married. 50% of patients has the income between Rs.15000-20000 per month. The correlation matrix of OCDS variables (OCDS-T, OCDS-O, OCDS-C), ASI-A, SADQ, VAS variables (G, F, I) and TL on all four follow-ups were measured. All correlations were positive and significant at p<0.001 obsessive compulsive drinking scale total score in 2 drinking outcome groups during 8 week treatment period was seen in which there is a difference between in two patient groups at baseline i.e. abstinent group had lower score than relapse group. This difference was consistently observed between the groups over the entire period of follow-up.
Conclusion: Craving was higher among those who relapsed than those who did not. Craving did predict high alcohol consumption and high index of severity at baseline and all through the follow up.


Early Modern European Papal Justice: Subjects and Courts in the Papal State, 1500-1750. By Irene Fosi. Translated by Thomas V. Cohen. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press. 2011. Pp. xiv, 272. $29.95 paperback. ISBN 978-0-813-21858-8.) In these last thirty years studies on the Papal State during the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries have brought to light results with an intensity never experienced before. The institutions and social life that characterized the multiform realities of the Papal State have been the object of much research, especially after the publication of Paolo Prodi's The Papal Prince: One Body and Two Souls (Bologna, 1982; trans. New York, 1987), which opened the way to this fertile historiographical period. The existence of Italian regional states in a European context characterized by absolute and centralized monarchies has been strictly connected with the role of the papacy in maintaining balance among the Italian states. The main area of interests for scholars in these last three decades has been the relationships and conflicts among the institutions of the Papal State, an absolute nonhereditary monarchy in which the demands of a state in construction had somehow to go hand in hand with the supra-national nature of religion. Much attention has been given to the role of the institutions of justice and public order. The works of Irene Fosi on this topic have been substantial and based on an unrivaled range of sources. In La societa violenta (Rome, 1985), the author concentrated on the role of the nobility in the origins of banditry, also interpreted as a form of hostile action against the control of the territory by the state. In All'ombra dei Barberini. Fedelta e servizio nella Roma barocca (1997) she examined the separation of the role of the cardinalnephew- a position intrinsically linked to the personal nature of powerfrom that of secretary of state, a position in the framework of an impersonal administration. Moreover, the author has written various essays and edited collections on the papal judicial system. With this work, the author presents scholars with a general picture of justice at the time of the papacy, which now can be appreciated by American scholars. She also includes additional material on Niccolo Orsini, third count of Nola and Pitigliano (pp. 92-99); conclusions; and an extensive bibliography. The book presents for the first time an overview of the papal justice system in which the many conflicts are examined vis-a-vis their effects on the organization as well as on the control of the territory and personal conscience. …


The paper raises the theoretical question of the cultural mediational nature of literary intertexts from the point of view of generic and transformational dynamics. The intertextual complex as mediational operator is examined at two levels – (1) in the context of cultural diachrony by observing how the literary work establishes its place in the history of literature closely connected to the metapoiesis of the text; (2) at various kinds of intratextual interlevel movements regulating the evolution of a whole intertextual system within the work. Differentiating the ontological, generative and transformational conceptualization of intertextual poetics, an attempt is made to define the basic textual modes of the pretext, the intext and the intertext by describing their functionality in the building of an intersemiotic literary system. The relevant functions are grasped by shedding light upon the types of the sign of which the given signifying structures consist (here a terminological clarification and re-evaluation are added) and their textual semantics in terms of referential and relational quality (cf. the different versions of referential and relational semantics). In the first place, however, the paper aims at outlining the structure and content of the generic-transformational semiotic processes in which the dynamic aspects of intertextual semiosis are revealed. Within this framework, the processuality of the development of the intertextual signifying structure is elucidated, shown as a chain of reciprocal sign activities resulting in constantly evolving semantic shifts within the intra- and intertextual semiosis processes, all relying on mediational operations. Text examples are taken from and references made to works by A. S. Pushkin, I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky and J. M. Coetzee.


