The Electrical design of the 10kW Photovoltaic (PV) Trough Concentrator System involves the use of equipment from the original Rockingham Campus PV system to achieve the aim of exporting power to the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) electrical grid.The 10kW system has been designed to all relevant Australian Standards, in particular AS5033:2005 Installation of photovoltaic (PV) arrays and AS4777:2005 Grid connection of energy systems via inverters.Using the university's Spire Solar Simulator, all 80 of the photovoltaic receivers have been tested for functionality and degradation, and from these test results the most suitable 40 receivers in terms of power output and mismatch effects were selected and installed.
The results have been documented and placed into the university's engineering computer directory for future reference.The test results have enabled the electrical design and configuration for the PV array to be completed with the inverter and associated electrical equipment specified.Part B of this report involved two additional projects that were undertaken. The first being the overhaul of an unsafe PV array structure that required major repairs to enable the array to be moved, and the second, the design and implementation of two new structures including fabrication and construction of new beams, bearings and gearboxes, to enable future PV arrays to be constructed for future use by engineering students.These two tasks required project management skills to liaise, communicate and supervise with contractors that were sourced for the projects. The projects were completed safely and to a high standard.The 10 kW PV array, though not yet electrically connected, has shown under concentration tests that it can produce up to approximately 80% of its rated output power when the receivers are aligned correctly.In view of the above, the PV array when connected should perform close to design specifications and should be an invaluable tool for the learning requirements of future engineering students.


Background: Many studies have been done on stress among educators. Teachers, lecturers, and tutors all over the world has been brought into attention when it comes to stress related issues. Our purpose was to investigate the level of academic stress among pre-service teachers in a teaching education institution in Perak, Malaysia. Methods: In this study a cross-sectional comparative survey study was conducted on pre-service teachers from a teacher education institution. The variables that was tested and correlated throughout the study are age, gender, and marital status, and medical history, influence of medications, exercise and social lifestyle. Data was collected through questionnaires to find out the outcome. Descriptive data analysis was used to describe the socio-demographic data. Correlation analysis was used to determine the significant relation between the variables. P<0.05 was considered as significant of the study. Results: Majority of the students, 78.4% represent the severe category of distress according to the Kessler scale. The remaining 13.6% were recorded as being under mild and 7.6% (n=19) under moderate category of distress. Regrettably, less than 1% (n=1) of the pre-service teachers were from the well category. Exercise was found to be significantly associated with the prevalence of severe psychological distress. Simple logistic regressions showed that pre-service teachers who exercised had a significant 91% reduced risk for psychological distress (OR=0.09; 95% CI=0.02, 0.35) compared to those who doesn't exercise. Conclusion: At the end of this study, a better understanding on the predisposing factors of academic stress among pre-service teachers was determined and therefore interventions on coping with stress can be made simple. Various physiotherapy interventions on preventive and corrective measures were suggested with reference to the results.


SynopsisFree and bound coumarin are extracted by autoclaving leaf tissue in water. Free coumarin is determined directly from an aliquot of the water extract diluted in alkali. Additional autoclaving of the extract in concentrated alkali is required for release of the coumarin from the bound form, permitting an assay for total coumarin. Bound coumarin values are then obtained by difference. Results of the assay as applied to four different phenotypes of sweetclover are given.


The role of nuclear weapons during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953 to 1961, and questions about their potential use during his administration, have generated a veritable cottage industry of scholarship. (1) Whole shelves of books have been written about his national security policies during the Cold War, and the paramount role he placed on the military and political utility of nuclear weapons. (2) The "New Look" of the Eisenhower administration, committed to "security and solvency," stressed making deep cuts in conventional armed forces, increasing strategic air power, and brandishing the threat of nuclear retaliation. If general war broke out between the United States and the Soviet Union, according to Eisenhower, it would have inevitably become a nuclear conflict, with catastrophic consequences for the world. It would, indeed, have been "suicidal" for both the superpowers to engage in such a conflict (Immerman and Bowie 1998, 247). Yet, paradoxically, in spite of the emphasis Eisenhower placed on these awesomely destructive weapons, his administration is not usually identified by most as one committed to robust nuclear war fighting. Instead of examining Eisenhower's views about the possible use of nuclear weapons on the battlefield, many scholars have preferred to analyze their role in strengthening deterrence and war prevention, in serving as instruments of coercive diplomacy, or in serving as a tool of "brinkmanship" during the 1950s. Eisenhower has a reputation in history as a commander-in-chief who was revolted by the thought of actually using nuclear weapons in war. There is abundant evidence in the record that Eisenhower was fully aware of the ghastliness of nuclear war and publicly supported the process of arms control. Though nuclear weapons were at the core of his New Look national security program, it has been said that his horror about such a war made him, in essence, a supremely cautious and prudent decision maker during crises. In other words, because he was a "rational" and moral leader, nuclear war fighting would have had to have been forced upon him by the most extreme political and military events. In almost hagiographic terms, historian Douglas Brinkley recently describes him as "Eisenhower the Dove," praising him as an honest and compassionate president. He was, according to Brinkley, determined to control defense spending and the "military industrial complex" and was dedicated to peace and keeping the United States out of war (Brinkley 2001, 63). According to John Lukacs, this perception is still widely held. "The general and accepted impression is that of a benevolent, often smiling, moderate man of judgment behind whose outwardly simple demeanor lay the considerable hidden wisdom of a great soldier and statesman" (Lukacs 2002, 68). Or, as Saki Dockrill concludes, "Behind the 'magnetism of his sunny personality,' President Dwight D. Eisenhower was an astute operator and a cautious statesman" (Dockrill 2000, 345). Yet, at least in regard to questions about nuclear weapons and their use by Eisenhower, the literature seems schizophrenic. While it is widely acknowledged that his national security policy was based on the threat to use nuclear weapons if deterrence had failed, whether he would have used them has usually been presented in a decidedly more nuanced fashion. Eisenhower is often given the benefit of the doubt, the assumption being that he would have stepped back from the precipice and never have had to make the decision. To be sure, the literature concedes that Eisenhower was "serious" about placing the weapons at the center of the New Look. Nevertheless, in spite of key sources in the record that indicate that Eisenhower strongly advocated their use, many have tried to rationalize and mitigate his frequent comments about their employment. His words are described as loose talk on his part, as deliberately ambivalent, or as indicative of a master statesman bluffing his opponents and manipulating the risk of war. …


The Cookie Jar is a collection of 100 recipes for biscuits, cookies and rusks, written by professional food stylist Lisa Clark specifically for the home baker. The recipes have been thoroughly tried and tested and will please anyone who wants to bake their own biscuits for the cookie jar. From old favourites like chocolate chip cookies, florentines and brandy snaps to fancy tuiles, whoopie pies and millionaire's shortbread, The Cooke Jar has something for everyone. There are even healthy gluten-free and vegan options, as well as a few savoury nibbles for those who have less of a sweet tooth. Best of all, you don't need to be an experienced baker to achieve success with these recipes. They are easy to follow and use everyday ingredients. The Cookie Jar will take you back to the days when baking was therapeutic and an important part of life.


Contractual Knowledge: One Hundred Years of Legal Experimentation in Global Markets, edited by Gregoire Mallard and Jerome Sgard, extends the scholarship of law and globalization in two important directions. First, it provides a unique genealogy of global economic governance by explaining the transition from English law to one where global exchanges are primarily governed by international, multilateral, and finally, transnational legal orders. Second, rather than focusing on macro-political organizations, like the League of Nations or the International Monetary Fund, the book examines elements of contracts, including how and by whom they were designed and exactly who (experts, courts, arbitrators, and international organizations) interpreted, upheld, and established the legal validity of these contracts. By exploring such micro-level aspects of market exchanges, this collection unveils the contractual knowledge that led to the globalization of markets over the last century.


This paper investigates the factors that influence strategy execution in service organisations within both public and private sectors. The successful execution of the strategy is the key survival asset of the organisation. Many organisations could not maintain their competitive advantages, in spite of the existing process of drafting a strong strategy, due to lack of achievement in the strategy implementation stage. Leaders and top management of organisations must pay more attention to strategy implementation due to the higher failure rates that occur at this stage. For that, successful strategy implementation requires a better understanding of the relevant influencing factors that dictate that implementation's outcomes. The existing literature does not provide a rigorous and structured conceptualisation of these factors, or their influence on strategy implementation. Accordingly, we precisely explored the mechanisms and interdependent abilities of such factors and their impact to address the gap. In addition, this paper presents many factors, which usually are neglected and cause failure or effect on the efficiency severity industry. This article also shows how some factors are more important in certain industry and less important in other industry in the Middle East.


Sigmoid-like activation functions implemented in analog hardware differ in various ways from the standard sigmoidal function as they are asymmetric, truncated, and have a non-standard gain. It is demonstrated how one can adapt the backpropagation learning rule to compensate for these non-standard sigmoids as available in hardware. This method is applied to multilayer neural networks with all-optical forward propagation and liquid crystal light valves (LCLV) as optical thresholding devices. In this paper the results of software simulations of a backpropagation neural network with five different LCLV activation functions are presented and it is shown that the adapted learning rule performs well with these LCLV curves


Taller workers receive a wage premium. Net of differences in family background, the disparity is similar in magnitude to the race and gender gaps. We exploit variation in an individual's height over time to explore how height affects wages. Controlling for teen height essentially eliminates the effect of adult height on wages for white males. The teen height premium is not explained by differences in resources or endowments. The teen height premium is partly mediated through participation in high school sports and clubs. We estimate the monetary benefits of a medical treatment for children that increases height.


