The external pH appeared to be the main factor governing oxalic acid production by Aspergillus niger. A glucose-oxidase-negative mutant produced substantial amounts of oxalic acid as long as the pH of the culture was 3 or higher. When pH was decreased below 2, no oxalic acid was formed. The activity of oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase (OAH), the enzyme believed to be responsible for oxalate formation in A. niger, correlated with oxalate production. OAH was purified from A. niger and characterized. OAH cleaves oxaloacetate to oxalate and acetate, but A. niger never accumulated any acetate in the culture broth. Since an A. niger acuA mutant, which lacks acetyl-CoA synthase, did produce some acetate, wild-type A. niger is apparently able to catabolize acetate sufficiently fast to prevent its production. An A. niger mutant, prtF28, previously isolated in a screen for strains deficient in extracellular protease expression, was shown here to be oxalate non-producing. The prtF28 mutant lacked OAH, implying that OAH is the only enzyme involved in oxalate production in A. niger. In a traditional citric acid fermentation low pH and absence of Mn2+ are prerequisites. Remarkably, a strain lacking both glucose oxidase (goxC) and OAH (prtF) produced citric acid from sugar substrates in a regular synthetic medium at pH 5 and under these conditions production was completely insensitive to Mn2+.


The research was purposed to analyse genetic similarity of tiger grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) in order to select grouper that was resistant to Vibrio alginolyticus. In this study, fish were challenged with Vibrio alginolyticus and genetic similarity was examined by a PCR-RAPD method. Eight RAPD primers were used for PCR-RAPD analysis. The results showed that only three primers of RAPD primer (YNZ-22, UBC-456, dan UBC-457) generated high number of RAPD fragments. The resistant group of tiger groupers generated higher polymorph RAPD fragments than the susceptible groups. RAPD primer YNZ-22 and UBC-457 generated 82 % and 71 % of RAPD polymorph fragments from resistant group of fish and 71% and 60 % from susceptible groups, respectively. Primer YNZ-22 is a best genetic marker to analyse genetic similarity of tiger groupers produced specific marker ranging from 1,2-2,0 kb. Genetic distances between the population of resistant fish and population of susceptible fish was 0.5091 and between individual of the resistant fish and susceptible fish was 0.7032.


The text proposes an approach to comeniology in the subjective perspective focusing on the content dimension of the research process. The considerations were based on the approach to science presented in Polish literature as a system of theorems about reality developed in the course of research. Comenius' work is considered from the perspective of the description of educational reality contained in it, which is composed of his concept of education. The intention was to present truths about the world, man and relations between them, objectively recognized by the author. The views on the concept of man, teacher and upbringing were reconstructed. A description of the educational reality outlined by the author was presented, taking into account the three elements constituting it the concept of man, upbringing and teacher. The intention was only to mention the most relevant content, because an exhaustive discussion goes beyond the scope of the article.


Skill chaining is a promising approach for synthesizing complex behaviors by sequentially combining previously learned skills. Yet, a naive composition of skills fails when a policy encounters a starting state never seen during its training. For successful skill chaining, prior approaches attempt to widen the policy's starting state distribution. However, these approaches require larger state distributions to be covered as more policies are sequenced, and thus are limited to short skill sequences. In this paper, we propose to chain multiple policies without excessively large initial state distributions by regularizing the terminal state distributions in an adversarial learning framework. We evaluate our approach on two complex long-horizon manipulation tasks of furniture assembly. Our results have shown that our method establishes the first model-free reinforcement learning algorithm to solve these tasks; whereas prior skill chaining approaches fail. The code and videos are available at https://clvrai.com/skill-chaining


The nonlinearity characteristics of a commercially available deuterated L-alanine-doped triglycine sulfate (DLATGS) pyroelectric detector were experimentally investigated at high levels of illumination using the National Physical Laboratory detector linearity characterization facility. The detector was shown to exhibit a superlinear response at high levels of illumination. Moreover, the linearity factor was shown to depend on the area of the spot on the detector active area being illuminated, i.e., the incident irradiance. Possible reasons for the observed behavior are proposed and discussed. The temperature coefficient of the response of the DLATGS pyroelectric detector was measured and found to be higher than +2.5% degrees C(-1). This large and positive temperature coefficient of response is the most likely cause of the superlinear behavior of the DLATGS pyroelectric detector.


ABSTRACT Background: Globally, of the 248 million people chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), 74 million reside in China. Five oral nucleot(s)ide analogs (NUCs) have been approved for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in China. Objectives: The aims of this study were to determine rates of adherence to NUC therapy in patients with CHB, to identify the self-perceived barriers to adherence, and to examine the factors associated with adherence. Methods: Questionnaire-based interviews were administered among Chinese patients with CHB at hepatology clinics of a tertiary hospital in the city of Wuhan, China. Adults aged 18 years or older prescribed with NUCs were recruited and interviewed to complete a 27-item questionnaire in a private setting, and adherence was measured using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Results: Among 369 participants, only 16.5% had high adherence (score of 8), 32.2% had medium adherence (score of 6 to <8), and 51.2% were measured with low adherence (score of <6). A logistic regression model was used to determine the factors associated with medication adherence. Significant predictors of high adherence consisted of urban residency, non-cirrhotic status, not using prescribed pills other than HBV medications, and reminders from family members. The five most common reasons for skipping NUCs were that medication(s) are expensive (48.7%), forgetfulness (45.1%), have experienced or worry about potential side effects (19.8%), do not want others to know about my medication(s) usage (18.5%), and ran out of pills and do not have time to refill (15.9%). Conclusions: This study revealed that adherence rates to oral antiviral therapy were far from optimal. This finding should generate public attention, and it would be beneficial for interventional programs to target Chinese patients from rural regions, as well as patients with low socioeconomic status, cirrhosis, and taking multiple medications.


Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) is a promising new approach to structure/activity correlation. With the aim to find out the structural features intended for the MAO inhibitory activity, in the present communication we report COMFA Analysis of Coumarin Analogues. The resulting model exhibited good q2 and r2 values up to 0.713 and 0.881 for CoMFA. The contributions from the steric and electrostatic fields were 1.361 and 0.908 respectively. The 3D QSAR analysis provides interesting insights in understanding the Steric and Electronic structural requirements for MAO-B inhibitory activity. Further all molecules were subjected to the toxicity assessment using Molinspiration and Osiris Calculations. Among the various MAO-B inhibitors, compound no-3 is the optimum drug candidate with respect to the activity and toxicity.


For decades, nuclear testing in America's southwest was shrouded in secrecy, with images gradually made public of mushroom clouds blooming over the desert. Now, another nuclear crisis looms over this region: the storage of tens of thousands of tons of nuclear waste. Tainted Desert maps the nuclear landscapes of the US inter-desert southwest, a land sacrificed to the Cold-War arms race and nuclear energy policy.


This paper develops a semantic approach to the study of "reciprocity" — an area increasingly seen as central to linguistic typology. "Reciprocal" and "reflexive-reciprocal" constructions from five languages — English, Russian, Polish, French and Japanese — are analyzed in considerable detail. The different, though interrelated, meanings of these constructions are explicated, and the proposed explications are supported with linguistic evidence. The paper challenges current approaches which tend to lump formally and semantically distinct constructions under one arbitrary label such as "RECIP", and it seeks to show how linguistic typology can be transformed by joining forces with rigorous cross-linguistic semantics. It also challenges the Nijmegen School approach, which privileges extensionalist "video-clipping" over conceptual analysis. The analysis presented in the paper demonstrates the descriptive and explanatory power of the NSM methodology. The results achieved through semantic analysis are shown to be convergent with hypotheses about "shared intentionality" put forward by Michael Tomasello and colleagues in the context of evolutionary psychology, and to throw new light on social universals ("human sociality").


Properly functioning coagulation in gravidity is not necessary only to provide the continuity of circulation in placenta. Today we recognize that proteins and cells of haemostasis in the maternal blood cooperate with the components of a coagulation cascade produced by embryonic trophoblast cells. Such coordination on the embryomaternal interface is necessary for an intact embryogenesis. Other findings discuss the ability of coagulation components to act also outside the hemocoagulation process, especially as signal molecules, regulators of immune reactions, cell proliferation and others. Haemostasis is thus a complex system and we still do not know all of its pathways. This is perhaps also the reason that in the case of known procoagulant mutations (FV Leiden, gene mutation for prothrombine G20210A) we cannot explain why some carriers suffer recurrent miscarriages and others have uncomplicated pregnancies. The expert community believes that the phenotype manifestation of these mutations in terms of pregnancy losses could be connected to the simultaneous presence (synergistic effect) of other polymorphisms of gene-encoding proteins of haemostasis or the lack thereof (antagonistic effect) (Ref. 59).


