Device scaling and large-scale integration have led to growing concerns about soft errors in microprocessors. To date, in all but the most demanding applications, implementing parity and ECC for caches and other large, regular SRAM structures have been sufficient to stem the growing soft error tide. This will not be the case for long and questions remain as to the best way to detect and recover from soft errors in the remainder of the processor - in particular, the less structured execution core. In this work, we propose the ReStore architecture, which leverages existing performance enhancing checkpointing hardware to recover from soft error events in a low cost fashion. Error detection in the ReStore architecture is novel: symptoms that hint at the presence of soft errors trigger restoration of a previous checkpoint. Example symptoms include exceptions, control flow misspeculations, and cache or translation look-aside buffer misses. Compared to conventional soft error detection via full replication, the ReStore framework incurs little overhead, but sacrifices some amount of error coverage. These attributes make it an ideal means to provide very cost effective error coverage for processor applications that can tolerate a nonzero, but small, soft error failure rate. Our evaluation of an example ReStore implementation exhibits a 2times increase in MTBF (mean time between failures) over a standard pipeline with minimal hardware and performance overheads. The MTBF increases by 20times if ReStore is coupled with protection for certain particularly vulnerable pipeline structures


The endocannabinoid system has previously been shown to play a role in the permeability and inflammatory response of the human gut. The goal of our study was to determine the effects of endogenous anandamide (AEA) and 2‐arachidonoyl glycerol (2‐AG) on the permeability and inflammatory response of intestinal epithelium under normal, inflammatory, and hypoxic conditions. Human intestinal mucosa was modeled using Caco‐2 cells. Human tissue was collected from planned colorectal resections. Accumulation of AEA and 2‐AG was achieved by inhibiting their metabolizing enzymes URB597 (a fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibitor) and JZL184 (a monoacylglycerol lipase inhibitor). Inflammation and ischemia were simulated with TNF‐α and IFN‐γ and oxygen deprivation. Permeability changes were measured by transepithelial electrical resistance. The role of the CB1 receptor was explored using CB1‐knockdown (CB1Kd) intestinal epithelial cells. Endocannabinoid levels were measured using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Cytokine secretion was measured using multiplex and ELISA. URB597 and JZL184 caused a concentration‐dependent increase in permeability via CB1 (P < 0.0001) and decreased cytokine production. Basolateral application of JZL184 decreased permeability via CB1 (P < 0.0001). URB597 and JZL184 increased the enhanced (worsened) permeability caused by inflammation and hypoxia (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.05). CB1Kd cells showed reduced permeability response to inflammation (P < 0.01) but not hypoxia. 2‐AG levels were increased in response to inflammation and hypoxia in Caco‐2 cells. In human mucosal tissue, inflammation increased the secretion of granulocyte macrophage‐colony stimulating factor, IL‐12, −13, and −15, which was prevented with ex vivo treatment with URB597 and JZL184, and was inhibited by a CB1 antagonist. The results of this study show that endogenous AEA and 2‐AG production and CB1 activation play a key modulatory roles in normal intestinal mucosa permeability and in inflammatory and hypoxic conditions.—Karwad, M. A., Couch, D. G., Theophilidou, E., Sarmad, S., Barrett, D. A., Larvin, M., Wright, K. L., Lund, J. N., O'Sullivan, S. E. The role of CB1 in intestinal permeability and inflammation. FASEB J. 31, 3267–3277 (2017). www.fasebj.org


In the late spring of 1947, the experimental physicist P. M. S. Blackett succumbed to the temptations of theory. At this time, Blackett (1897–1974) was fifty years old. He was a veteran of the Cavendish tradition in particle physics and he was on his way to an unshared award of the 1948 Nobel Prize for his experimental researches in nuclear physics and cosmic-ray physics. His photographs of cloud-chamber tracks of alpha particles, protons, electrons and positrons were well known to practitioners of particle physics, even as they now grace the pages of physics textbooks. Blackett's turn toward theory in 1947 involved some risk for a well-established experimental physicist. The 3 May 1947 issue of Nature carried an announcement of his forthcoming lecture at the Royal Society: Professor P. M. S. Blackett, Langworthy Professor of Physics in the University of Manchester, will deliver a lecture on 'The Magnetic Field of Massive Rotating Bodies' at a meeting of the Royal Society on May 15, at 4:30 p.m. Blackett circulated a preliminary draft of his paper among colleagues in several different fields, including the geophysicist Sydney Chapman and the astrophysicist Harry Plaskett.


Purpose: This phase I study was conducted to determine the dose-limiting toxicities (DLT) and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) for the combination of bortezomib and alvocidib in patients with B-cell malignancies (multiple myeloma, indolent lymphoma, Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, and mantle cell lymphoma). Experimental Design: Patients received bortezomib (intravenous push), followed by alvocidib (1-hour infusion), on days 1, 4, 8, and 11 of a 21-day treatment cycle. Patients experiencing responses or stable disease continued on treatment at the investigator's discretion. A standard 3+3 dose-escalation design was used to identify the MTD based on DLTs, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies were conducted. Results: A total of 44 patients were enrolled, with 39 patients assessed for response. The MTD was established as 1.3 mg/m2 for bortezomib and 40 mg/m2 for alvocidib. The most common hematologic toxicities included leukopenia, lymphopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia. The most common nonhematologic toxicities included diarrhea, fatigue, and sensory neuropathy. Three complete remissions (8%) and 10 partial remissions (26%) were observed for a total response rate of 33%. Pharmacokinetic findings with the current dosing regimen were consistent with the comparable literature and the hybrid dosing regimen. Pharmacodynamic study results did not correlate with clinical responses. Conclusions: The combination of bortezomib and alvocidib is tolerable, and an MTD has been established for this schedule. The regimen appears to be efficacious in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma or indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma. As the nonhybrid regimen is less cumbersome than the previous hybrid dosing schedule regimen, the current schedule is recommended for successor studies. Clin Cancer Res; 20(22); 5652–62. ©2014 AACR.


Interleukin-4 (IL-4) is an immunomodulatory cytokine secreted by activated T lymphocytes, basophils, and mast cells. It plays an important role in modulating the balance of T helper (Th) cell subsets, favoring expansion of the Th2 lineage relative to Th1. Imbalance of these T lymphocyte subsets has been implicated in immunological diseases including allergy, inflammation, and autoimmune disease. IL-4 may mediate its biological effects, at least in part, by activating a tyrosine-phosphorylated DNA binding protein. This protein has now been purified and its encoding gene cloned. Examination of the primary amino acid sequence of this protein indicates that it is a member of the signal transducers and activators of transcription (Stat) family of DNA binding proteins, hereby designated IL-4 Stat. Study of the inhibitory activities of phosphotyrosine-containing peptides derived from the intracellular domain of the IL-4 receptor provided evidence for direct coupling of receptor and transcription factor during the IL-4 Stat activation cycle. Such observations indicate that IL-4 Stat has the same functional domain for both receptor coupling and dimerization.


Background There has been a paradigm shift in tertiary centers from endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) fine-needle aspiration to EUS fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) for tissue acquisition in solid lesions. While data exists on the use of FNB needles in solid pancreatic lesions, very few studies looked at the utility of FNB in solid extrapancreatic lesions. Our aim was to study and compare the technical success and feasibility of EUS-FNB in evaluating solid pancreatic and extrapancreatic lesions using a novel FNB needle. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with solid masses or lesions needing EUS-guided core biopsy at the University of Utah between May 2016 and November 2017. All core biopsies were obtained using an Acquire™Fine Needle Biopsy Device (Boston Scientific Corporation, Natick MA, USA). Rapid on-site evaluation was performed by a board-certified cytopathologist in all cases. Results One hundred thirty-two patients (87 male) were included. Ninety-nine (73.3%) of the lesions were located in the pancreas. All needle sizes (19 G, 22 G and 25 G) had similar yield. The mean number of passes needed was 2.28±0.7. EUS-FNB of the pancreatic lesions had a diagnostic accuracy of 97.9%, comparable to the 97.2% for the biopsied extra-pancreatic lesions. Only 3 of 132 cases needed re-biopsy at a later date. No immediate adverse events were reported. Conclusion In this large, single-center study, EUS-FNB with a novel Franseen-design needle was proven to be an effective modality for tissue acquisition from both pancreatic and extrapancreatic solid lesions.


Year zero courses, as part of extended degree programmes, offer a robust and efficacious means of increasing participation in science and other areas of the university curriculum where graduate shortages have been identified, STEM subjects for example. This 23-year longitudinal study investigates the efficacy of this approach at one university and identifies the features which contribute to its success and may be transferable to other institutions and models. Quantitative and qualitative data are analysed and discussed. A particular feature of this approach is success in attracting, retaining and graduating mature returners as well as those with no prior familial history of participation in higher education. The critical importance of establishing a higher education learning culture also emerges.