The lack of topographic complexity in ephemeral dryland channels, despite large variations in hydraulic controls and sediment texture, presents an unexplained paradox that limits understanding of their long-term evolution. In dryland basins, spatially and temporally discontinuous channel flow transports and sorts sediment along the bed intermittently and irregularly. The cumulative effect of these processes counterintuitively produces simple topography, manifest in straight longitudinal profiles and symmetrical cross sections, in contrast with perennial channels. This paper presents numerical modeling experiments based on field measurements to investigate dryland channel topographic development through the responses of bed-material flux and net sediment storage to variations in channel hydrology. We show that spatially variable flow creates and subsequently destroys incipient topography along ephemeral reaches, and that large flood events above a threshold overcome hydraulic and grain-size controls to dampen fluctuations in longitudinal sediment flux through a smoothing of the incipient channel bar forms. The results provide a physical explanation for emergent topographic simplicity in ephemeral dryland channels despite higher variability in streamflow and sedimentary characteristics compared to perennial systems.


There are limited academic studies on the occupational health and safety conditions of Turkish printing and publishing sector. The aim of this study is to evaluate the risks of the sector, determine the awareness level of the workers on occupational safety and present the occupational health and safety conditions in the sector on the basis of the investigations and measures. Most of the workers included in this study found to be approving the occupational safety measures, which are provided by employees. However, it is found that the employees are lax and behave loosely to enforce and apply sanctions but the awareness of the workers on the occupational safety measures is high. It is determined that the workers, who are trained on printing and publishing processes, are aware and sensitive on occupational safety and measures. Nevertheless, one-third of the workers don't comply with the measures in an adequate level. Besides, the frequency of occupational accidents are two times higher than the European countries and it shows that the workers of the sector are not trained, informed, aware and sensitive on the occupational safety issues. Keywords: Printing and publishing, Occupational safety, Safety culture, Occupational accidents. Language: en


Latino boys and young men often carry the debt of violence into different spaces. This invisible trauma manifests into disruptive behaviors in schools. It is well documented that violence in urban communities and schools has received significant attention from researchers, but little attention has been paid to Latino male youth as individuals and the various forms of violence they have experienced,
and how that impacts educational persistence. This qualitative study focuses on 26 Latino male middle and high school students who are attending two continuation schools to understand the types of violence they have experienced and their educational aspirations after high school.


Background: African Americans (AA) disproportionately develop lupus nephritis (LN) relative to European Americans and familial clustering supports causative genes. Since MYH9 underlies approximately 40% of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in AA, we tested for genetic association with LN. Methods: Seven MYH9 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the E1 risk haplotype were tested for association with LN in three cohorts of AA. Results: A preliminary analysis revealed that the MYH9 E1 risk haplotype was associated with ESRD in 25 cases with presumed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-associated ESRD, compared to 735 non-SLE controls (odds ratio 3.1; p = 0.010 recessive). Replication analyses were performed in 583 AA with SLE in the PROFILE cohort (318 with LN; 265 with SLE but without nephropathy) and 60 AA from the NIH (39 with LN; 21 with SLE but without nephropathy). Analysis of the NIH and larger PROFILE cohorts, as well as a combined analysis, did not support this association. Conclusions: These results suggest that AA with ESRD and coincident SLE who were recruited from dialysis clinics more likely have kidney diseases in the MYH9-associated spectrum of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. PROFILE and NIH participants, recruited from rheumatology practices, demonstrate that MYH9 does not contribute substantially to the development of LN in AA.


OBJECTIVE--To compare the three month outcome of open and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. DESIGN--Prospective assessment of outcome for a series of patients encompassing the introduction of the laparoscopic technique. SETTING--One teaching hospital. PATIENTS--269 patients admitted for open cholecystectomy between January 1989 and March 1992 and 122 admitted for laparoscopic cholecystectomy between January 1991 and March 1992. MAIN MEASURES--Patients' reported symptoms and self assessed scores with the Nottingham health profile before operation and at three month follow up. Incidence of complications and adverse events after discharge. RESULTS--Similar improvements in symptom rates and health scores were seen regardless of surgical technique. A lower rate of postoperative complications was seen in the patients given laparoscopic surgery (6/95(6%) v 45/235(19%)), and their mean length of stay was lower (4.5 v 9.8 days). Similar results were obtained when the analysis was restricted to a subset of fairly uncomplicated cases (patients aged 60 or less without other illnesses on admission who were not undergoing emergency or urgent surgery), which constituted a larger proportion of the group given laparoscopy (35/95(37%) v 40/235(17%)). Between these two groups no significant difference was seen in the frequency of relevant readmissions to hospital or visits to general practitioners or accident and emergency departments. CONCLUSION--Ideally, a new surgical technique would be evaluated in a randomised trial. In the absence of such a trial, this observational study provides some evidence that the switch from open to laparoscopic cholecystectomy has brought benefits, particularly in terms of reduced length of stay in hospital. A range of clinical and patient derived indicators suggests that these gains have not been associated with a reduction in the quality of the outcome at three months.


Throughout the 2013 Federal election campaign, both major parties have pledged to address 'cost of living' pressures. Kevin Rudd used the phrase 14 times during a press conference the day after calling the election, and the Liberal Party includes 'cost of living' among its 11-point criticism of Labor on its campaign website. Tony Abbott's recent announcement of a generous paid parental leave scheme is another example of tapping into middle-class anxiety over making ends meet. But is the average Australian household really 'doing it tough'?


The use of information and communication technology in scientific research has been hailed as the means to a new larger-scale, more efficient, and cost-effective science. But although scientists increasingly use computers in their work and institutions have made massive investments in technology, we still have little idea how computing affects the way scientists work and the kind of knowledge they produce. In Systematics as Cyberscience, Christine Hine explores these questions by examining the developing use of information and communication technology in one discipline, systematics (which focuses on the classification and naming of organisms and exploration of evolutionary relationships). Her sociological study of the ways that biologists working in this field have engaged with new technology is an account of how one of the oldest branches of science transformed itself into one of the newest and became a cyberscience. Combining an ethnographic approach with historical review and textual analysis, Hine investigates the emergence of a virtual culture in systematics and how that new culture is entwined with the field's existing practices and priorities. Hine examines the policy perspective on technological change, the material culture of systematics (and how the virtual culture aligns with it), communication practices with new technology, and the complex dynamics of change and continuity on the institutional level. New technologies have stimulated reflection on the future of systematics and prompted calls for radical transformation, but the outcomes are thoroughly rooted in the heritage of the discipline. Hine argues that to understand the impact of information and communication technology in science we need to take account of the many complex and conflicting pressures that contemporary scientists navigate. The results of technological developments are rarely unambiguous gains in efficiency, and are highly discipline-specific.


This article investigates the role of mass media in times of conflict and state-sponsored mass violence against civilians. We use a unique village-level data set from the Rwandan genocide to estimate the impact of a popular radio station that encouraged violence against the Tutsi minority population. The results show that the broadcasts had a significant effect on participation in killings by both militia groups and ordinary civilians. An estimated 51,000 perpetrators, or approximately 10% of the overall violence, can be attributed to the station. The broadcasts increased militia violence not only directly by influencing behavior in villages with radio reception but also indirectly by increasing participation in neighboring villages. In fact, spillovers are estimated to have caused more militia violence than the direct effects. Thus, the article provides evidence that mass media can affect participation in violence directly due to exposure and indirectly due to social interactions. JEL Codes: D7, N4.


There is widespread agreement in the object community that the concept of role is important for object modelling, but little agreement about what is to be understood by a role. In this paper, we present a new definition for the concept of role in the context of ISOs RM-ODP Foundations for object modelling. We show that the concept of role is similar to that of interface, but that there important differences between these two concepts. We also provide definitions for concepts, related to the role concept, that may also be called roles: role type and role object type. We then make the case for our definitions, showing that they are largely compatible with assertions that exist in the literature about roles.


We observed water fluxes and isotopic compositions within the subsurface of six small nested zero‐order catchments over the course of three North American monsoon seasons and found that mean transit times (mTTs) were variable between seasons and different spatial patterns of mTTs emerged each year. For each monsoon season, it was possible to correlate mTTs with a different physical catchment property. In 2007, mTTs correlated best with mean soil depth, in 2008 soil hydraulic conductivity gained importance in explaining the variability and in 2009 planform curvature showed the best correlation. Differences in meteorological forcing between the three monsoon seasons explained the temporal variability of mTTs. In 2007, a series of precipitation events caused the storage capacity of the soils of some of the zero‐order catchments to be exceeded. As a result those catchments started producing quick runoff (overland and macropore flow). In 2008, precipitation events were more evenly distributed throughout the season, soils did not saturate, runoff coefficients decreased because more water left the catchment via evapotranspiration and soil hydraulic conductivity became a stronger control since matrix flow dominated. The 2009 monsoon was unusually dry, the soil storage became depleted and water flowed mainly through bedrock pathways. Therefore, topographic parameters gained importance in determining how quickly water arrived at the catchment outlet. In order to improve our understanding of what controls mTTs we suggest a dimensionless number that helps identifying partitioning thresholds and sorts precipitation events into one of the three response modes that were observed in our zero‐order catchments.