The dual‐probe heat‐pulse (DPHP) technique is emerging as a useful technique for measuring soil volumetric water content (θ). However, few published data are available regarding the performance of the DPHP technique under field conditions. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the DPHP technique for measuring θ under field conditions. We used 24 DPHP sensors to monitor θ in a soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] field during the 2001 and 2002 growing seasons. The DPHP sensors demonstrated durability in field conditions and clear sensitivity to temporal and spatial variations of θ at the scale of measurement. The mean θ measured by the DPHP sensors (θDPHP) was on average 0.040 m3 m−3 larger than the mean θ measured by soil sampling (θSS). The response of the DPHP sensors was linear. Regressions of θDPHP vs. θSS yielded r2 values of 0.949 and 0.843 at depths of 7.5 and 37.5 cm. The DPHP technique showed good resolution with RMSE values for the regression of 0.009 and 0.011 m3 m−3 at the two measurement depths. The slopes of the regressions were 0.75 rather than 1.0. Errors in θSS are a likely cause of this low slope. We shifted all the θ values for each sensor up or down by a constant value to make the first θ measurement from each sensor equal θ determined from soil sampling near that sensor at the time of installation. This simple matching point procedure improved the accuracy of the DPHP technique, resulting in a −0.024 m3 m−3 average difference between θDPHP and θSS Also, the matching point procedure markedly reduced the variability between sensors, reducing the average SD from 0.063 to 0.026 m3 m−3 This procedure requires no additional soil sampling and is recommended for field applications of the DPHP technique.


Abstract. Drought indices based on precipitation are commonly used to identify and characterize droughts. Due to the general complexity of droughts, the comparison of index-identified events with droughts at different levels of the complete system, including soil humidity or river discharges, relies typically on model simulations of the latter, entailing potentially significant uncertainties. The present study explores the potential of using precipitation-based indices to reproduce observed droughts in the lower part of the Jinsha River basin (JRB), proposing an innovative approach for a catchment-wide drought detection and characterization. Two indicators, namely the Overall Drought Extension (ODE) and the Overall Drought Indicator (ODI), have been defined. These indicators aim at identifying and characterizing drought events on the basin scale, using results from four meteorological drought indices (standardized precipitation index, SPI; rainfall anomaly index, RAI; percent of normal precipitation, PN; deciles, DEC) calculated at different locations of the basin and for different timescales. Collected historical information on drought events is used to contrast results obtained with the indicators. This method has been successfully applied to the lower Jinsha River basin in China, a region prone to frequent and severe droughts. Historical drought events that occurred from 1960 to 2014 have been compiled and cataloged from different sources, in a challenging process. The analysis of the indicators shows a good agreement with the recorded historical drought events on the basin scale. It has been found that the timescale that best reproduces observed events across all the indices is the 6-month timescale.


Brain ion homeostasis is severely perturbed during spreading depression of Leao and during anoxia. The ionic composition of the extracellular space changes abruptly and approaches the intracellular concentrations owing to an increase in cell permeability. In spreading depression, synchronous transmitter efflux caused by a depolarization of the presynaptic terminals has been implicated as a possible mechanism that would explain the concomitant movement of ions. Anoxia, having many features in common with spreading depression, may follow the same mechanism. We have measured the concentrations of extracellular potassium with ion-selective microelectrodes and dopamine by in vivo voltammetry with carbon fiber microelectrodes during spreading depression and anoxia to compare the temporal relationship between the release of dopamine and ion movements in the striatum. There is a pronounced release of dopamine during both spreading depression and anoxia. In spreading depression, the sharp increase of potassium concentration that follows an initial smaller and slower increase of potassium is accompanied by the release of dopamine. In anoxia, the dopamine release clearly precedes the fast rise of extracellular potassium concentration. We conclude that in striatum, there is a pronounced dopamine release during spreading depression and anoxia, but that the relationships between ionic changes and transmitter release for these two phenomena are different and probably reflect different mechanisms.


Mobile learning can help in accelerating the students' learning strengths and comprehension skills. Due to the immediacy and effectiveness of mobile learning, many mobile educational systems with diverse assessments techniques have been proposed. However, we observe a common limitation in existing assessments techniques, such as, the learner cannot correlate question and answer choices or freely adapt answers in a given multiple-choice question, often resulting in incorrect assessment grade. In the current work, we present a reverse multiple-choice mobile learning system that is based on knowledge acquisition. Using a knowledge base, a set of answer choices will be created for a multiple-choice question. For each of one or more of the incorrect answers, a follow-up query is generated for which the incorrect answer is correct. The goal is to find, via a query, an optimal association between the incorrect answers and the correct answer. The user studies of the proposed system demonstrated its efficiency and effectiveness.Keywords—Mobile Learning, Knowledge Acquisition, Multiple Choice, Expert Systems.I. IntroductionNowadays, mobile devices opened a new horizon for learning. As most people own handheld private portable smart phones, this has become main medium of connectivity and reexamination. Using smart-devices for learning is beneficial and attractive as the learner can access educational materials and access assessment exercises at any time. However, existing assessment technique such as multiple-choice technique [1] does not enable a learner to modify answers in the given multiple-choice question resulting inaccurate assessment grade. For this reason, the attested research work was to extend the former multiple-answers question technique with the ability of selecting wrong answers in mobile learning scope. Thus, extra-assessments will be carried out to assess the knowledge of the learner using the selected wrong answer. II. Review of the LiteratureSeveral mobile learning applications have been proposed due to their ability in providing more engaging and successful learning environments [2]. Chen et al. [3] proposed a mobile learning system that provides multistage guiding mechanisms when the student selects wrong answer in a multiple-choice question. The proposed system enhanced the learning achievements of students and their learning motivation. Huang et al. [4] developed a mobile learning tool to improve learning the English language for foreign language (EFL) students. The tool uses 5-step vocabulary learning (FSVL) strategy. Thus, it employs the former multiple-choice questions in order to assess the learning of students. Koorsse et al. [5] proposed a mobile based system that uses two multiple-choice assessment methods. The assessment methods use self-regulated principles to support the learning of students in the secondary school of science and mathematics. As many mobile based educational systems have been proposed, adapting multiple-choice questions according to a selected wrong answer was not considered in previous mobile based educational systems. Hence, our system can be used to enhance the learning assessments of learners.III. The Proposed SystemOur proposed system provides educational content and uses a novel assessment technique based on reverse-multiple choice [6]. The system can be used in classroom to assess the learning of students. The proposed system covers: 1) presentation of educational content, 2) generation of multiple-choice based questions including their follow-up queries, and 3) performance analysis of the student. For the presentation of the content, we have created an educational depository that contains collection of educational stories. These stories are collected from diverse online ebook libraries such as MagicBlox library [7], BookRix [8], and others. For the multiple-choice questions, we start with the familiar multiple-choice format [1], which we call "Reverse Multiple-Choice Method" (RMCM). The question uses the power of wrong answer choices not just as "distractors," but to extract information about students' depth of learning from brief, machine gradable answers. RMCM question asks a student to weigh why a particular answer choice is incorrect, identify segment(s) of the query on which the answer turns, then change those segment(s) to make it correct. Indeed, the examiner must carefully select the answer choices for a multiple-choice query, but RMCM question databanks have lasting value and high re-usability; even having seen a question earlier, an examinee must answer it thoughtfully. The RMCM approach suits m-learning environments especially, since thinking comprises most effort and actual answers are brief. Eventually, for the performance analysis of students, we use the total number of correct answers done by the student to assess his/her performance. When a reverse multiple-choice option is employed, the grade will be computed according to the number of correct attempts achieved by the student. Thus, for every wrong attempt the performance is decreased by certain percentage.Bibliography[1] K. M. Scouller and M. Prosser, "Students' experiences in studying for multiple choice question examinations," Studies in Higher Education, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 267-279, Jan. 1994.[2] K. Wilkinson and P. Barter, "Do mobile learning devices enhance learning in higher education anatomy classrooms?," Journal of pedagogic development, vol. 6, no. 1, 2016.[3] C. H. Chen, G. Z. Liu, and G. J. Hwang, "Interaction between gaming and multistage guiding strategies on students' field trip mobile learning performance and motivation," British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 1032-1050, 2016.[4] C. S. Huang, S. J. Yang, T. H. Chiang, and A. Y. Su, "Effects of situated mobile learning approach on learning motivation and performance of EFL students," Journal of Educational Technology a Society, vol. 19, no. 1, 2016.[5] M. Koorsse, W. Olivier, and J. Greyling, "Self-Regulated Mobile Learning and Assessment: An Evaluation of Assessment Interfaces," Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, vol. 13, pp. 89-109, 2014.[6] I. M. Anand, "Reverse Multiple-Choice Based Clustering for Machine Learning and Knowledge Acquisition," International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI), vol. 1, p. 431, 2014.[7] "MagicBlox Children's Book Library." Available: http://magicblox.com/. Accessed: 20-Oct-2017.[8] "BookRix." Available: https://www.bookrix.com/. Accessed: 20-Oct-2017.


Pyrochlore supergroup and columbite-tantalite series minerals can be used as indicators for specialty metal deposits. Their mineral chemistry can be used to target specific specialty metal deposit-types and provide a vector towards mineralisation. A ternary Nb-Ti-Ta discrimination diagram for the pyrochlore supergroup shows that minerals from carbonatites and related deposits occupy the pyrochlore field and extend slightly into the betafite and microlite fields (>35% Nb, <65% Ti, and <45% Ta). Those from peralkaline complexes define a narrow zone paralleling the Nb-Ti join (>40% Nb, <60% Ti, and <10% Ta). Pyrochlore supergroup minerals from Li-Cs-Ta enriched (LCT) pegmatites occupy the microlite field (<90% Nb, ≤40% Ti, and > 15% Ta) whereas those from peraluminous granites plot in the microlite field along the Nb-Ta join, extending slightly into the pyrochlore field (<65% Nb, <10% Ti, and >35% Ta) on the Nb-Ti-Ta ternary diagram. The discrimination diagram for pyrochlore supergroup minerals is based on 349 new electron microprobe analyses from British Columbia and Québec, Canada, combined with 879 published analyses from 50 deposits worldwide. A columbite-tantalite series discrimination quadrilateral indicates that minerals from carbonatites and related deposits are Nb-rich, with Mn/(Mn+Fe) and Ta/(Ta+Nb) atomic ratios ≤ 0.25 and ≤ 0.20, respectively. Columbite from peralkaline complexes plot along the FeNb2O6–MnNb2O6 join of the quadrilateral and have Mn/(Mn+Fe) ratios of ≤ 0.65 and Ta/(Ta+Nb) ratios of ≤ 0.15. Fe-Nb-rich varieties within this zone slightly overlap with those from carbonatites. Columbite-tantalite series minerals from Li-Cs-Ta (LCT) pegmatites and peraluminous granites are not well constrained but do slightly overlap with columbite-(Fe) from carbonatites. A minor overlap exists between the fields from carbonatites, peralkaline complexes, LCT pegmatites, and peraluminous granites near the columbite-(Fe) corner of the quadrilateral. The discrimination diagram for columbite-tantalite series minerals is based on 153 new electron microprobe analyses from British Columbia combined with over 2500 analyses complied from the literature. Combining the two discrimination diagrams presented here enhances their effectiveness to explore for specialty metal deposits.