Musical timbre is a complex phenomenon and is often understood in relation to the separation and comparison of different sound categories. The representation of musical timbre has traditionally consisted of instrumentation category (e.g. violin, piano) and articulation technique (e.g. pizzicato, staccato). Electroacoustic music places more emphasis on timbre variation as musical structure, and has highlighted the need for better, more in-depth forms of representation of musical timbre. Similarly, research from experimental psychology and audio signal analysis has deepened our understanding of the perception, description, and measurement of musical timbre, suggesting the possibility of more exact forms of representation that directly reference low-level descriptors of the audio signal (rather than high-level categories of sound or instrumentation). Research into the perception of timbre has shown that ratings of similarity between sounds can be used to arrange sounds in an N-dimensional perceptual timbre space, where each dimension relates to a particular axis of differentiation between sounds. Similarly, research into the description of timbre has shown that verbal descriptors can often be clustered into a number of categories, resulting in an N-dimensional semantic timbre space. Importantly, these semantic descriptors are often physical, material, and textural in nature. Audio signal processing techniques can be used to extract numeric descriptors of the spectral and dynamic content of an audio signal. Research has suggested correlations between these audio descriptors and different semantic descriptors and perceptual dimensions in perceptual timbre spaces. This thesis aims to develop a perceptually motivated approach to timbre representation by making use of correlations between semantic and acoustic descriptors of timbre. User studies are discussed that explored participant preferences for different visual mappings of acoustic timbre features. The results of these studies, together with results from existing research, have been used in the design and development of novel systems for timbre representation. These systems were developed both in the context of digital interfaces for sound design and music production, and in the context of real-time performance and generative audio-reactive visualisation. A generalised approach to perceptual timbre representation is presented and discussed with reference to the experimentation and resulting systems. The use of semantic visual mappings for low-level audio descriptors in the representation of timbre suggests that timbre would be better defined with reference to individual audio features and their variation over time. The experimental user studies and research-led development have highlighted specific techniques and audio-visual mappings that would be very useful to practitioners and researchers in the area of audio analysis and representation.


The present work has used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to obtain the flow field characteristics of a novel Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). The turbine used in this study features a multi blade design where both a stator and rotor blade array is used. The computational model is three-dimensional and contains full-scale turbine geometry measuring 2.0m in diameter and 1m in height. The pressure field across the wind turbine has been computed for operating conditions of λ=0 and λ=0.4 where it is shown to be non-uniform. The velocity field across the turbine has been obtained at λ=0 and λ=0.4 and has highlighted the presence of a jet flow passing through the central core of the turbine as it exits the rotor assembly. It is evident that under dynamic conditions and due to the direction of this jet flow a strong flow interaction occurs with the downstream rotor blades. This interaction results in rotor blades 5, 6 and 7 generating an opposing torque that acts against the direction of motion. Furthermore, it is noticed that rotor blades 10, 11, 12 and 1 contribute to the majority of overall rotor torque, which is a characteristic of this machines design.

Key words

Vertical axis wind turbine, CFD, flow field.


Quality of Service (QoS) has been in development within the research community for over 20 years but concerns have always existed over the practicalities of large scale and truly pervasive deployments of this technology. Now that QoS-enabled services are being offered within the research community and elsewhere, these issues are again coming to the fore and a range of approaches to QoS have been adopted. As a result, there is currently no de facto model for the use of QoS in a given scenario and the existing heterogeneous environment may even hamper its wider applicability as an end-to-end solution. In this paper we analyze this in the context of our own research to draw some conclusions on current 'best practice' for QoS deployments in the large. Our aim is to propose a broader approach to QoS, refocusing the discussion on future directions in network quality.


Cap-and-trade systems for greenhouse gas emissions are an important part of the climate change policies of the EU, Japan, New Zealand, among others, as well as China (soon) and Australia (potentially). However, concerns have been raised on a variety of ethical grounds about the use of markets to reduce emissions. For example, some people worry that emissions trading allows the wealthy to evade their responsibilities. Others are concerned that it puts a price on the natural environment. Concerns have also been raised about the distributional justice of emissions trading. Finally, some commentators have questioned the actual effectiveness of emissions trading in reducing emissions. This paper considers these three categories of objections – ethics, justice and effectiveness – through the lens of moral philosophy and economics. It is concluded that only the objections based on distributional justice can be sustained. This points to reform of the carbon market system, rather than its elimination.


Recent advances in deep generative models have led to impressive results in a variety of application domains. Motivated by the possibility that deep learning models might memorize part of the input data, there have been increased efforts to understand how memorization arises. In this work, we extend a recently proposed measure of memorization for supervised learning (Feldman, 2019) to the unsupervised density estimation problem and adapt it to be more computationally efficient. Next, we present a study that demonstrates how memorization can occur in probabilistic deep generative models such as variational autoencoders. This reveals that the form of memorization to which these models are susceptible differs fundamentally from mode collapse and overfitting. Furthermore, we show that the proposed memorization score measures a phenomenon that is not captured by commonly-used nearest neighbor tests. Finally, we discuss several strategies that can be used to limit memorization in practice. Our work thus provides a framework for understanding problematic memorization in probabilistic generative models.


Bamboo is widely found in Peninsular Malaysia but little
research has been conducted on its importance and suitability for
industrial use. A study was initiated to determine the variation and
correlations of anatomical, chemical, physical, mechanical and
machining properties of two bamboo species, namely Bambusa vulgaris
schrad 'Buluh minyak' and Gigantochloa scortechinii Gamble 'Buluh semantan' in relation to age, height, site and season.
The anatomical properties differed significantly with species,
are generally stable with site, had no significant relationship with
age from one to four years old and decreased with culm height. B.
vulgaris fibres (1.9 - 2.4 mm) were shorter than those of G.
scortechinii (2.7 - 5.6 mm). The average fibre sheath percentage and
cell wall thickness of both bamboo species ranged from 32 to 49 %
and 2 to 13 µm, respectively. Based on the Runkle ratio, older
culms of both bamboo species appeared to be potential pulping materials. The anatomical structures correlated positively
with density, mechanical properties, recovery rate and product
quality but are inversely correlated with moisture content and
dimensional shrinkages.


3D optical and laser measurement devices can obtain the digital representation of physical objects by boundary surface meshes. Such a representation, however, has no semantic information to describe the object's basic shape and its geometric details individually. Meanwhile, existing mesh filters, which process surface normals as signals defined on the Gauss sphere, mainly deal with noise corrupted by measurement and computational errors. While useful in that they preserve geometric structures, they are not intended for filtering out geometric details whose scales are much larger than that of noise. We assume that a 3D surface contains three geometric properties, i.e. geometric detail, structural pattern, and smooth-varying shape, and consider normals as surface signals defined over both the input mesh and the underlying surface of this mesh. We propose a joint weighted least squares (JWLS) to solve the challenging problem of how to filter out the detailed appearance (geometric details) and preserve intrinsic geometric properties (structural patterns) of any measurement surface simultaneously. Specifically, we first suppress high-contrast detail normals, and then detect salient feature normals to produce a feature-guided normal field, and finally jointly fit the original shape. We have shown that a variety of geometric processing tasks benefit from our JWLS, e.g. detail-preserving bas-relief modeling, detail-free mesh smoothing, and detail-enhancing Laplacian coating.


Martin Lister (1639–1712) was a consummate virtuoso, the first arachnologist and conchologist, and a Royal physician. As one of the most prominent corresponding fellows of the Royal Society, many of Lister's discoveries in natural history, archaeology, medicine, and chemistry were printed in the Philosophical Transactions. Lister corresponded extensively with explorers and other virtuosi such as John Ray, who provided him with specimens, observations, and locality records from Jamaica, America, Barbados, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and his native England. This volume of ca. 400 letters (one of three), consists of Lister's correspondence dated from 1662 to 1677, including his time as a Cambridge Fellow, his medical training in Montpellier, and his years as a practicing physician in York.


International IDEA's Annual Review of Constitution-Building provides a retrospective account of constitutional transitions around the world, the issues that drive them, and their implications for national and international politics. This seventh edition covers events in 2019. Because this year marks the end of a decade, the first chapter summarizes a series of discussions International IDEA held with international experts and scholars throughout the year on the evolution of constitution-building over the past 10 years. The edition also includes chapters on challenges with sustaining constitutional pacts in Guinea and Zimbabwe; public participation in constitutional reform processes in The Gambia and Mongolia; constitutional change and subnational governance arrangements in Tobago and the Autonomous Region of Bangsamoro; the complexities of federal systems and negotiations on federal state structures in Myanmar and South Sudan; and the drawing (and redrawing) of the federal map in South Sudan and India. Writing at the mid-way point between the instant reactions of the blogosphere and academic analyses that follow several years later, the authors provide accounts of ongoing political transitions, the major constitutional issues they give rise to, and the implications of these processes for democracy, the rule of law and peace.


The need for English and literacy curriculum to connect with young people's lifeworlds to build bridges and frames of reference that connect traditional English curriculum with digital texts and literacies, are increasing priorities in curriculum frameworks in Australia and elsewhere. This paper reports on a project in which the authors worked with teachers and students in five secondary schools to research the ways in which digital games might be incorporated into the English curriculum. Central to this endeavour was 'turning around' to the affordances of digital games and their paratexts to understand how they can be understood as text and action. Drawing on classroom observations and literature in Games Studies and English curriculum we present a timely model and innovative heuristic that we argue facilitates teachers incorporating digital games into their English classrooms. We illustrate how each assists teachers in 'turning around' to digital games to make their English classrooms more relevant to students' lifeworlds.