Background: Role of innate immunity in pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) has been well documented1. Higher expression of TLR2 has been reported in AS patients and associated with clinical severity2. Recently, a functional 23bp ins/del polymorphism at 5'UTR of TLR2 gene has been reported and association of variant with elevated TLR2 surface expression and proinflammatory molecules has been elegantly demonstrated3. This is associated with high TNF-alpha levels, one of the key molecules in the pathogenesis of AS 4. In this preliminary study, we investigated the possible role of TLR2 (23bp ins/del) polymorphism with AS in a cohort from Odisha, India. Objectives: To investigate the role of TLR-2 (23 bp ins/del: rs111200466) Polymorphism in Ankylosing Spondylitis Methods: AS patients (n = 101), who fulfilled the ASAS classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis or ASAS classification criteria for peripheral spondyloarthritis were enrolled along with 100 healthy age matched controls from similar geographical areas. Patients were examined in detail and BASDAI/BASFI recorded. TLR2 (23 bp ins/del) polymorphism was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction. Genotype and allele distribution among patients and controls were compared by Fisher's exact test. Results: All patients enrolled in the present study were males. The mean age of AS patients and healthy controls was 31.21±11.43 and 28.28±9.62 years, respectively. At the time of enrolment, mean disease duration of patients was 2.07±1.13 years. BASDAI and BASFI scores were above 5. Distribution of TLR2 (23 bp ins/del) polymorphism was in accordance with Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. Prevalence of del/del genotype was significantly higher in AS patients compared to healthy controls (P=0.01, OR=5.65), indicating a possible contributory role of TLR2 on predisposition to AS. Distribution of heterozygous genotype (ins/del) and minor allele (del) were comparable among different clinical categories. Furthermore, no significant association of TLR-2 polymorphism was observed with disease severity. Conclusion: TLR2 5'UTR homozygous mutants (23 bp deletion) were significantly associated with patients of AS in but not with disease severity. Larger sample size and levels of TNF alpha and IL17 in the mutants will further improve the understanding of its role in AS. References [1] Vanaki N, Aslani S, Jamshidi A, Mahmoudi M. Role of innate immune system in the pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2018Sep30;105:130-43. [2] McCormack WJ, Parker AE, O'Neill LA. Toll-like receptors and NOD-like receptors in rheumatic diseases. Arthritis research & therapy. 2009Oct;11(5):243. [3] Das B, Tripathy R, Pattanaik S, Panda A. 270 Association of tlr2 (23bp ins/del) polymorphism with systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) and p. falciparum malaria: a study in malaria endemic area of odisha, india. [4] Blandizzi C, Gionchetti P, Armuzzi AL, Caporali R, Chimenti S, Cimaz R, Cimino L, Lapadula G, Lionetti P, Marchesoni A, Marcellusi A. The role of tumour necrosis factor in the pathogenesis of immune-mediated diseases. International journal of immunopathology and pharmacology. 2014 Jan;27(1_suppl):1-0. Disclosure of Interests: None declared


Two species of sea anemones, Metridium senile and Anthopleura xanthogrammica , illustrate the sorts of compromises made by sessile organisms between maximizing the transport done and minimizing the mechanical forces caused by flow.

1. 1. M. senile occur in calm areas, but because they are tall, they are exposed to mainstream current velocities. Although A. xanthogrammica occur in areas exposed to wave action, they are short and effectively hidden from mainstream velocities.

2. 2. Measurements of drag forces on anemones and models in a flow tank and in the field indicate that the shapes, sizes, flexibilities, and behaviours of anemones affect the flow forces they encounter.

3. 3. Although M. senile and A. xanthogrammica occur in different flow habitats, the drag force on an individual of either species is about 1 N.

4. 4. The water currents encountered by these anemones and their mechanical responses to the currents can be related to the manner in which the anemones harvest food from flowing water.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether the increased risk of type 1 diabetes conferred by an early introduction of cow's milk supplements can be mediated by accelerated growth in formula-fed infants.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
All children < or = 14 years of age who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from September 1986 to April 1989 were invited to participate in the study. Birth date- and sex-matched control children were randomly selected from the Finnish Population Registry. At least three weight measurements from the first year of life were obtained for 435 full-term diabetic subjects and 386 control subjects from well-baby clinics and school health care units.

RESULTS
Increase in body weight was greater in the diabetic girls than in the control girls, and the difference increased from 111 g (95% CI 0-218, P = 0.04) at 1 month of age to 286 g (95% CI 123-450, P = 0.0006) at 7 months. For boys, the difference in weight between the diabetic subjects and the control subjects remained stable during infancy (difference 95 g, 95% CI-2-205, P = 0.09). Increased weight was associated on average with a 1.5-fold risk of type 1 diabetes. Early introduction of formula feeding (< 3 vs. > or = 3 months) was also associated with an increased risk of type 1 diabetes after adjustment for the individual weight gain curve (adjusted odds ratio 1.53, 95% CI 1.1-2.2). No evidence for interaction was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
These observations indicate that an early exposure to cow's milk formula-feeding and rapid growth in infancy are independent risk factors of childhood type 1 diabetes.


Government surveys of business establishments receive a large volume of submissions where a small subset contain errors. Analysts need a fast-computing algorithm to ag this subset due to a short time window between collection and reporting. We offer a computationally-scalable optimization method based on non-parametric mixtures of hierarchical Dirichlet processes that allows discovery of multiple industry-indexed local partitions linked to a set of global cluster centers. Outliers are nominated as those clusters containing few observations. We extend an existing approach with a new "merge" step that reduces sensitivity to hyperparameter settings. Survey data are typically acquired under an informative sampling design where the probability of inclusion depends on the surveyed response such that the distribution for the observed sample is different from the population. We extend the derivation of a penalized objective function to use a pseudo-posterior that incorporates sampling weights that "undo" the informative design. We provide a simulation study to demonstrate that our approach produces unbiased estimation for the outlying cluster under informative sampling. The method is applied for outlier nomination for the Current Employment Statistics survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.


The retina is the part of the eye which detects light, transduces it into nerve impulses and plays a significant role in visual perception. Sensitivity to light is multi-factorial and depends on the properties of photopigment molecules, their synthesis and incorporation into photoreceptor membranes and the neural circuitry between photoreceptor cells, bipolar neurons and ganglion neurons. In addition, it depends on structural factors such as the absolute and relative numbers of different types of photoreceptor neurons, their subcellular morphology, their distribution across the retina and the physical dimensions (especially surface areas) and spatial arrangements of their photoreceptor membranes. At the molecular level, these membranes harbour photosensitive pigment molecules comprising transmembrane glycoproteins (opsins, which vary between photoreceptor cells) and a non-protein chromophore. Phototransduction involves a conformational change in the chromophore and activation of an opsin. A transducer G protein, transducin, lowers levels of cGMP and triggers changes in membrane ion permeability including the closure of Na+ channels. This causes the plasmalemma to become less depolarized and the relative hyperpolarization stimulates ganglion cells whose axons form the optic nerve. Phosducin is a light-regulated phosphoprotein located in inner and outer segments of rod photoreceptor cells. It modulates phototransduction by binding to beta and gamma subunits of transducin. This review briefly illustrates ways in which stereology can contribute to our understanding of these processes by providing quantitative data on photoreceptor number, disk membrane surface area and the subcellular immunolocalisation of key molecules.


The Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) breeding population on the Isle of May, Scotland, has been increasing at an annual rate of 13.3 per cent since 1907 when the first pair to nest were recorded. The breeding biology was studied from 1966-1969 to ascertain the relationship between nesting success and the timing of the breeding season in a species with an apparently favourable food supply. It was possible to extend the breeding season by widespread egg removal in various sub-colonies causing re-laying until mid-July. Clutch-size and egg-size in the control areas decreased through the season, and continued to do so in the delayed areas. However, hatching success and pre-fledging mortality were correlated with nesting synchronisation rather than the time of hatching, Predation, and particularly cannibalism, were the primary cause of this relationship since cannibals killed a higher proportion of early and late hatched chicks. This creates a selective advantage for laying in the middle of a well defined breeding season. There was little evidence to suggest that late breeding was a disadvantage providing that this delay applied to the group as a whole. Various aspects of chick mortality indicate a possible difference in the reproductive drive of the adults rather than an effect of food shortage. The third chick to hatch in a brood suffers a much higher post-hatching mortality than either of its siblings. An egg transfer experiment showed that both the hatching sequence and the comparative smallness of the c-egg contributed to this differential mortality, as egg size and chick mortality are closely correlated. The period between incubation and parenthood involves behavioural changes that some adults find difficulty in executing, and the mortality differences and the incidence of kronism maybe examples of this inability of adults to adjust to a complete brood.


The number of individuals trying to day-trade for a living has been increasing worldwide. In this note, we study the performance of all 98,378 individuals who started to day-trade stocks in Brazil between 2013 and 2016. After analyzing all their daytrades in stocks from 2013 to 2018, we find that only 127 individuals presented an average daily gross profit higher than R$ 100 for more than 300 days.