When patients bypass one health facility to seek health care at another, strong preferences are revealed. This paper advances the view that the patterns of bypassing observed in Iringa Rural district in Tanzania show evidence of patients' understanding of various measures of quality at the facilities that they visit and bypass. Importantly some of these measures are 'unobservable,' meaning that we do not expect patients to be able to evaluate whether or not these types of quality are present just from visiting a center. We use two data sets on various features of health facilities including consultation quality and prescription quality as evaluated by a team of clinicians. This is matched with data collected from health center registers that included the symptoms of patients and the village they traveled from. The register data is transformed into a patient-based sample and we use a multinomial/conditional logit regression on patient choice of provider to show the relationship between patient behavior and objective measure of technical quality in the health facilities. Patients seek facilities that provide high quality consultations, are staffed by more knowledgeable physicians, observe prescription practices, and are polite. They avoid facilities that use injections too liberally or over-prescribe medication.


Recent work has experimentally shown that parallelization of Greedy Best-First Search (GBFS), a satisficing best-first search method, can behave very differently from sequential GBFS. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework to compare parallel best-first search with sequential best-first search, including both suboptimal (GBFS, Weighted A*) and optimal (A*) best-first search methods. We analyze the extent to which the search behavior of existing parallel best-first search methods differ from sequential best-first search, and show that existing methods are vulnerable to pathological behavior, and that they can expand nodes which would not be expanded by sequential search under any tie-breaking policy. We also propose PUHF, a parallel best-first search which is guaranteed to expand a node only if there is some tie-breaking strategy for sequential search which expands the node.


Many of the parameters in subsurface flow and transport models cannot be estimated directly at the scale of interest, but can only be derived through inverse modeling. During this process, the parameters are adjusted in such a way that the behavior of the model approximates, as closely and consistently as possible, the observed response of the system under study for some historical period of time. We briefly review the current state of the art of inverse modeling for estimating unsaturated flow and transport processes. We summariz how the inverse method works, discuss the historical background that led to the current perspectives on inverse modeling, and review the solution algorithms used to solve the parameter estimation problem. We then highlight our recent work at Los Alamos related to the development and implementation of improved optimization and data assimilation methods for computationally efficient calibration and uncertainty estimation in complex, distributed flow and transport models using parallel computing capabilities. Finally, we illustrate these developments with three different case studies, including (i) the calibration of a fully coupled three‐dimensional vapor extraction model using measured concentrations of volatile organic compounds in the subsurface near the Los Alamos National Laboratory, (ii) the multiobjective inverse estimation of soil hydraulic properties in the HYDRUS‐1D model using observed tensiometric data from an experimental field plot in New Zealand, and (iii) the simultaneous estimation of parameter and states in a groundwater solute mixture model using data from a multitracer experiment at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.


The concept of madness as a challenge to communities lies at the core of
 legal sources. This book considers how communal networks, ranging from
 the locale to the realm, responded to people who were considered mad.
 The madness of individuals played a role in engaging communities with
 legal mechanisms and proto-national identity constructs, as petitioners
 sought the king's mercy as an alternative to local justice. The resulting
 narratives about the mentally ill in late medieval France constructed
 madness as an inability to live according to communal rules. Although
 such texts defined madness through acts that threatened social bonds,
 those ties were reaffirmed through the medium of the remission letter.
 The composers of the letters presented madness as a communal concern,
 situating the mad within the household, where care could be provided.
 These mad were usually not expelled but integrated, often through pilgrimage,
 surveillance, or chains, into their kin and communal relationships.


This paper compares the performance of five classes of forecasting models in an extensive out-of-sample exercise. The types of models considered are standard univariate models, factor-augmented regressions, dynamic factor models, other data-rich models and forecast combinations. These models are compared using four types of data: real series, nominal series, the stock market index and exchange rates. Our findings can be summarized in a few points: (i) data-rich models and forecasts combination approaches are the best for predicting real series; (ii) ARMA(1,1) model predicts inflation change incredibly well and outperform data-rich models; (iii) the simple average of forecasts is the best approach to predict future SP500 returns; (iv) exchange rates can be predicted at short horizons mainly by univariate models but the random walk dominates at medium and long terms; (v) the optimal structure of forecasting equations changes much over time; and (vi) the dispersion of out-of-sample point forecasts is a good predictor of some macroeconomic and financial uncertainty measures as well as of the business cycle movements among real activity series.


We review 3 different applications of the same development methodology. We begin by using a very expressive, appropriate Domain Specific Language (in this case mathematics as embodied in a Computer Algebra System), to write down very precise problem definitions, using their most natural formulation. Once these problems are defined, this forms an implicit definition of a unique solution. From the problem statement, our model, we use mathematical transformations to make the problem simpler to solve computationally. We call this crucial step "model manipulation." With the model rephrased in more computational terms, we can also derive various quantities directly from this model, which greatly simplify traditional numeric solutions, our eventual goal. From all this data, we then use standard code generation and code transformation techniques to generate lower-level code to perform the final numerical steps. This methodology is very flexible, generates faster code, and generates code which would have been all but impossible for a human programmer to get correct.


At the end of 2013, the share of government debt held by the domestic banking sectors of Eurozone countries was more than twice the amount held in 2007. We show that increased domestic government bond holdings generated a crowding out of corporate lending. We find that loan supply was depressed by these domestic sovereign bonds only during the crisis period (2010-11). The pattern also holds across firms with different relationship banks within a given countries. These findings suggest that sovereign bond holdings negatively impact private capital formation. We show that direct government ownership, as well as government influence through banks' boards of directors, are among the channels used to influence banks.


Electricity power industry in Malaysia has been operating in environments of intense and rapid change. Technology advancement has forced customers to demand for services from the utilities. Customers demand for quality product and services had launched the search by the utility companies for best strategy to satisfy their needs.
At TNB Bagan Serai, the high rate of low voltage power failures during the middle of nineties has caused the organization faced with pressure from both customers as well as top management. The earlier application of the Conventional Method through tall hierarchy did not help to solve the problem. Many strategies were outlined but it failed to produce promising results. During the month of July 1996, a new strategy as known as Employee
Involvement Participation Method was introduced in order to overcome power outages issue. Since the causes of the outages were identified due to human factor and method
factor, a severe focus on technical and non-technical issues were enhanced. Emphasis getting job done through employee involvement was enhanced. As a result, the power
outages rate of 306 in September 1995 was reduced to 43 by end of April 1997 and settled below 15 a month by end of December 1999. This paper explains the experiences encountered by TNB Bagan Serai to achieve an excellent result and how they manage to transform the employees from various ethic background with different level of age to unite in a team with one vision: reduce power outages. An interview survey regarding the effectiveness of two different management methods was conducted between 24th Jan 2000 to 30th Jan 2000. The result of this survey is discussed in this paper.


We compare seismic refraction and reflection results along the PASSCAL/COCORP 40°N transect in the northern Basin and Range of Nevada in order to determine the origin of the prominent reflections from the deep crystalline crust. Reflection data along the transect show a thick zone of discontinuous, subhorizontal reflections, beginning at 4-6 s two-way traveltime (10-20 km depth) and ending at 9-11 s (27-35 km). Two independently derived velocity models, based on refraction data, are largely similar and agree on many important aspects of the reflectivity-velocity relation. Both models show that the top of the reflective zone lies 3-8 km above a prominent mid-crustal velocity discontinuity, which is interpreted to separate bulk silicic from bulk dioritic-gabbroic crust; in most places, the silicic mid-crust is more strongly reflective than the mafic lower crust. This pattern is expected in areas where ductile shearing is the mechanism responsible for the reflectivity. One of the velocity models, however, suggests that, in places, the strongest reflectivity spans both the middle (6.1-6.3 km/s) and lower (6.6 km/s) crust; this pattern suggests that the combined influence of ductile strain fabrics and mafic intrusions gives rise to crustal reflections. Both models show that the lowermost crust and crust/mantle transition are highly reflective, also suggesting the presence of mafic and/or ultramafic intrusions. Thus the observed reflection patterns suggest that ductile shearing and the intrusion of mantle-derived magma—both of which are likely to have accompanied the extreme Cenozoic extension—are important factors in generating deep crustal reflections.