Members of churches commonly use the English terms salvation/saved and their isiZulu equivalents insindiso/ukusindiswa. Implied meanings seem to have become attached to these terms, especially in isiZulu, which could cause miscommunication due to the attitudes of superiority of the so-called "saved ones" (abasindisiwe) and consequent antagonism amongst certain ecclesiastical groupings. The question addressed by this study was whether or not the meaning of the term to be saved and its isiZulu translation ukusindiswa, as understood by a selection of isiZulu-speaking Christians, is unambiguous. A further question was whether – should it be the case that these terms are found to be ambiguous – to be saved and its isiZulu translation ukusindiswa could be rehabilitated. Nine people from various denominational backgrounds, both lay and ordained, were interviewed in order to discover how they understood the terms in question. The interviewees were asked ten question, including questions on the influence of cultural practices on the meaning of the terms. These cultural practices were in connection with ancestors, as experienced in Zulu culture, and the influence of their understanding of the terms on the permissibility of ancestral practices. The answers given by the interviewees revealed certain trends. One of them was that, for some isiZulu speakers, the meaning of the terms included the aspect of laying aside of all contact with the ancestors. Those who understood the terms in this manner were seen by the interviewees as having an attitude of superiority and as condemning members of more traditional churches for their adherence to Zulu culture. A sociolinguistic analysis of the terms salvation/insindiso and to be saved/ukusindiswa is presented based on the interviewees' responses. A conclusion is that the terms are often used in a biased and/or "loaded" way, which is a principal cause of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Ways of reducing this misunderstanding are proposed, including the "rehabilitation" of the terms linguistically and theologically. Greater sensitivity to different ecclesiastical cultures should be shown, involving the use of inclusive language and the exercising of the skills of intercultural communicative competence. This study reveals that the church needs to work at the issues surrounding the terms in question, the use of which can cause a breakdown in intercultural communication.


Incentives are essential to promote labor productivity. We implemented a two-stage field experiment to measure effects of career and wage incentives on productivity through self-selection and causal effect channels. First, workers were hired with either career or wage incentives. After employment, a random half of workers with career incentives received wage incentives and a random half of workers with wage incentives received career incentives. We find that career incentives attract higher-performing workers than wage incentives but do not increase productivity for existing workers. Instead, wage incentives increase productivity for existing workers. Observable characteristics are limited in explaining the selection effect.


Green mussels (Perna viridis L.) of the family Mytilidae are commercially important bivalve molluscs. The mussels were reported to occur on almost all rocky beaches along the Sind and Baluchistan coasts of Pakistan. The intertidal portion of the exposed rocky shore at Paradise Point, the present study site, harbours a large population of P. viridis. The present investigation provides first-hand basic information about many aspects of bioecology of P. viridis from northern Arabian Sea.

The present dissertation consists of seven chapters dealing with population structure, growth, condition index, biochemical composition, amino acids, metal concentration and associated fauna of mussel bed. A comprehensive review of the literature on mussels, together with the objective and importance of the present study is also given in the chapter, "General Introduction" .

The population of green mussels at Paradise Point remained stable most of the year with recruitment in July and November. Allometric studies demonstrated that relationship between length and width of shell changed with the season; in some months length increased isometrically with the width and in others the shell length increased faster than width. Increase in shell length was faster than shell weight in all seasons. Shell length increased faster than shell height. A clear seasonal trend in length to dry tissue weight was observed. Dry tissue weight increased isometrically with length in one half of the year but showed negative allometry in the other part.

Observations on condition index showed that peak value was found in November which was twice the minimum value noted in March. The condition index increased with increase in size of the mussel in winter. Results of nutritive assessment indicated 58 to 66.5 percent protein, 4.6 to 9.8 per8ent lipids and 14.7 to 29.2 percent carbohydrates. The protein of P. viridis contained all essential amino acids; arginine and aspartic acid were present in highest and lowest amounts, respectively. The average concentrations of Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd, Ni and Pb were 404, 16.7, 112.5, 4.4, 9.8 and 2.2 p.g/g dry tissue weight, respectively. Concentrations of heavy metals in mussels of four different sites were quiet different from each other. Higher levels were found in mussels of Sandspit and Native Jetty where pollutant load was very high.

The mussel community of Paradise Point consisted of fifty seven species of invertebrates belonging to eight phyla, and nine species of algae. Ninety five percent of fauna belonged to three phyla, Arthropoda - 52.5%, Mollusca - 31.8% and Annelida10.5 %. Species richness and diversity were high in winter months (February and November).


Background: Hyperthyroidism can be a serious health problem, if not treated properly. This investigation primarily aimed to evaluate the thyroid regulatory and hepatoprotective activities of ethyl acetate fraction (EPBL) of Piper betle leaf extract in L-thyroxine (L-T4)-induced hyperthyroid rats. Materials and Methods: Effects of EPBL extract at a prestandardized dose of 50 mg/kg (p. o.) were studied in L-T4 (500 μg/kg/d, i. p.)-administered rats to examine the alterations in the levels of serum triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), thyrotropin, alanine transaminase, and aspartate aminotransferase; in the activities of hepatic 5'-monodeiodinase (5'DI), glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase), and Na+-K+-ATPase; in the level of tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) and lipid hydroperoxides (LOOHs); and in the activities of antioxidants. Results: Administration of the EPBL extract reversed the T4-induced increase in serum thyroid hormones, the liver marker enzymes, MDA, and LOOH but enhanced the activities of antioxidative enzymes and reduced the glutathione content. Light microscopic findings of liver histology revealed distorted hepatic tissue architecture in hyperthyroid animals that were improved by the EPBL administration. High-resolution liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy analysis revealed four main flavonoid glycosides such as quercetin, rutin, kaempferol, and luteolin. Conclusion: For the first time, our findings revealed the antithyroidic property of EPBL in T4-induced hyperthyroidism, without any hepatotoxicity. The antithyroidic and antioxidative properties of EPBL in hyperthyroid animals could be due to the presence of flavonoid glycosides in the extract which might have inhibited the thyroid hormone secretion and conversion of T4 to T3 through an inhibition of 5'DI. Abbreviations used: EPBL: Ethyl acetate Piper betel; HR-LC-MS: High-resolution liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy; T3: Triiodothyronine; T4:Thyroxine; TSH: Thyrotropin; PTU: Propylthiouracil; ALT: Alanine transaminase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; DTT: Dithiothreitol; G-6-Pase: Glucose-6-phosphatase; Na+-K+-ATPase: Sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase; 5'DI: 5'-monodeiodinase; MDA: Malondialdehyde; LOOHs: Lipid hydroperoxides; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; CAT: Catalase; GSH: Reduced glutathione; GPx: Glutathione peroxidase; CPCSEA: Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals.


Mesoporous carbon (MC) materials with surface area of 400 m2g-1 were prepared and incorporated into the polymer gel electrolyte comprising of polyvinylidene fluoride and 1-methyl-3-hexylimidazolium iodide to fabricate the composite gel electrolytes. The photovoltaic performance of the quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells was improved through incorporating MC into electrolyte. The dye-sensitized solar cell with composite gel electrolyte containing 3 wt% MC achieved the best photovoltaic performance, and the corresponding open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, fill factor and overall conversion efficiency were 0.59V, 13.22 mAcm-2, 0.66 and 5.15%, respectively. The stability of dye-sensitized solar cells with composite gel electrolyte was far superior to the cell with organic liquid electrolyte.


This article works as a riddle, offering several interpretations not only about what the Graal is, but also to whom it serves. Some specialists on Arthurian matters describe the image of a woman touching the Graal. Could it be that the Graal was a originally pre-christian object? Why is it that this symbolic image of masculine theological, sexual, military and political discourse is guarded by women? To answer these questions, the paper discusses Celtic narratives to explain the extermination of Catarism and Occitan culture (where women had a defining role), touching on the Mediterrarean and Indo-iranian origins of the myth. The riddle can only be solved weaving the above mentioned concepts with the symbolic and archetypal dimension of human existence. The narrative shows the thorough task of the Roman Creed to exclude systematically any traces of the feminine in the configuration of explicative models about the spiritual, emotional and social aspects of the individual.


According to a number of observers of the U.S. economy, large publicly traded corporations can be viewed as a social problem primarily because of their association with the concentration of wealth and power. In agriculture, nine states have laws which restrict or proscribe public corporations from engaging in farming. Also, groups and individuals have attempted to preserve non-corporate production enterprises in agriculture through the establishment of direct markets such as farmers' markets. Proponents of such efforts believe public corporations have negative economic impacts; opponents of such efforts, especially efforts to establish and retain anti-corporate farming laws, argue that corporations can provide economic benefits to rural areas.

These debates beg the question of whether ownership and direct marketing arrangements have important influences on economic outcomes such as levels of cash returns from farming and increases in the number of farms realizing cash gains. Using multi-year, county-level data from the Census of Agriculture, this study finds that, even when holding a number of important variables constant, ownership arrangements, as well as the (interaction between the percentage of total sales which are direct sales and the percentage of farms selling directly, are important determinants of both net cash returns and the percentage of farms realizing cash gains.


