Title of dissertation: FOO'S TO BLAME: TECHNIQUES FOR MAPPING PERFORMANCE DATA TO PROGRAM VARIABLES Nickolas Jon Rutar, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jeffrey K. Hollingsworth, Department of Computer Science Traditional methods of performance analysis offer a code centric view, presenting performance data in terms of blocks of contiguous code (statement, basic block, loop, function, etc.). Existing data centric techniques allow various program properties to be mapped directly to variables. Our approach extends these data centric mappings. Just as code centric techniques allow lower level objects like source lines be mapped up to functions, our inclusive technique allows low level data centric operations like computations on scalars to be mapped up to complex data structures like those found in scientific frameworks. Our system utilizes static analysis to collect information about the program that can be combined with runtime information to perform data centric program analysis. By pushing most of the analysis to pre-run and post-mortem, we can minimize the amount of data collected at runtime. This allows us to perform less instrumentation and also minimizes program perturbation. It also allows us to collect information that would not be possible with existing techniques. We present two applications of this analysis. The first application of our analysis is targeted at mapping performance data to high level data structures with multiple levels of abstraction. We create extended data centric mappings, which we call variable blame, that relates data centric information to these variables. The second application is a method for mapping cache miss information to variables. Existing approaches for this analysis rely on explicit hardware support and extensive program instrumentation. By utilizing our analysis and applying software heuristics, we are able to lessen those requirements. We apply both of these analyses to applications and show what performance information can be provided by our analysis that can not currently be determined. We also discuss how we can use that information to improve program performance. FOO'S TO BLAME: TECHNIQUES FOR MAPPING PERFORMANCE DATA TO PROGRAM VARIABLES


This paper reports a new design topology of 4 pole hybrid electromagnetic levitation system in conjunction with linear synchronous motor. The mover, 4 pole hybrid electromagnet, is levitated underneath of the linear motor with zero power control algorithm. Propulsion and one-dimensional planar motion of the hybrid electromagnet is provided by the vector controlled linear motor. The new design of 4 pole hybrid electromagnet has several improvements over older systems, such as weight reduction and less material usage. Diagonal drive integration of mover and linear motor is proposed and experimental results are presented.


Both linguistic stylistics and pragmatics have as a starting point the spoken language. Linguistic stylistics regards language from the perspective of the subjectivity that embellishes its use. Pragmatics is, in its turn, concerned with subjectivity in language; in this case, however, subjectivity is not reduced only to the mere expression of affectivity, but it also encloses all the elements in a spoken language used by people to meet their specific activities. That is why the research in the field of stylistics comprises all linguistic means of expression of subjectivity (phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexical, semantic means), while pragmatic research focuses on the speakers' usage of language depending on their mood, on the time and place of the utterance and on any other matters that may influence the process of communication. Deixis is one of the pragmatic elements that help granting a meaning to the speakers' utterances in a given context, indicating at the same time their position towards themselves, towards the message and the interlocutor, from whom they require a certain action/expect a certain reaction.