The atomic time scale at the Time Service Division of the National Observatory in Rio de Janeiro (ONRJ) has been carried out by commercial cesium clocks. The UTC (ONRJ) time scale based on a single commercial cesium clock selected from the ensemble of clocks is not suitable to attain the bounds of uncertainty recommended by the ITU-R and by the CCTF. The recommendation has suggested to the national time primary laboratories to coordinate with UTC within plusmn0.lmus. The development of atomic time scale system was divided in two parts: the construction of an automated data acquisition system and the implementation of the time scale algorithm that generated a time scale based on the clock ensemble. The present work will describe the atomic time scale system and report the results obtained using real clocks data from September 27, 2004 to August 15, 2005


This book brings together leading international scholars of law and religion to provide an overview of current issues in State-religion relations. The first part of the collection offers a picture of recent developments in key countries and religions. The second part is focused on Europe and, in particular, on the Nordic States and the postcommunist countries where State-religion systems have undergone most profound change. The third and final part is devoted to four issues that are currently debated all over the world : the relations between freedom of expression and freedom of religion ; proselytism and the right to change religion; the religious symbols; and the legal status of Islam in Europe and Canada.


This paper documents disparities in cognitive development- as measured by a receptive vocabulary test-between children from households with high and low socioeconomic status (SES) in two different phases of childhood (before and after early school years) in four developing countries: Peru, Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam. Intercontinental evidence on the timing, shape, pattern, and persistence of these disparities is provided. The nonparametric analysis suggests that disparities found at age 5 persist into the early school years across all four countries, and the conditional analysis shows that SES disparities seem to fall over time. However, both the magnitude of the gap and the degree of persistence vary. The main result is that Peru stands out, not only as the country with the largest cross-section disparity between rich and poor (of around 1.30-1.40 standard deviations), but also as the country with the highest persistence in cognitive development, as shown by the value-added specification. The latter suggests fewer opportunities for convergence in cognitive development between rich and poor over time in this Latin American country. Some channels behind these trends are discussed, but overall, the SES gradient persists even when controlling for a large number of important mediators, such as preschool, early nutrition, and schooling. Past performance on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) is the most important mediator of the SES gradient at age 8.


Like the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean has been a privileged site of cross-cultural contact since ancient times. In this special issue, our contributors track disparate movements of people and ideas around the Indian Ocean region and explore the cultural implications of these contacts and their role in processes that we would come to call transnationalization and globalisation. The nation is a relatively recent phenomenon anywhere on the globe, and in many countries around the Indian Ocean it was a product of colonisation and independence. So the processes of exchange, migration and cultural influence going on there for many centuries were mostly based on the economics of goods and trade routes, rather than on national identity and state policy.


This paper describes the problem-solving studio (PSS) learning environment. PSS was designed to teach students how to solve difficult analytical engineering problems without resorting to rote memorization of algorithms, while at the same time developing their deep conceptual understanding of the course topics. There are several key features of PSS. First, students work in teams of two to solve problems, working at the same table with another team of two. The student teams and tables are stable, remaining together for most of the semester. The teams work in a public, shared problem-solving space that allows in-class mentors (near peers of the students) and the instructor to observe and critique their work. The public nature of the work enables the instructor to provide students with real-time, situated feedback. In addition, it enables the instructor to tailor the challenge level to the needs of each team, such that the problem is too difficult for any one student to solve on their own, but reasonable enough that the team can solve it together, given the support that the PSS environment provides. We call this targeted adjustment of the problem's difficulty dynamic scaffolding. PSS provides the support students need through a specific set of participant structures that govern how the instructors, in-class mentors, and students interact during class. This paper describes the PSS approach and how it has been implemented in an entry-level course at Georgia Tech called "Conservation Principles of Biomedical Engineering (BMED 2210)". Our results show that even though PSS emphasizes engineering problem-solving skills, the students' conceptual understanding of the material significantly improves, as measured by Shallcross' material and energy balances concept inventory. The implications of our work, particularly with respect to the use of PSS in flipped classrooms, are discussed.


