This article describes the application of computational models of spatial prepositions to visually situated dialog systems. In these dialogs, spatial prepositions are important because people often use them to refer to entities in the visual context of a dialog. We first describe a generic architecture for a visually situated dialog system and highlight the interactions between the spatial cognition module, which provides the interface to the models of prepositional semantics, and the other components in the architecture. Following this, we present two new computational models of topological and projective spatial prepositions. The main novelty within these models is the fact that they account for the contextual effect which other distractor objects in a visual scene can have on the region described by a given preposition. We next present psycholinguistic tests evaluating our approach to distractor interference on prepositional semantics, and illustrate how these models are used for both interpretation and generation of prepositional expressions.


A connectionist model of harmonic resolution, based on affective principles, is proposed. The connectionist model consists of a note-recognition layer; and a chord-recognition layer; the chord- recognition layer feeds back to the note-recognition layer to produce a resonance loop. Affect is measured by the degree of mutual maintenance of competing units. This measure is derived from the aesthetic principle of unity in diversity. The affective measure permits the rules of harmony to be understood on aesthetic grounds, rather than as a loose collection of observed regularities. It is also shown how the model is broadly consistent with the rules of common harmonic practice and, in addition, is capable of making predictions about dynamic and adaptive effects. Simulations are performed on two types of resolution: the resolution of a nonharmonic note and cadential resolution. The former set of simulations includes the anchoring of nonharmonic notes, the asymmetry of nonharmonic resolution, and the nonharmonic support mechanisms of emphasis and the suspension. The last set includes voice leading in the cadence, the dominant seventh, the French sixth, and a longer cadence. The paper concludes with a discussion of how some expectation-based effects could be included in a modified model that retains the same affective measure.


OBJECTIVE
To identify prognostic markers that are predictive of progressive erosive disease in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS
The study involved an inception cohort of 111 consecutive patients with RA and a disease duration of <1 year. Patients were treated according to an algorithm designed to avoid overtreatment of mild disease and to accelerate treatment in patients who had continuous disease activity. Patients were evaluated for the presence of clinical and laboratory disease activity markers. We determined the frequency of CD4+,CD28(null) T cells by flow cytometry, HLA-DRB1 gene polymorphisms by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)/sequencing, and 26 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 19 candidate genes by multiplex PCR and hybridization to an immobilized probe array. Data were analyzed using proportional odds models to identify prognostic markers predictive of erosive progression over 2 years on serial hand/wrist radiographs.

RESULTS
After 2 years, disease activity in 52% of the cohort was controlled by treatment with hydroxychloroquine and nonsteroidal agents. Forty-eight percent of the patients did not develop erosions. Older age, presence of erosions at baseline, presence of rheumatoid factor, rheumatoid factor titer, and HLA-DRB1*04 alleles, particularly homozygosity for HLA-DRB1*04, were univariate predictors of radiographic progression. Promising novel markers were the frequency of CD4+,CD28(null) T cells as an immunosenescence indicator, and a polymorphism in the uteroglobin gene.

CONCLUSION
Clinical disease activity in patients with early RA can frequently be controlled with nonaggressive treatment, but this is not always sufficient to prevent new erosions. Rheumatoid factor titer, HLA-DRB1 polymorphisms, age, and immunosenescence markers are predictors of poor radiographic outcome. A polymorphism in the uteroglobin gene may identify patients who have a low risk of erosive disease.


This paper addresses the integration of a Named Entity Recognition and Disambiguation (NERD) service within a group of open access (OA) publishing digital platforms and considers its potential impact on both research and scholarly publishing. The software powering this service, called entity-fishing, was initially developed by Inria in the context of the EU FP7 project CENDARI and provides automatic entity recognition and disambiguation using the Wikipedia and Wikidata data sets. The application is distributed with an open-source licence, and it has been deployed as a web service in DARIAH's infrastructure hosted by the French HumaNum. In the paper, we focus on the specific issues related to its integration on five OA platforms specialized in the publication of scholarly monographs in the social sciences and humanities (SSH), as part of the work carried out within the EU H2020 project HIRMEOS (High Integration of Research Monographs in the European Open Science infrastructure). In the first section, we give a brief overview of the current status and evolution of OA publications, considering specifically the challenges that OA monographs are encountering. In the second part, we show how the HIRMEOS project aims to face these challenges by optimizing five OA digital platforms for the publication of monographs from the SSH and ensuring their interoperability. In sections three and four we give a comprehensive description of the entity-fishing service, focusing on its concrete applications in real use cases together with some further possible ideas on how to exploit the annotations generated. We show that entity-fishing annotations can improve both research and publishing process. In the last chapter, we briefly present further possible application scenarios that could be made available through infrastructural projects.


The objective of Mediation and Settlements in the Judiciary: Dilemmas and Meanings is to describe and analyse mediation and settlement practices in the sphere of the Rio de Janeiro State Judiciary, Brazil. An understanding is sought of the process of institutional changes through which Brazilian society has been passing since the 1980s, the different meanings attributed to these doctrines by the diverse operators in the legal field and by the users in contexts in which they are engaged. The primary question that guides this research is ascertaining to what extent the State can reduce the gap between the law and the courts of the society, through these new doctrines of conflict management.


Reconstruction of biophysically detailed computer models for simulating electrical activities of heart cells provides a powerful tool to systematically investigate the ionic mechanisms underlying the genesis and control of cardiac rhythms. However, the fact that there is no unified or standard architecture for computational cell models, which were built by different research groups with specific purposes, obstructed profound applications of these models. In this study, we employed object-oriented design patterns to redesign and reconstitute the cell models and provided a more flexible, portable, and expansible infrastructure for modeling computational cell models. Meanwhile, using the proposed methods, a simulation platform has been developed for electrical activities of cell models with aims to offer a user-friendly interface to study the electrical activities of cardiac cells under various physiological and pathological conditions. Both the proposed design methods and the developed system were validated and effective by testing several typical cell models.


In an industrial automation environment, there are many sensors generating large volumes of data. Both time-critical data for real-time control as well as less time-critical data for central monitoring and log data need to co-exist in the system with often harsh wireless environments. Thus, available capacity may be low, causing congestion problems and long latencies for by traffic with less stringent timing requirements. In this paper, we consider the feasibility of using Information Centric Networking in industrial automation networks in order to improve efficiency in distribution of data and reduce latency.


Sepsis is among the major reason of death in hospitalized patients. The hallmarks of sepsis are excessive inflammation, coagulation, and the suppression of fibrinolysis. It requires prompt diagnosis, immediate treatment with antibiotics & hemodynamic support. The early diagnosis of sepsis with immediate treatment can prevent its progression and decrease the mortality rate. The initial antibiotic to be given must be a broad-spectrum dependent over local sensitivity patterns. It should be daily assessed for de-escalation and cessation. The management is influenced more by appropriate treatments along with the antibiotics and fluid than by the specific intensive care.


A simple, precise and accurate stability indicating Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC), method was developed for the simultaneous estimation of lidocaine and nifedipine in bulk drug and its topical dosage form. Enable HPLC ODS C18 G (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) column was used along with mobile phase containing 20 mM ammonium acetate buffer (pH-4.8 adjusted with glacial acetic acid): Acetonitrile in the ratio 65:35 at the flow rate of 1.0 ml/min using UV detection at 231 nm. The correlation coefficient (r2) was found to be 1.000 in the concentration range of 75-225 μg/ml and 15-45 μg/ml for lidocaine and nifedipine respectively. The retention time was found to be 2.751 min for lidocaine and 7.769 min for nifedipine. Stress degradations of lidocaine and nifedipine were carried out under stress conditions like acid and base hydrolysis, oxidation, thermal and photolytic stress. The degradation products generated as a result of stress did not show any interference to the detection of lidocaine and nifedipine. Moreover the degraded products were also separated. Therefore the developed method can be considered as stability indicating. The developed method was validated and satisfactory results were obtained.


Extended, diffuse radio emission (halos and relics) in galaxy clusters is a rare phenomenon. The origin of these radio sources and their connection with cluster mergers is still being debated. Here we present the results of the DARC program, aimed to the internal Dynamics Analysis of "Radio" Clusters and mainly based on a long-term TNG-INT program (20 clusters at z=0.1-0.3). The study of kinematics of member galaxies show that DARC clusters are examples of very substructured systems and allow us to detect and weight the interveining subclusters, as well as to obtain information about their relative motions and the merger geometry. The multiwavelength observational picture of DARC clusters is well interpreted in a scenario of a recent, major cluster merger.


This research is an in-depth study of a single workplace which
investigates the following questions:
1. What were the needs, interests and aspirations of participants in a
workplace literacy programme for local authority employees?
2. What strategies were adopted to meet these needs?
3. Were they successful?
4. What are the implications of the findings for wider policy and
practice?
The research uses a qualitative approach within a case study framework.
The primary research method is semi-structured interviews with 11
workers who were students on an adult literacy programme, and 9 other
people whose roles were relevant to the programme.
The principal findings under each question were
1. The primary concerns related to gaining skills to enable employees
to improve their current work situation, secure new employment, for
wider life situations, and to access further learning opportunities;
the research also demonstrated that whilst employers, employees
and trade unions shared some interests, differing needs and
priorities created some tensions.
2. The programmes adopted an empowerment approach that aimed
to boost confidence and self-esteem and enhance critical, analytical
and problem-solving skills alongside a contextualised approach to developing reading, writing and sophisticated oracy skills.
3. Students progressed in the above areas and as a result significant
benefits accrued to individuals, their employer and the trade union;
these included improved performance, morale and industrial
relations, adoption of new literacy practices and heightened
aspirations for learning and employment.
4. Implications for policy and practice drawn from the research,
although tentative because of the small-scale nature of the study,
included broadening engagement strategies, devising additional
context-specific curriculum and teacher training guidance, and
extending union good practice in employee engagement to
curriculum development.