Adults diagnosed with primary brain tumours often experience physical, cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairments and decline in quality of life. Although disease and treatment-related information is commonly provided to cancer patients and carers, newly diagnosed brain tumour patients and their carers report unmet information needs. Few interventions have been designed or proven to address these information needs. Accordingly, a three-study research program, that incorporated both qualitative and quantitative research methods, was designed to: 1) identify and select an intervention to improve the provision of information, and meet the needs of patients with a brain tumour; 2) use an evidence-based approach to establish the content, language and format for the intervention; and 3) assess the acceptability of the intervention, and the feasibility of evaluation, with newly diagnosed brain tumour patients. Study 1: Structured concept mapping techniques were undertaken with 30 health professionals, who identified strategies or items for improving care, and rated each of 42 items for importance, feasibility, and the extent to which such care was provided. Participants also provided data to interpret the relationship between items, which were translated into 'maps' of relationships between information and other aspects of health care using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. Results were discussed by participants in small groups and individual interviews to understand the ratings, and facilitators and barriers to implementation. A care coordinator was rated as the most important strategy by health professionals. Two items directly related to information provision were also seen as highly important: "information to enable the patient or carer to ask questions" and "for doctors to encourage patients to ask questions". Qualitative analyses revealed that information provision was individualised, depending on patients' information needs and preferences, demographic variables and distress, the characteristics of health professionals who provide information, the relationship between the individual patient and health professional, and influenced by the fragmented nature of the health care system. Based on quantitative and qualitative findings, a brain tumour specific question prompt list (QPL) was chosen for development and feasibility testing. A QPL consists of a list of questions that patients and carers may want to ask their doctors. It is designed to encourage the asking of questions in the medical consultation, allowing patients to control the content, and amount of information provided by health professionals. Study 2: The initial structure and content of the brain tumour specific QPL developed was based upon thematic analyses of 1) patient materials for brain tumour patients, 2) QPLs designed for other patient populations, and 3) clinical practice guidelines for the psychosocial care of glioma patients. An iterative process of review and refinement of content was undertaken via telephone interviews with a convenience sample of 18 patients and/or carers. Successive drafts of QPLs were sent to patients and carers and changes made until no new topics or suggestions arose in four successive interviews (saturation). Once QPL content was established, readability analyses and redrafting were conducted to achieve a sixth-grade reading level. The draft QPL was also reviewed by eight health professionals, and shortened and modified based on their feedback. Professional design of the QPL was conducted and sent to patients and carers for further review. The final QPL contained questions in seven colour-coded sections: 1) diagnosis; 2) prognosis; 3) symptoms and problems; 4) treatment; 5) support; 6) after treatment finishes; and 7) the health professional team. Study 3: A feasibility study was conducted to determine the acceptability of the QPL and the appropriateness of methods, to inform a potential future randomised trial to evaluate its effectiveness. A pre-test post-test design was used with a nonrandomised control group. The control group was provided with 'standard information', the intervention group with 'standard information' plus the QPL. The primary outcome measure was acceptability of the QPL to participants. Twenty patients from four hospitals were recruited a median of 1 month (range 0-46 months) after diagnosis, and 17 completed baseline and follow-up interviews. Six participants would have preferred to receive the information booklet (standard information or QPL) at a different time, most commonly at diagnosis. Seven participants reported on the acceptability of the QPL: all said that the QPL was helpful, and that it contained questions that were useful to them; six said it made it easier to ask questions. Compared with control group participants' ratings of 'standard information', QPL group participants' views of the QPL were more positive; the QPL had been read more times, was less likely to be reported as 'overwhelming' to read, and was more likely to prompt participants to ask questions of their health professionals. The results from the three studies of this research program add to the body of literature on information provision for brain tumour patients. Together, these studies suggest that a QPL may be appropriate for the neuro-oncology setting and acceptable to patients. The QPL aims to assist patients to express their information needs, enabling health professionals to better provide the type and amount of information that patients need to prepare for treatment and the future. This may help health professionals meet the challenge of giving patients sufficient information, without providing 'too much' or 'unnecessary' information, or taking away hope. Future studies with rigorous designs are now needed to determine the effectiveness of the QPL.


Forward modeling is an integral part of every geophysical modeling resulting in the numerical simulation of responses for a given physical property model. This Forward procedure is helpful in geophysics both as a means to interpret data in a research setting and as a means to enhance physical understanding in an educational setting. Calculation of resistivity and induced polarization forward responses is carried out using simulation of the current flow into the earth's surface through solving the Poisson's equation. In this contribution, a finite-difference algorithm is applied to discretize the simulated models restricted by a mixed boundary condition. To account for the 3D source characteristic, a spatial Fourier transform of the partial differential equations with respect to a range of wave numbers is performed along the strike direction. Then, an inverse Fourier transformation is conducted to obtain the potential solutions in the spatial domain. The present package provides a user-friendly interface designed to understand and handle for various conventional electrical configurations in the frame of the MATLAB programming language. To verify the program, initial responses of some simple models are compared with those of analytic solutions, which proved satisfactory in terms of accuracy. For further evaluation, the code is also examined on some complicated models.