Recently, they have been a lot of earthquakes in Japan. Therefore, it is necessary to attach seismic isolation devices to detached houses. However, almost all detached houses do not have any seismic isolation devices attached, because the seismic isolation devices are expensive. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a low-cost seismic isolation device. We created a new energy absorbing device filled with low rigidity material in two-layer circular tubes. If hysteresis is produced in the two-layer circular tube under lateral compression load, we think that a two-layer circular tube can have energy absorbing capacity. Therefore, we think that the device has a high energy absorbing capacity. For hysteresis to occur, friction should exist between the outer layer and inner layer. Also, we should reveal a force of elastic limit to have sustainability. In this paper, in the case that outer layer is made of stainless steel and inner layer is made of acrylic plastic, we evaluated the deformation and the stress of each circular tube. As a result, we were able to clarify the relationship between the contact condition that fiction occurs in each circular tube and external force of elastic limit.


In the United States, the number of people receiving state-subsidized food aid has risen dramatically since 2001. This increase complicates the well-worn story that the post-Fordist welfare state has been continuously cut back in the neoliberal era, indicating instead that it is expanding to subsidize poor workers' participation in the formal labor market. In New York City, welfare office workers operationalize policies that ease access to food assistance for poor workers who can demonstrate that they are formally employed. Meanwhile, workfare programs punish the unemployed and marginal workers by making them work for food stamps. This conservative, paternalistic welfare regime commodifies labor, creates new patterns of stratification among the urban poor, and redraws the terms of economic citizenship. [welfare, poverty, citizenship, food policy, employment, social stratification, New York City]


This highly topical book considers the important question of how best to protect the environment of the Third Pole – the area comprising the Hindu Kush Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau – using the tool of international law. Following detailed analysis of the weaknesses in the current legal protections according to comparative legal theory, Simon Marsden recommends three potential options for implementation by policy and lawmakers.


We have investigated white-emitting organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) making use of both blue-phosphor-sensitized orange-red fluorescence and the residual blue phosphorescence. By carefully adjusting the concentrations the phosphor and the fluorophore in the emitting layer and choosing the carrier-transport layers in the device structure, WOLEDs containing a single phosphor-sensitized emitting layer (type-I devices) can give colors close to the equal-energy white (0.33, 0.33), CRI up to 75, and efficiencies up to (10%, 23 cd/A, 13.4lm/W). Furthermore, by doping a green phosphor into the poorly emitting electron-transport layer (type-II devices) to recycle excitons formed there, the EL efficiencies can be further enhanced up to (12.1%, 35.3 cd/A, 23.9lm/W). In both types of devices, the phosphor sensitization reduces population of triplet excitons in the emitting region and substantially mitigates the efficiency roll-off with the driving current or brightness that is often observed in all-phosphor OLEDs. At the brightness of 1000 cd/m2, both types of devices retain quantum and cadmium per ampere (cd/A) efficiencies similar to their peak values


How does access to information communication technology (ICT) affect who gets heard and what gets communicated to politicians? On the one hand, ICT can lower communication costs for poorer constituents; on the other, technological channels may be used disproportionately more by the already well connected. To assess the flattening effects of ICTs, we presented a representative sample of constituents in Uganda with an opportunity to send a text message to their representatives at one of three randomly assigned prices. Critically, and contrary to concerns that technological innovations benefit the privileged, we find evidence that ICT can lead to significant flattening: a greater share of marginalized populations use this channel compared to existing political communication channels. Price plays a more complex role. Subsidizing the full cost of messaging increases uptake by over 40%. Surprisingly however, subsidy-induced increases in uptake do not yield further flattening since free channels are not used at higher rates by more marginalized constituents.


This tutorial text gives a unifying perspective on machine learning by covering bothprobabilistic and deterministic approaches -which are based on optimization techniques together with the Bayesian inference approach, whose essence liesin the use of a hierarchy of probabilistic models. The book presents the major machine learning methods as they have been developed in different disciplines, such as statistics, statistical and adaptive signal processing and computer science. Focusing on the physical reasoning behind the mathematics, all the various methods and techniques are explained in depth, supported by examples and problems, giving an invaluable resource to the student and researcher for understanding and applying machine learning concepts. The book builds carefully from the basic classical methods to the most recent trends, with chapters written to be as self-contained as possible, making the text suitable for different courses: pattern recognition, statistical/adaptive signal processing, statistical/Bayesian learning, as well as short courses on sparse modeling, deep learning, and probabilistic graphical models. All major classical techniques: Mean/Least-Squares regression and filtering, Kalman filtering, stochastic approximation and online learning, Bayesian classification, decision trees, logistic regression and boosting methods. The latest trends: Sparsity, convex analysis and optimization, online distributed algorithms, learning in RKH spaces, Bayesian inference, graphical and hidden Markov models, particle filtering, deep learning, dictionary learning and latent variables modeling. Case studies - protein folding prediction, optical character recognition, text authorship identification, fMRI data analysis, change point detection, hyperspectral image unmixing, target localization, channel equalization and echo cancellation, show how the theory can be applied. MATLAB code for all the main algorithms are available on an accompanying website, enabling the reader to experiment with the code.


Despite significant recent advances in the field of face recognition [10, 14, 15, 17], implementing face verification and recognition efficiently at scale presents serious challenges to current approaches. In this paper we present a system, called FaceNet, that directly learns a mapping from face images to a compact Euclidean space where distances directly correspond to a measure offace similarity. Once this space has been produced, tasks such as face recognition, verification and clustering can be easily implemented using standard techniques with FaceNet embeddings asfeature vectors. Our method uses a deep convolutional network trained to directly optimize the embedding itself, rather than an intermediate bottleneck layer as in previous deep learning approaches. To train, we use triplets of roughly aligned matching / non-matching face patches generated using a novel online triplet mining method. The benefit of our approach is much greater representational efficiency: we achieve state-of-the-artface recognition performance using only 128-bytes perface. On the widely used Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) dataset, our system achieves a new record accuracy of 99.63%. On YouTube Faces DB it achieves 95.12%. Our system cuts the error rate in comparison to the best published result [15] by 30% on both datasets.


New approaches quantifying the effect of treatment are needed in oncology to improve the drug development process and to enable treatment optimization for existing therapies. This thesis focuses on the development of pharmacometric models for biomarkers, side effects and efficacy in order to identify predictors of clinical response in anti-cancer drug therapy. The variability in myelosuppression was characterized in six different cytotoxic anticancer treatments to evaluate a model-based dose individualization approach utilizing neutrophil counts as a biomarker. The estimated impact of inter-occasion variability was relatively low in relation to the inter-individual variability, indicating that myelosuppression is predictable from one treatment course to another. The approach may thereby be useful for dose optimization within an individual. To further study and to identify predictors for the severe side effect febrile neutropenia (FN), the relationship between the shape of the myelosuppression time-course and the probability of FN was characterized. Patients with a rapid decline in neutrophil counts and high drug sensitivity were identified to have a higher probability of developing FN compared with other patients who experience grade 4 neutropenia. Predictors of clinical response in patients receiving sunitinib for the treatment of gastro-intestinal stromal tumor (GIST) were identified by the development of an integrated modeling framework. Drug exposure, biomarkers, tumor dynamics, side effects and overall survival (OS) were linked in a unified structure, and univariate and multivariate exposure variables were tested for their predictive capacities. The soluble biomarker, sVEGFR-3 and tumor size at start of treatment were found to be promising predictors of overall survival, with decreased sVEGFR-3 levels and smaller baseline tumor size being predictive of longer OS. Also hypertension and neutropenia was identified as predictors of OS. The developed modeling framework may be useful to monitor clinical response, optimize dosing in sunitinib and to facilitate dose individualization.


A full exploration of the conformational landscape of D-ribose and 2-deoxy-D-ribose monosaccharides in the gas phase has been performed using DFT methods (B3LYP and M06-2X). Open-chain, furanose and pyranose configurations have been examined. Up to 954 and 668 stable structures have been obtained for D-ribose and 2-deoxy-D-ribose. Among these structures, up to 35 and 22 have relative energies smaller than 5 kJ mol−1 with respect to the absolute minimum of each molecule, respectively. For D-ribose, pyranose in α- and β-forms is the most populated according to both functionals, the β-diastereoisomer being the most populated. For 2-deoxy-D-ribose, the α-pyranose form is in majority. The β/α relationship of pyranose forms presents different results for both functionals: for M06-2X it increases in D-ribose and decreases in 2-deoxy-D-ribose at 0 K with respect to the room temperature results, the opposite case occurring in B3LYP. Intramolecular weak interactions have been characterized using the AIM and NBO methodologies.


Study to assess the self-medication practice and related knowledge among nursing students was conducted among 200 subjects using descriptive design. Subjects were selected through stratified random sampling technique from five selected nursing institutions at Ernakulam district of Kerala, India and prevalidated semistructured questionnaire related to various aspects of self-medication was used for data collection. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Self-medication was reported among 63% of the nursing students. The respondents who used self-medication found it to be using for minor ailments. The most common ailments for which self-medication was practiced include fever (58%) and pain (40%). Antipyretics (72%), analgesics (48%) and antacids (28%) were the most common self-medication medicines used. Of the respondents, 3% experienced adverse reactions as a result of self-medication practice. The present study reports that the prevalence of self-medication among nursing students was high and a significant number of students are unaware of the adverse effects of the medication that they themselves take and suggest to others. Therefore, potential problems of self-medication should be emphasized to the students.