Road extraction from satellite images is challenging research area in information extraction from high-resolution remote sensing images such as IKONOS and QUICKBIRD. The road from satellite images can be identified based on its geometric, spectral, topological and contextual properties as well as on various illumination and geographical environment. The road network extraction results in map generation in short time. In this paper roads are extracted by semi automatic method road network. Image Binarization is achieved by C means clustering algorithm followed by morphological operation which includes filtering and image thinning.


This paper focuses on the linguistic work of John Gilchrist (1759–1841), one of the first British grammarians to produce a detailed and systematic study of the language known in the 18th century as 'Hindustani'. An interesting feature of Gilchrist's grammatical texts is the fact that, within the framework of a grammatical account of a South Asian language, they often include short passages discussing contemporary problems in the analysis of English. In these passages, Gilchrist engages directly with the work of writers such as John Horne Tooke, Samuel Johnson, Robert Lowth, and Thomas Sheridan, taking up a position in relation to their work and drawing upon his research on Hindustani to support or challenge their analyses of English. In one typical example, discussed in this paper, he mobilises evidence from his own work in support of Thomas Sheridan's innovative account of the vowel in words such as mine and thine, an analysis that characterises this sound as a diphthong rather than a simple articulation. In the light of Gilchrist's later visibility as a political radical, some commentators have seen his allusions to Horne Tooke as evidence that his linguistic work has a demonstrably radical character. However, the diversity of the thinkers with whom Gilchrist engages suggests that it is better to interpret his interventions in the analysis of English as attempts to build a reputation as a scholar, not only in the colony but in the metropolis as well. As such, the passages in which Gilchrist discusses the nature of English can be seen as political in the sense that they helped him to find a platform from which he could voice his radical ideas. But they do not always constitute a radical account of the language itself, their importance lying in the opportunities they offered for self-promotion and, indeed, self-transformation.


Fractal image compression allows fast decoding but suffers from long encoding times. During the encoding a large number of sequential searches through a list of domains (portions of the image) are carried out while trying to find a best match for another image portion called range. In this article we review and extend the methods that have been developed to reduce the time complexity of this searching. Also we present a new taxonomy of the methods, provide an evaluation and propose two new techniques.


A child in the dark, gripped with fear, comforts himself by singing under his breath. He walks and halts to his song. Lost, he takes shelter, or orients himself with his little song as best he can. The song is like a rough sketch of a calming and stabilizing, calm and stable, center in the heart of chaos. Perhaps the child skips as he sings, hastens or slows his pace. But the song itself is already a skip: it jumps from chaos to the beginnings of order in chaos and is in danger of breaking apart at any moment. (Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 1987: 311)


We work with a generalization of Stirling numbers of the second kind related to the boson normal ordering problem (P. Blasiak et al.). We show that these numbers appear as part of the coefficients of expressions in which certain sequences of products of binomials, together with their partial sums, are written as linear combinations of some other binomials. We show that the number arrays formed by these coefficients can be seen as natural generalizations of Pascal and Lucas triangles, since many of the known properties on rows, columns, falling diagonals and rising diagonals in Pascal and Lucas triangles, are also valid (some natural generalizations of them) in the arrays considered in this work. We also show that certain closed formulas for hyper-sums of powers of binomial coefficients appear in a natural way in these arrays.


With inflation increasing all over the world, central banks have to consider with some care how quickly to re-establish price stability. A key issue in this context is the short-run cost in terms of foregone output and higher unemployment. In other words, our aim in this paper was to find the 'sacrifice ratio' for the Euro Area and for the United States. Our main findings are: The cost of reducing inflation is in most cases higher in the US than in the EA. For example, reducing (headline) inflation by 1% point requires a decline of output of 1.4% in the EU, but 2.3% for the US. Considering core inflation, the sacrifice ratio in terms of output is somewhat higher for the Euro Area (around 4) compared to 3.2 for the US. However, the sacrifice ratios in terms of unemployment are always much larger for the US. Reducing headline inflation by 1% requires an increase in unemployment of little more than 1% in the EA, compared to 8% in the US. However, there is also a long-run 'hysterisis' cost that is specific to the Euro Area since the reaction of unemployment to output depends on the state of the economy. During downturns this relationship worsens. This implies that a recession engineered to combat inflation will have an additional cost in terms of lower unemployment later, even after the recovery of the economy.


Moose (Alces alces) have experienced considerable declines along the periphery of their range in the northeastern United States. In Vermont, the population declined 45% from 2010 to 2017 despite minimal hunter harvest and adequate habitat. Similarly, nearby populations recently experienced epizootics characterized by >50% mortality. Declines have largely been associated with the effects of winter ticks (Dermacentor albipictus), but uncertainty exists about the effects of environmental and other parasite‐related conditions on moose survival. We examined patterns of moose survival among a radio‐collared population (n= 127) in Vermont from 2017 to 2019. Our objectives were to estimate causes of mortality and model survival probability as a function of individual and landscape variables for calves (<1 yr) and adults (≥1 yr). Observed adult survival was 90% in 2017, 84% in 2018, and 86% in 2019, and winter calf survival was 60% in 2017, 50% in 2018, and 37% in 2019. Winter tick infestation was the primary cause of mortality (91% of calves, 25% of adults), and 32% of all mortalities had evidence of meningeal worm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis). Other sources of mortality such as vehicles, harvest, predation, deep snow, and other parasitic infections were negligible. The best supported calf model included sex differences and negative effects of tick engorgement (%/week) and parasite level (roundworm and lungworm). The best supported adult model included the effect of cumulative tick engorgement (cumulative %/week), which negatively affected survival. Our results indicate that winter tick engorgement strongly affects survival, and is probably compounded by the presence of meningeal worm and other parasites. Reduced tick effects may be achieved by decreasing moose density through harvest and managing late winter habitat to minimize tick density. Management of white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) density may also affect the transmission of meningeal worm. © 2021 The Authors. The Journal of Wildlife Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Wildlife Society.


BACKGROUND
It may be reasonable to try to reduce the harm from continued smoking amongst smokers unable or unwilling to quit. Possible approaches to reduce the exposure to toxins from smoking include reducing the amount of tobacco used, and using less toxic products. The interventions evaluated in controlled trials have predominantly attempted to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effect of interventions intended to reduce the harm from smoking on the following: biomarkers of damage caused by tobacco, biomarkers of tobacco exposure, number of cigarettes smoked, quitting, and long-term health status.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group Specialised Register using free text and MeSH terms for harm reduction, smoking reduction and cigarette reduction. The initial search was in March 2006, updated in March 2007.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials of interventions in tobacco users to reduce amount smoked, or to reduce harm from smoking by means other than cessation. Outcomes were change in cigarette consumption, markers of cigarette exposure and any markers of damage or benefit to health, measured at least six months from the start of the intervention.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We pooled trials with similar interventions and outcomes using a fixed-effect model. Other studies were summarised narratively.

MAIN RESULTS
The 13 included trials all evaluated interventions to help smokers cut down the amount smoked. Self-reported reduction in cigarettes per day (CPD) was validated by reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) levels. Most trials tested nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to assist reduction. No eligible studies evaluated the use of potentially reduced-exposure products. In a pooled analysis of eight trials, NRT significantly increased the odds of reducing CPD by 50% or more for people using nicotine gum or inhaler or a choice of product compared to placebo (n=3273, odds ratio [OR] 2.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.55 to 2.62). Where average changes from baseline were compared for different measures, CO and cotinine consistently showed smaller reductions than CPD. Whilst the effect for NRT was significant, small numbers of people in either treatment or control group successfully sustained a reduction of 50% or more. Use of NRT also significantly increased the odds of quitting (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.46 to 2.47). One trial of bupropion failed to detect an effect on reduction or cessation. Four trials of different types of advice and instructions on reducing CPD did not provide clear evidence.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There is insufficient evidence about long-term benefit to give firm support the use of interventions intended to help smokers reduce but not quit tobacco use. Some people who do not wish to quit can be helped to cut down the number of cigarettes smoked and reduce their carbon monoxide levels by using nicotine gum or nicotine inhaler. Because the long-term health benefit of a reduction in smoking rate is unclear this application of NRT is more appropriately used as a precursor to quitting.


Biosynthesis of metal nanoparticle using fungi Claviceps paspali by varying composition of media, pH and temperature. The synthesized nanoparticle was characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy. Antimicrobial property of the nanoparticle was carried out against tested strains. Nanoparticle was also tested for their antidiabetic and anti-angiogenic properties. This work revealed that metal nanoparticle can be easily produced by fungi and may be a feasible, low-cost, environmentally friendly method for generating stable nanoparticles.