After nearly thirty years without peace, the conflict over the region of Karabakh, which pits Azerbaijan and Armenia against one another, has been called a "frozen conflict." But with deadly fire across the line of contact every year, it is more accurate to say that the settlement process, rather than the conflict, is frozen. International mediation may have helped to deter the parties from resuming full-scale armed hostilities, but it has failed in its primary goal of resolving the conflict.

Why has peacemaking in the Karabakh conflict failed? Answering that question requires examining the roots of the conflict, the context in which it arose, and the factors that have kept it going. This study offers some frank evaluations of the efforts made over the years to resolve the conflict, some of which have not been discussed publicly except in the partisan narratives of one side or the other.

Although mediation in Karabakh has not worked, that does not mean it cannot work; the building blocks for a settlement have been under discussion for at least a decade. The main factor in the failure of negotiations has not been the mediators but the failure of the leaders of both sides to prepare their peoples for compromise. Having led their peoples to expect nothing short of total victory, the leaders live in fear that any solution will lead to a popular backlash that may kill them.

Achieving a lasting peace in the Karabakh conflict is not a matter of finding a deus ex machina, flattering leaders, or crafting and re-crafting words until the right combination is found. The mediators can best influence the issue by addressing a clear message to the leaders: the international community is here to help, to provide political cover, and even to serve as a scapegoat, but ultimately it is the leaders who need to work out a sustainable peace for themselves and a normal life for their people.


This study analyses the access and use of financial services by small business owners in the cities of Mozambique, as an important tool for boosting economic growth and diminishing inequality. It correlates owners' and business characteristics with the probability of adopting Points-of-Sale (POS), Mobile Banking and Mobile Money in everyday transactions. The main findings highlight that what mostly affects the use of POS is the size of business and the volume of transactions (positively correlated with POS adoption), while using mobile phone technologies for payments predominantly depends on the owner's age and whether he/she is a frequent cellphone user. Moreover, to increase the use of electronic means of payment it is necessary to increase financial literacy and improve the banking services.


Abstract. A subregion of the mitochondrial large subunit (16s) rRNA gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from nine species of blackflies (Diptera: Simuliidae) which serve as natural or experimental vectors of human or bovine Onchocerca parasites. PCR products from each species of blackfly were tested by directed heteroduplex analysis (DHDA), and their genotypes established according to diagnostic banding patterns of the heteroduplex products. Three alleles of mitochondrial 16s rRNA were found to exist in members of the Simulium (Ewardsellum) damnosum sensu lato complex from West Africa, and two alleles were found in the Neotropical Simulium (Psilopelmia) ochraceum Walker complex and the Simulium (Simulium) metallicum Bellardi complex. Different single alleles were detected in Austrosimulium bancrofti, in English S.(S.)noelleri and in two North American laboratory vectors: Simulium (Psilozia) vittatum Zetterstedt and S.(S.)decorum Walker. Phylogenetic analysis of 16s sequences indicated that blackflies from West Africa and the Americas formed distinct clades. Neotropical onchocerciasis vectors were found to be more closely related to Nearctic and Palaearctic non‐vector Simulium species than to the African vectors of onchocerciasis.