Featuring essays by world-renowned scholars, Diasporas charts the various ways in which global population movements and associated social, political and cultural issues have been seen through the lens of diaspora.
Wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, this collection considers critical concepts shaping the field, such as migration, ethnicity, post-colonialism and cosmopolitanism. It also examines key intersecting agendas and themes, including political economy, security, race, gender, and material and electronic culture. Original case studies of contemporary as well as classical diasporas are featured, mapping new directions in research and testing the usefulness of diaspora for analyzing the complexity of transnational lives today.
Diasporas is an essential text for anyone studying, working or interested in this increasingly vital subject.


The research project was a qualitative study which examined the use of IELTS to assess English language competence for membership of professional associations or as a criterion for registration. The study focused on two traditional markets, Australia and New Zealand, and a newer market, the USA. This was timely research as, when it was approved in December 2005, there had been a significant increase in the use of IELTS in the academic arena in the previous two to three years but not in its use by professional associations. The majority of organisations recognising IELTS operated in the health care sector. Questions guiding the research related to reasons for selecting IELTS, comparing IELTS with other acceptable language assessment systems, perceptions of the fitness of IELTS for the purpose and the levels of support required and provided by IELTS administration. The approach and methodology involved desk research and face-to-face interviews with key staff in professional associations. The research found that in Australia and the USA, most were well-informed about IELTS. All associations in Australia and New Zealand had reviewed their original decisions on acceptable levels. US associations had sought advice from IELTS International and consulted comparable associations before setting their standards. Most provided applicants with a choice of language proficiency testing systems, primarily the Occupational English Test in Australia and New Zealand and TOEFL in the USA. Associations in Australia and New Zealand would like regular, but not frequent, contact from IELTS on updates and changes. The research makes a number of recommendations including that a process of test validation of IELTS be undertaken for each of the professions currently using IELTS, and that standards and policies for IELTS support of non-academic users of the Test be developed. Other recommendations include educational programs to explain IELTS to key staff and initiatives to identify potential users such as the State Registration Boards in the USA.


Hydrologic connectivity is the linkage of separate regions of a catchment via water flow. Knowledge of hillslope–stream connectivity (both at the surface and in the subsurface) is essential for understanding and predicting runoff responses and streamwater quality. Connectivity can be very dynamic: hillslopes may connect to the stream only during certain events or seasons. While surface connectivity is often discussed, particularly in the context of sediment transport, subsurface connectivity is more difficult to describe and assess. This difficulty has led to a wide variety in methodologies that are used in various contexts. Field approaches have focused on intensive monitoring of processes on the hillslope or the fingerprint of connectivity in the stream. Combining experimental studies with modeling allows for testing of hypotheses with respect to thresholds and controls on connectivity, and extrapolation from the hillslope scale to the catchment scale. However, as most modeling approaches are based on datasets from a few intensively studied hillslopes, this carries the inherent risk of oversimplification because it assumes that the observed hillslope responses are representative for the catchment or even the region. Focussed efforts on catchment scale assessment of hillslope–stream connectivity, as well as site intercomparisons and the search for similarity measures may allow us to capture the wider picture of the mechanisms and factors that control hillslope–stream connectivity, and its effects on flow and transport at the catchment scale. This overview focuses on how hillslope–stream connectivity has been studied and describes the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges of the different methods. WIREs Water 2015, 2:177–198. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1071


Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej, the only king ever born in the United States, came to the throne of his country in 1946 and is now the world's longest-serving monarch. The King Never Smiles, the first independent biography of Thailand's monarch, tells the unexpected story of Bhumibol's life and sixty-year rule--how a Western-raised boy came to be seen by his people as a living Buddha, and how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political and autocratic. Paul Handley provides an extensively researched, factual account of the king's youth and personal development, ascent to the throne, skillful political maneuverings, and attempt to shape Thailand as a Buddhist kingdom. Handley takes full note of Bhumibol's achievements in art, in sports and jazz, and he credits the king's lifelong dedication to rural development and the livelihoods of his poorest subjects. But, looking beyond the widely accepted image of the king as egalitarian and virtuous, Handley portrays an anti-democratic monarch who, together with allies in big business and the corrupt Thai military, has protected a centuries-old, barely modified feudal dynasty. When at nineteen Bhumibol assumed the throne, the Thai monarchy had been stripped of power and prestige. Over the ensuing decades, Bhumibol became the paramount political actor in the kingdom, silencing critics while winning the hearts and minds of his people. The book details this process and depicts Thailand's unique constitutional monarch--his life, his thinking, and his ruling philosophy.


This contribution discusses current knowledge of associations between psychosocial stress at work and health risk behavior, in particular cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and overweight, by reviewing findings from major studies in the field published between 1989 and 2006. Psychosocial stress at work is measured by the demand-control model and the effort-reward imbalance model. Health risk behavior was analyzed in the broader context of a health-related Western lifestyle with socially and economically patterned practices of consumption. Overall, the review, based on 46 studies, only modestly supports the hypothesis of a consistent association between work stress and health risk behavior. The relatively strongest relationships have been found with regard to heavy alcohol consumption among men, overweight, and the co-manifestation of several risks. Suggestions for further research are given, and the need to reduce stressful experience in the framework of worksite health promotion programs is emphasized.


As Texas's population continues growing, the state is struggling to forestall a looming water crisis. Tarrant Regional Water District, a Texas state agency, sought to purchase some of Oklahoma's water from the Red River, which forms a boundary between the states. Tarrant's efforts failed because Oklahoma's water permit laws disfavor out-of-state purchasers. Tarrant sued the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and claimed in part that Oklahoma's laws create an unconstitutional restriction on interstate commerce. In Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and dismissed Tarrant's Commerce Clause claim as meritless. This Comment argues that the Supreme Court's holding could hinder interstate cooperation in solving water shortages.


I. INTRODUCTION In Miller v. Alabamathe Supreme Court of the United States, in a five to four opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan, held that mandatory life imprisonment without parole for defendants convicted of murder who were under age eighteen at the time of their crimes violated the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (2) The decision raises a host of important questions that the University of Missouri School of Law's recent symposium ably addressed. Is Miller a watershed opinion, prefiguring a new era of substantive Eighth Amendment jurisprudence that would apply to other imprisonment sentences across offender and offense categories? Does it suggest a new constitutional procedural right to individualized sentencing for terms of imprisonment just as the Court has required for the death penalty--even casting doubt on mandatory sentences in other areas? Or is it a limited extension of the Court's "death is different" jurisprudence to what some have called the "living death sentence," (3) excluding one generic offender category and raising the possibility that other generic offender categories may also be excluded as they have been in death penalty jurisprudence? Or even if it applies "only" to juvenile mandatory life sentences, what are its implications for other areas involving juveniles and the criminal justice system? I offer tentative answers to these questions; others may disagree with this proposition. Sadly, I do not believe that Miller has ushered in a general "right to individualized sentencing," let alone a constitutional right to proportionality analysis in imprisonment cases, at least not given the current composition of the Supreme Court. As 1 describe below, our Supreme Court--unlike other common law high courts--has resisted such an analysis in its Eighth Amendment jurisprudence; this resistance is unlikely to fade any time soon. To put it mildly, Eighth Amendment jurisprudence thus far has been a less than powerful tool to deal with the extraordinary prison terms that we have been imposing on defendants across this country for the past three decades. (4) It has been a less than powerful tool to address three strikes laws that impose onerous and plainly disproportionate terms for repeat petty offenders. (5) It has been a less than powerful tool to stop America's failed experiment with mass incarceration. (6) While scholars have argued that the Eighth Amendment requires a proportionality analysis--in other words, "that punishment for crime should be graduated and proportioned to [the] offense" (7)--this view has not found purchase on the Court. Indeed, some justices have not merely rejected the approach, they have suggested that the inquiry itself is illegitimate. (8) Proportionality analysis, as Justice Antonin Scalia has suggested, is not even part of the American judicial role in sentencing at all; it is normative, policy-like--the responsibility and prerogative of the legislature and not the courts. (9) In fact, as I suggest below, part of the appeal of Miller and Graham v. Florida (10) may be that the petitioners' arguments were based not on norms, policy choices, or values. (11) Rather, the arguments were based on science--the teachings of neuroscience that suggest meaningful physical differences between the adult and juvenile brains. (12) In death penalty cases, the Court has been willing to engage in a proportionality analysis but only at the margins--that is, only with respect to certain generic offenses and offender categories. (13) Miller and Graham may well follow the same pattern. While they may not open the door to constitutionally compelled proportionality analysis--at least not yet--they may well do so with respect to the exclusion of other generic categories from mandatory life without parole sentences. On the surface, Miller--and before that, Graham--surely seemed different. While the Court spoke in the same generic terms as it had in earlier cases, the context of the decisions, their application to imprisonment rather than just the death penalty, and especially the Court's language suggested a significant change. …


The main goal of this work is to reveal the effect of Social Networking Tools (SNT) on the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) domain. The work has been done in the food field in Nineveh region-Iraq. The author has selected Facebook application as a tool of social network, this represents the independent variable. Whereas the dependent variables consist of customer retention and customer involvement. Standard questionnaire has been prepared in order to collect the data from the samples. Collected data have been analyzed using SPSS-20 software package. It was founded that the use of Facebook as a tool of SNT will rapidly increase the promotion and motivate consumers in order to engage with the respected industry. The results also illustrate that there is a relation and influence between SNT usage and both of; customer retention and customer involvement.