Abstract Turbulent flows subject to solid-body rotation are known to generate steep energy spectra and two-dimensional columnar vortices. The localness of the dominant energy transfers responsible for the accumulation of the energy in the two-dimensional columnar vortices of large horizontal scale remains undetermined. Here, we investigate the scale-locality of the energy transfers directly contributing to the growth of the two-dimensional columnar structures observed in the intermediate Rossby number ($\mathit{Ro}$) regime. Our approach is to investigate the dynamics of the waves and vortices separately: we ensure that the two-dimensional columnar structures are not directly forced so that the vortices can result only from association with wave to vortical energy transfers. Detailed energy transfers between waves and vortices are computed as a function of scale, allowing the direct tracking of the role and scales of the wave–vortex nonlinear interactions in the accumulation of energy in the large two-dimensional columnar structures. It is shown that the dominant energy transfers responsible for the generation of a steep two-dimensional spectrum involve direct non-local energy transfers from small-frequency small-horizontal-scale three-dimensional waves to large-horizontal-scale two-dimensional columnar vortices. Sensitivity of the results to changes in resolution and forcing scales is investigated and the non-locality of the dominant energy transfers leading to the emergence of the columnar vortices is shown to be robust. The interpretation of the scaling law observed in rotating flows in the intermediate-$\mathit{Ro}$ regime is revisited in the light of this new finding of dominant non-locality.


Library users' evolving information needs and their choice of search methods have changed reference work profoundly. Today's reference librarian must work in a whole new way-not only service-focused and businesslike, but even entrepreneurial. Murphy innovatively rethinks the philosophy behind current library reference services in this thought-provoking book, which Rebrands reference librarianship on the model of a consulting business, providing a renewed vision of the reference desk by treating patrons as clients Spells out the importance of the patron's voice, and details methods for building and maintaining relationships with patrons Identifies the reference librarian's competitive advantage over Web search engines and shows how to capitalize on it Murphy adapts existing business practices and programs to the context of the library, allowing frontline staff and administrators in any type of reference department to monitor and continuously improve their library's services.


At the European Council of 9-10 March, Theresa May will, In all likelihood, at last invoke Article 50, setting into motion a process that will result in the withdrawal of the UK out of the EU and, hopefully, a new agreement between the UK and the EU on their long-term relation. In this Discussion Paper Andrew Duff gives an outline of what will follow after the launch of Article 50 based on what we know so far (the content of Article 50, Theresa May's speech at Lancaster House and the Brexit white paper), and discusses the points of ambiguity and contention that will need to be resolved. Negotiations will not be easy: there are already tensions between London and Brussels on their timing and sequencing. The most difficult issue will, as always, be money and the UK's contribution to the EU budget. Other points of discussion will be the transition from the Article 50 treaty to a new agreement; what this new agreement will look like; the process of repealing EU law within the UK; and finally, the European Court of Justice. Duff furthermore argues that the negotiations cannot succeed unless the framework of Britain's future relationship with the EU is more clearly articulated by the British government, something which the recently published white paper failed to do. On the EU side, the imminent guidelines of the European Council must work hard to install some semblance of clarity into the business of Brexit. The goal must be to expedite the departure of the British without wrecking the EU


With daily operating costs rising, reimbursement rates declining, and concerns over soaring liability insurance prices, profitability is a hot topic for the modern ophthalmology practice. Some groups are finding an effective solution in the symbiosis between ophthalmology and optometry. By adding optometrists to their staffs, ophthalmologists are offering a more complete vision-care package to their patients and driving up profits in the process. The advantages, as seen by the doctors involved in these relationships, are many.


Introduction While Elizabeth I rarely encouraged explicit comparisons between herself and martial women of the literary or historical past, (1) brief allusions to and more extended treatments of leaders such as Boudicca are relatively common in popular early modern historiographical texts with encomiastic and nationalist passions. Indeed, as Julia M. Walker notes, "To represent Elizabeth as a woman warrior while she was alive was a delicate proposition" (Elizabeth 40). Certainly, Elizabeth's own self-presentation did not regularly suggest martial impulsivity or ferocity so much as divine protection and favour in times of turmoil. As early as her letters to Queen Mary I in the 1550s, Princess Elizabeth presented herself as accountable to God first and foremost ("Princess Elizabeth" 41). A sense of closeness to and favour from God was strengthened in a speech given the day before her coronation, as she compared herself to Daniel, spared by God because of loyalty and faith ("Richard Mulcaster's Account" 55). Elizabeth also was obviously comfortable presenting herself as both virginal and as a mother to her nation. Court advancement was often predicated on young men maintaining courtly love relationships that followed the patterns of Petrarchan romances--hopeless suitors promising service to Elizabeth, the beautiful, but untouchable and prevaricating mistress. Official visual representations of the queen include George Gower's series of Siena "sieve" portraits (circa 1579), which portray Elizabeth as Tuccia, the Vestal virgin who, as a testament to her virginity, carried water in a sieve without spilling a drop. In her first speech to Parliament, as she addressed petitions that she marry, the queen stressed that, while she would find it acceptable to live and die a virgin, she was also already married to the nation ("Parliament" 58-59), and she returned to this familial relationship in a 1563 speech, claiming that her subjects would never enjoy a more devoted mother than her ("Queen Elizabeth's Answer" 72). Thomas Bentley similarly praises Elizabeth in the opening Epistle for Monument of Matrones (1582), describing her as the "naturall mother and noble nurse" who watches over the Church of England, and James Aske continues this presentation of the queen as mother to England in his 1588 poem Elizabetha Triumphans, as he describes the queen's laws as both breast milk and a crib (12). When Elizabeth was connected to martial women during her lifetime, other associative values were usually stressed: Diana, goddess of the hunt, was often used in court literature, but authors would link Elizabeth to her chastity and beauty rather than any explicitly violent tendencies--The Faerie Queene's virginal huntress Belphoebe, for example (Spenser 1590 and 1596). (2) Instead, Elizabeth's self-presentations and sanctioned courtly representations stressed Petrarchan beauty, chastity, personal faith, divine favour, princely virtues, and, occasionally, maternal devotion to the nation (see also Berry; Walker, Elizabeth). Despite the queen's apparent distaste for monarchical representations that might suggest violence in her kingdom or unnatural female qualities in her person, early modern authors did regularly connect Elizabeth to martial figures from mythology, history, and the Bible, particularly after her death as the queen's leadership during the Spanish Armada became mythologized in and of itself. Martial valour was, of course, only one of several monarchical traits that were taken up by writers producing nationalist texts that placed Elizabeth's reign within larger Brittonic histories. Indeed, when given the chance to praise the queen, early modern authors frequently relied on a well-established set of allusions aimed at lauding various combinations of the queen's chastity, beauty, intelligence, militancy, fortitude, peaceful disposition, and generosity. The allusions are perhaps only intended to serve as brief references, as signals for whichever of Elizabeth's qualities the author will praise in more detail in the larger work. …


This document describes an extension to the OSPF protocol to reduce
periodic flooding of Link State Advertisements (LSAs) in stable
topologies. Current OSPF behavior requires that all LSAs, except
DoNotAge LSAs, to be refreshed every 30 minutes. This document
proposes to generalize the use of DoNotAge LSAs in order to reduce
protocol traffic in stable topologies. This memo provides information
for the Internet community.


1. The adsorption of [14C]carboxymethylated glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase to negatively charged liposomes of phsphatidic acid/phosphatidylcholine (3:7, w/w) was investigated. The apparent association constant at I/2 = 60, pH 7.6, was 0.4 X 10(6)M-1. Adsorption decreased as ionic strength and pH were increased. 2. In the presence of negatively charged liposomes, the Km value for glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase was increased and Vmax. decreased. In the presence of positively charged liposomes, the Km value for glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate decreased and there was no significant change in Vmax. Addition of Triton X-100 abolished the effect of both positively and negatively charged liposomes on the kinetic properties of the enzyme.


Abstract Studies show that public information can create social value, which reflects on the purpose of this paper in identifying information on the online environment of the hotel industry which can directly or indirectly create social value and ultimately a competitive edge. Privately owned, small and mid-sized hotels in Romania find themselves in competitive online environment and, as such, many of them cannot compete or don't possess the know-how to compete within the online environment. With identifying the information shared on the hotels online environment and the capability of the information in creating social value, hotels can reevaluate their online strategies. The immediate objective of this paper is to analyze the websites of a sample of 99 small and mid-sized hotels in Romania and to identify critical information that can directly or indirectly create social value. Part of the objective is to draw a conclusion of the main differences on the information shared on the hotels website, which in terms will show where small and mid-sized hotels can improve their online content strategy with socially valuable information. Key findings reflect that Romanian hotels have a clear pattern across the country when it come to their online environment. However, there are serious deficiencies that can influence both economical results and the possibility of creating socially valuable information online. This work increases our understanding of the information shared on the hotels websites in Romania and comes with suggestions that hoteliers can apply in the future to increase the competitiveness and the social value of their online environment.