Common, familial human disorders generally do not follow Mendelian inheritance patterns, presumably because multiple loci are involved in disease susceptibility. One approach to mapping genes for such traits in humans is to first study an analogous form in an animal model, such as mouse, by using inbred strains and backcross experiments. Here we describe methodology for analyzing multiple-locus linkage data from such experimental backcrosses, particularly in light of multilocus genetic models, including the effects of epistasis. We illustrate these methods by using data from backcrosses involving nonobese diabetic mouse, which serves as an animal model for human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. We show that it is likely that a minimum of nine loci contribute to susceptibility, with strong epistasis effects among these loci. Three of the loci actually confer a protective effect in the homozygote, compared with the heterozygote. Further, we discuss the relevance of these studies for analogous studies of the human form of the trait. Specifically, we show that the magnitude of the gene effect in the experimental backcross is likely to correlate only weakly, at best, with the expected magnitude of effect for a human form, because in humans the gene effect will depend more heavily on disease allele frequencies than on the observed penetrance ratios; such allele frequencies are unpredictable. Hence, the major benefit from animal studies may be a better understanding of the disease process itself, rather than identification of cells through comparison mapping in humans by using regions of homology.


In this paper, the World Social Forum Process (WSFP) is situated within contemporary and historical utopian contexts. In so doing the article puts forth the proposition that the WSF sits toward the end of two great utopian projects of the West, state socialism and economic liberalism. Through its tacit and explicit critique of both, the WSF re-configures utopianism around the principle of diversity. In counter-distinction to this, however, a number of forces are articulating totalities, utopian conceptions of alternatives to corporate globalisation. The WSF process is therefore becoming the site of a commingling between a utopianism of diversity and a utopianism of totality, in the movement toward alternative globalization.


In the past, more than 150 years ago, incandescent bulb light appeared with red light emitters but technology has evolved to the present and scientist people discovered and promoted ecological lighting by compact fluorescent lamps and light emitting diodes. In modern society, most of the classic lamps have been replaced with LED technology, much more efficient in terms of the amount of light emitted, as well as energy consumption. Besides these advantages, it also presents some drawbacks that affect our daily life through the structures they come into contact with (skin, eyes) and are intensively studied. One of the most important and frequent effects of blue light is shown by the link between melanopsin, a photo-pigment present in the retina, responsible for regulating circadian rhythm and sleep-wake cycle, and blue light that go through the eye and reach the retina. So, it explains the increasing incidence of sleep disorders, decreased sleep quality associated with a high degree of fatigue and disturbance of family and social life. But knowing these effects, blue light can be beneficial if used in the first half of the day; in patients with neurocognitive disorders such as patients with Alzheimer's disease, have been observed an improvement in symptomatology. On short term, blue light stimulates dopamine production, but long-term light exposure has the opposite effect and leads to symptoms such as anxiety, mood swings, inability to focus, lack of insight or self-awareness, low libido. To be able to prevent the negative effects of blue light, first of all we need to know the devices that affect us and the main "enemies" are right next to us, present in our everyday life: smartphones, tablets, televisions.


Wind development is at the forefront of our nation's green energy trend. The importance of wind energy raises prospective legal issues, in particular to estate planners, regarding how those rights should be treated in their clients' wills. Estate planners must be especially careful in determining their clients' goals and assist them in achieving those goals. A testator who merely partitions his or her land into parcels of equal sizes in an attempt to make an equitable division to the beneficiaries might not achieve an equal distribution of wealth to each beneficiary because it is very likely that the shares will not have equal value. he shares of property with turbines, or the most turbines, will be more valuable than those without, or those with less. Additionally, the parcels with turbines would have less, if not little, surface area to enjoy quietly.This article addresses some of the issues related to testamentary transfers of wind rights to increase the likelihood that your client's will accurately reflects his or her testamentary intent.