This study presents results from the Polar Amplification Multimodel Intercomparison Project (PAMIP) single-year time-slice experiments that aim to isolate the atmospheric response to Arctic sea ice loss at global warming levels of +2°C. Using two general circulation models (GCMs), the ensemble size is increased up to 300 ensemble members, beyond the recommended 100 members. After partitioning the response in groups of 100 ensemble members, the reproducibility of the results is evaluated, with a focus on the response of the midlatitude jet streams in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. Both atmosphere-only and coupled ocean–atmosphere PAMIP experiments are analyzed. Substantial differences in the midlatitude response are found among the different experiment subsets, suggesting that 100-member ensembles are still significantly influenced by internal variability, which can mislead conclusions. Despite an overall stronger response, the coupled ocean–atmosphere runs exhibit greater spread due to additional ENSO-related internal variability when the ocean is interactive. The lack of consistency in the response is true for anomalies that are statistically significant according to Student's t and false discovery rate tests. This is problematic for the multimodel assessment of the response, as some of the spread may be attributed to different model sensitivities whereas it is due to internal variability. We propose a method to overcome this consistency issue that allows for more robust conclusions when only 100 ensemble members are used.


Foraminiferal tests from two sediment cores from the western Arctic Ocean were investigated for evidence of an evolutionary transition from Cassidulina teretis Tappan to Cassidulina neoteretis Seidenkrantz during the Pleistocene. Previous results based on core material from the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas suggested minute differences between these test types and resulted in the emendation of C. neoteretis , as well as its designation as a Pleistocene biostratigraphic marker. This study identifies both species throughout most of the western Arctic foraminiferal record, without a clear pattern of evolution from one to another, except for the uppermost part of the stratigraphy (late Pleistocene). These results indicate that the C. teretis/C. neoteretis transition was more time-transgressive than previously believed and that these foraminifers may be ecophenotypes rather than different species. The stratigraphic use of C. neoteretis is likely to be site-specific and caution should be taken in its application across the entire Polar region.


We report the first study of tRNA modification in psychrotolerant archaea, specifically in the archaeon Methanococcoides burtonii grown at 4 and 23 degrees C. For comparison, unfractionated tRNA from the archaeal hyperthermophile Stetteria hydrogenophila cultured at 93 degrees C was examined. Analysis of modified nucleosides using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry revealed striking differences in levels and identities of tRNA modifications between the two organisms. Although the modification levels in M. burtonii tRNA are the lowest in any organism of which we are aware, it contains more than one residue per tRNA molecule of dihydrouridine, a molecule associated with maintenance of polynucleotide flexibility at low temperatures. No differences in either identities or levels of modifications, including dihydrouridine, as a function of culture temperature were observed, in contrast to selected tRNA modifications previously reported for archaeal hyperthermophiles. By contrast, S. hydrogenophila tRNA was found to contain a remarkable structural diversity of 31 modified nucleosides, including nine methylated guanosines, with eight different nucleoside species methylated at O-2' of ribose, known to be an effective stabilizing motif in RNA. These results show that some aspects of tRNA modification in archaea are strongly associated with environmental temperature and support the thesis that posttranscriptional modification is a universal natural mechanism for control of RNA molecular structure that operates across a wide temperature range in archaea as well as bacteria.


In 2010, the IDB published The Imperative of Innovation, a survey of the status of science, technology, and innovation in the Latin American and Caribbean region. The regions technological progress was found to be uneven and insufficient, especially in relation to other regions of the world. The main purposes of this document are to present updated information and to introduce some of the new research and policy know-how accumulated in the course of IDB lending and technical assistance operations in science, technology, and innovation. Most of the original diagnostic remains unchanged, mostly in the initial section, although figures have been updated reflecting the most recently available data. The new figures and indicators presented in this edition are derived from the Compendium of science, technology, and innovation indicators compiled by the IDB in late 2010.


An example is presented of a separated flow in an unbounded domain in which, as the Reynolds number becomes large, the separated region remains of size 0(1) and tends to a non-trivial Prandtl-Batchelor flow. The multigrid method is used to obtain rapid convergence to the solution of the discretized Navier-Stokes equations at Reynolds numbers of up to 5000. Extremely fine grids and tests of an integral property of the flow ensure accuracy. The flow exhibits the separation of a boundary layer with ensuing formation of a downstream eddy and reattachment of a free shear layer. The asymptotic ('triple deck') theory of laminar separation from a leading edge, due to Sychev (1979), is clarified and compared to the numerical solutions. Much better qualitative agreement is obtained than has been reported previously. Together with a plausible choice of two free parameters, the data can be extrapolated to infinite Reynolds number, giving quantitative agreement with triple-deck theory with errors of 20% or less. The development of a region of constant vorticity is observed in the downstream eddy, and the global infinite-Reynolds-number limit is a Prandtl-Batchelor flow; however, when the plate is stationary, the occurrence of secondary separation suggests that the limiting flow contains an infinite sequence of eddies behind the separation point. Secondary separation can be averted by driving the plate, and in this case the limit is a single-vortex Prandtl-Batchelor flow of the type found by Moore, Saffman & Tanveer (1988); detailed, encouraging comparisons are made to the vortex-sheet strength and position. Altering the boundary condition on the plate gives viscous eddies that approximate different members of the family of inviscid solutions.


In 60 Hz electric fields, liquid drops suspended in a second immiscible liquid deformed into prolate spheroids oriented in the direction of the field in 22 drop/medium combinations studied experimentally. In steady fields, oblate or prolate spheroids were formed depending upon the dielectric constants and resistivities of the drop and medium. In systems yielding oblate spheroids, a critical frequency existed at which the drop remained spherical at all field strengths. Electrohydrodynamic streaming near the surface of the drop occurred as predicted by Taylor. A theory, valid for both steady and alternating fields, was developed which predicts the conditions leading to oblate and prolate spheroids and which reduces to Taylor's equations for conducting dielectrics in steady fields and to the equations for perfect dielectrics in steady and alternating fields. The theory explains the general types of deformation and electrohydrodynamic flow which were observed and predicts several interesting new modes of behaviour. In most cases the measured deformations were greater than calculated from the theory; various explanations for this discrepancy are advanced, but no definite conclusions are reached. At high field strengths the drops burst in two basically different ways which we have designated as electric and electrohydrodynamic burst, the first caused by electric stresses alone and the second by a combination of electric and hydrodynamic stresses.


The Paris region (Ile-de-France) was amongst the hardest hit by the August 2003 heat wave, due in part to subsequent amplification of its urban heat island. This has created high heat-wave awareness in climate change adaptation studies for the city of Paris. Over the summer of 2013, pavement watering was studied experimentally in two locations as a climate change adaptation method. Pavement watering was found to lower pavement surface temperatures by several degrees for several hours after watering, while also strongly reducing its cooling rate a few hours before and after sunset. Heat flux and storage at a depth of 5 cm in the pavement were also found to have been significantly reduced, especially during direct sunlight exposure, but also when the pavement was in the shade. Uninterrupted watering appears necessary during direct sunlight exposure of the pavement to maximize efficiency.


Novel conducting polythiophenes, which have mesogenic side-chains have been synthesised and investigated in order to study their liquid crystallinity and its possible effects on electronic conductivity. The backbone was based on substituted polythiophenes.
Four main types of liquid crystalline conjugated polymers were investigated: l Polymers without liquid crystal groups attached
2 Polymers with laterally attached liquid crystal groups
3 Polymers with terminally attached liquid crystal groups
4 Polymers with terminally attached liquid crystal groups that have potential negative dielectric anisotropy
A large variety of suitable thiophene-substituted precursors with potential liquid crystalline properties was synthesised and investigated by optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Williamson ether synthesis and boronic acid coupling chemistry were mainly used to synthesise the polymer precursors. Some of these monomers proved difficult to homopolymerise due to the large bulky . laterally attached moieties, therefore copolymerisations with 3-alkylthiophenes were carried out. Cyclic voltammetry of the liquid crystalline substituted thiophene precursor was investigated but even when redox peaks were observed. no polymer film was formed. Therefore these liquid crystalline conjugated polymers/copolymers were chemically synthesised by free radical polymerisation using FeCh and then synthetically modified. The polymers obtained were fully characterised by spectroscopic analysis and the physical properties of these potentially liquid crystalline conjugated polymers were investigated.
Comparative studies of the laterally-attached liquid crystalline conjugated copolymers,poly[(I-(3-thiophenemethoxy)-6-(4-n-hexoxy-2-oxybenzoic acid)hexane-co-(3-hexylthiophene)] and of its terminally attached analogue poly[(I-(3-thiophenemethoxy )-6-( 4-oxybenzoic acid)hexane )-co-(3- hexylthiophenej], revealed that the conductivity of the former was much greater than the latter. Also observed was the noticeable increase in conductivity when the copolymers were converted from the ester form poly[(I-(3- thiophenemethoxy)-6-( methyl 4-n-hexoxy-2-oxybenzoate )hexane )-co-(3- hexylthiophene)] to the liquid crystal acid form poly[(I-(3-thiophenemethoxy)-6- (4-n-hexoxy-2-oxybenzoic acid)hexane )-co-(3-hexylthiophene)]. It became evident that an alkyl spacer was necessary to attach the lateral liquid crystal group. as the alkyl chains provided enough space for the bulky group to orientate into position. However copolymer ratio studies revealed that the ratio of alkyl chain to liquid crystal groups did not significantly affect the overall conductivity of the copolymers for this class of compounds. Also the electrical conductivities as a function of temperature for some undoped LC copolymers of poly[(I-(3- thiophenemethoxy)-6-( 4-n-hexoxy-2-oxybenzoic acid)hexane )-co-(3- hexylthiophene)] increase with increasing temperature. The temperature range in which these increases occur corresponds to LC transitions in the differential scanning calorimetry and by polarising hot-stage microscopy.