Cloud computing has great potential of providing robust computational power to the society at reduced cost. It enables customers with limited computational resources to outsource their large computation workloads to the cloud, and economically enjoy the massive computational power, bandwidth, storage, and even appropriate software that can be shared in a pay-per-use manner. Despite the tremendous benefits, security is the primary obstacle that prevents the wide adoption of this promising computing model, especially for customers when their confidential data are consumed and produced during the computation. Treating the cloud as an intrinsically insecure computing platform from the viewpoint of the cloud customers, we must design mechanisms that not only protect sensitive information by enabling computations with encrypted data, but also protect customers from malicious behaviors by enabling the validation of the computation result. Such a mechanism of general secure computation outsourcing was recently shown to be feasible in theory, but to design mechanisms that are practically efficient remains a very challenging problem. Focusing on engineering computing and optimization tasks, this paper investigates secure outsourcing of widely applicable linear programming (LP) computations. In order to achieve practical efficiency, our mechanism design explicitly decomposes the LP computation outsourcing into public LP solvers running on the cloud and private LP parameters owned by the customer. The resulting flexibility allows us to explore appropriate security/efficiency tradeoff via higher-level abstraction of LP computations than the general circuit representation. In particular, by formulating private data owned by the customer for LP problem as a set of matrices and vectors, we are able to develop a set of efficient privacy-preserving problem transformation techniques, which allow customers to transform original LP problem into some arbitrary one while protecting sensitive input/output information. To validate the computation result, we further explore the fundamental duality theorem of LP computation and derive the necessary and sufficient conditions that correct result must satisfy. Such result verification mechanism is extremely efficient and incurs close-to-zero additional cost on both cloud server and customers. Extensive security analysis and experiment results show the immediate practicability of our mechanism design.


Cardiovascular opportunistic infections are fairly encountered in patients with HIV disease. The search on this topic was carried out electronically via peer-reviewed articles in PubMed sources, Cochrane reviews and other medically-oriented search engines. Most opportunistic infections occur when the CD4 counts fall below 200/mL. The spectrum of presentations in-cludes pericarditis, pericardial effusion, myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, endocarditis, pulmonary arterial hypertension and aneurysmal disease. The incidence of these complica-tions showed significant difference between the periods prior and after the introduction of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). In addition, some complications are pe-culiar to certain region of the world notably tuberculous pericarditis in areas of endemic tu-berculosis. The management of these conditions requires meticulous diagnosis, supportive therapies, prompt detection and treatment of opportunistic infections. Furthermore, the early institution of highly active antiretroviral therapy had altered the course of most of the HIV-related cardiac complications. The physicians managing these patients should also be aware of complications of treatment and potential drug-drug interactions.


Real-time media streams that use RTP are, to some degree, resilient
against packet losses. Receivers may use the base mechanisms of the
Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) to report packet reception
statistics and thus allow a sender to adapt its transmission behavior
in the mid-term. This is the sole means for feedback and feedback-
based error repair (besides a few codec-specific mechanisms). This
document defines an extension to the Audio-visual Profile (AVP) that
enables receivers to provide, statistically, more immediate feedback
to the senders and thus allows for short-term adaptation and efficient
feedback-based repair mechanisms to be implemented. This early
feedback profile (AVPF) maintains the AVP bandwidth constraints for
RTCP and preserves scalability to large groups. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Deep percolation enhancement from recycled wastewater irrigation may contribute to salt accumulation and water table elevation that can ultimately cause soil and ground water degradation. Variation of drainage rate and so- lute leaching were investigated in an urban park containing heterogeneous landscape plants that were irrigated with re- cycled wastewater. Field monitoring was undertaken at Veale Gardens in the Adelaide Parklands, Australia. Based on land- scape variation in Veale Gardens, two landscape zones were defined: one being largely covered with turf grasses with few trees and shrubs (MG) with the second zone being mostly trees and shrubs with intermittent turf grasses (MT). Ex- periments were performed on two zero-tension lysimeters placed horizontally 100 cm below ground to monitor the vari- ation of volume and quality indicators of drained water for four seasons. The outcomes showed a significant variation of drainage quantity and quality in the MT and MG zones. The low vegetation cover in the MG zone resulted in more drained water than in the high vegetation cover (MT zone). In both zones, more drainage water was collected in winter than in other seasons. This is in spite of the input water show- ing a maximum rate in summer. The seasonal salinities mea- sured in the two lysimeters showed very similar trends with the lowest salinity rate in autumn with the levels increasing through winter and spring. Chemical analyses of leachate so- lute and salt loading indicated no impact from using recycled wastewater.


CO2 regulations on heavy-duty transport are introduced in essentially all markets within the next decade, in most cases in several phases of increasing stringency. To cope with these mandates, developers of engines and related equipment are aiming to break new ground in the fields of combustion, fuel and hardware technologies. In this work, a novel diesel fuel injector, Delphi's DFI7, is utilized to experimentally investigate and compare the performance of ramped injection rates versus traditional square fueling profiles. The aim is specifically to shift the efficiency and NOx tradeoff to a more favorable position. The design of experiments methodology is used in the tests, along with statistical techniques to analyze the data. Results show that ramped and square rates - after optimization of fueling parameters - produce comparable gross indicated efficiencies. Tests were carried out at 1200 and 1425 rpm; for the latter engine speed peak efficiency was attained at considerably lower NOx levels by applying a ramped injection rate. Particulate matter emissions, on the other hand, are generally lower with the use of square profiles. Heat release analysis further reveals that ignition delays in ramped rate operation are quite long, hinting at vastly different spray behavior. The relatively low loads applied in this work only sustain the delays further. Altogether, this causes the potential of the rate shaping capabilities to be underexploited, as direct control over the burn rate is limited with the combustion system used in this work. The results emphasize the need to carefully select ramp slopes for a particular engine geometry, load and speed point, and additional operating parameter settings.


Professor Stone will share insight into his research with machine learning, touch on advances with artificial intelligence and his real world successes with robots playing soccer; Professor Stone's champion robot soccer team won the 2010 U.S. open RoboCup competition. The most exciting research topics for Professor Stone are those inspired by challenging real-world problems and applications. His work also includes autonomous bidding agents, autonomous vehicles, autonomic computing, and social agents.


Instrumentation was installed during the construction of an integral bridge at Carmyle Avenue, Glasgow, and its performance monitored during construction and the first year in service. The bridge of about 60m span was constructed with shallow integral abutments, three intermediate supports and a continuous twin deck. Seasonal thermal expansion of the deck caused cyclic movements of the abutments. The magnitude of these movements was measured together with the earth pressure developed in the backfill against the abutment. The implications of the results on the design of integral bridges of this type are discussed. (A)


We report on the first observations of 100 eV to 100 keV electrons over the auroral regions of Jupiter by the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) on board the Juno mission. The focus is on the regions that were magnetically connected to the main auroral oval. Amongst the most remarkable features, JADE observed electron beams, mostly upward going but also some downward going in the south, at latitudes from ~69° to 72° and ~ −66° to −70° corresponding to M shells ("M" for magnetic) from ~18 to 54 and ~28 to 61, respectively. The beams were replaced by upward loss cones at lower latitudes. There was no evidence of strongly accelerated downward electrons analogous to the auroral "inverted Vs" at Earth. Rather, the presence of upward loss cones suggests a diffuse aurora process. The energy spectra resemble tails of distributions or power laws (suggestive of a stochastic acceleration process) but can also have some clear enhancements or even peaks generally between 1 and 10 keV. Electron intensities change on timescales of a second or less at times implying that auroral structures can be of the order of a few tens of kilometers.


Who could object to calls for basing government regulations on the "best available science"? But in Washington, D.C., the phrase has become code for a contentious debate surrounding federal regulatory agencies. Last week, the debate heated up again in Congress as a Senate panel launched a potentially arduous effort to spell out how regulators should identify and use the best science. In a related effort, the House of Representatives science panel approved—for the third time in recent years—controversial bills that would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make the data underlying all new rules publicly available and affect how it picks its science advisers. The largely Republican backers of the efforts say they are long overdue—and bet any changes have a better chance of becoming law under President Donald Trump, who has promised to streamline and reduce regulation. But observers of the nascent Senate effort—including many scientific societies—are wary, fearing it could end up promoting regulatory paralysis. And critics have blasted the House bills, arguing that they are designed to give industry a disproportionate voice in EPA decisions and cripple the agency9s ability to issue rules. "The concern is that a lot of this looks like a clever, stealth attempt to create new legal and administrative pathways for slowing agencies down and tying them up in court, rather than genuinely trying to assure the use of the best science in rulemaking," says Paul Billings, senior vice president for advocacy in the American Lung Association9s Washington, D.C., office.


summary: This paper examines the structure of the catalogue in Ovid's Ibis. In the catalogue's first half, Ovid highlights the important exilic themes of exile, nostos, and meter through repeating markers located at significant points, specifically a quarter of the way through and at the catalogue's center (identified by a couplet that forms a ring-composition with the catalogue's opening). In the catalogue's second half, Ovid emphasizes poets and poetry, divine punishment, dismemberment, and the consumption of one's own flesh and blood—again, recurrent themes in the exile poetry. Throughout, metapoetic language suggests both elegy and iambus, appropriately for the poem's genre-crisis.


This chapter examines the characteristics of contemporary globalization and how they are reshaping world politics. It explains why globalization challenges some of our traditional ways of thinking and theorizing about world politics. It asks whether there are limits to globalization or whether it is inevitable. It also considers the extent to which globalization is responsible for the emerging shift in the structure of world power, namely the 'decline of the West' and the 'rise of the rest'. Two case studies are presented: one is about the iPhone and the iPad, and illustrates the implications of global production networks for national economic sovereignty; the other is about the global recycling system. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that tackles the question of whether globalization is eroding the power of the state.