Professionalization and political engagement are usually placed as incompatible in the case of journalism and the mainstream press, resulting in an identification of cultural resistance exclusively with alternative/amateur vehicles. I will use the concept of journalistic field as introduced by Pierre Bourdieu to review these assumptions and discuss a form of political resistance that acts in one's own area of knowledge, is not overtly political and whose effects are not immediately accountable for. Drawing examples from my research on two literary newspapers published in the 1950s in Brazil and Uruguay, this paper will focus on the implications of didacticism for literary criticism as a genre of newswriting. The analysis of these newspapers will lead to a reflection on two main issues: a) the conflict between the professionalization and democratization of literature; and b) the definition of resistance as necessarily an action that is against something. The article will reconsider education in journalism as a form of resistance, taking into account its risks of becoming political indoctrination and commercial manipulation, but emphasizing its potential as a way of expanding access to literature.


BACKGROUND
Recent efforts to prevent readmissions are increasingly focusing on early identification of high-risk patients.

OBJECTIVE
To test whether information on functioning during hospitalization contributes to the ability to accurately identify older adults at high risk of readmission beyond their baseline risk.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.

SETTING
Internal medicine wards at 2 medical centers.

PATIENTS
Five hundred fifty-nine community-dwelling older adults (aged ≥70 years) discharged to their homes.

MEASUREMENTS
Data on unplanned 30-day readmissions were retrieved from electronic health records. Data on at-admission activities of daily living (ADL) and in-hospital ADL decline were collected using validated questionnaires. Multivariate logistic regression was used to model the association between functioning and readmission controlling for known risk factors.

RESULTS
Higher in-hospital ADL decline was significantly associated with readmission (odds ratio for each 10-point decrease in ADL = 1.32, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.72) but did not contribute to the overall discrimination of the model, as compared with the at-admission data (C statistic = 0.81 for each model). Identifying high-risk (10th highest percentile) patients by the at-admission model did not detect 7/55 (12.7%) of patients who would have been categorized as high risk if risk identification was postponed to the discharge date and included data on in-hospital ADL decline.

CONCLUSIONS
The study highlights the ability to identify patients at high risk for readmission already early in the index hospitalization using data on functioning, nutrition, chronic morbidity, and prior hospitalizations. Nonetheless, at-discharge functional assessment can detect additional patients whose readmission risk changes during the index hospitalization. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2016;11:636-641. © 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine.


In this study, we developed spectrotransfer functions (STFs) that relate soil hydraulic properties (SHPs) to spectral reflectance values to estimate hydraulic parameters of the Mualem–van Genuchten (MvG) model. We investigated the general potential of airborne as well as space‐borne remote sensors to retrieve MvG hydraulic parameters of a bare soil agricultural field. Based on the ASD full spectrum (Scenario I), simple spectral signatures were generated mimicking the hyperspectral EnMAP sensor (Scenario II), and the multispectral Sentinel‐2 sensor (Scenario III). A stepwise multiple linear regression method was used for each scenario to derive STFs. We further tested laboratory‐ and soil‐map‐based HYPRES and Rosetta pedotransfer functions (PTFs) to parameterize MvG parameters and thus provide soil water characteristics and hydraulic conductivity functions in the region. The best results were obtained for Scenarios I and II, with similar R2 values for shape parameters α* and n and the lognormal saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks*). The R2 values were highest for Ks* in Scenarios I and II (0.58 and 0.57, respectively). The R2 values for α* and n were 0.30 and 0.34 in Scenario I and 0.39 and 0.31 in Scenario II, respectively. In all scenarios, the lowest R2 values were obtained for saturated water content (θs), with values around 0.10 for Scenarios I and II and almost zero in Scenario III. Compared with HYPRES and Rosetta PTFs, the spectral approach performed reasonably well in terms of predicting soil water retention characteristics and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. These findings suggest that spectral reflectance data provide a promising indirect and quick method for large‐scale parameter estimation.


In the present study an experimental and numerical investigations were performed for District Cooling system in order to optimize the energy consumption as an application of the drag reduction phenomena. Simulation was carried out using finite volume method In order to maximize system efficiency by reducing pumping power due to the appearance of drag reduction phenomenon at certain concentrations of ethylene glycol in water. The drag reducing agent that was used is ethylene glycol ( C 2 H 6 O 2 ) which is considered as an organic liquid compound to be used as anti-freeze. Several concentrations were tested and the simulation results were in fair agreement with the experimental cases studied. Results showed that with increasing ethylene glycol concentration the drag reduction increases till it reaches a maximum value of 10% at concentration of 4000 PPM and drops after that according to the drag reduction phenomena.


This case, Direct Marketing Association v. Brohl, was recently remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Tenth Circuit then requested a full supplemental briefing; amici law professors submitted this brief. Like all states with a sales tax, Colorado faced – and faces – a voluntary compliance problem with the collection of its use tax. The use tax is a complement to the sales tax; in-state vendors collect and remit the sales tax, while in-state consumers are responsible for remitting the use tax on purchases made from out-of-state vendors that do not collect the sales tax. To this compliance challenge, Colorado turned to a third-party reporting solution. In broad strokes, the Colorado Statute imposes a modest requirement on one party to a taxable transaction – specifically on relatively large retailers who do not collect the use tax - to report information on their Colorado sales both to the consumer/taxpayer and to the taxing authorities. Amici make three specific arguments. First, amici demonstrate that third-party reporting of tax information is a ubiquitous and longstanding feature of modern tax systems. When tax authorities rely on taxpayers to self-report their taxable activities, compliance rates for the collection of any tax is low. Therefore, from the broader perspective of tax collection theory and history, including the history of very similar transaction-based taxes that attempt to tax consumption, the Colorado Statute is an unexceptional response to an otherwise intractable problem. Second, amici argue that the Supreme Court's decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992), does not apply to the statute at issue in this case. Quill imposed a bright-line physical presence test as a precondition for a state to impose a use tax collection obligation on a retailer. Because of its own self-limiting language and logic, not to mention greatly changed circumstances, the rule of Quill should not be extended into a new area. Third, amici argue that, because sales and use taxes constitute a unified system, there is no discrimination simply because differently situated retailers are required to aid in the collection of what is essentially a single tax in different ways.


ABSTRACT Precision medicine is currently a topic of great interest in clinical and intervention science.  A key component of precision medicine is that it is evidence-based, that is, data-driven, and consequently there has been tremendous interest in estimation of precision medicine strategies using observational or randomized study data. One way to formalize precision medicine is through a treatment regime, which is a sequence of decision rules, one per stage of clinical intervention, that map up-to-date patient information to a recommended treatment. An optimal treatment regime is defined as maximizing the mean of some cumulative clinical outcome if applied to a population of interest. It is well-known that even under simple generative models an optimal treatment regime can be a highly nonlinear function of patient information. Consequently, a focal point of recent methodological research has been the development of flexible models for estimating optimal treatment regimes. However, in many settings, estimation of an optimal treatment regime is an exploratory analysis intended to generate new hypotheses for subsequent research and not to directly dictate treatment to new patients. In such settings, an estimated treatment regime that is interpretable in a domain context may be of greater value than an unintelligible treatment regime built using "black-box" estimation methods. We propose an estimator of an optimal treatment regime composed of a sequence of decision rules, each expressible as a list of "if-then" statements that can be presented as either a paragraph or as a simple flowchart that is immediately interpretable to domain experts. The discreteness of these lists precludes smooth, that is, gradient-based, methods of estimation and leads to nonstandard asymptotics. Nevertheless, we provide a computationally efficient estimation algorithm, prove consistency of the proposed estimator, and derive rates of convergence. We illustrate the proposed methods using a series of simulation examples and application to data from a sequential clinical trial on bipolar disorder. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Capillary electrophoresis coupled with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer was applied for the first time to determine the binding constant of human transferrin (Tf) for tetravalent plutonium. The experiments were carried out in a buffer 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) at pH 6, 0.1 M NaCl and at a temperature of 25 °C. The nitrilotriacetate anion (NTA) used in this study prevents the hydrolysis of plutonium and is an ideal competitor with Tf for Pu, both ligands sharing comparable binding strength. The separation revealed unambiguous two peaks associated with the complex Pu(NTA)2 used as the initial species and with Pu-transferrin. Two series of independent experiments were conducted and gave the first stepwise conditional bicarbonate-free Pu-transferrin binding constant of . In the absence of bicarbonate the affinity of transferrin for plutonium at pH 6 is about 104 times stronger than that of iron at pH 6.7 .


Due to energy and environment context, research is looking for the use of clean and energy efficient system in cooling industry. In this regard, the ejector represents one of the promising solutions. The thermal ejector is a passive component used for thermal compression in refrigeration and cooling systems, usually activated by heat either waste or solar. The present study introduces a theoretical analysis of the cooling system which uses a gas ejector thermal compression. A theoretical model is developed and applied for the design and simulation of the ejector, as well as the whole cooling system. Besides the conservation equations of mass, energy and momentum, the gas dynamic equations, state equations, isentropic relations as well as some appropriate assumptions are applied to simulate the flow and mixing in the ejector. This model coupled with the equations of the other components (condenser, evaporator, pump, and generator) is used to analyze profiles of pressure and velocity (Mach number), as well as evaluation of the cycle cooling capacity. A FORTRAN program is developed to carry out the investigation. Properties of refrigerant R134a are calculated using real gas equations. Among many parameters, it is thought that the generator pressure is the cornerstone in the cycle, and hence considered as the key parameter in this investigation. Results show that the generator pressure has a great effect on the ejector and on the whole cooling system. At high generator pressures, strong shock waves inside the ejector are created, which lead to significant condenser pressure at the ejector exit. Additionally, at higher generator pressures, the designed system can deliver cooling capacity for high condensing pressure (hot season). Keywords—Air cooling system, refrigeration, thermal ejector, thermal compression.