In this chapter I provide a brief history of the TANF program, including changes made as part of the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act. I then present a variety of program statistics, including trends in aggregate and state-level caseloads and spending, along with changes in the demographic composition of the program, especially the shift from adult with child cases to child-only cases. I also highlight the changing composition of spending on the program from cash assistance to in-kind assistance, and the challenges faced in documenting total (cash + in-kind) caseloads and spending. I follow this with a discussion of the behavioral issues surrounding TANF, including the four program goals and possible modifications as part of the 2014 reauthorization legislation, and then I provide a systematic review of the research evidence on whether those goals have been met.


Search engine has become a fundamental component in various web and mobile applications. Retrieving relevant documents from the massive datasets is challenging for a search engine system, especially when faced with verbose or tail queries. In this paper, we explore a vector space search framework for document retrieval. Specifically, we trained a deep semantic matching model so that each query and document can be encoded as a low dimensional embedding. Our model was trained based on BERT architecture. We deployed a fast k-nearest-neighbor index service for online serving. Both offline and online metrics demonstrate that our method improved retrieval performance and search quality considerably, particularly for tail


'A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.' BARACK OBAMA 'One of the most important books I've ever read - an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.' BILL GATES *#1 Sunday Times bestseller * New York Times bestseller * Observer 'best brainy book of the decade' * Irish Times bestseller * Guardian bestseller * audiobook bestseller * Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends - why the world's population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty - we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world.


Despite the increasing diffusion of agile software development methodologies (ASDM) in firms, academic studies in this field – though rising in number – are largely missing out on the implications for the individual software developer. The application of agile methodologies in software development projects has significant impact on the individual developer's way of working. While some empirical research evaluated the advantages of ASDM for individuals, potential negative consequences for developers, who have to cope with multiple draining demands in their daily work, remains largely unexplored. Using resource depletion theory as a lens, we develop a research model to examine how the use of ASDM potentially decreases individual job satisfaction and increases turnover intention. We suggest that the effect is mediated by developers' level of depletion expressed by psychological strain. In addition, we aim to determine who is more or less affected by depletion in an agile context introducing the capacity for self-control as a moderator. To test our model, we plan to conduct a crosssectional field survey among software developers working in agile teams. Drawing attention to underrepresented negative implications on an individual level, we want to contribute to a more balanced picture of ASDM use in theory and practice.


In-band crosstalk noise can pose important limitations in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) optical networks. This paper describes a model that takes into account the statistical behavior of in-band crosstalk noise accurately and that can be used to estimate the error probability (EP) in a WDM receiver. It is based on the formulation of the moment-generating function of the decision variable in terms of a double integral, which allows the inclusion of the crosstalk-crosstalk noise, which was previously neglected in the literature. The optical amplifier noise and the electrical receiver noise are also incorporated, and the model is used to assess the implications of the crosstalk-crosstalk contribution. With the aid of some examples, it is shown that the crosstalk-crosstalk noise can influence the value of the EP, change the optimum receiver threshold, and introduce some power penalty.