Growing public concern about the educational experiences of English language learners (ELL) has placed pressure on teachers and schools to provide equitable learning opportunities for this group of students. Currently, federal and state mandates promise to hold all students to the same high expectations, but ELLs consistently underperform academically. Such research suggests that culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), specifically the inclusion of culture in the classroom, as well as the integration of students' lived experiences can influence students' learning opportunities. This study was guided by existing theories of culturally relevant pedagogy, "funds of knowledge," social maturity and cognitive development theories as well as ecological systems theory to examine the factors that foster or impede teachers' implementation of CRP. Three research questions guided this investigation: (a) How do public school teachers define and implement CRP?; (b) How does CRP impact the educational experiences of ELL students?; (c) What factors influence public school teacher's implementation of CRP? A qualitative case study/cross-case analysis design was employed to study classroom teachers' implementation of CRP at six elementary schools in San Diego County. Interviews, classroom observations, and documents were used to compare and contrast findings within and across cases. The findings suggest that although the teachers in this study did not specifically define their practice as CRP, their practice followed the principles of CRP in the following ways: (a) Teachers established relationships with students and students' families to build a bridge between home and school; (b) Teachers cultivated critical consciousness in their students; (c) Teachers created inclusive learning environments and (d) Teachers supported English language learners' long-term academic growth and social-emotional development. This study examines the factors inside and outside of school that influence teachers' implementation of CRP and reframes public debate about teaching diverse and traditionally underserved student populations. Culturally relevant teachers must continuously adapt their teaching practices and styles to meet the academic and socialemotional needs of students. The findings from this study have the potential of impacting state and local district decision-making within K-12 public educational institutions regarding English language learners. DEDICATION To the memory of Dwain Hawkins, my father.


Between 1853 and 1903, approximately five hundred African-Americans left the Chattahoochee Valley of Georgia and Alabama to start new lives in the West African republic of Liberia. Most of the emigrants came from Columbus, Georgia, and Eufaula, Alabama, and departed for Liberia during the uncertainty of the post-Civil War years of 1867 and 1868. Most sought safety and escape from a still intact white supremacist society. The ready availability of land in Liberia also promised greater opportunities for prosperity there than in the South. Black nationalism and evangelical zeal motivated others. Liberia would be their "own" country and afford an opportunity to spread Christianity throughout Africa. The emigrant group was largely made up of families and included many children; consequently, the group was of a young average age. Most were farmers, but a significant number of tradesmen and clergymen also emigrated. All faced many hardships in Liberia, and some returned to the United States. However, most stayed, and a small number prospered. Thus, although the Chattahoochee Valley emigration to Liberia was a disappointment to many, some resourceful few found what they had sought: escape and safety from a white supremacist society, and their own land in their own country. Although historical sources on this regional migration are limited, the American Colonization Society (ACS), the primary sponsor of the Liberian emigration movement, recorded demographic data on the Chattahoochee Valley emigrants. Some emigrant correspondence was preserved in the journal of the ACS and in local newspapers of the period. From these sources, the history of this movement, the motivations and characteristics of the emigrant group, and the experience of the emigrants in Liberia can be developed.


COVID has led colleges to brace for potential enrollment declines in the Fall, which would devastate budgets and potentially decrease the likelihood a student ever earns a degree. We take an early look at California's FAFSA applications up through mid-June, to anticipate how students may be responding to this crisis. We find that COVID did not affect most of California's "traditional" high school graduates due to an early deadline for financial aid, which exists in a number of states. From early March to mid-June, FAFSA applications among freshmen declined 18%, relative to prior years. Although there were initial declines in applications among more experienced students, these quickly rebounded and are now 9% higher relative to prior years. The largest FAFSA increases occurred in counties that saw the most dramatic increases in Unemployment Insurance claims.


Introduction: The acquisition of speech and language constitutes a dynamic part of two-year-old children's growth. Expressive lexicon is a key indicator of language ability in these children. Premature birth, birth before gestational week 37, is one of the most common risk factors associated with learning skill development. A review of literature suggests inconsistent results on the relationship between preterm birth and the size of expressive lexicon in children. Objective: The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between preterm birth and the size of expressive Lexicon in 18-36-month-old Persian-speaking children. Materials and Methods: The present controlled analytical cross-sectional study recruited 18-36-month-old children presenting to 17 Shahrivar Hospital in Rasht, Iran. The study children were divided into the term and preterm groups. Before beginning the sampling, the children were assigned to three age groups of 13 each, including 18-24 months, 24-30 months and 30-36 months. The data collection tools comprised the 688-itemMacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI, form II), which was completed by the parents. Moreover, all the words were divided into four groups of social terms, common nouns, grammatical words and predicates, and the scores obtained for each category were compared among the groups. The data obtained were assessed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, and analytical t-test. P<0.05 was set as the level of statistical significance. Results: The overall mean size of expressive lexicon was found to be 352.48 ± 177.11in the term children and 240.28 ± 135.93 in preterm ones, suggesting significant differences between the two groups (P=0.002). Significant differences were also observed between the term and preterm 18-36-month-old children in terms of common nouns as a dimension of the tool (P=0.01). Conclusion: Parents seem to play a key role in reducing preterm-birth associated lexicon differences at higher age by teaching their children.


Equilibrium speciation models were established for Hg (II), Cd (II) and Pb (II) in bog-, river- and sea water having a composition corresponding to that of the Gulf of Bothnia (6 ‰ salinity). The calculations were performed using the computer program SOLGASWATER. The models were based on available thermodynamic data at 25°C and included the inorganic ligands OH − , Cl − , Br − , HPO 4 2− and CO 2 (aq). Furthermore, complex formation with organic substances originating from a bog water was considered, Mg (II) and Ca (II) were also included as competing cations. All water types were assumed to be oxic and in equilibrium with atmospheric carbon dioxide, 10 −3.5 atm (32 Pa). The calculations showed that the speciation of Hg (II) and Pb (II) in bog and river waters is dominated by complexation with the organic substance, except for lead (II), where the Pb 2+ -ion dominates at pH⩽5. In the Gulf of Bothnia, the chloro complexes HgCl 2 and HgCl 3 − becomes prevailing as the salinity increases. Besides Pb 2+ , the species PbCl + and PbCO 3 become important upon increasing the salinity and pH. The dominating fraction of Cd (II) is Cd 2+ in bog water, in river water and in waters of salinity lower than 4.5 ‰. With increasing salinity CdCl + and CdCl 2 predominate.


Our volume for spring 2013 reflects the growing breadth of the Korea field. As more of the young scholars that we try to serve in our journal enter into the field, the variety of subjects that they are willing and able to treat is growing. Whereas in the past our articles tended to be limited to history and literature with the occasional social science article, in this volume we have papers treating such legal matters as dual citizenship, traditional performing arts, and Koryŏ Buddhism. Our articles on literature and film go beyond description and literary analysis to treat discursive themes in Korean culture. New articles are coming in at a good clip, so we hope that future volumes will get fatter. Not only do our articles reflect the growth of the field, but our reviews do as well. We are reviewing eight new books, three of which comprise a translation of the first three volumes of Pak Kyŏng-ni's T'oji (Land). And we note with satisfaction that several of the books being reviewed are able to treat Korea in the context of East Asia as a whole. We now have a huge backlog of books that need reviewing, so please view, with kindness, our requests for reviews in the upcoming year. In this issue we are reviewing a Korean film. We hope that reviews of Korean films will become a regular feature of the Journal of Korean Studies.


Abstract Regeneration has long fascinated humanity, and its documentation has progressed from simple descriptive observations to the intense molecular and cellular investigations of today. The overarching goal of this work is to make the key methods and tools being used in modern regeneration and stem cell biology research accessible to docents and students in the classroom. We have designed a series of experimental activities with accompanying protocols using four inexpensive, commercially available planarian species indigenous to North America: Girardia sp., Dugesia dorotocephala, Phagocata morgani, and Phagocata gracilis. These planarians are fast and robust regenerators, and can easily be maintained in the classroom. The activities presented here can be used to guide students through hypothesis-driven experiments, and range from simple manipulations aimed at high school students (e.g., planarian husbandry, feeding, and cutting experiments) to gene expression and protein function analyses suitable for college students. Regeneration time courses, the more complex whole worm in situ hybridizations, and RNA interference for gene knock-down experiments are described for each of the four species. Cumulatively, the suggested methods and experiments will facilitate the exploration of animal regeneration biology and promote curiosity-driven, hands-on application of the scientific method.


The aim of this study was to evaluate abiraterone's efficacy in Italian patients affected with metastatic prostate cancer progressing after treatment with docetaxel. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 60 patients. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) reduction in serum was the primary endpoint for evaluating the efficacy of abiraterone in combination with prednisone treatment, whereas reduced pain, safety, progression-free survival, response rate, and overall survival (OS) were secondary endpoints. A significant correlation was noticed between PSA response and OS. Further, the Index Bravais–Pearson (r) correlation allowed us to observe a significant negative interdependence between PSA response and reduction in pain of 0.57 (95% confidence interval: −0.30 to 0.80) (P=0.005). Meanwhile, regression analysis revealed that PSA levels are predictive of OS. There was a positive correlation with OS, which showed a value of R2 to 0.50 with a slope of 1.44 (P=0.0021). Abiraterone is a well-tolerated and effective treatment modality for patients affected with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The drug has a better tolerability profile, gives significant pain relief, and increases the survival rate.