An indispensable anthology of brilliant hard-to-find writings by Poe on poetry, the imagination, humor, and the sublime which adds a new dimension to his stature as a speculative thinker and philosopher. Essays (in translation) by Charles Baudelaire Stephane Mallarme, Paul Valery, & Andre Breton shed light on Poe's relevance within European literary tradition. These are the arcana of Edgar Allan Poe: writings on wit, humor, dreams, drunkenness, genius, madness, and apocalypse. Here is the mind of Poe at its most colorful, its most incisive, and its most exceptional. Edgar Allan Poe's dark, melodic poems and tales of terror and detection are known to readers everywhere, but few are familiar with his cogent literary criticism, or his speculative thinking in science, psychology or philosophy. This book is an attempt to present his lesser known, out of print, or hard to find writings in a single volume, with emphasis on the theoretical and esoteric. The second part, "The Friend View," includes seminal essays by Poe's famous admirers in France, clarifying his international literary importance. America has never seen such a personage as Edgar Allan Poe. He is a figure who appears once an epoch, before passing into myth. American critics from Henry James to T. S. Eliot have disparaged and attempted to explain away his influence to no end, save to perpetuate his fame. Even the disdainful Eliot once conceded, "and yet one cannot be sure that one's own writing has not been influence by Poe." "Edgar Allan Poe was and is a turbulence, an anomaly among the major American writers of his period, an anomaly to this day. He both amazed and antagonized his contemporaries, who could not dismiss him from the first rank of writers, though many felt his work to be morally questionable and in dubious taste, and though he scourged them in print regularly in the course of producing a body of criticism that is sometimes flatly vindictive and often brilliant." --Marilynne Robinson, The New York Times Review of Books Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), born in Boston, Massachusetts, was an American poet, writer, editor, and literary critic. He is well known for his haunting poetry and mysterious short stories. Regarded as being a central figure of Romanticism, he is also considered the inventor of detective fiction and the growing science fiction genre. Some of his most famous works include poems such as "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," and "A Dream Within a Dream"; tales such as "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of Red Death," and "The Tell-Tale Heart."


Modelling movement within the built environment has hitherto been focused on rather coarse spatial scales where the emphasis has been upon simulating flows of traffic between origins and destinations. Models of pedestrian movement have been sporadic, based largely on finding statistical relationships between volumes and the accessibility of streets, with no sustained efforts at improving such theories. The development of object-orientated computing and agent-based models which have followed in this wake, promise to change this picture radically. It is now possible to develop models simulating the geometric motion of individual agents in small-scale environments using theories of traffic flow to underpin their logic. In this paper, we outline such a model which we adapt to simulate flows of pedestrians between fixed points of entry - gateways - into complex environments such as city centres, and points of attraction based on the location of retail and leisure facilities which represent the focus of such movements. The model simulates the movement of each individual in terms of five components; these are based on motion in the direction of the most attractive locations, forward movement, the avoidance of local geometric obstacles, thresholds which constrain congestion, and movement which is influenced by those already moving towards various locations. The model has elements which enable walkers to self-organise as well as learn from their geometric experiences so far. We first outline the structure of the model, present a computable form, and illustrate how it can be programmed as a variant of cellular automata. We illustrate it using three examples: its application to an idealised mall where we show how two key components - local navigation of obstacles and movement towards points of global locational attraction - can be parameterised, an application to the more complex town centre of Wolverhampton (in the UK West Midlands) where the paths of individual walkers are used to explore the veracity of the model, and finally it application to the Tate Gallery complex in central London where the focus is on calibrating the model by letting individual agents learn from their experience of walking within the environment.


Methanolic extract of Momordica cymbalaria Hook. F. (MEMC) was studied against paracetamol induced hepatitis in rats. Alteration in the levels of biochemical markers of hepatic damage like SGPT, SGOT, ALP, bilirubin, cholesterol, HDL, tissue GSH and lipid peroxidation were tested in both; treated and untreated groups. Pre-treatment with MEMC reduced biochemical markers of hepatic injury like SGPT, SGOT, ALP, bilirubin, cholesterol and lipid peroxide levels and increased HDL, GSH levels. Treatment with MEMC (200, 400, 600 mg/kg) has brought back the altered levels of biochemical markers to the near normal levels in the dose dependent manner. A significant hepatoprotective activity of the methanol extract of Momordica cymbalaria has been reported.