Monolingual Turkish speakers, highly proficient Turkish speakers of English as a second language (L2), and native English speakers participated in online self-paced reading tasks and offline pen-and-paper questionnaires testing the processing of relative clause (RC) attachment ambiguities. Experimental stimuli in the online task consisted of temporarily and globally ambiguous sentences. Temporarily ambiguous sentences were disambiguated using animacy information carried by the NPs in the complex genitive NP. The offline task consisted of globally ambiguous sentences. The results of the online and offline tasks showed that both first language (L1) groups preferred to attach the RC to the low noun phrase (NP), both with animate and inanimate antecedents. Results for the L2 group, however, differed in the online and offline tasks. In the online task, they preferred to attach the RC high with animate antecedents, but showed a tendency to attach it low with inanimate antecedents. In the offline task, on the other hand, they showed a high attachment preference throughout. Results are discussed in relation to the Shallow Structure Hypothesis of Clahsen and Felser (Clahsen a Felser, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c).


Chapter 6 investigates the interactions between adults and children/adolescents in villages and summer camps, considering if and in which ways adults' actions promote children/adolescents' participation and involvement in decision-making. The analysis reveals that in villages, communication processes between children and adults are primarily structured as educational disempowering monologues, while a systematic promotion of children's participation seems difficult to achieve, and ambivalences and oscillations are recurrent in interactions. In summer camps, where disempowering monologues and ambivalences are less frequently produced than in villages, a variety of adults' dialogic actions succeeds in promoting and supporting adolescents' self-expression and active participation, but it frequently fails to create effective coordination among adolescents' contributions, chiefly promoting communication between adults and adolescents.


Leukocyte traffic through secondary lymphoid tissues is finely tuned by chemokines. We have studied the functional properties of a human T cell subset marked by the expression of CXC chemokine receptor 5 (CXCR5). Memory but not naive T cells from tonsils are CXCR5+ and migrate in response to the B cell–attracting chemokine 1 (BCA-1), which is selectively expressed by reticular cells and blood vessels within B cell follicles. Tonsillar CXCR5+ T cells do not respond to other chemokines present in secondary lymphoid tissues, including secondary lymphoid tissue chemokine (SLC), EBV-induced molecule 1 ligand chemokine (ELC), and stromal cell–derived factor 1 (SDF-1). The involvement of tonsillar CXCR5+ T cells in humoral immune responses is suggested by their localization in the mantle and light zone germinal centers of B cell follicles and by the concomitant expression of activation and costimulatory markers, including CD69, HLA-DR, and inducible costimulator (ICOS). Peripheral blood CXCR5+ T cells also belong to the CD4+ memory T cell subset but, in contrast to tonsillar cells, are in a resting state and migrate weakly to chemokines. CXCR5+ T cells are very inefficient in the production of cytokines but potently induce antibody production during coculture with B cells. These properties portray CXCR5+ T cells as a distinct memory T cell subset with B cell helper function, designated here as follicular B helper T cells (TFH).


Sport and more specifically football is an important asset in youth lives. It is widely considered that biological maturity influences physical performance. Relationships between body size and performance are partly confounded by age. In fact, age is positively associated to strength and motor performance, even when height and weight are controlled. Studies on young footballer have been started to consider the potential impact of variation on growth and biological maturity status upon sport-specific football skills. Some authors suggest that physical training should have a low priority until the late puberty and then the time could be devoted to other types of training such as focusing on technical aspects. However, the question remains that is this due to low trainability or inadequacies of training programs? A brief review of the literature was conducted with three specific exclusion criteria including the age of footballers, relation of age with performance, and studies on football. There are critical periods in the life of a young person, in which the effects of training can be maximized. Thus, a special attention should be paid to developing football skills by regarding the performance and full respect to youth development. Many papers have been published on functional capacities and dimensions in pre-adolescence and adolescence, but less information are available concerning the ages between 6 and 10. Hence, this paper aims to highlight some aspects of this age period and provide an understanding of important aspects of growth, development, and maturation is particularly important, as a youngster's football performance may depend heavily on gender and biological age and state.


APOE plays a well established role in lipid metabolism. Animal model evidence suggests APOE may also be associated with adiposity, but this has not been thoroughly investigated in humans. We measured adiposity (BMI, truncal fat mass, waist circumference), physical activity (PA), cardiorespiratory fitness and APOE genotype (E2, E3, E4) in 292 8-year-old children from the Tasmanian Infant Health Survey (TIHS), an Australian population-based prospective birth cohort. Our aims were to examine the association of APOE with child adiposity, and to examine the interplay between this association and other measured factors. We found that APOE was associated with child lipid profiles. APOE was also associated with child adiposity measures. The association was E4 allele-specific, with adiposity lower in the E4-containing group (BMI: Mean difference -0.90 kg/m2; 95% confidence intervals (CI) -1.51, -0.28; p = 0.004). The association of APOE4 with lower BMI differed by fitness status (difference in effect p = 0.002), and was more evident among the less fit (mean difference -1.78 kg/m2; 95% CI -2.74, -0.83; p<0.001). Additionally, associations between BMI and lipids were only apparent in those of lower fitness who did not carry APOE4. Similar overall findings were observed when truncal fat mass and waist circumference were used as alternative adiposity measures. APOE4 and cardiorespitatory fitness could interact to influence child adiposity. In studies addressing the genetic determinants of childhood obesity, the context of child fitness should also be taken into account.


Current concepts of automated vehicles include an increasing usage of internal infotainment displays. Although being visually appealing, such display concepts introduce drawbacks in terms of ergonomics – neck stress and unnatural interaction with a display in the side door – and increase the price. Additionally, occupants of a vehicle often occlude screens for others or their seating orientation might complicate viewing a specific display. Other design concepts introduce the usage of hand-held devices to transmit information about the car. We propose to use augmented and virtual reality head-mounted displays instead of fixed screens to overcome these issues. While concepts that based on displays and handheld devices consequently design for the use of these devices, there are no concepts that showcase interior designs for HMD usage. Current advances to use HMDs inside the car just showcase the possibility to wear a headset while being in the car. Important questions for the interior concept, such as the storage of HMDs, the integration with the existing HMD and the consequent use of the interior to support interaction in VR, have not yet been addressed. We present two exemplary scenarios that showcase the possible impact a consequent design for HMDs could have on the vehicles interior. With our proposal we want to foster the discussion on the possibilities of HMDs and the needs on the interior design to make use of the full potential of VR experiences in the car. CHI'19 Workshop on "Looking into the Future: Weaving the Threads of Vehicle Automation", May 2019, Glasgow, UK © 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Proceedings of CHI'19 Workshop on "Looking into the Future: Weaving the Threads of Vehicle Automation" .


Nowadays, majority of the cities' entrances have become uniform and cliché spaces in lieu of manifesting the identity properties and showcasing the cultural ID. The degree of uniformity is so extreme that they are not even understandable. Therefore, it is necessary to seek creating of the required preparations for understanding of such an identity alongside with creation and enhancement of the identity in the cities' entrances. In other words, manifestation of identity in a tangible and perceivable manner for the onlookers is of great importance in the entire urban spaces, especially cities' entrances as the first space of the individuals' familiarization with the city. The objective in offering the present study is investigation of the role of perception and the factors influencing it on the ever increasing conception of the landscape drawn on a special identity in a neighborhood and this has been specifically conducted on the western entrance in Gorgan. To do so, this qualitative research deals within the format of an applied research based on a descriptive-analytical method with the exploration of the aforesaid subject and offers in the course of its examinations a matrix table for exploring the relationship between the indicators influencing the environmental comprehension of the cities' entrances with various species of the cultural landscape. The main method of data collection has been documentary research, library search and field survey. The results obtained from the present study indicate that paying attention to various factors like age and gender groups, the observers' mobility or staticity, being pedestrians or passengers, being citizens or travelers and others in the designing of the spaces influences the increase in the individuals' perception of the well-identified spaces featuring cultural landscapes. On the other hand, the application of various human and manmade factors and natural elements is effective on the creation of a perceivable cultural landscape. In organizing the entrance in Gorgan, as a northern city with unique climate and special natural environment, paying special attention to the natural factors, as the most distinct factors of creating cultural landscape, is of great importance. Engaging the various age, gender groups, etc. as well as the proportional designing based on their perceptional properties in such activities like creation of rosaries, urban farming and agrotourism and so forth can enable the achievement of a perceivable cultural landscape.