Abstract. The dynamical role of geothermal heating in abyssal circulation is reconsidered using three independent arguments. First, we show that a uniform geothermal heat flux close to the observed average (86.4 mW m−2) supplies as much heat to near-bottom water as a diapycnal mixing rate of ~10−4 m2 s−1 – the canonical value thought to be responsible for the magnitude of the present-day abyssal circulation. This parity raises the possibility that geothermal heating could have a dynamical impact of the same order. Second, we estimate the magnitude of geothermally-induced circulation with the density-binning method (Walin, 1982), applied to the observed thermohaline structure of Levitus (1998). The method also allows to investigate the effect of realistic spatial variations of the flux obtained from heatflow measurements and classical theories of lithospheric cooling. It is found that a uniform heatflow forces a transformation of ~6 Sv at σ4=45.90, which is of the same order as current best estimates of AABW circulation. This transformation can be thought of as the geothermal circulation in the absence of mixing and is very similar for a realistic heatflow, albeit shifted towards slightly lighter density classes. Third, we use a general ocean circulation model in global configuration to perform three sets of experiments: (1) a thermally homogenous abyssal ocean with and without uniform geothermal heating; (2) a more stratified abyssal ocean subject to (i) no geothermal heating, (ii) a constant heat flux of 86.4 mW m−2, (iii) a realistic, spatially varying heat flux of identical global average; (3) experiments (i) and (iii) with enhanced vertical mixing at depth. Geothermal heating and diapycnal mixing are found to interact non-linearly through the density field, with geothermal heating eroding the deep stratification supporting a downward diffusive flux, while diapycnal mixing acts to map near-surface temperature gradients onto the bottom, thereby altering the density structure that supports a geothermal circulation. For strong vertical mixing rates, geothermal heating enhances the AABW cell by about 15% (2.5 Sv) and heats up the last 2000 m by ~0.15°C, reaching a maximum of by 0.3°C in the deep North Pacific. Prescribing a realistic spatial distribution of the heat flux acts to enhance this temperature rise at mid-depth and reduce it at great depth, producing a more modest increase in overturning than in the uniform case. In all cases, however, poleward heat transport increases by ~10% in the Southern Ocean. The three approaches converge to the conclusion that geothermal heating is an important actor of abyssal dynamics, and should no longer be neglected in oceanographic studies.


With the growing popularity of mobile technologies and the increasing use of groups within organizations, it is important to understand the collaboration contexts where mobile collaboration technologies MCTs are essential. This is especially critical given the high cost associated with the acquisition and implementation of MCTs and the need to make an informed decision regarding the appropriateness of MCTs. In this paper, the authors address this issue by first drawing on real life-based collaboration scenarios and examining the technology requirements of groups; second, comparing the features offered by MCTs with those of FTF and two types of CMCTs; third, proposing a collaboration environment-technology fit perspective in realizing optimal usage of a collaboration technology; and fourth, creating the Group Collaboration Technology Repertoire Grid, which maps the "ideal" collaboration technologys repertoire for each type of collaboration environment. The grid highlights the collaboration environments that would need MCTs and provides managers or organizational group leaders the ability to map their collaboration environments into a specific category and thus more easily decide on the particular collaboration technology repertoire that would be most beneficial.


Problem Statement: It is unknown how Science Teacher Candidates (STCs) recognize measuring instruments and indicate units that STCs will teach to their students, which they will constantly come across when they become teachers. Determining this case is important because it is believed that the results of this study will support the implementations that provide them with the ability to improve their measuring skills during their undergraduate programs. Purpose of the Study: The aim of this study is to determine how knowledge of STCs, in regard to measuring instruments and the units of qualities measured by these instruments, change according to their grades. Method: The sample of this study, which was carried out according to cross-sectional research methodology, was comprised of 259 STCs (freshmen [N = 58], sophomores [N = 68], juniors [N = 67], and seniors [N = 66]) at the department of elementary science teacher education in the faculty of education of a state university. The Measuring Instruments and Units Questionnaire (MIUQ), which is comprised of 17 measuring instruments that take place in science education programs and textbooksfor primary schools and their units, was used as a data collection tool in the study. The data gathered from the study was analyzed through content analysis. Findings: Ninety-five percent of senior STCs answered correctly Celsius ( oC) and Kelvin as units of temperature. Sixty-one percent of sophomore STCs answered heat as the quality measured by the calorimeter. Eightyfour percent of junior STCs did not provide an answer for the unit of heat. However, 64% of freshmen STCs stated weight as the quality measured by the bascule; 60% of them stated kg as the unit of weight. Ninety-one percent of junior, 82% of senior, 69% of freshmen, and 60% of sophomore STCs did not answer the quality measured by the manometer. Seventynine percent of freshmen and 72% of junior STCs did not answer the unit of quality measured by the graduated cylinder. Five percent of senior and 3% of sophomore STCs stated that the "V" symbol is the unit of speed. Conclusions and Recommendations: In the study, it was determined that STCs are misinformed about the qualities measured by measuring instruments, and they lack knowledge regarding the units of measured qualities. It is concluded that their knowledge of measuring instruments and units does not increase parallel to their grades. Key words: Science education, measuring instrument, measuring quality, unit, science teacher candidate, cross-sectional research.


We explore the information content of the polarization of high-order harmonics emitted from aligned molecules driven by a linearly polarized field. The study builds upon our previous work [Ramakrishna et al., Phys. Rev. A 81, 021802(R) (2010)], which illustrated that the phase of the continuum electronic wave function, and hence the underlying molecular potential, is responsible, at least in part, for the ellipticity observed in harmonic spectra. We use a simple model potential and systematically vary the potential parameters to investigate the sense in which, and the degree to which, the shape of the molecular potential is imprinted onto the polarization of the emitted harmonics. Strong ellipticity is observed over a wide range of potential parameters, suggesting that the emission of elliptically polarized harmonics is a general phenomenon, yet qualitatively determined by the molecular properties. The sensitivity of the ellipticity to the model parameters invites the use of ellipticity measurements as a probe of the continuum wave function and the underlying molecular potential.


Information Governance and Security shows managers in any size organization how to create and implement the policies, procedures and training necessary to keep their organization's most important asset-its proprietary information-safe from cyber and physical compromise. Many intrusions can be prevented if appropriate precautions are taken, and this book establishes the enterprise-level systems and disciplines necessary for managing all the information generated by an organization. In addition, the book encompasses the human element by considering proprietary information lost, damaged, or destroyed through negligence. By implementing the policies and procedures outlined in Information Governance and Security, organizations can proactively protect their reputation against the threats that most managers have never even thought of.Provides a step-by-step outline for developing an information governance policy that is appropriate for your organizationIncludes real-world examples and cases to help illustrate key concepts and issuesHighlights standard information governance issues while addressing the circumstances unique to small, medium, and large companies


The Von Hippel‐Lindau (VHL) gene product has a wide spectrum of tissue‐specific functions, and specific germline mutations are associated with clinical phenotypes in VHL disease. In particular, missense mutations are correlated with the susceptibility to pheochromocytomas. An association between VHL aberrations and prognosis has been suggested in renal clear cell carcinoma but has not been studied in pheochromocytomas. We studied the frequency and spectrum of VHL alterations in apparently sporadic pheochromocytomas in relation to the clinical behavior in 72 patients, including 48 patients with clinically benign and 24 patients with malignant pheochromocytomas. Single‐strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis followed by DNA sequencing, loss of heterozygosity analysis of the VHL locus and immunohistochemistry for VHL protein expression were used to investigate somatic VHL gene alterations. In 2 patients, 1 with a malignant tumor, germline mutations were identified in the stop codon. Tumor‐specific intragenic VHL mutations and accompanying loss of heterozygosity were identified in 2 (4.3%) of 47 sporadic benign pheochromocytomas compared to 4 (17.4%) of 23 malignant tumors (p = 0.064). Only one of these mutations has been previously described, in a renal clear cell carcinoma. Expression of the VHL protein was observed in all pheochromocytomas. No distinction in the nature of VHL alterations between benign and malignant pheochromocytomas and no correlation with histopathologic or clinical features was observed. We report novel VHL mutations in sporadic pheochromocytomas, which are slightly correlated with malignancy. VHL mutations may have some impact on the malignant transformation of pheochromocytomas. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This is an expanded, revised and corrected version of the first author's preprint [1]. The discussion of one-dimensional cohomology H in a fairly general category E involves passing to the (2-)category Cat(E) of categories in E . In particular, the coefficient object is a category B in E and the torsors that Hclassifies are particular functors in E . We only impose conditions on E that are satisfied also by Cat(E) and argue that H for Cat(E) is a kind of H for E , and so on recursively. For us, it is too much to ask E to be a topos (or even internally complete) since, even if E is, Cat(E) is not. With this motivation, we are led to examine morphisms in E which act as internal families and to internalize the comprehensive factorization of functors into a final functor followed by a discrete fibration. We define B-torsors for a category B in E and prove clutching and classification theorems. The former theorem clutches Čech cocycles to construct torsors while the latter constructs a coefficient category to classify structures locally isomorphic to members of a given internal family of structures. We conclude with applications to examples.