Prolonged adrenergic stimulation results in DNA damage through a β-arrestin1–dependent pathway. The catecholamines adrenaline and noradrenaline trigger a "fight-or-flight" response by activating adrenergic receptors, such as the β2-adrenergic receptor. However, prolonged adrenergic stimulation can cause various deleterious physiological effects, and epidemiological studies have associated chronic stress with DNA damage. To investigate the mechanisms by which prolonged adrenergic stimulation may cause DNA damage, Hara et al. injected the β2-adrenergic receptor agonist isoproterenol into mice for 4 weeks to simulate chronic stress. The thymuses of isoproterenol-injected mice showed increased phosphorylation of histone H2AX (γ-H2AX), a marker of DNA damage, and decreased abundance of the transcription factor p53, which functions in cellular responses to stress. Similarly, U2OS cells, in which β2-adrenergic receptors are the only detectable adrenergic receptor, showed decreased p53 abundance when treated with isoproterenol, a response that was attenuated by preincubating the cells with the β2-adrenergic receptor antagonist ICI 118,551. Isoproterenol infusion resulted in DNA damage in the cerebellum in wild-type mice but not in mice lacking the gene encoding the β2-adrenergic receptor (Adrb2–/– mice). The ubiquitin ligase Mdm2 targets p53 for proteasomal degradation, and isoproterenol stimulated phosphorylation and activation of Mdm2 through a pathway that required β-arrestin1, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), and the kinase AKT. β-arrestin1 interacted with p53 in the nucleus and appeared necessary to enhance the interaction of p53 with Mdm2 after isoproterenol stimulation. Mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) lacking β-arrrestin1 (Arrb1–/–) showed lower numbers of γ-H2AX foci and higher abundance of p53 than wild-type MEFs, and Arrb1–/– mice were protected from DNA damage (as shown by the amount of γ-H2AX and the number of chromosomal rearrangements) and the reduction in p53 abundance elicited by isoproterenol infusion. Thus, chronic stress may elicit DNA damage and reduced p53 abundance through β2-adrenergic receptor–mediated activation of a β-arrestin1–dependent pathway. M. R. Hara, J. J. Kovacs, E. J. Whalen, S. Rajagopal, R. T. Strachan, W. Grant, A. J. Towers, B. Williams, C. M. Lam, K. Xiao, S. K. Shenoy, S. G. Gregory, S. Ahn, D. R. Duckett, R. J. Lefkowitz, A stress response pathway regulates DNA damage through β2-adrenoreceptors and β-arrestin-1. Nature 477, 349–353 (2011). [PubMed]


Background: Cigarette smoking is a broadly recognized health hazard and a major cause of mortality but still people continue to smoke cigarettes on a regular basis. Tobacco has numerous carcinogens and mutagens which have deleterious effects on human beings. Effect of carcinogens has been observed to be more on rapidly dividing cells which include germ cells. The maximum prevalence of smoking is observed in young adult males in the reproductive period Aims and objectives: To compare different seminal fluid parameters among smoker and non-smoke, to know the effect of cigarette smoking on sperm counts, motility and morphology, and the difference in seminal fluid variables between smokers and non – smokers. Patients and Methods: The case control study performed from May 2015 to December 2015 carried in laboratory of Rizgary Teaching Hospital in Erbil city and a questionnaire prepared for each case. Only patients with primary infertility, who were either smokers or strict non-smokers, were selected and the non smoker considered as control group. The selected study group of 100 smokers and 100 strict non smokers had only one known factor which differentiated them, i.e. cigarette smoking and the duration of smoking was determined by 5 years. A semen specimen was collected after 3days of abstinence period, in a wide – mouth, clean and sterile container. All semen samples were analyses for semen parameters: liquefaction time, volume, viscosity, motility, sperm concentration, morphology and number of pus cells in the sample. Results: The mean age of both non –smoker and smoker were 33.28 and 34.89 years respectively with maximum and minimum age were22and 45years respectively with the mean duration of infertility for smoker 6.85 years and for the non-smoker was 7.24 years. There were a significant difference in seminal fluid parameters which includes the Ph, viscosity, sperm count, sperm motility, morphology and pus cells in seminal fluid between the smoker and non smoker while there were no significant difference in volume. There was significant difference between the two groups regarding seminal fluid variable which includes (Normozoospermia, Asthenozoospermia, Oligoasthenozoospermia, Oligoasthenteratospermia Asthenoteratospermia, Teratizoospermia and Oligozoospermia) with p value (P<0.000). Conclusions: The smoking has bad effect on seminal fluid parameters and there was a difference between the two groups and the smoking can affect and reduce the fertility of the male. Smoking can be a cause of infertility in males especially those with idiopathic infertility.