Atmospheric pressure variations provide a broadband signal that may force a sympathetic response in well water levels. In this paper, time series analysis techniques are used to estimate the response as a frequency-dependent admittance function, which is then modeled to provide estimates of the fluid transport properties of strata. The data derive from five cased piezometer wells sampling aquifers in the Nubian Formation southwest of Aswan, Egypt. Three shallow wells (100–140 m deep) sample a water table aquifer; a fourth ("W3"; 400 m deep) samples a basal aquifer in the same area that behaves in a confined manner up to a period of several years. The fifth well samples another basal aquifer and shows evidence of partial blockage. Nontidal water level variations in the shallow wells are due almost entirely to barometrically driven flow of air and water. Using a simple model to fit the observed barometric admittance spectra, we obtain estimates of horizontal and vertical permeabilities (for water) in the saturated zone. Local horizontal permeability is constrained by modeling the effects of flow-induced pressure gradients near the screen. For the W3 deep well sampling the basal aquifer, the resulting values (0.15–0.3 μ2) are marginally lower than the large-scale (5 km) estimates (0.32–0.43 μ2) derived in a previous paper. However, the values for the three wells sampling the water table aquifer, although consistent among themselves (0.2–0.5 μ2), are significantly lower than the large-scale estimate (1.0–1.5 μ2). This is contrary to what might be expected given that the wells are preferentially screened in clean sandstones. Vertical permeability, estimated by modeling partial confinement effects, is constrained for only one well. A low value was obtained because of the presence of claystone beds in the diffusion path between screen and water table at this well. The effects of air wave diffusion are clearly manifest in the spectra of one well where the water table lay at a depth of about 40 m. The form of the spectra was well fit by ascribing a uniform pneumatic diffusivity of 1.75×10 m−3m2/s to the unsaturated zone. However, it was also necessary to include an apparent attenuation of the air wave at the capillary fringe of about 0.5. We propose that the effect is due not to attenuation but that it reflects "compression" of the phreatic surface arising from the presence of trapped air pockets in the underlying saturated zone. A 40-m rise in the water table at the site during the decade prior to the measurements might explain the presence of significant quantities of trapped air. This rise in water table, together with the arid climate, might be taken to suggest that the moisture content of the unsaturated zone is negligible (except within a meter or so of the water table). However, calculation of the intrinsic rock permeability from pneumatic diffusivity assuming zero moisture content yields an estimate which is considered to be too low. The likely explanation is that the assumption of zero moisture content is in error, despite conditions which are as favorable as are ever likely to be realized under field conditions.


Abstract Previous research has shown that the persistent regional mortality differences in Finland cannot be attributed to sociodemographic factors, health behaviors, or living conditions at young age. Using longitudinal population register data from Finland, we analyze the effect of birth region and ethnicity on mortality risks in men age 65–74 years and women age 75–84 years. Mortality from ischemic heart disease in particular is found to be highly influenced by these proxies for people's ancestry. The results are consistent with findings from population genetic and medical research, which says that genetic diversity is great across major regions of Finland and that this diversity may underlie variation in disease susceptibility. We argue that the regional mortality variation might reflect geographic clustering of hereditary factors, enforced by Finland's specific population development. We illustrate that large-scale population register data without genetic information or biomarkers can be useful for understanding cause-specific mortality within a national population.


Since its inception in 2003, the Patient Voices Programme has been gathering and disseminating digital stories of healthcare created by patients, carers and clinicians involved in delivering and receiving that care. It is one of the longest-running digital storytelling projects in the world and, as far as can be determined, the only digital storytelling project to focus specifically on healthcare. During this time, more than 1000 digital stories have been created. Once released by storytellers, these stories are made freely available by a publicly accessible website for use in healthcare education and service improvement programmes. The aim of Patient Voices was, through sharing the stories of what really matters to the people who design, deliver and receive healthcare, to bring about a transformation, resulting in safer, higher quality care characterised by greater humanity and compassion.
I am one of the founders of the Patient Voices Programme. I have played a key role in every aspect of the Programme's development, from working with the first storytellers and writing the original rationale, to conducting research on the impact of the stories, presenting at numerous conferences, writing papers for publication, facilitating workshops and consulting on use of the stories.
Not only has the Patient Voices Programme had an impact on the world of healthcare, particularly in the UK, but it has also had an impact on the wider world of digital storytelling, where the Patient Voices Programme is regarded as the world leader in digital storytelling in healthcare; indeed, I have given a keynote address at four of the last five international digital storytelling conferences.
Through an examination of eight published papers and the Patient Voices website, this thesis will demonstrate the contribution that I have made, through the Patient Voices Programme, to healthcare and healthcare education as well as to the wider, emerging field of digital storytelling.


With increasing size and complexity of the implementations of information systems, it is necessary to use some logical construct (or architecture) for defining and controlling the interfaces and the integration of all of the components of the system. This paper defines information systems architecture by creating a descriptive framework from disciplines quite independent of information systems, then by analogy specifies information systems architecture based upon the neutral, objective framework. Also, some preliminary conclusions about the implications of the resultant descriptive framework are drawn. The discussion is limited to architecture and does not include a strategic planning methodology.


(29/12/2018) Pricing and Capacity Planning Problems in Energy Transmission Networks Efficient use of energy is an increasingly important topic. Environmental and climate concerns as well as concerns for security of supply has made renewable energy sources a viable alternative to traditional energy sources. However, the intermittent nature of for instance wind and solar energy necessitates a radical change in the way we plan and operate energy systems. Another paradigm change which began in the 1990's for electricity systems is that of deregulation. This has led to a variety of different market structures implemented across the world. In this thesis we discuss capacity planning and transmission pricing problems in energy transmission networks. Although the modelling framework applies to energy networks in general, most of the applications discussed concern the transmission of electricity. A number of the problems presented involves transmission switching, which allows the operator of an electricity transmission network to switch lines in and out in an operational context in order to optimise the network flow. We show that transmission switching in systems with large-scale wind power may alleviate network congestions and reduce curtailment of wind power leading to higher utilisation of installed wind power capacity. We present formulations of — and efficient solution methods for— the transmission line capacity expansion problem and the unit commitment problem with transmission switching. We also show that transmission switching may radically change the optimal line capacity expansion strategy. In the Nordic electricity system a market with zonal prices is adopted. We consider the problem of designing zones in an optimal way explicitly considering uncertainty. Finally, we formulate the integrated problem of pipeline capacity expansion planning and transmission pricing in natural gas transmission networks.


OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between childhood and adult secondhand smoke and type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study among 37,343 French women from the E3N-EPIC (Etude Epidémiologique auprès des femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale-European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) who never smoked and who were free of type 2 diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular disease at baseline in 1992. Self-reported childhood secondhand smoke exposure was defined as having at least one parent who smoked. Adult secondhand smoke was defined as the sum of self-reported hours recorded at baseline of exposure to tobacco smoke from a spouse who smoked (or domestic close contact) and from outside the home. RESULTS Between 1992 and 2007, 795 cases of incident type 2 diabetes were identified and validated through a drug reimbursement dataset and a specific questionnaire. Women with at least one parent who smoked appeared to have an 18% higher rate of type 2 diabetes than women with parents who did not smoke (age-adjusted hazard ratio 1.18 [95% CI 1.02–1.36]). Adult secondhand smoke exposure (no exposure versus ≥4 h/day) was associated with an increased rate of type 2 diabetes (1.36 [1.05–1.77], P = 0.002 for trend) after adjusting for parental history of diabetes, education, body silhouette at age 8, childhood secondhand smoke exposure, physical activity, body mass index, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, menopausal status and hormone use, alcohol intake, and processed red meat and coffee consumption. CONCLUSIONS This prospective analysis suggests that secondhand smoke exposure in childhood and adulthood are associated with a higher rate of type 2 diabetes.


Objective: To discover the role of MCPH1 in the DNA double-strand damage induced by ionizing radiation and the relationship with H2AX in esophageal cancer cell ECA109.
Methods: ECA109 cancer cells will be accepted 8 Gy 1 h after irradiation for protein extraction and immunofluorescence observed MCPH1 and H2AX protein expression and nuclear foci changes. Establish a stable low expression of H2AX cell lines. Detecting MCPH1 and H2AX protein expression and nuclear foci changes induced by ionizing radiation after silence H2AX.
Results: 1. Successfully constructed the ECA109 cell line with silence H2AX gene. 2. Ionizing radiation could cause r-H2AX and MCPH1 protein expression increase, as the same as nuclear focus increase of r- H2AX and MCPH1. 3. The protein level and nucleus focus of r-H2AX and MCPH1 are significantly reduced in ECA109 after silence H2AX.
Conclusion: MCPH1 is the part of DNA damage response triggered by ionizing radiation and is located in the damage response downstream and can be regulated by H2AX.


Introduction: As part of a move towards reflexivity, whereby practice can influence research and vice-versa, more longitudinal study designs are being utilised within radiotherapy research. Questions regarding change over time of an outcome and the assessment of predictive factors associated with the outcome can be answered by this approach. As subjects are measured repeatedly over time their responses are correlated, and failure to incorporate this fact into the data analysis may lead to erroneous conclusions and loss of statistical power (1).

Conventional approaches to analyse correlated observations have been, to transform multiple observations into a single summary measure or to use a form of repeated-measures analysis of variance (rANOVA) (2). Both approaches have recognised strengths but also inherent weaknesses regarding inflexibility of the number, timing and variability of observations, an inability to estimate the way individual subjects change over time and difficulties when dealing with incomplete datasets (3).