Strategy, Security, and Spies: Mexico and the U.S. as Allies in World War II. Maria Emilia Paz. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823, John ("Black Jack") Pershing's attempt to capture Francisco ("Pancho") Villa, the infamous Zimmerman telegram of the First World War, and the Mexican government's expropriation of Anglo-Dutch-American oil companies' properties in 1938 are among the significant international events serving as precursors to the era documented in this volume. Likewise, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's concept of the Good Neighbor Policy; and the emerging threat of the Axis powers in Europe, northeast Africa, the Far East, and in Latin America, provide the dynamic historic backdrop for this compelling analysis by Maria Emilia Paz. As the author notes, her research focuses on the security relations between Mexico and the United States from 1940 through 1945 and is not intended to be a comprehensive account of bilateral interactions during the Second World War. In terms of security arrangements, it was a period of intra- and inter-multinational military and diplomatic maneuverings, clandestine communications, propaganda, intelligence and counterintelligence operations, treason, sabotage, and other elements worthy of any film noir (The Third Man, for example). In the United States, the "war hysteria" of the early 1940s, the fall of France, the ongoing Battle of Britain, and a fear of Japanese attacks on American Pacific coast military and industrial targets set the psychological stage. By 1940, the United States had begun to change its strategic policies toward Latin America, and in particular to its nearest neighbor, Mexico, as a result of external events during the period 1936-38-namely, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, the escalation of the Sino-Japanese War, Nazi Germany's rearmament, and the "invasions" of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, Mexico's attitude toward the United States on matters of hemispheric security was, as Paz states, "noncommittal," and Mexico openly exported.oil and other raw materials to both the United States and Japan. The "Day of Infamy" changed dramatically these relationships particularly on political, economic, and military issues. Strategy, Security, and Spies is topically rather than chronologically organized and the focus of the book is on the pre-war and early years, 1940-43. The author contends correctly that Mexican historians have largely ignored the 1940s for ideological reasons associated with the "end" of the Mexican Revolution (see Brenner's 1943 classic [1]). Paz also asserts that scholars of the history of the United States have neglected this era probably because World War II and events in Europe and the Far East are appealing to researchers. Paz summarizes briefly the political, economic, and psychological parameters of that era, the concern of the United States about the defense of the Panama Canal, the fear of Nazi and Japanese penetration into Latin America, and the disposition of French and Dutch colonies and warships in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. War Department's RAINBOW military plans had been developed in 1919 and frequently revised since then, and included "Orange," devised to counter the Japanese, as well as "Green"a concept calling for the occupation of Mexico by U.S. forces because of an unstable Mexican political system (47-48). Paz makes clear the heavy Japanese involvement in the Mexican oil industry from 1938 to 1941. After December 7, 1941, a new phase opened on bilateral hemispheric defense, resulting in the formation of the U.S.-Mexican Defense Command (modeled on the extant U.S.-Canadian plan). However, this command remained weak because of a failure by Washington politicians and the U. …


The Australian Institute of Criminology is undertaking research on the drug use careers of adult males, females and juveniles incarcerated in Australian prisons. The objective of the Drug Use Careers of Offenders (DUCO) female study is to contribute to the empirical evidence about the interaction between drug use and criminal offending among incarcerated women. This monograph presents findings from the DUCO female study, which was based on interviews with 470 women incarcerated in Australian prisons. Findings are presented on offending histories, drug use, links between drug and alcohol use and crime, temporal order of drug use and offending, and risk factors for drug use and offending. The results demonstrate important differences in the patterns of drug use of women as compared to men. Understanding patters in offending and drug use, and the connection between the two, may assist in the development of interventions and crime reduction strategies for women offenders.


This position paper envisions making large-scale distributed applications self managing by combining component models and structured overlay networks. A key obstacle to deploying large-scale applications running on Internet is the amount of management they require. Often these applications demand specialized personnel for their maintenance. Making applications self-managing will help removing this obstacle. Basing the system on a structured overlay network will allow extending the abilities of existing component models to large-scale distributed systems. Structured overlay networks provide guarantees for efficient communication, e±cient load-balancing, and self-manage in case of joins, leaves, and failures. Component models, on the other hand, support dynamic configuration, the ability of part of the system to reconfigure other parts at run-time. By combining overlay networks with component models we achieve both low-level as well as high-level self-management. We will target multi-tier applications, and specifically we will consider three-tier applications using a self-managing storage service.


Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) is caused by natural killer (NK) cells upon recognition of antigen-bound IgG via FcγRIIIa. This mechanism is crucial for cytolysis of pathogen-infected cells and monoclonal antibody (mAb)-mediated elimination of cancer cells. However, there is concern that mAb-based cancer therapy induces ADCC against non-target cells expressing antigens. To date, no strategy has been reported to enhance the selectivity of ADCC to protect non-target cells expressing antigens. Here, we introduce a model inhibitor which specifically blocks ADCC of anti-EGFR mAbs towards EGFR/folate receptor α (FRα) double positive cells. This inhibitor recruits mAbs on the FRα of the cell surface independent of Fab antigen recognition. The resulting ternary and/or quaternary complexes formed on the cell surface suppress signal transduction of FcγRIIIa in NK cells, consequently leading to more specific ADCC.


It is well known that in fMLP‐stimulated neutrophils, phosphatidyl inositol 3,4,5‐trisphosphate [PI(3,4,5)P3] localizes at the leading edge of the cells. However, no effort has been made to study the PI 4,5‐bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P2] distribution in these cells. In fact, it has been suggested that PI(4,5)P2 is unlikely to localize, as its basal level is orders of magnitude higher than that of PI(3,4,5)P3. We developed an optimized immunostaining protocol for studying the endogenous distribution of PI(4,5)P2 in neutrophil‐like HL‐60 cells. We show that PI(4,5)P2 localizes sharply at the leading edge with an intensity gradient similar to that for PI(3,4,5)P3. The enzymes for the production of PI(4,5)P2, namely, PI5KIα and PI5KIγ, were also found to localize at the leading edge, further supporting our finding that PI(4,5)P2 localizes at the leading edge. These results imply that complementary regulation of PI3K and phosphate and tensin homolog (PTEN) is not the sole or dominant mechanism of PI(3,4,5)P3 polarization in HL‐60 cells.


Studies using multi-locus coalescent methods to infer species trees or historical demographic parameters usually require the assumption that the gene tree for each locus (or SNP) is genealogically independent from the gene trees of other sampled loci. In practice, however, researchers have used two different criteria to delimit independent loci in phylogenomic studies. The first criterion, which directly addresses the condition of genealogical independence of sampled loci, considers the long-term effects of homologous recombination and effective population size on linkage between two loci. In contrast, the second criterion, which only considers the single-generation effects of recombination in the meioses of individuals, identifies sampled loci as being independent of each other if they undergo Mendelian independent assortment. Methods that use these criteria to estimate the number of independent loci per genome as well as intra-chromosomal "distance thresholds" that can be used to delimit independent loci in phylogenomic datasets are reviewed. To compare the efficacy of each criterion, they are applied to two species (an invertebrate and vertebrate) for which relevant genetic and genomic data are available. Although the independent assortment criterion is relatively easy to apply, the results of this study show that it is overly conservative and therefore its use would unfairly restrict the sizes of phylogenomic datasets. It is therefore recommended that researchers only refer to genealogically independent loci when discussing the independent loci assumption in phylogenomics and avoid using terms that may conflate this assumption with independent assortment. Moreover, whenever feasible, researchers should use methods for delimiting putatively independent loci that take into account both homologous recombination and effective population size (i.e., long-term effective recombination).


We experimentally examined spatial and temporal patterns of seed predation on three tree species in an oak-pine forest in southern Maine, USA. Rodents were the principal seed predators. Rates of seed loss varied with tree species and exposure to three different suites of potential seed predators (all vertebrate seed predators, medium-sized rodents [primarily squirrels] and small rodents [primarily mice and voles]). Acer rubrum seeds were removed more slowly (mean of 17.7% within 2 d across all habitats and treatments in 1991) than seeds of either Quercus rubra or Pinus strobus (e.g., > 99% removed within 2 d across all habitats and treatments for each species in 1991). Levels of final removal (cumulative removal at final census) varied with year but not with microhabitat; i.e., seed predation in four types of forest gap was not significantly different than in intact forest. Both field data and experimental feeding trials with captive Peromyscus leucopus and Clethrionomys gapperi suggest that a significant proportion of white pine seeds is eaten at time of detection, while red oak acorns are more likely to be cached. Captive Peromyscus leucopus cached and ate significantly more red oak acorns than Clethrionomys gapperi. These results suggest that red oak mast may be more important in overwintering success in Peromyscus than in Clethrionomys. Nevertheless, both species did consume red oak acorns, suggesting that in southern Maine these species are not substantially inhibited by high tannin levels in red oak acorns, as has been suggested by researchers elsewhere.


Most modern parallel computers are clusters using Myrinet or Ethernet communication networks. Several studies have been published comparing the performance of these two networks for parallel computing, however these focus on average performance, and do not address the distributions of communication times, which can have long tails due to contention effects. In the case of Ethernet with TCP, retransmit timeouts (RTOs) can also occur. Slow communication events may have significant impact, particularly for applications requiring frequent synchronization, where the performance is determined by the slowest process. We have analysed the distributions of communication times for standard MPI routines on Ethernet with TCP and Myrinet with GM communications networks on the same cluster, and studied the scalability of the distributions as the number of communicating processes is increased, and the effect of RTOs for Ethernet with TCP.