Objective: To investigate relationship of polymorphism of adhesion molecules VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 with preeclampsia.
Method: The present study included 252 patients with PE in our hospital during 2014 February to 2016 December and 200 healthy pregnant women were used as control. Allelic discrimination of the rs5498 polymorphisms of the ICAM-1 gene and rs3181092 of the VCAM-1 gene was assessed using the TaqMan assay. Data was analysed using SPSS 18.0.
Results: In PE patients, both ratios of AA and AA+AG genotypes of VCAM-1 were significantly higher than those in the control group, P<0.05. Comparison of genotypes between PE patients of early-onset and late-onset showed that in late-onset PE patients, ratio of AA genotype in VCAM-1 was significantly higher than that in the early-onset group, P<0.05. Similarly, ratio of genotype AA in severe PE patients was significantly higher than that in mild PE patients, P<0.05. However, in all comparisons, distribution of rs5498 polymorphism of ICAM-1 showed no significant difference in different groups.
Conclusion: Rs3181092 polymorphism of VCAM-1 was associated with occurrence of PE, especially for late-onset and severe PE patients. However whether rs5498 polymorphism of ICAM-1 was associated with PE needed more investigation.


Growing population, consuming a large amount of energy such as combustion of fossil fuel, increasing pollutant emissions in the atmosphere are the threats to the sustainable development of our planet in general, and of the air quality in particular. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution causes the death of more than 2 million people per year in developing countries, and millions of people also suffer from various respiratory illnesses. Road traffic is the main source of air pollution in cities and there are large uncertainties associated to this source of pollution. Different models are available to quantify the amount of pollutants released by road traffic. However, these models always require a large amount of information and work, and thus their use results expensive. These limitations are difficult for the study and the management of air quality in cities from the developing world. Thus, it is extremely difficult to design efficient abatement strategies to reduce air pollution. For this reason, it is necessary to develop a new methodology for generating road traffic emissions to contribute to a better management of the urban air quality. The first aim of this PhD thesis is to develop and to validate a new model for generating road traffic emissions in several steps with different levels of complexity. The developed model is called EMISENS. Its main specifications are: (i) EMISENS is able to compute a total amount of emissions and to distribute it in time and in space using a methodology which combines the top-down and the bottom-up approaches; (ii) the model is able to compute the emissions and the uncertainties within a reasonable computing time and (iii) the model formulation is based on well referenced methodology (COPERT IV). The validation of EMISENS model was carried out by its application over Strasbourg, France. The results of EMISENS have been compared with the results of the more complete and complex model Circul'air which is currently used to manage the Strasbourg air quality. After comparing the results of the two models, it appeared that they are very close. This example of application illustrates the capacity of EMISENS to calculate road traffic emission inventory (EI) for cities in developed countries as well as in developing countries. Further on, a complete EI is carried out over Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) by applying an innovative methodology based on the application of the EMISENS model. HCMC is the largest city in Vietnam, it had more than 6 million inhabitants in 2006. It has more than three million vehicles and 28,500 factories in the city. High levels of air pollution are thus very often detected. The purpose of this part of the research consists in applying the EMISENS model to generate road traffic emissions. For the other emission sources, the top-down approach is used for generating the EI. The results show that the road traffic is the main emission source in the city. The motorcycles are responsible of the traffic emissions (94 % of CO, 68% of Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compound (NMVOC), 61 % of SO2 and 99 % of CH4). Two scenarios for reducing traffic emissions are evaluated to reduce the HCMC emissions for the year 2015 and 2020. In addition, two other scenarios are the Business as Usual scenarios for the year 2015 and 2020 are also studied to evaluate the traffic emissions in HCMC. The third part of this work consists in applying air quality models to the region of HCMC, the aim here is to study abatement strategies for emission reduction in the city. The results of the simulation show that the plume of O3 is developed in the north-western part of the city. These results are in good agreement with the measurements. Among the four previous emission scenarios, we chose only two reduction emission scenarios to study the effective abatement strategies for the year 2015 and 2020 in using air quality model. These two affective abatement strategies are adopted to help the local government to take decision for managing air quality in HCMC. The 100 Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are run for estimating the uncertainty in the results of air quality simulations. The results of these two abatement strategies showed that if the local government follows the emission control plan: For 2015, the O3 concentration in 2015 will be similar to the present O3 concentration. For 2020, the O3 concentration in 2020 will decrease of around 10% to 30% of O3 in comparison to the actual level. However, the O3 concentration in 2020 is still higher than standard limit. The developed methodology for generating road traffic emissions offers several advantages. It is able to calculate a road traffic emission for both developing and developed countries. The calculation is divided in several steps with different level of complexity. Therefore, this methodology provides the new approach to manage air quality in cities.


An honest religious thinker is like a tightrope walker. He almost looks as though he were walking on nothing but air. His support is the slenderest imaginable. And yet it really is possible to walk on it. Nicholai Hartman suggested the well-known distinction between 'systematic thinking' and 'problem thinking'. Whereas the former begins from a series of assumptions and proceeds to offer all-encompassing solutions, the latter begins from a problem and considers it in depth, without striving for comprehensive systems. Problem thinking is dialectical – it appraises the boundaries of the problem and the limitations of its solutions. According to Hartman, a typical instance of a systematic thinker is Spinoza, who created an inclusive metaphysical system based on primary and irrefutable assumptions. A classic example of problem thinking is the philosophy of Plato, which is more intent on clarifying the predicament than on offering solutions, and hence its dialectic character.


The sweep-line method is a state space reduction technique for memory-efficient on-the-fly verification of concurrent systems. The method relies on a progress measure capturing inherent progress in the system under verification to store only fragments of the state space in memory at a time and thereby reduce peak memory usage. The sweep- line method has been applied to many concurrent systems, but the optimality of progress measures in terms of the peak number of states stored has not been investigated. Assessing the optimality of a progress measure is important since memory in most cases is the limiting factor in verification using state spaces. We derive lower bounds for the peak number states and present initial experimental results on near optimal progress measures for verification of the IETF WebSocket protocol.


A 68-year-old patient with known 3-vessel coronary artery disease, a history of aortocoronary bypass surgery, and presently without chest pain, was referred to myocardial perfusion imaging for preoperative risk assessment as infrarenal aortic aneurysm repair was planned. Single photon emission computed tomography (CT) revealed normal myocardial perfusion at adenosine-stress and at rest. However, the CT scan used for attenuation correction (AC) demonstrated a large tumor in the right upper lung as an incidental finding, and the patient was referred for staging with F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/CT and subsequently to thoracic surgery. The lesion was resected and diagnosed to be an adenocarcinoma (stage pT2, cN0, cM0). When last seen, the patient was recovering well from surgery.


Abstract Background Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the deadliest gynaecologic cancers predominantly of the epithelial subtype (EOC). Despite advances in treatments, relapse and dissemination is very likely to occur after remission. The heterogenous nature and complex immunosuppressive environment of the tumour implicate a heterogenous clinical outcome and a key role for the immune system in the disease prognosis. Diagnosis and treatment of cancer is often a traumatic experience associated with mental and physical comorbidities, cortisol is released in response to stress and has a controversial role to either promote or suppress stress depending on its physiological environment. Strong evidence is showing that stress hormones can influence tumour biology. In this study, the impact of cortisol on splenocytes and T cells and immune-cancer interactions were explored to probe a mechanism for its action in OC. Methods C57BL/6j mice were either subjected to chronic restraint stress for 2 hours a day over a period of six weeks or left alone in their home cages (no stress group). Splenocytes were then extracted and first examined for DNA damage measured by immunofluorescence using phosphorylated γ-H2AX. Splenocytes were next co-cultured with ovarian spheroids for five days and spheroids size and splenocytes infiltration were compared against no stress group. The impact of acute stress on DNA damage was tested in vitro on T lymphocytes subjected to physiological concentration of cortisol for 2h. Results Chronic stress significantly increased DNA damage in mouse splenocytes (p = 0.0027). Ex vivo T lymphocytes exposed to cortisol also showed a significant increase in DNA damage (p = 0.017). Furthermore, a significant increase in the size of spheroids co-cultured with splenocytes from stress group was observed (p = 0.0213) and cortisol inhibited immune cell trafficking into the spheroids. Conclusions In conclusion, both chronic stress and acute exposure to cortisol can increase DNA damage in splenocytes and T lymphocytes reducing their infiltration into cancer spheroids. This data may have impact for patient with ovarian cancer experiencing extreme stress. Legal entity responsible for the study The author. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure The author has declared no conflicts of interest.


In "Reforming Liberalism", Robert Devigne challenges prevailing interpretations of the political and moral thought of John Stuart Mill and the theoretical underpinnings of modern liberal philosophy. He explains how Mill drew from ancient and romantic thought as well as past religious practices to reconcile conflicts and antinomies (liberty and virtue, self-interest and morality, equality and human excellence) that were hobbling traditional liberalism. The book shows that Mill, regarded as a seminal writer in the liberal tradition, critiques liberalism's weaknesses with a forcefulness usually associated with its well-known critics. Devigne explores Mill's writings to demonstrate how his thought has been misconstrued, as well as oversimplified, to the detriment of our understanding of liberalism itself.


Recent initiatives by for-profit corporations and funding measures instituted by governments intend to support the preparation of students for careers in computer science and technology. Although such initiatives and measures can indeed increase opportunities for students' engagement with computer science and technology in K-12 schools, we question whose needs are being served, for what purposes, and at what cost. In particular, we ask whether music educators might be complicit in advancing technology that subordinates human needs—specifically students' interests in making music in their own creative ways—to modes of production that benefit certain dominant commercial interests in society. After discussing how current computer technology narrows students' choices, we counter this determinism by highlighting a music subculture that creates and appropriates music technologies for music-related purposes. Our example of the "chipscene" illustrates how music educators might reconceptualize "music making" through modification of existing music technology and thereby restore students' freedom to "reclaim making" in the age of neoliberalism.