More sophisticated statistical methods, mixed-effects models and generalised estimating equations, overcome most of these issues but until recently have been too complex for most researchers to utilise. Novel software, such as SPSS version15, has now made them accessible without requiring statistical programming.

Method: Archives of six journals - Radiotherapy & Oncology, International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Radiography, Journal of Pain & Symptom Management and Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice - were searched for radiotherapy related repeated measure designs, published between 1999 and 2006. The level of statistical analysis was noted.

Results: In 1999 12% of studies used sophisticated models, 75% used rANOVA and 13% summary measures. By 2006 the use of sophisticated models was 39%, with 59% rANOVA and only 2% summary measures.

Discussion: Radiotherapy research has increasingly utilised mixed-effects models and generalised estimating equations in the last seven years, mirroring advances in user friendly computer software. Potentially, studies will have enhanced statistical power and accuracy to model data, thus generating an evidence base that is more reflective of and reflected in clinical practice.


The legal fight against bribery and corruption has evolved from the solitary effort of the United States with its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) to a global legal endeavor. Corporations are frequently engaged in transnational deals that require them to understand their obligations under a web of anti-corruption regulations with penalties ranging from fines in the tens of millions of dollars to life imprisonment. Although the market for legal services has changed to match client needs, the curriculum at most U.S. law schools has not. This paper explores the relationship between transnational business and legal services and legal education in the United States. First, the article offers a comparative analysis of the main anti-corruption regimes, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, United Nations Convention Against Corruption, The Organization of American States Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, Council of Europe Criminal and Civil Law Conventions on Corruption and The African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. Second, this paper analyzes how the legal market in the United States has responded to the global regulatory environment and provides an empirical study of the what anti-corruption legal services the twenty-five largest U.S. law firms provide their clients. Finally, the paper presents a rough outline of a possible curriculum change and suggests that U.S. law schools would be well-advised to allow interested students to pursue multi-jurisdictional specialization in certain regulatory practice areas.


White sharks show a high degree of residency to specific aggregation sites, to which they return regularly over multiple years. Australian research has historically focused on single aggregation areas within each of the southern states where white sharks occur, but other key habitats likely exist and if so, will be important to identify to effectively monitor and protect threatened white shark populations. This study is the first to describe Liguanea Island as a second white shark aggregation site within South Australia, with residency periods and return visits recorded by multiple individuals. Eight sharks were detected at both Liguanea Island and the other known aggregation area in the state, the Neptune Islands, dem- onstrating movement between these locations. Sustained residency periods were recorded at both sites, although high pe- riodic site fidelity was apparent with many individuals showing preference for the location at which they were tagged. In- dividual differences in site fidelity and residency patterns were found, although two sub-adult individuals were found to follow similar movement patterns. The implications of white shark movements, and the suggested identification of a sec- ond aggregation areas in close proximity are discussed.


Ultraviolet (UV)B irradiation induces the production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) by activating cellular signaling transduction pathways, which are responsible for the degradation or synthesis inhibition of collagenous extracellular matrix in connective tissues, causing skin photoaging. Using the human skin fibroblast (HS68) cell line in the present study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of fucoidan on MMP-1 expression by various in vitro experiments and elucidated the pathways of inhibition. Pretreatment with fucoidan inhibited UVB-induced MMP-1 expression in a dose-dependent manner. Extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) activation was markedly inhibited by treatment with fucoidan, though JNK activation was very slightly affected by fucoidan. We also found that fucoidan pretreatment significantly reduced MMP-1 mRNA expression in comparison with UVB irradiation only. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that fucoidan can mainly inhibit UVB-induced MMP-1 expression by inhibiting the ERK pathways. Therefore, fucoidan might be used as a potential agent for the prevention and treatment of skin photoaging.


When the Supreme Court invalidated a Washington state sentencing scheme in its 2004 decision in Blakely v. Washington, both courts and commentators assumed that the newly invigorated Sixth Amendment jury right would topple the Federal Sentencing Guidelines as well. To address those concerns, the Supreme Court moved quickly to hear a pair of appeals directly raising the constitutionality of the Guidelines. The resulting decision, United States v. Booker, with its two majority opinions, seems to offer something to both jury-right advocates and Guidelines advocates. The first Booker majority held that the Sixth Amendment applies to judicial decision-making under the Guidelines. But the second majority held that any constitutional infirmity could be expunged by simply making the Guidelines discretionary instead of mandatory. The apparent principle resulting from the case is that if a judge finds facts increasing a defendant's sentence beyond the otherwise allowable maximum because Congress required her to find those facts, the sentence is unconstitutional. On the other hand, if a judge finds facts increasing a defendant's sentence beyond the otherwise allowable maximum because Congress suggested that she find those facts, the sentence is perfectly valid. In other words, at least until Congress acts, judges may continue to decide exactly the same factual issues they have always decided. Any victory for jury-right advocates is, then, a pyrrhic one. Booker fails on its face as a matter of logic. Its constitutional remedy negates the very right the case purports to protect. But it also fails for another pragmatic reason. By validating judicial power to find facts pertinent to sentencing, Booker entrenches an unjustifiable disparity between the scope of the jury rights in civil and criminal cases. The Supreme Court has recently reaffirmed that, where punitive damages are at issue in a civil case, the jury should make any factual determinations on which the award of punitive damages turns. In contrast, Booker will permit judges acting under the now-advisory Federal Sentencing Guidelines to determine exactly the same factual matters, such as the degree of harm to the victim, as a predicate for imposing a criminal sentence. This article explores that anomaly and argues that the gap between the scope of the civil jury right and the scope of the criminal jury right should be closed by requiring jury decisions on all fact questions, regardless of when those questions arise in a proceeding. The article offers a definition of "fact questions" for criminal cases and then discusses some of practical issues that this approach would raise.


Lubrication oil plays a decisive role to maintain a reliable and efficient operation of gear transmissions. Many offline methods have been developed to monitor the quality of lubricating oils. This work focus on developing a novel online method to diagnose oil degradation based on the measurements from power supply system to the gearbox. Experimental studies based on an 10kW industrial gearbox fed by a sensorless variable speed drive (VSD) shows that measurable changes in both static power and dynamic behaviour are different with lube oils tested. Therefore, it is feasible to use the static power feature to indicate viscosity changes at low and moderate operating speeds. In the meantime, the dynamic feature can separate viscosity changes for all different tested cases.


We report on characterization, performance and applications of nuclear detectors fabricated on Semi-Insulating (SI) Liquid Encapsulated Czokralski (LEC) grown GaAs. We have developed a non alloyed and non injecting ohmic contact (NAOC) based on ion implantation to fabricate detectors which can operate at applied voltages greater than the one needed to make them fully depleted. With such a detectors and at high applied voltages, Va > 500 V, a nearly full charge collection efficiency has been achieved for both alpha particles and X-rays. Furthermore the best energy resolution achieved at room temperature has been 1.1% for 5.48 MeV alpha particles and 26.1% for 59.5 keV X-rays, while at -30 °C the best energy resolution measured for X-rays has been 4.1%.


This research evaluates the effects of seat back angle and armrest angle on performance of the following variables: (1) static force generation capabilities on an isometric force-stick; (2) lower-body isometric muscle contractions used in anti-gravity straining maneuvers (AGSMs); and (3) tracking performance for a manual tracking task. The purpose of this research is to determine if certain body postures significantly affect force generation, isometric muscle contractions, and tracking error. Subjects perform three different tasks over four experimental sessions. In the first session, subjects generate maximum force on a sidearm isometric force-stick at 18 seat back and armrest combinations (six seat back angles x three armrest angles) in two directions (roll left and roll right). In the next three sessions, subjects perform either a manual tracking task or a manual tracking task concurrent with lower-body isometric muscle contractions at each of the 18 seat back and armrest combinations. The dependent measures used to evaluate performance are stick force, blood pressure, and tracking error. The results indicate the following: (1) static force generation ability is significantly affected by gender, seat back angle, and direction in which the force is applied; (2) 1ower-body isometric muscle contractions used to elevate blood pressure are not significantly affected by seatback angle and armrest angle; and (3) tracking error is significantly affected by seatback angle. Some results are consistent with previous research that found force capabilities are affected by the direction in which force is applied, and that body posture does not affect isometric muscle contractions used to increase blood pressure. However, other results indicate the need for further research to determine the relationship of body posture to isometric muscle contraction used in AGSMs and manual tracking. URI http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42431 Collections Masters Theses [18599] Effects of seated posture on static strength, lower-body isometric muscle contractions, and manual tracking performance 


ABSTRACT In this new series of Fungal Biodiversity Profiles, the authors describe seven new Russulales: five new species of Lactarius subg. Russularia and two new Russulas: descriptions and ITS sequences are provided for L. aurantiobrunneus X.H. Wang, sp. nov., L. collybioides X.H. Wang, sp. nov., L. exilis X.H. Wang, sp. nov., L. flaviaquosus X.H. Wang, sp. nov., and L. resinosus X.H. Wang, sp. nov., from China, as well as for Russula clavatohyphata R.P. Bhatt, A. Ghosh, Buyck & K. Das, sp. nov., from Indian Himalaya, and R. capillaris Buyck, sp. nov., from Madagascar. In addition, first ITS sequences are provided for several specimens of the North American R. burlinghamiae Singer. Two bamboo-inhabiting species are described from Asia: Serpula dendrocalami C.L. Zhao, sp. nov., in Boletales, is described from China, while Hymenochaete sharmae Hembrom, K. Das & A. Parihar, sp. nov., in Hymenochaetales, is described from India. Finally, in Agaricales, Laccaria indohimalayana K. Das, I. Bera & Vizzini, sp. nov., is described from Indian Himalaya.