In this paper, we present the DeBGUer tool, a web-based tool for prediction and isolation of software bugs. DeBGUer is a partial implementation of the Learn, Diagnose, and Plan (LDP) paradigm, which is a recently introduced paradigm for integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the software bug detection and correction process. In LDP, a diagnosis (DX) algorithm is used to suggest possible explanations – diagnoses – for an observed bug. If needed, a test planning algorithm is subsequently used to suggest further testing. Both diagnosis and test planning algorithms consider a fault prediction model, which associates each software component (e.g., class or method) with the likelihood that it contains a bug. DeBGUer implements the first two components of LDP, bug prediction (Learn) and bug diagnosis (Diagnose). It provides an easy-to-use web interface, and has been successfully tested on 12 projects.


Antibacterial activity of methanol extract of Mangifera indica L. seeds was done against 41 clinically isolated and 20 standard bacterial strains. Clinical bacterial strains were isolated from different specimens like blood, urine, catheter, stool and pus. Antibacterial activity was done by agar disc diffusion method at two different concentrations (600 and 1200 µg/disc). Preliminary qualitative phytochemical study was carried out for the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, cardiac glycosides, steroids and saponins. Total phenol content and flavonoid content were also measured. The extract showed potent antibacterial activity against all the clinically isolated bacterial strains and most of the standard bacterial strains which was comparable with that of standard antibiotics studied. Phenols were present in higher amount than flavonoids. The qualitative analysis showed only presence of tannins. It can be stated that the antibacterial activity may be due to the presence of tannin and higher amount of total phenol content. The present study supports the folkloric use of M. indica and it can be an effective potential candidate for the development of new strategies to treat bacterial infections.


Economists have long recognized that in free markets, incentives to innovate will be diluted unless some factors grant innovators with a temporary monopoly. Patenting is the most cited factor in the economic literature. This survey concentrates on another factor that confers innovators with first-mover advantage over their competitors, namely consumer switching costs, whereby a consumer makes an investment specific to her current seller, that must be duplicated for any new seller. In this survey, we list several components of switching costs that are relevant as regards to firm innovation behaviour. The aim of this classification is twofold. First, consumer switching cost theory has matured to the point that some classification of switching costs for both understanding innovative firm behaviour and building policy-oriented models is necessary. Second, the classification included in this paper addresses the confusion that has been existing so far regarding the distinction between 'good' or 'bad' switching costs, perceived or paid switching costs, and between switching and search costs. This paper then surveys the existing literature on the effect of switching costs on product innovation by firms and the way they compete for consumers. We also raise several important regulation and competition policy questions, using examples from the real world.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the renoprotective effect of the Garcinia mangostana L. pericarp extract (GMPE) on plasma creatinine and renal proximal tubules of streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. This study used 36 male Balb/c strain mice. The samples were divided into 6 groups, namely KN (normal control), KD (diabetic control), KM (metformin control), and P (treatment group) comprising: P1 (50 mg GMPE/kg body weight), P2 (100 mg GMPE/kg body weight), as well as P3 (200 mg GMPE/kg body weight). The GMPE and metformin suspension were administered orally for 14 days on the diabetic mice. The diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of STZ multiple at low-dose of 30 mg/kg body weight daily for five consecutive days. On day 15, mice were terminated. Data of plasma creatinine and renal proximal tubule damage levels or the number of swelling and necrosis cells were analyzed. Interestingly and it showed that administration of GMPE could reduce the plasma creatinine level and ameliorate renal proximal tubules of streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. In conclusion, the renoprotective effect of GMPE in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice was associated with the attenuation in oxidative stress and inflammatory, which also had antidiabetic and antioxidant activities.


Background: Large-scale mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions are associated with clinical conditions such as Kearns–Sayre syndrome and chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia in adults and Pearson syndrome in children. Reported case series have suggested that deletions are not uncommon in the population, but their prevalence has not been documented. Methods: The authors ascertained patients with clinical features associated with mtDNA deletions in a defined adult population in northern Finland. Buccal epithelial samples were requested from each patient fulfilling the selection criteria, and full-length mtDNA was amplified using the long PCR method. Deletion breakpoints were identified using sequencing. Patients with deletions were examined clinically. Results: The authors identified four patients with single large-scale mtDNA deletions. The prevalence of deletions was calculated to be 1.6/100,000 in the adult population in the province of Northern Ostrobothnia (0.0 to 3.2; 95% CI). Analysis of incident cases from a neighboring province revealed two patients with deletions and yielded a similar population frequency. Conclusions: The frequency of large-scale mitochondrial DNA deletions is similar among populations, suggesting that there is a constant rate of new deletions.


Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous fungus associated with several airway complications and diseases including asthma, allergies, cystic fibrosis, and most commonly Invasive Aspergillosis. The airway epithelium, a protective barrier, is the first anatomical site to interact with A. fumigatus. Although this host-fungal interaction is often asymptomatic for immunocompetent individuals, for immunocompromised persons, due to a weakened competence of the immune system, they have an increased likelihood of fungal infection. This dissertation aims to investigate the effect of A. fumigatus on the transcriptional response of human airway epithelial cells, focusing on the relationship between innate immunity and iron regulation from the host perspective. The trace element iron is needed by both the fungus and the host for cellular maintenance and survival, but tightly controlled iron regulation in the host is required to prevent oxidative stress and cell death. The research methods in this dissertation employ a systems biology approach, by incorporating mathematical modeling, RNA-seq analysis, and experimental biology techniques to assess the role of airway epithelial cells in the host-fungal interaction. Both the quantitative and qualitative research design allows for characterization of airway epithelial cells and the downstream changes in iron importer genes. This study addresses literature gaps through analysis of the host transcriptome using multiple time points, by performing an extensive evaluation of the effect of cytokines on iron importer genes, and conceptualization of a comprehensive mathematical model of the airway epithelial cell. The major findings suggest the following: 1) airway epithelial cells avidly respond to A. fumigatus through modification of the expression of immune response related genes at different infection stages, 2) during A. fumigatus co-incubation with airway epithelial cells, the iron importers genes respond in strikingly different ways, and 3) cytokines have a significant effect on the increase in expression of an iron importer gene. We illuminated the role of airway epithelial cells in fungal recognition and activation of the immune response in signaling cascades that consequently modify iron importer genes and hope to use this information as a platform to discover potential therapeutic targets.


Theoretical models and intuition suggest that the amount of non- traditional protection against imports obtained through administrative procedures such as antidumping enforcement will increase as more traditional forms such as tariffs and quotas are lowered under multilateral trade agreements. This paper is the first empirical study of the role of tariff liberalization in the spread of antidumping. Through both correlations and regression approaches we analyze the relationship between tariff concessions made during the Uruguay Round trade negotiations and the filing of antidumping petitions, with particular interest in whether multilateral trade reductions have spurred the recent growth in new users of antidumping policies. We find that tariff reductions agreed to under the Uruguay Round not only increased the likelihood of a country using antidumping protection but also the total number of antidumping petitions filed by countries.


We revisit a classic coordination problem from the perspective of mechanism design: how can we coordinate a social welfare maximizing flow in a network congestion game with selfish players? The classical approach, which computes tolls as a function of known demands, fails when the demands are unknown to the mechanism designer, and naively eliciting them does not necessarily yield a truthful mechanism. Instead, we introduce a weak mediator that can provide suggested routes to players and set tolls as a function of reported demands. However, players can choose to ignore or misreport their type to this mediator. Using techniques from differential privacy, we show how to design a weak mediator such that it is an asymptotic ex-post Nash equilibrium for all players to truthfully report their types to the mediator and faithfully follow its suggestion, and that when they do, they end up playing a nearly optimal flow. Notably, our solution works in settings of incomplete information even in the absence of a prior distribution on player types. Along the way, we develop new techniques for privately solving convex programs which may be of independent interest.


While the model parameters of a kernel machine are typically given by the solution of a convex optimisation problem, with a single global optimum, the selection of good values for the regularisation and kernel parameters is much less straightforward. Fortunately the leave-one-out cross-validation procedure can be performed or a least approximated very efficiently in closed form for a wide variety of kernel learning methods, providing a convenient means for model selection. Leave-one-out cross-validation based estimates of performance, however, generally exhibit a relatively high variance and are therefore prone to over-fitting. In this paper, we investigate the novel use of Bayesian regularisation at the second level of inference, adding a regularisation term to the model selection criterion corresponding to a prior over the hyper-parameter values, where the additional regularisation parameters are integrated out analytically. Results obtained on a suite of thirteen real-world and synthetic benchmark data sets clearly demonstrate the benefit of this approach.


Our extraordinary ability to destroy buildings and cities, the industrialisation and mass production of armaments and building components, the impact of the 'culture of fear' on urban and architectural design, the ubiquitous presence of military technology in the civilian world, and the 'soft' militarisation of everyday life in advanced capitalist societies. These are just some of the themes that inevitably arise in any discussion about the relationship between war and architecture. Sketches of War reflects upon these issues and is narrated in the form of a journey to the 'graveyards of historical memory'. As such it visits places as diverse as the military remains of the cold war along the coastlines of Scotland, slave forts in Brasil, the headquarters of the secret police in Moscow, a bombed maternity hospital in Belgrade, and the Oradour memorial village in France. It tries to grapple and answer one burning question in particular; is it possible in any meaningful sense to objectify the memory of war and tragedy?


Objectives
This study assessed food insecurity in relation to academic performance and behavior problems among kindergarten children from low-income families and the moderating effect of neighborhood food access (NFE).