An improved dynamic model of the switched reluctance machine for use in design has been developed. The specific requirement was for the incorporation of iron losses, but a secondary benefit has been the inclusion of the magnetic interaction between phases. The work is described in two stages: (i) modelling of iron loss and its effect on current waveform in a rudimentary one-phase static SR machine, and (ii) the development of a dynamic model, including instantaneous torque, of a three-phase machine with eddy-current, hysteresis and additional iron losses. Both stages include experimental verification. Coupling between the phases through shared portions of the magnetic circuits and also through 'leakage flux' is included. Model results are compared with measured values for a three-phase, 12/8-pole motor.


In a wireless network, a sophisticated algorithm is required to schedule simultaneous wireless transmissions while satisfying interference constraint that two neighboring nodes can not transmit simultaneously. The scheduling algorithm need to be excellent in performance while being simple and distributed so as to be implementable. The result of Tassiulas and Ephremides (1992) imply that the algorithm, scheduling transmissions of nodes in the 'maximum weight independent set' (MWIS) of network graph, is throughput optimal. However, algorithmically the problem of finding MWIS is known to be NP-hard and hard to approximate. This raises the following questions: is it even possible to obtain throughput optimal simple, distributed scheduling algorithm? if yes, is it possible to minimize delay of such an algorithm? Motivated by these questions, we first provide a distributed throughput optimal algorithm for any network topology. However, this algorithm may induce exponentially large delay. To overcome this, we present an order optimal delay algorithm for any non-expanding network topology. Networks deployed in geographic area, like wireless networks, are likely to be of this type. Our algorithm is based on a novel distributed graph partitioning scheme which may be of interest in its own right. Our algorithm for non-expanding graph takes O (n) total message exchanges or O(l) message exchanges per node to compute a schedule.


This Global Detention Project Working Paper surveys research on immigration detention conducted using geographical methods, highlighting how geography's conceptualization of detention as a form of spatial control offers tools to scholars and activists working to contest this form of immigration control. The authors organize their review around three core themes: im/mobilities, scaled analyses, and borders/bordering. They argue that geographical approaches to the study of detention have helped generate a critical orientation that can disrupt the spread of detention across and within a widening array of places and social groups.


A current theoretical model (Cacioppo & Hawkley, 2009) proposes that lonely people are hypervigilant (i.e. on high alert) to social threats in the social environment. This leads to attention, memory, and confirmatory biases, which undermine the opportunity to develop positive social relationships. This thesis outlines a series of six studies that systematically examine the hypervigilance to social threat hypothesis in loneliness using adult samples. The studies described in this thesis make an original contribution to the loneliness literature and uses different experimental paradigms to examine whether lonely adults are hypervigilant to social threats that are visually presented.
Studies 1 and 5 bridge the gap in the current knowledge to examine the visual attention processing of lonely adults to social threat depicted as social rejection stimuli using eye-tracker methodology. Study 2 investigates whether loneliness is associated to eye-gaze and emotion processing utilising a cognitive paradigm. Studies 3 and 4 extend the literature on visual attention processing of lonely adults to investigate the processing of emotional information depicted as facial expressions using eye-tracker methodology. Specifically, study 3 uses a paradigm of four different emotional expressions (i.e. anger, afraid, happy and neutral), and study 4 utilises a face in a crowd paradigm for which different ratios of happy to angry faces were presented. Study 6 extends the work on hypervigilance to social threats depicted as social rejection stimuli to examine how these stimuli are processed by lonely adults in the brain using EEG methodology.
Findings from study 1 and 5 suggest that lonely adults show visual attentional biases to social threat stimuli linked to social rejection. Specifically, study 1 findings indicate that lonely adults show a hypervigilance-avoidance pattern of processing towards social rejection stimuli, whilst study 5 findings indicate that lonely adults show disengagement difficulties when processing social rejection stimuli. Study 2 indicates that loneliness is not associated to eye-gaze and emotion processing. Study 3 and 4 provide support that lonely adults are more attentive to angry facial expressions presented as static images. Findings from study 6 indicate that lonely adults detect and process social threats quickly compared to non-social threats in the brain.
As outlined in Cacioppo and Hawkley's theoretical model, the findings of this thesis support the idea that loneliness is related to initial cognitive processes. Specifically, lonely adults are hypervigilant to social threats depicted as angry facial expressions and social rejection stimuli. Thus, the thesis examines an important process within the model. The findings of the thesis can be used to inform ideas for future academic and intervention work in the loneliness field.


The effect of using a structured reading framework on middle school students' conceptual understanding within the science writing heuristic approach. 1 ABSTRACT This study was designed to investigate the impact of using a Structured Reading Framework within the Science Writing Heuristic approach on a summary writing task, and how this framework is related to the development of students' conceptual understanding in the summary writing task. A quasi-experimental design with sixth and seventh grade students taught by two teachers in the middle school was used. Each teacher had four classes with two classes using the Structured Reading Framework (treatment) and the other two classes used the original reading framework (control). A total of 170 students participated in the study, with 83 in the control group (four classes) and 87 in the treatment group (four classes). All students used the SWH student templates to guide their written work and completed these templates during the SWH investigations of each unit. After completing the SWH investigations, both groups of students were asked to complete the summary writing task at the end of each unit. This process was replicated for each of the two units. All student writing samples collected were scored using an analytical framework and scoring matrices developed for the study. A total of 588 writing samples were included in the statistical analysis. Results indicated that the treatment group who used the Structured Reading Framework performed significantly better on the Summary Writing task than the control group. The results suggest that the using of the Structured Reading Framework in prompting and guiding the reading activities within the SWH approach have an impact on the development of conceptual understanding. In addition, it appears that the Structured Reading Framework impacted the development of conceptual understanding in the Summary Writing task by providing a scaffold to assist students' knowledge construction.


The acid resistance of cement pastes containing limestone powder with two different water-binder (w/b) ratios exposed to acetic (pH = 4) and sulfuric acid (pH = 2) solutions respectively were investigated in this paper. Limestone powder, fly ash and silica fume were also added to the cement paste mixture at different proportions. Static and flowing aqueous environments were set in this experiment. Strength and microstructure of the pastes after acid attack were investigated by using strength test, X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results show that the erosion degree depends not only on pH value of the solution and w/b ratio of the pastes, but also on the content of limestone powder. Acetic acid reacts with calcium hydroxide and carbonate thus dissolving the pastes, while sulfuric acid consumed calcium hydroxide, and generated gypsum and ettringite. The consumption of calcium hydroxide in the flowing solution group is higher than that in the static solution because the flowing sulfuric acid solution has negative effect upon the gypsum crystallization. Fly ash and silica fume are beneficial to limestone cement paste because of the less calcium hydroxide formation, which is among the hydrates vulnerable to acid erosion. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.4.6231


Smartphones enable passive collection of sensor data alongside survey participation. Location data add context to people's reports about their time use. In addition, linking global positioning system data to self-reported time use surveys (TUSs) can be valuable for understanding how people spend their time. This article investigates whether and how passive collection of geographical locations (coordinates) proves useful for deriving respondents' functional locations. Participants of the ongoing Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in the Netherlands were invited to participate in a TUS administered with a smartphone app that also unobtrusively tracked respondents' locations. Respondents reported their activities per 10-min interval in a smartphone diary app (n = 1,339) and shared their geographical location data (n = 1,264). The correspondence between the functional locations derived from the time use data and those derived from the geographical location data was assessed by calculating the percentage of intervals in which both measures are similar. Overall, results show that home locations can be automatically assigned reliably but that respondent information is required to reliably assign work or school locations. In addition, location tracking data contain many measurement errors, making it difficult to record valid locations. Multilevel models show that the variability in correct classifications is intrapersonal and largely predicted by phone type, which determines location measurement frequency.


This Article uses disgust theory — defined as the insights on disgust by psychologists and social scientists — to critique disgust's role in abortion lawmaking. Its point of departure is a series of developments that independently highlight and call into question the relationship between abortion and disgust. First, the Supreme Court introduced disgust as a valid basis for abortion regulation in its 2007 case Gonzales v. Carhart. Second, psychologists have recently discovered a strong enough association between individual disgust sensitivity and abortion opposition to suggest that disgust might drive that opposition. They have also discovered that "abortion disgust" appears to be unrelated to the harm concerns — e.g., harm to the fetus — on which oppositional abortion rhetoric and restrictive abortion laws often explicitly rest. Third, legislatures around the country have passed hundreds of restrictive abortion laws in 2010 and 2011. If the moral psychologists are right, then disgust underwrites most, if not all, of those laws. Taking these developments seriously, this Article synthesizes the key insights of psychology, social science, and sex equality scholarship to make two arguments, one descriptive and the other constitutional. First, abortion disgust is not a reaction to harm/death but rather to perceived gender role violation by women. Second, this genealogy of abortion disgust constitutes the best reason why we ought to reject disgust as a basis for abortion regulation, allied as that emotion is to unconstitutional sex stereotyping — or what the Court has called unconstitutional "role typing." This Article concludes by suggesting that "rejecting disgust" in abortion lawmaking might mean subjecting all abortion laws to heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause, given disgust's likely role in animating all abortion regulation.