The multi-levelled processes taking place in Crowdfunding (CF), when tapping a large heterogeneous crowd for resources, and the often fundamentally different intentions of individual crowd members in the case of highly desirable social ventures with little prospect for economic gains, may lead to a different logic and approach to how entrepreneurship develops. Using this under-institutionalized sphere as both, context and subject, the author seeks evidence and a new understanding of entrepreneurial routes by using the sociological perspectives of Bourdieus' four forms of capital as a lens on 36 cases of social ventures. In the cases, opportunity recognition, formation and exploitation could not be distinguished as separate processes. CF and sourcing help form the actual opportunity and disperse information at the same time. In addition, the 'nexus' of opportunity and entrepreneur is breached in CF of social causes through the constant exchange of ideas with the crowd, leading to norm-value pairs between the funders and the entrepreneurs. Issues of identification and control are thus not based upon any formal relationship but based on perceived legitimization and offered democratic participation leading to the transformation of social capital (SC) into economic capital (EC). Success is based upon the SC of the entrepreneurial teams, yet the actual resource exchange and transformation into EC is highly moderated by cultural and symbolic capital that is being built up through the process.


While legged locomotion is a rapidly advancing area in robotics, several issues regarding the performance of such robots on deformable ground are still open. In this paper, we generate a pronking gait on a quadruped robot using a controller, which takes into account the effects of ground deformation. The controller, initially developed for monopods, is modified appropriately to operate for quadrupeds. The robot uses a reaction wheel to retain a desired body pitch. The dynamic models of leg motor drivetrains and of the reaction wheel are incorporated and their importance in the design of legged robots is highlighted. Simulation results show good performance in reaching commanded apex heights and forward velocities when traversing various deformable terrains, demonstrating that the developed controller is quite promising.


The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of item and person properties on item difficulties using the Linear Logistic Test Model (LLTM) and its extensions. The data under investigation are the Italy mathematics data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006. The information regarding the geographical macro-area (North-Italy versus South-Italy) has been used in the application as person property. Furthermore, the comparison on item properties effects between North-Italy versus South-Italy is performed fitting the LLTM for each geographical macro-area.


This Symposium Essay examines the campaign that led up to the last presidential election to illuminate the complex interplay between race and class within our society. Specifically, it explores how race and class functioned together to disadvantage President Obama in the race to the White House (even as he ultimately won the election). Section II focuses on how Obama's income, job status, and prestigious education functioned as markers of elitism during the campaign, even as compared to opponents with more elite and wealthier backgrounds, and how these factors were used as tools by his opponents to convince lower-class white voters not to support his bid for the Presidency. Section III addresses the ways in which Obama's adversaries shamelessly foisted negative stereotypes about "lower-class" Blacks upon both Obama and his wife Michelle in order to mark the Obamas as "other" and thus unworthy of life in the White House. Finally, Section IV concludes by exploring the unique challenges that these interactions may present for policymakers, particularly on issues such as affirmative action, desegregation and integration in public schools, and employment.


Abstract This article explores the ways in which the contemporary women's movement in South Africa has been shaped by its own recent history as well as by the changes in the political landscape since 1994. The article argues that the striking feature of the past decade is the manner in which the strategy of inclusion of women in formal political institutions of state and party has tended to displace the transformatory goals of structural and social change. Both goals, of inclusion and transformation, were held to be mutually dependent by women's movement activists throughout the 1980s and 1990s. However, the article shows that maintaining the strategic balance between these goals has been difficult to achieve, in large part because the women's movement has been relatively weak, apart from a brief moment in the early 1990s. The argument outlines the theoretical and strategic debates relating to definitions of the term 'women's movement' in South Africa, and then identifies and classifies different forms of organizations and strategies. Finally, the article argues that the realization of gender equality rests on the extent to which a strong women's movement will develop, with a clear agenda for transformation and relative autonomy from both state and other social movements.


This paper introduces a probabilistic framework for the joint survivorship of couples in the context of dynamic stochastic mortality models. The death of one member of a couple can have either deterministic or stochastic effects on the other; our new framework gives an intuitive and flexible pairwise cohort-based probabilistic mechanism that can account for both. It is sufficiently flexible to allow modelling of effects that are short-term (called the broken-heart effect) and/or long-term (named life circumstances bereavement). In addition, it can account for the state of health of both the surviving and the dying spouse and can allow for dynamic and asymmetric reactions of varying complexity. Finally, it can accommodate the pairwise dependence of mortality intensities before the first death. Analytical expressions for bivariate survivorship in representative models are given, and their sensitivity analysis is performed for benchmark cases of old and young couples. Simulation and estimation procedures are provided that are straightforward to implement and lead to consistent parameter estimation on synthetic dataset of 10000 pairs of death times for couples.


In this study, atmospheric pollen data of previous studies belonging to 54 different stations in Turkey, conducted by using the gravimetric and/or volumetric method, were evaluated in terms of flora, biogeography and aeropalynology. In line with these data, Turkey is divided into 5 aeropalyno-geographical regions, which are represented with their characteristics (North, West, South, Central, and East), and the skin prick tests were evaluated on the basis of pollen allergy data regionally and concurrently. In general, the dominant pollen seen in Turkey's atmosphere has been found to be represented by 29 different types. The pollen sum of these 29 taxa was found to represent more than 85% of the total pollen concentration detected in the atmosphere when evaluated according to different regions. Of these pollen types, 20 belong to woody and nine belong to herbaceous plants. It has generally been reported that there are higher pollen concentrations of woody plants in the atmosphere in Turkey. Overall, Cupressaceae/Taxaceae, Pinus, and Gramineae pollen were found as the common types to all of Turkey's five aeropalynogeographic regions, in which they were recorded within the first three dominant pollen types. It has also been observed that Quercus, Platanus and Populus pollen from woody plants, and Amaranthaceae and Urticaceae pollen from the herbaceous plants were commonly recorded in high amounts for all regions. However, when the revised data are examined in detail, it has been determined that tree pollen like Fagus, Carpinus, Alnus, Corylus and Betula in the atmosphere were characteristic for the North Turkey region; the highest amounts of Olea europaea pollen for the West Turkey region; higher quantities of the Cupressaceae/Taxaceae pollen for the South Turkey region; and very high amounts of Gramineae, Morus, Fraxinus and Artemisia pollen for the East Turkey region have been recorded as characteristic in the atmosphere. Compared with Europe; Morus, Salix, Populus, Mercurialis and Plantago pollen in the atmosphere of Turkey differ in their presence and quantity. On the other hand, invasive plants such as Ambrosia and Ailanthus or exotic plants such as Casuarina and Eucalyptus, which have allergenic pollen, must be remembered among the dominant taxa in the air in different regions on a seasonal basis. It has been shown that the ideal allergen panels have to be updated according to the area and especially by including the dominant taxa. However, these updates should be made by taking into account crossreactions, and at least one of the reacting taxa should be included in the panel.


The programming language Ada is primarily intended for the construction of large scale and real time systems. Although the tasking model of Ada was aimed mainly at embedded systems, its rich set of synchronization operators together with its support for programming in the large, make Ada increasingly attractive for writing inherently parallel, computationally intensive, numeric and symbolic applications.
Highly parallel shared-memory MIMD machines such as the NYU Ultracomputer have traditionally been regarded as suitable for large-scale scientific code, and not for more symbolic or heterogeneous concurrent applications such as are found in Artificial Intelligence or real-time programming. However, these applications would benefit greatly from (and even require) the computational power provided by highly parallel machines.
It is therefore desirable to develop Ada implementations for highly parallel machines. The concern has been that the cost of managing large numbers of Ada tasks will negate the speedup obtained from their parallel execution. Indeed, a run-time supervisor for Ada must contend with many potentially expensive serialization points, that is to say, constructs that may take time proportional to the number of tasks involved.
In this thesis we show that a run-time supervisor for an implementation of Ada on highly parallel machines can be written which is free of costly serialization points. The run-time supervisor SMARTS (Shared-memory Multiprocessor Ada Run Time Supervisor) depends on the hardware synchronization primitive $fetch\&\Phi$, and supports the tasking features of Ada in a highly parallel manner.
We further reduce the overhead of Ada tasking, by means of micro-tasking, i.e. the explicit scheduling of a family of Ada tasks on a specified number of processors. Thus, Ada tasks are implemented as light weight processes managed by SMARTS, rather than full blown operating systems processes.
Finally, SMARTS implements Ada shared variables efficiently by means of relay sets. Relay sets not only provide a means for identifying and resolving references to shared variables, but also facilitate the implementation of the Ada rendezvous mechanism as a remote procedure call.