Methods
Dataset of ECLS-K:2011, a nationally representative sample of kindergarten children attending elementary schools in 2010-2011 is linked to the 2010 Food Access Research Atlas based on census tract identifier. The analysis was restricted to 6460 children participating in the spring kindergarten assessment in families at or below 200% federal poverty level (FPL). Based on the USDA-validated Food Security Scale in the parent interview, food insecurity (FI) was defined as >3 affirmative responses to child-specific questions. Direct assessments of academic performance were administered; scaled scores were based on item response theory. Teachers reported internalizing/externalizing behavior problems with the Social Skills Rating System. Food desert was defined as a low-income census tract with at least 500 people and/or 33% of the population living >1 mile (urban) or >10 miles (rural) from the nearest supermarket. Survey regression analyses accounted for complex sampling design.

Results
11.6% of low-income children were food insecure. 19% lived in food deserts. Children with FI had lower scores for reading (b = -1.23, SE = 0.59, P = 0.039) and math (b = -1.43, SE = 0.56, P = 0.011), than children without FI, with no moderating effect of NFE. No differences existed in behavior problems by FI status, accounting for demographic variables. NFE significantly moderated the relation between FI and externalizing behavior (b = 0.16, SE = 0.07, P = 0.033). Among children living in food deserts, those with FI had higher externalizing behaviors (b = 1.04, SE = 0.06, P = 0.024) than those without FI. FI was not related to externalizing behavior among children not living in food deserts.

Conclusions
Child food insecurity among kindergartners is associated with low academic performance regardless of food access, and externalizing behaviors among children in food deserts. Efforts to reduce food insecurity among families of young children may promote academic performance, and strategies to incorporate healthy food into convenience stores in food deserts may prevent behavior problems.

Funding Sources
NICHD.


This chapter examines Article 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which speaks directly to the unique experiences of gender and disability-based discrimination. The chapter begins by canvassing the historical background and travaux préparatoires on Article 6. It then reviews the text of the article and discusses the interaction between Article 6 and other substantive articles of the CRPD. It considers how Article 6 and related articles have been interpreted by the CRPD Committee in its Concluding Observations to date and in General Comment No 3 on Article 6. As is often the case with gender and disability achievements, the progress effectuated by Article 6 was realized after decades of work and the success, while meaningful on paper, remains to be accomplished in reality.


This briefing document was developed as part of a March 30, 2012 workshop entitled "Public Networks for Public Safety: A Workshop on the Present and Future of Mesh Networking," hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The event provided a starting point for conversation about whether mesh networks could be adopted within consumer technologies to enhance public safety communications and empower and connect the public while simultaneously improving public safety. Participants in this initial convening included members of government agencies, academia, the telecommunications industry, and civil society organizations; their helpful inputs were integral to the final version of this document. Building on the dialogue at this gathering, this briefing document seeks to: sketch a broad overview of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and mesh technologies; identify critical technical issues and questions regarding the communications effectiveness of those technologies; explain how public safety communications relate to mesh and offer a synopsis of current regulations affecting those communications; describe a set of basic use cases that emerged from the conference; map out stakeholders at the technical, regulatory, legal, and social levels, and associated interests, points of connection, and potential challenges; catalog select examples and, where possible, highlight potential next steps and areas for short term action; and, summarize key takeaways from the conference, with an emphasis on shared principles or best practices that might inform participants' diverse efforts to improve communications affordances for the public and the public safety community. The paper also synthesizes several strains of workshop discussion that probed big picture framing concerns that could inform the present and future of mesh. Specifically, it puts forth two related but distinct models for mesh: mesh in a technical sense and mesh as a metaphor or social layer construct, with a particular emphasis on the need for further conceptual development with regard to "social mesh." The final section emphasizes key take-aways from the event, highlighting core principles and best practices that might both provide a theoretical underpinning for the future conceptual development of mesh networking technologies and social mesh models, respectively, and inform the real-world development of communications systems that involve either definition of mesh. The Berkman Center thanks all of the workshop attendees both for their participation during the event and for comments offered during the development of this briefing document. Berkman Center Project Coordinator Alicia Solow-Niederman worked closely with Professor Jonathan Zittrain to plan and execute this event as well as to produce this briefing document. Berkman Center Research Assistants Andrew Crocker and Kevin Tsai provided exceptional research and contributions to this briefing document, and June Casey contributed indispensable support with background research.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) forms through a series of histologic steps that are accompanied by mutations and epigenetic alterations, which is called the polyp‐cancer sequence. The role of epigenetic alterations, such as aberrant DNA methylation, in the polyp‐cancer sequence in sporadic CRC and particularly in hereditary colon cancer is not well understood. Consequently, we assessed the methylation status of CDKN2A/p16, MGMT, MLH1 and p14ARF in adenomas arising in the Lynch syndrome, a familial colon cancer syndrome caused by MLH1 and MSH2 mutations, to determine if DNA methylation is a "second hit" mechanism in CRC and to characterize the role of DNA methylation in the polyp phase of the Lynch syndrome. We found MLH1 and p14ARF are methylated in 53 and 60% of the Lynch syndrome adenomas and in 4 and 20% of sporadic adenomas, whereas CDKN2A/p16 and MGMT are methylated in 6 and 14% of the Lynch syndrome adenomas versus 50 and 64% of sporadic adenomas. Therefore, the frequency and pattern of gene methylation varies between the Lynch syndrome and sporadic colon adenomas, implying differences in the molecular pathogenesis of the tumors. MLH1 methylation in the Lynch syndrome adenomas suggests gene methylation might have a role in the initiation of these neoplasms. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars. —Walt Whitman, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"


Online shopping has quickly replaced the brick-and-mortar experience for a large portion of the consuming public. The online transaction itself is rote: browse items, add them to your cart, and checkout. Somewhere along the way, the consumer is likely made aware of (or at least exposed to) the merchant's terms and conditions, via either a link or a pop-up box. Such terms and conditions have become so ubiquitous that most consumers would be hard-pressed to find a merchant that doesn't try to impose them somewhere on their website. Though such terms and conditions are pervasive, most consumers do not bother to read them before checking-out. Consumers might be surprised at what they would find if they did read the terms and conditions as many retailers include clauses limiting liability, disclaiming warranties as well as choice of law, forum selection, arbitration, jury waiver, and class action waiver clauses. Many of these clauses are grounded in a practical concern over limiting liability and lowering transaction costs. However, the fact that retailers do not include such clauses as part of their in-store transactions raises the question of whether the retailers are actually concerned with binding consumers to such terms. The apparent lack of importance of these terms is further highlighted by the fact that most retailers use "browsewrap" terms and conditions to bind their customers, despite browsewrap being one of the least effective methods of making consumers aware of the terms. While these terms and conditions may provide some utility to the companies attempting to impose them, the main benefit may in fact be their in terrorem effect. This is especially true in instances where companies have failed to adequately notify their consumers about the terms' existence. This article examines the various methods that are used in online contracting to bind consumers, as well as the enforceability of the most common terms. The article concludes that the primary incentive sellers have to include such terms on their websites is their in terrorem effect. Though the use of online terms and conditions as in terrorem devices may be appealing economically, the use of browsewrap as the primary notification device ex ante presents moral and ethical issues.


Medicinal plants mentioned in Ayurveda can be used as food or medicine due to their impact on human health and disease prevention. For example, Guduchi has been used as an immunomodulator for its ability to enhance the immune response. In the present study, fresh juice extracts of Brahmi and Guduchi was evaluated for its immunomodulatory and antioxidant activity. Fresh juice of Brahmi and Guduchi was prepared and lyophilized. The antioxidant activity of the same was evaluated against free radicals whereas immunomodulatory activity was carried out in cyclophosphamide induced immune-suppressed Swiss albino mice. Haemagglutination test was used to assess their effects on humoral response. Both these extracts showed in vitro antioxidant activities. Brahmi exhibited higher TAC (22.39±1.39), phenolic content (24.93±1.27) and hydroxyl radical scavenging effect (83.79 ± 0.88). Similar effects were observed with both extracts in total antioxidant activity against DPPH radical, reducing power and NO radical. Both the plants stimulated the humoral immune response. Increased haemagglutination inhibition was observed with Brahmi (6.40±0.24) in comparison to Guduchi (6.20±0.37). The results suggest that Brahmi and Guduchi both can be considered as promising immunomodulatory agents.