Continuous no-till (NT) has numerous benefits, including improved soil aggregate stability in the surface soil and increased rate of water infiltration, but accumulation of soil P at the soil surface with NT can increase P concentration in runoff. We hypothesized that occasional one-time tillage of NT land, conducted once in 10 or more years, can reduce P runoff and improve crop yields without reducing soil aggregation or increasing runoff. Research was conducted in long-term NT fields under rainfed corn [Zea mays (L.)] or sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.] rotated with soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] at two locations in eastern Nebraska. Tillage treatments were applied in the spring or fall and included continuous NT, tandem disk (disk), chisel with 10-cm-wide twisted shanks, moldboard plow (MP), and mini-moldboard plow (miniMP). Subplots had either 0 or 87.4 kg P ha -1 applied as composted feedlot manure before tillage. Yield and yield components were measured for 2 and 3 yr after the spring and fall one-time tillage, respectively. In Year 2 or 3 after tillage, soil sorptivity, field-saturated infiltration rate, runoff volume, runoff P loss, and soil aggregate stability were determined. Yield was not affected by the tillage ×compost interaction, but was increased by compost application at one location and sorghum yield was affected by tillage treatments at the second location. Grain yield was never significantly more or less with one-time tillage as compared with NT. Soil aggregate stability was not affected by tillage treatments. Sorptivity and infiltration were increased with MP tillage compared with NT at one location but reduced at the other. One-time MP tillage reduced dissolved P loss at both locations and total phosphorus (TP) loss at one location. The benefit of one-time MP tillage in terms of reduced dissolved reactive P loss in runoff was positive with no negative effect on soil aggregate stability but no gain in yield.


Broadband measurements of flux for galaxies at different redshifts measure different regions of the rest-frame galaxy spectrum. Certain astronomical questions, such as the evolution of the luminosity function of galaxies, require transforming these inherently redshift-dependent magnitudes into redshift-independent quantities. To prepare to address these astronomical questions, investigated in detail in subsequent papers, we fit spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to broadband photometric observations in the context of the optical observations of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Linear combinations of four spectral templates can reproduce the five SDSS magnitudes of all galaxies to the precision of the photometry. Expressed in the appropriate coordinate system, the locus of the coefficients multiplying the templates is planar and, in fact, nearly linear. The resulting reconstructed SEDs can be used to recover fixed-frame magnitudes over a range of redshifts. This process yields consistent results in the sense that, within each sample, the intrinsic colors of similar type galaxies are nearly constant with redshift. We compare our results with simpler interpolation methods and galaxy spectrophotometry from the SDSS. The software that generates these results is publicly available and easily adapted to handle a wide range of galaxy observations.


With the advancement of modern-day techniques in the field of Information Technology, the way of shopping through E-Commerce site is becoming outdated. There are two ways through which an individual can do shopping first is the online method and second is the offline one in today's world online shopping by having more variety of products available on individual platform with easy way of shopping because of this day by day the retailers with offline method are facing challenges to increase their sales and obtaining data of demanding products that are available in the market, now with the growth of artificial intelligence, they can use lot of beneficiary tools to boost their business. If a giant next generation E-Commerce site is made with which we can connect all the wholesalers, retailers and customers with their own point of profits, then it can bring a new revolution in the market where there will be different layers will be available with separate user friendly graphic user interface for all wholesalers, retailers and customers, where they will be allowed to access their own layers accordingly with several unique features and benefits to save time and making shopping more amazing for customers and selling their products and boosting daily sales for the retailers with the influence of top wholesalers available to help them with the unique kind of trading system and daily analytics and progress report using data science.


The relationships between fun and learning are far from clear. Some argue that the two are mutually exclusive, while playful practitioners draw attention to links with motivation, exploration and creativity. This is an important issue in the context of games-based learning – should fun be emphasised, or should it be set aside in favour of other elements? In order to explore the relationships between learning and fun, it is first necessary to understand the meanings of 'fun', a term that previous studies have shown is interpreted in several distinct ways. In this paper, we explore a new approach to researching fun and learning, the Consensus Workshop. This method was used to address two research questions: 'What elements of fun do a group of educational practitioners identify within a Consensus Workshop?' and 'How do participants see these elements translating to a learning scenario?' It was also used to explore whether a Consensus Workshop can be used to collaboratively create a taxonomy of fun, and to identify any practical and conceptual barriers to this being done effectively. Participants in a Consensus Workshop used balloons to help them construct two typologies of fun and its relationship to learning. We evaluate this approach and its outcomes, identify elements of a future typology, examine how understandings of fun are shaped by context, and consider the ways in which participants linked fun and learning. The study highlights the importance of context to understandings of fun, and also finds indications that studies in this area are limited by a tendency to focus on socially acceptable views of fun and its relationship to learning. It finds that a Consensus Workshop has the potential to be used to create a taxonomy of fun. In this initial trial of the method, educational practitioners identified multiple elements of fun and made a range of connections between fun and learning.


The upward revision of GDP in Ghana, announced in November 2010, attracted considerable attention in the media, in the development community, and from development scholars. This paper clarifies what caused this upward revision and discusses how the revision was handled. Many other countries have outdated base years and do not utilize data sources fully. They can learn from the Ghanaian experience and improve the accuracy of the most important metric for macroeconomic evaluations. This paper also offers a perspective on how the media and popular opinions are best managed in a careful and transparent process.


Understanding the long term impact of early life seizures (ELS) is of vital importance both for researchers and clinicians. Most experimental studies of how seizures affect the developing brain have drawn their conclusions based on changes detected at the cellular or behavioral level, rather than on intermediate levels of analysis, such as the physiology of neuronal networks. Neurons work as part of networks and network dynamics integrate the function of molecules, cells and synapses in the emergent properties of brain circuits that reflect the balance of excitation and inhibition in the brain. Therefore, studying network dynamics could help bridge the cell-to-behavior gap in our understanding of the neurobiological effects of seizures. To this end we investigated the long-term effects of ELS on local network dynamics in mouse neocortex. By using the pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced animal model of generalized seizures, single or multiple seizures were induced at two different developmental stages (P9–15 or P19–23) in order to examine how seizure severity and brain maturational status interact to affect the brain's vulnerability to ELS. Cortical physiology was assessed by comparing spontaneous network activity (in the form of recurring Up states) in brain slices of adult (>5 mo) mice. In these experiments we examined two distinct cortical regions, the primary motor (M1) and somatosensory (S1) cortex in order to investigate regional differences in vulnerability to ELS. We find that the effects of ELSs vary depending on (i) the severity of the seizures (e.g., single intermittent ELS at P19–23 had no effect on Up state activity, but multiple seizures induced during the same period caused a significant change in the spectral content of spontaneous Up states), (ii) the cortical area examined, and (iii) the developmental stage at which the seizures are administered. These results reveal that even moderate experiences of ELS can have long lasting age- and region-specific effects in local cortical network dynamics.


Several methods of flow measurement and flow visualization rely on the use of particulates to mark the fluid and make its motion visible, thereby rendering it amenable to optical study. In comparison to molecular markers like dyes, particle offer the unique capability of marker very small points in space which remain small and do not diffuse. In general, particle-based methods such as laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) have been developed to a high degree, and they are used widely, especially for quantitative measurements. The properties of the particles must be managed correctly if the particle-based measurements are to be of the highest quality. The particles must follow the fluid motion accurately, they must scatter adequate light to produce high signal-to-noise ratio, and they must produce uniform, repeatable.


A March-based fault location algorithm is proposed for repair of word-oriented static RAMs. A March algorithm of complexity 12N, N is the number of memory words, is defined for fault detection and partial diagnosis. A 3N or 4N March-like algorithm is used for location of the aggressor words of inter-word state, idempotent, inversion, write-disturb coupling faults (CF). Then another March-like algorithm of complexity 9(1 + logB), B is the number of bits in the word, is applied to locate the aggressor bit in the aggressor word. Finally, a March algorithm of complexity 6(1 + logB)N is used to detect and locate intra-word stuck-at, transition faults, as well as CFs. The proposed algorithm has higher fault location ability and lower time complexity than other known algorithms developed for fault location in SRAMs.


Localized spectroscopic measurements of optical properties are invaluable for diagnostic applications that involve layered tissue structures, but conventional spectro- scopic techniques lack exact control over the size and depth of the probed tissue volume. We show that low-coherence spectroscopy (LCS) overcomes these limitations by measur- ing local attenuation and absorption coefficient spectra in layered phantoms. In addition, we demonstrate the first in vivo LCS measurements of the human epidermis and der- mis only. From the measured absorption in two distinct re- gions of the dermal microcirculation, we determine total hemoglobin concentration (3.0 ± 0.5 g/l and 7.8±1.2 g/l) and oxygen saturation. C


P2P-like applications are quickly gaining popularity in the Internet. Such applications are commonly modeled as graphs with nodes and edges. Usually nodes represent running processes that exchange information with each other through communication channels as represented by the edges. They often need to autonomously determine their suitable working mode or local status for the purpose of improving performance, reducing operation cost, or achieving system-level design goals. In order to achieve this objective, the concept of status configuration is introduced in this article and a mathematical correspondence is further established between status configuration and an optimization index (OI), which serves as a unified abstraction of any system design goals. Guided by this correspondence and inspired by the cross-entropy algorithm, a cross-entropy-driven self-organization mechanism (CESM) is proposed in this article. CESM exhibits the self-organization property since desirable status configurations that lead to high OI values will quickly emerge from purely localized interactions. Both theoretical and experimental analysis have been performed. The results strongly indicate that CESM is a simple yet effective technique which is potentially suitable for many P2P-like applications.