Ostracod assemblages from Lake Trasimeno (Umbria, central Italy), the largest endorheic lake in Italy, were investigated relating their species distribution and ecology to modern physical, chemical and biological parameters. Nineteen living species were collected in the lake (Darwinula stevensoni, Candona (Candona) candida, Candona (Neglecandona) angulata, Fabaeformiscandona fabaeformis, Pseudocandona marchica, Cypria ophtalmica, Ilyocypris gibba, I. salebrosa, I. getica, Cypridopsis vidua, Eucypris virens, Trajancypris clavata, Herpetocypris helenae, Heterocypris salina, H. incongruens, Isocypris beauchampi, Cyprideis torosa, Limnocythere inopinata, and L. stationis). All the identified species belong to the fresh-water Italian ostracod fauna but Cyprideis torosa is documented in an oligohaline athalassic lacustrine environment in Italy for the first time. The occurrence of Ilyocypris salebrosa represents the southernmost record in Italy and the westernmost in Eurasia. The recovery of Limnocythere stationis represents the westernmost record in Eurasia. The distribution of the different ostracods recovered in Lake Trasimeno is linked to the dominant physical and chemical parameters for each ecological niche. Physical and chemical data along with substratum type, grain-size and presence of aquatic macrophytes have been related to different ostracods using a multivariate analyses approach (NMDS, CCA, Spearman's rank correlation test). These results allow to differentiate several ecological niches within the lake and indicate that the main parameters affecting the ostracod assemblages are the aquatic macrophyte coverage, the Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and, to a lesser extent, temperature and type of substrate. Cyprideis torosa and Candona (Neglecandona) angulata have been recovered both in the distal part of the lake and in the lakeshore area. In both cases they are associated with scarce or absent aquatic macrophytes and low amounts of TOC. The alternate dominance of these two species in the distal deeper assemblages seems to be mainly linked with the bottom oxygen availability, being C.(N.) angulata dominant in the most oxygen-depleted sediments and C. torosa dominant in higher oxygen conditions. Along the lakeshore area they are often discovered together with other prevailing species, such as Cypridopsis vidua that is common in very shallow to shallow (20-140 cm) sites with high TOC content, abundant macrophytes and algae, and Limnocythere inopinata, which dominates slightly deeper areas (around 150-210 cm) where the previous species are almost absent. The Spearman's rank correlation test showed significant positive correlation between some ostracods and macrophyte species.


In a further development of the nature-nurture debate, this collection of articles questions how the human mind influences the content and organization of culture. In the study of mental activity, can the effects of evolution and history be teased apart?Evolutionary psychologists argue that cultural transmission is constrained by our genetic inheritance. Few social and cultural anthropologists have found this argument to be relevant to their work and many would doubt its validity. This book uniquely pitches the arguments for innatism against ethnographic perspectives that call into question the theoretical foundations of orthodox evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Ultimately the aim of the debate is to create an original set of mutually compatible theories that will open up new areas for interdisciplinary research.


Opportunistic networks are (ad hoc) networks created dynamically by exploiting contacts between pairs of mobile devices that come within communication range. This networking paradigm overcomes main limitations of conventional MANETs, related to the fact that, due to mobility and energy conservation issues, it is often not practical to maintain connected multihop paths among nodes. While forwarding in opportunistic networking has been explored, investigations into asynchronous service provisioning are unique contributions of this paper. Mobile devices are typically heterogeneous, possess disparate physical resources, and can provide a variety of services. During opportunistic contacts, the pairing peers can cooperatively provide (avail of) its (other peer's) services. This service provisioning paradigm is a key feature of the emerging opportunistic computing paradigm. We develop an analytical model to study the behaviors of service seeking nodes (seekers) and service providing nodes (providers) that spawn and execute service requests, respectively. The model considers the case in which seekers can spawn parallel executions on multiple providers for any given request, and determines: i) the delays at different stages of service provisioning; and ii) the optimal number of parallel executions that minimizes the expected execution time without saturating providers' resources. The analytical model is validated through simulations, and exploited to investigate the performance of service provisioning over a wide range of parameters.


The Pacific Basin, by virtue of its vastness and its complex aeroscape, provides unique opportunities to address questions about the behavioral and physiological capabilities and mechanisms through which birds can complete spectacular flights. No longer is the Pacific seen just as a formidable barrier between terrestrial habitats in the north and the south, but rather as a gateway for specialized species, such as shorebirds, to make a living on hemispherically distributed seasonal resources. This recent change in perspective is dramatic, and the research that underpins it has presented new opportunities to learn about phenomena that often challenge a sense of normal. Ancient Polynesians were aware of the seasonal passage of shorebirds and other landbirds over the Pacific Ocean, incorporating these observations into their navigational "tool kit" as they explored and colonized the Pacific. Some ten centuries later, systematic visual observations and tracking technology have revealed much about movement of these shorebirds, especially the enormity of their individual nonstop flights. This invites a broad suite of questions, often requiring comparative studies with bird migration across other ocean basins, or across continents. For example, how do birds manage many days of nonstop exercise apparently without sleep? What mechanisms explain birds acting as if they possess a Global Positioning System? How do such extreme migrations evolve? Through advances in both theory and tracking technology, biologists are poised to greatly expand the horizons of movement ecology as we know it. In this integrative review, we present a series of intriguing questions about trans-Pacific migrant shorebirds and summarize recent advances in knowledge about migratory behavior operating at temporal scales ranging from immediate decisions during a single flight, to adaptive learning throughout a lifetime, to evolutionary development of migratory pathways. Recent advances in this realm should stimulate future research across the globe and across a broad array of disciplines.


Control of Co1E1-type plasmid DNA replication in Escherichia coli was investigated. The initiation of DNA replication in Co1E 1-type plasmids is regulated by two trans-acting negative control elements: RNA I and the rop protein. RNA I is a transcript 108 nucleotides long made off the L-strand (lagging strand) of the plasmid and is complementary to the 5' portion of the preprimer, RNA II. The direct base-pairing interaction between the two RNA species precludes the formation of an RNA II:template DNA hybrid, which is processed by RNase H at the origin of replication to create the 3'-OH end of the mature primer. Another trans-acting regulatory element is a 63 amino acid plasmid-encoded protein, the rop gene product. By providing the rop gene product in trans on a compatible plasmid, suppression of the runaway replication phenotype of pJN75 was observed. Utilizing this property of the regulatory mechanism, we proceeded to select pJN75 derivatives that are insensitive to rop-mediated suppression. These mutant plasmids were designated pJN75nsr for non-suppressible by rop. Sequence analyses of 7 nsr, showed disruptions of base-pairing within the stem of loop structure III of RNA II and loop structure III' of RNA I, implying that rop mediates its action via the region comprising loop structures III and III'. We were also interested in the presence of a dnaA protein binding site about 90bp downstream of the ori-pBR322. We investigated the role of dnaA protein in Co1E1-type DNA replication by purifying the dnaA protein to homogeneity from an overproducing strain and examining its effect on various mutant DNA templates in an in vitro E. coli DNA replication extract developed in the Campbell lab. We found that the combination of dnaA protein binding at the dnaA consensus sequence can substitute for the lack of primosome assembly site (pas) on the H-strand (leading strand), which is postulated to be the point of transition between DNA polymerase I and polymerase III-dependent DNA synthesis. In the absence of the H-strand pas, dnaA protein may direct other essential proteins to form a replication complex at the dnaA site, functionally acting as proteins i, n, n' and n" at pas.

In an effort to identify and characterize the nucleotide and/or pyrophosphate binding site(s) of yeast DNA polymerise I, we have attempted to isolate poll mutants that are resistant to nucleotide/pyrophosphate analogs. We successfully constructed a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that depends on exogenous thymidine for survival and also contains a temperature-sensitive DNA polymerase I allele (poll-17) . Using this strain, 167-poll-17, we screened for poll mutants that are resistant to nucleotide/pyrophosphate analogs, e.g., AraT or PAA, which are normally impermeable to the cell wall of yeast. Our strategy was to introduce a plasmid containing a mutagenized poll gene into 167-poll-17, which contains a ts DNA polymerase. By screening for survivors at 37°C (non-permissive temperature of poll-17 allele) on plates containing 1 mM AraT and 40 mM PAA, we hoped to isolate DNA polymerase I mutants on the transformed plasmid. To our disappointment, we were unable to isolate such DNA pol I mutants. We offer two explanations for the failure of our strategy: 1) the presence of another essential polymerase, CDC2 gene product and 2) perturbation of pyrimidine nucleotide pool. Finally, we propose to conduct site-directed mutagenesis of DNA polymerase I at putative dNTP/PPi binding domains and to analyze the mutant polymerases in vitro for resistance to dNTP/PPi analogs. Site-directed mutagenesis experiments are now in progress, and we are hopeful that these mutants will provide structural and functional information regarding the nucleotide/pyrophosphate binding site(s) of yeast DNA polymerase I.


The construct of multicultural competence has gained much currency in the literature; yet, less attention has been paid to students' social justice advocacy and how to facilitate students' growth in this area. Focusing on multicultural education in graduate programs that prepare future student affairs professionals, this position article provides a critique of multicultural knowledge, awareness and skills, and argues for competencies grounded in a commitment to social justice. While practitioners may be prepared to work with diverse populations, it is argued they are less equipped to foster social change. Developing awareness as critically conscious practitioners, acquiring knowledge as equity minded and privilege-cognizant individuals, and building skills in social justice advocacy are essential for the future agenda for multicultural competence.