(The spelling ofthe author's name was changed from Patanyake to Ratanyake on 11/06/2012). The main trust of planners is to create inclusive human settlements. Inclusive planning approach recognizes the needs and aspirations of all social groups and thereby creates a livable environment for all social groups. Women comprise the majority of the population in almost all the societies in the world. Even though women constitute the majority of the total population, gender specific considerations have not been effectively addressed in land use planning and development planning in most of the developing countries and Sri Lanka is no exception. Therefore it is high time to address gender considerations in land use planning. One may not agree with the view points expressed in this article. However the objective of this article is to encourage debate among planners on the view points expressed in this article. This article discusses that gender studies are concerned needs of both women and men. However urban and rural womens' needs are different and complex than the needs of men. Women daily activities, transport needs are different those of men. This article discusses the implications of mono land use practices on women by not integrating shopping areas, open spaces and nursery areas in housing neighborhoods. Attention is also paid as to how the safety in the built environment and availability of open spaces affect especially the social mobility of women. This article highlights gender and poverty and planning problems of families headed by women in Sri Lanka. If women occupy decision making positions in society, they can also address womens' aspirations. This article discusses the status of women in public office in Sri Lanka and trend patterns of women in mainstream politics in Sri Lanka. The latter part of this article discusses the possible Gender Planning Frameworks that can be used in human settlement process. DOI: 10.4038/besl.v7i2.1944 Built-Environment Sri Lanka Vol.7(2) 54-59


The paleohydrology of ephemeral stream systems is an important constraint on paleoclimatic conditions in arid environments, but remains difficult to measure quantitatively. For example, sedimentary records of the size and extent of pluvial lakes in the Mojave Desert (southwestern USA) have been used as a proxy for Quaternary climate variability. Although the delivery mechanisms of this additional water are still being debated, it is generally agreed that the discharge of the Mojave River, which supplied water for several Pleistocene pluvial lakes along its course, must have been significantly greater during lake highstands. We used the 10 Be concentrations of 10 individual quartzite pebbles sourced from the San Bernardino Mountains and collected from a ca. 25 ka strath terrace of the Mojave River near Barstow, California, to test whether pebble ages record the timing of large paleodischarge of the Mojave River. Our exposure ages indicate that periods of discharge large enough to transport pebble-sized sediment occurred at least 4 times over the past ∼240 k.y.; individual pebble ages cluster into 4 groups with exposure ages of 24.82 ± 4.36 ka (n = 3), 55.79 ± 3.67 ka (n = 2), 99.14 ± 12.07 ka (n = 4) and 239.9 ± 52.16 ka (n = 1). These inferred large discharge events occurred during both glacial and interglacial conditions. We demonstrate that bedload materials provide information about the frequency and duration of transport events in river systems. This approach could be further improved with additional measurements of one or more cosmogenic nuclides coupled with models of river discharge and pebble transport.


Terry Eagleton (1982) recently announced "the end of criticism" - but characteristically the announcement was ambiguous and by the end of his paper it is obvious enough that he is actually announcing another goal for criticism and thsi goal is not much of an advance upon the 'plain speaking' of his traditional English marxist background:

We need to insist that rhetoric is a matter of inventio and dispositio,of (if you like) 'subject matter' and not just elecutio: that nothing, in short, persuades better than knowledge, and that certain kinds of knowledge are what the working class and other oppressed groups and classes in our society now need most. If one wanted a relation between 'ideology' and 'science' this late in the day, one could find it here (Eagleton 1982. p 106).

The ambiguity is, however, deeper than the one concealed by a pun on 'ends': for this 'closure' of the criticism debate sits uneasily amidst a corpus which has generally eschewed closures of any kind. From the early days of Criticism and Ideology ( 1976b) and Marxism and Literary Criticism (1976a) to the recent work on Benjamin (1981), Eagleton (by which I intend a corpus of texts) has sat in similarly uneasy positions in respect of a number of traditional and recent currents in the arena of criticism and politics. This paper addresses some of the contradictions that arise in Eagleton, and its reason for doing so is to ask the question: does Eagleton furnish a distinct possibility of critique which has implications and applications of a general kind outside the domain of the purely 'literary'? It is this that I gloss by the question of the 'space of commentary'.

If breadth is any indication, we should certainly expect a positive answer, judging by the manifold and diverse elements of Eagleton's 'synthesis' (if such it be). Firstly, there is a triangle of forces produced by the tension between traditional English literary criticism, formalist semiotics and the deconstructionism of Derrida and the late(r) Barthes. But into this circumscribed geometry creep other English Continental tensions, such as that between Derrida (1977) and Austin/Searle (1977) over the position of language generally (Fish 1982); while the node of semiotics is further displaced by its relations with Althusserian marxism and the 'structuralism/phenomenology' contradiction - not to mention the numerous Marx/Freud proto-syntheses (Marcuse, Lacan, Deleuze). This takes us to a further triangle of critical forces which play across Eagleton's texts, forces outside but often subordinated to the domain of the 'literary': namely the relations of British Marxism (Williams, Thompson, etc.) to Althusserianism and to Frankfurt School culture critique, further diffused by glances in the direction of the Brecht/Benjamin productionist thesis. And this second triangle has a further dimension insofar as it is formed in the space of the 'critical' heritage of Marx, Engels and Lukacs.

Consequently, a number of traditional concerns are up for grabs: base/super structure separations between material conditions and literary productions v pan productionist annulments of that dichotomy; ideology v science; the status of literature (and especially fiction) in relation to the opposition formed by science/ideology; the position of and contradiction between theory and practice; and the problems of the 'subject' and textual 'closure'. In short, a veritable array of recent politico-critical oppositionalities and contradictions. The problem for us: how to cut through this broad band of discursive forces and their objects? The task is by no means an easy one, not simply because of its size but also because readings of Eagleton are further complicated by the very presence of 'the question of reading' in the corpus and we need to work out just where to stand in relation to the corpus's own reading practices and how much violence needs to be done to them.


A global collection of 43 chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes, resistant and susceptible to Ascochyta blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei was evaluated for the disease under controlled conditions. In this study three known pathotypes (P-I, P-II, and P-III) were used to evaluate the reactions of this collection. the chickpea genotypes were also characterized using 14 microsatellite markers flanking the genomic regions associated with Ascochyta blight resistance quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Phenotyping results indicated that 27 genotypes were re- sistant to P-I, 14 to P-II, and five to P-III, revealing the possible erosion of resistance through the evolution of virulent pathogen pathotypes. the genetic diversity analysis revealed 67 alleles at 14 microsatellite loci with an average of 4.8 alleles per locus among the genotypes tested. Genetic similarity estimates differentiated four subclusters (A, B, C, and D) of the genotypes. However, none of sub-clusters were separated into resistant genotypes for a specific pathotype. The genetic diversity ranged from 0.48 to 0.80 which indicated that there is considerable variation in QTL regions associated with Ascochyta blight resistance among the collections of chickpea genotypes studied, as assessed using the hyper-variable microsatellite markers.


Personnel recovery teams must operate under intense pressure, taking into account not only hard logistics, but 'messy' factors such as the social or political implications of a decision. The Collaborative Operations for Personnel Recovery (Co-OPR) project has developed decision-support for sensemaking in such scenarios, seeking to exploit the complementary strengths of human and machine reasoning. Co-OPR integrates the Compendium sensemaking-support tool for real time information and argument mapping, with the I-X artificial intelligence planning and execution framework to support group activity and collaboration. Both share a common model for dealing with issues, the refinement of options for the activities to be performed, handling constraints and recording other information. The tools span the spectrum from being very flexible with few constraints on terminology and content, to knowledge-based relying on rich domain models and formal conceptual models (ontologies). In a personnel recovery experimental simulation of an UN peacekeeping operation, with roles played by military planning staff, the Co-OPR tools were judged by external evaluators to have been very effective.


Cellulose microfibrils are the basic units of cellulose in plants. The structure of these microfibrils is at 35 least partly determined by the structure of the cellulose synthase complex. In higher plants, this 36 complex is composed of 18 to 24 catalytic subunits known as CELLULOSE SYNTHASE A (CESA) 37 proteins. Three different classes of CESA proteins are required for cellulose synthesis and for 38 secondary cell wall cellulose biosynthesis, which include CESA4, CESA7, and CESA8. To probe the 39 relationship between CESA proteins and microfibril structure, we created mutant cesa proteins that 40 lack catalytic activity but retain sufficient structural integrity to allow assembly of the cellulose 41 synthase complex. Using a series of Arabidopsis mutants and genetic backgrounds, we found 42 consistent differences in the ability of these mutant CESA proteins to complement the cellulose- 43 deficient phenotype of the cesa null mutants. The best complementation was observed with 44 catalytically inactive cesa4 while the equivalent mutation in cesa8 exhibited significantly lower 45 levels of complementation. Using a variety of biophysical techniques, including ssNMR and FTIR, to 46 study these mutant plants we found evidence for changes in cellulose microfibril structure, but these 47 changes largely correlated with cellulose content and reflected differences in the relative proportion 48 of primary and secondary cell walls. Our results suggest that individual CESA classes have similar 49 roles in determining cellulose microfibril structure, and it is likely that the different effects of 50 mutating members of different CESA classes is a consequence of their different catalytic activity and 51 their influence on the overall rate of cellulose synthesis.


Rural people in India, particularly farmers, are exposed to climate variability and risk, which is likely to increase due to climate change. This study assessed current adaptation strategies adopted by rural households in two dryland villages of Bagepalli Block, Chikballapur district, Karnataka, in southern India. The adequacy of adaptation strategies was also assessed. The study showed that rural households, and farmers in particular, adopted several practices to cope with current climate risks which include irrigation provisioning (depending on groundwater), shifting cropping pattern (to more resilient but low economically valued crops and varieties), mixed cropping, agroforestry (as a long-term strategy), diversified livestock holdings, and reliance on government development programmes. The adaptation measures also included leaving croplands fallow, sale of assets such as livestock and trees, and migration. Current climate-related responses to agricultural distress are not adequate to cope with even existing climate risks. This further indicates that rural households may not be able to cope with increasing climate variability and climate change. Thus, there is an urgent need to better understand current adaptation strategies and to enhance resilience, and to develop structured adaptation strategies to cope with the risks associated with current and long-term climate change.