BACKGROUND
The "prevention paradox," a notion that most alcohol-related problems are generated by nonheavy drinkers, has significant relevance to public health policy and prevention efforts. The extent of the paradox has driven debate over the type of balance that should be struck between alcohol policies targeting a select group of high-risk drinkers versus more global approaches that target the population at-large. This paper examines the notion that most alcohol problems among 4 Hispanic national groups in the United States are attributable to moderate drinkers.

METHODS
A general population survey employing a multistage cluster sample design, with face-to-face interviews in respondents' homes was conducted in 5 metropolitan areas of the United States. Study participants included a total of 2,773 current drinkers 18 years and older. Alcohol consumed in the past year (bottom 90% vs. top 10%), binge drinking (binge vs. no binge), and a 4-way grouping defined by volume and binge criteria were used. Alcohol-related harms included 14 social and dependence problems.

RESULTS
Drinkers at the bottom 90% of the distribution are responsible for 56 to 73% of all social problems, and for 55 to 73% of all dependence-related problems reported, depending on Hispanic national group. Binge drinkers are responsible for the majority of the social problems (53 to 75%) and dependence-related problems (59 to 73%), also depending on Hispanic national group. Binge drinkers at the bottom 90% of the distribution are responsible for a larger proportion of all social and dependence-related problems reported than those at the top 10% of the volume distribution. Cuban Americans are an exception.

CONCLUSIONS
The prevention paradox holds when using volume-based risk groupings and disappears when using a binge-drinking risk grouping. Binge drinkers who drink moderately on an average account for more harms than those who drink heavily across all groups, with exception of Cuban Americans.


In January 2012 the Dutch Supreme Court decided that virtual objects and pre-paid accounts can be stolen. This paper examines the Supreme Court's Runescape decision and discusses virtual theft. Virtual theft is legally interesting from various perspectives. First, the rules of Runescape do not allow items to be stolen and are designed to make illegal transfer of objects impossible. Second, normally a person loses ownership of property in case of theft, but the owner of the virtual objects is the producer of the game and loses nothing. Therefore, theft is taking place between two avatars under the all-seeing eye of the owner. Third, it is not clear why classification as theft is preferred over hacking and the transfer of data. This question was reinvigorated during the writing of this paper, when at the same time both a leading cybercrime scholar and a prominent criminal law scholar argued against the theft classification. Following the Runescape decision, the position of participants in virtual worlds towards objects remain the same, but we can anticipate more cases on the theft of virtual items generally over the next five to ten years.


Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this practical guide to cyber law--the law affecting information and communication technology (ICT)--in Argentina covers every aspect of the subject, including intellectual property rights in the ICT sector, relevant competition rules, drafting and negotiating ICT-related contracts, electronic transactions, privacy issues, and computer crime. Lawyers who handle transnational matters will appreciate the detailed explanation of specific characteristics of practice and procedure. Following a general introduction, the book assembles its information and guidance in seven main areas of practice: the regulatory framework of the electronic communications market; software protection, legal protection of databases or chips, and other intellectual property matters; contracts with regard to software licensing and network services, with special attention to case law in this area; rules with regard to electronic evidence, regulation of electronic signatures, electronic banking, and electronic commerce; specific laws and regulations with respect to the liability of network operators and service providers and related product liability; protection of individual persons in the context of the processing of personal data and confidentiality; and the application of substantive criminal law in the area of ICT. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable time-saving tool for business and legal professionals alike. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Argentina will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative law in this relatively new and challenging field.


Stubbornly Spherical The shape of the electron's charge distribution reflects the degree to which switching the direction of time impacts the basic ingredients of the universe. The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics predicts a very slight asphericity of the charge distribution, whereas SM extensions such as supersymmetry posit bigger and potentially measurable, but still tiny, deviations from a perfect sphere. Polar molecules have been identified as ideal settings for measuring this asymmetry, which should be reflected in a finite electric dipole moment (EDM) because of the extremely large effective electric fields that act on an electron inside such molecules. Using electron spin precession in the molecule ThO, Baron et al. (p. 269, published online 19 December; see the cover; see the Perspective by Brown) measured the EDM of the electron as consistent with zero. This excludes some of the extensions to the SM and sets a bound to the search for a nonzero EDM in other facilities, such as the Large Hadron Collider. Spin precession measurements in the polar molecule thorium monoxide indicate a nearly spherical charge distribution of an electron. [Also see Perspective by Brown] The Standard Model of particle physics is known to be incomplete. Extensions to the Standard Model, such as weak-scale supersymmetry, posit the existence of new particles and interactions that are asymmetric under time reversal (T) and nearly always predict a small yet potentially measurable electron electric dipole moment (EDM), de, in the range of 10−27 to 10−30 e·cm. The EDM is an asymmetric charge distribution along the electron spin (S→) that is also asymmetric under T. Using the polar molecule thorium monoxide, we measured de = (–2.1 ± 3.7stat ± 2.5syst) × 10−29 e·cm. This corresponds to an upper limit of | de | < 8.7 × 10−29 e·cm with 90% confidence, an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity relative to the previous best limit. Our result constrains T-violating physics at the TeV energy scale.


ObjectiveThis study investigated the long-term safety of rivastigmine (12 mg/d capsules, 9.5 mg/24 h patch) and effects on motor symptoms in patients with mild-to-moderately severe Parkinson disease dementia. MethodsThis was a 76-week, prospective, open-label, randomized study in patients aged 50 to 85 years. Primary outcomes included incidence of, and discontinuation due to, predefined adverse events (AEs) potentially arising from worsening of Parkinson disease motor symptoms with capsules. Secondary outcomes included frequency of AEs/serious AEs. Efficacy outcomes included Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-ADL), Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-10), and Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS). ResultsFive hundred eighty-three patients were randomized to rivastigmine capsules (n = 295) or patch (n = 288). Incidence of predefined AEs was 36.1% for capsules, 31.9% for patch; discontinuation due to worsening of motor symptoms was 4.4% and 2.4%, respectively. Most common AEs were nausea (capsules, 40.5%; patch, 8.3%), tremor (24.5%; 9.7%), fall (17.0%; 20.1%), vomiting (15.3%; 2.8%), and application site erythema (0%; 13.9%). Significant efficacy in favor of capsules was observed at weeks 24 to 76 on MDRS; 24 and 76 on NPI-10; weeks 52 and 76 on ADCS-ADL. In patients with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) greater than 21, no differences in efficacy on MDRS and ADCS-ADL were observed at any time point; significant differences in favor of capsules were maintained in patients with MMSE less than or equal to 21. ConclusionsThis study supports the long-term safety of rivastigmine in Parkinson disease dementia. The rate of worsening of motor symptoms was in the range expected due to the natural progression of Parkinson disease, no new or unexpected safety issues emerged in the long-term.


Although treatment of myocytes with the reactive oxygen species (ROS) H2O2 activates the heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins Gi and Go in a receptor-independent manner, the mechanismic detail of this effect has not been clear. Nishida et al. report that H2O2 is converted to a more reactive hydroxyl radical in the presence of Fe2+. Myocytes treated with a cell-permeable Fe2+ chelator inhibited the effect of H2O2 and subsequent activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase. This highly reactive ROS modified two specific cyteine resideus present only in Gαi and Gαo in vitro. The modification caused dissociation of Gαi from the Gβγ subunit and increased GTP binding. Mutation of the cysteines in Gαi inhibited subunit dissociation and the activating effect of the ROS radical. Treatment of Gαi with UV light in vitro, which generates ROS from O2 dissolved in solution, also required the presence of the critical cysteines, suggesting that such cellular stress can activate G proteins through ROS generation. M. Nishida, K. L. Schey, S. Takagahara, K. Kontani, T. Katada, Y. Urano, T. Nagano, T. Nagao, H. Kurose, Activation mechanism of Gi and Go by reactive oxygen species. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 9036-9042 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Abstract It is anticipated that climate change will have a significant impact on participation in outdoor recreation via changes to weather conditions and modifications to the environments that visitors use. Coastal tourism may be particularly affected by these impacts, as beach visitors are strongly influenced by weather conditions, and sea level rise could have a significant effect on the appearance of coastlines. Despite the importance of coastal tourism to the global economy, the magnitudes of the likely impacts of climate change on beach visits are currently poorly understood. Using a case study of the coastline at East Anglia, U.K., this work models these potential impacts under four future climate change scenarios. Using a Geographical Information System, the output of a model linking visits with beach characteristics and weather conditions is combined with data on likely changes in beach width, temperature, and precipitation to predict future visitor demand. The results suggest that climate change will result in a net increase in visitors on this section of coast, with the positive effects of warmer and drier weather outweighing the negative influences of reductions in beach width due to sea level rise. The findings are discussed in the context of beach management strategies.