The suggestion of a Polyport is argued and interpreted in close relation to the notion of 'exchange'. Set at Kew Gardens, the aspect calling for 'A Royal Botanical Pop-up Garden' explored the main themes of nature and trade. These design proposals were used to link London and Singapore through the exchange of knowledge and products between the botanical gardens of both countries. This ethos is further enhanced by the notion of Polyport, and most notably the exchange of interpretative documents governing the choices of site in London (and Singapore).

The main narrative sees the design work produced for Kew Gardens in London relocating to Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. This allows for the contrasting differences between Kew Garden's royal and historical lineage and Gardens by the Bay as a twenty-first century botanical garden to be examined. While the first is read as a separate collection of buildings and experiences, the latter serves as an example of mega-scaled architecture which relies on both nature and technology to perform as a sustainable organism.

Hence the 'Pop-up Garden' is a displaced garden with the capability to 'pop up' on both sites, and is able to adapt to suit specific geographical, topographical, climatic and/ or programmatic features as appropriate.

The ranges of ideas in the projects presented demonstrate an exceeding wide approach to addressing contextual relationships in the design process. There are proposals which directly reference Kew such as 'The Wandering Garden', which concerns the modern picturesque; 'An Esoteric History of English Landscape', which explores the notion of palimpsest; and 'The Imperial Botanist Folly' which dwells on colonial nostalgia. In contrast, there are proposals that choose to use the futuristic quality of Gardens by the Bay as a starting point for their narratives. 'The Floating Archive' is an utopian proposal; 'The Water Temple' has an ecological agenda; and 'Breeding Chambers: A Living Fungarium' is best described as sustainable science-fiction. These 'pop-up' gardens all result from different readings of Kew Gardens, as well as Gardens by the Bay and more importantly, reflect the diversity of the students' own research.


A structural equation model was used to verify both the direct and indirect influences on research and development and innovation capabilities that affect Thai automotive parts enterprises competitive advantage. Thailand's automotive sector is a major driver of the economy with a multi-thousand network of both domestic and international companies con-tributing a significant amount to both domestic and Asian economic growth. After peaking in 2013 and reaching the Top 10 automotive nations, there has been a slide backwards. Competition is fierce and the pace of change ever quickening. Therefore, the researchers sought to determine how the automotive parts sector needed to improve in capability, skills and infrastructure to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. From the structural equation model analysis of 220 regional automotive parts sector managers and use of AMOS software, it was determined that research and development combined with innovation plays key roles in the industry's profitability and survivability. Additionally, there must be support across a wide sector of the economy, including universities, government agencies and institutions. Once championed as the 'Detroit of Asia', Thailand's recognized success as a global automotive hub is a classic case of a well-executed industrial plan but that lead can potentially slip away without embracing new technologies and innovative thinking.


The possibility of recycling glass fibre-reinforced composites by using microwave pyrolysis was examined. A scrap blade from a wind turbine was fragmented and microwave-pyrolysed. The glass fibre recovered after pyrolysis represented 70% of the initial mass of glass fibre-reinforced composites. The tensile strength of the glass fibre recovered was measured after pyrolysis and compared to the tensile strength of untreated glass fibre. The test showed that the fibres lost about 25% of their tenacity. Non-woven fibre mats were prepared from the recovered fibres. Laminates were then prepared from the non-woven mats obtained, together with virgin glass fibre mats. Mechanical testing of the laminates showed that it is possible to prepare composites using 25 wt% of recycled fibres, with relatively good mechanical properties.


[Abstract]Over the last few decades, there has been a rapid increase in the volume and weight of heavy vehicles using national road networks. More than half of the bridges around the world are over forty years old. The deterioration of these existing bridges due to increased traffic loading, progressive structural aging, and reinforcement corrosion from severe environmental conditions has become a major problem in most countries. Several techniques have been used to strengthen these structures around the world. External post-tensioning is one of the widely used strengthening techniques in many countries due to its advantages over other methods. Furthermore, flexural strengthening using external post-tensioning has become a well established technique over the past few decades. However, when external post-tensioning is used to strengthen shear damaged reinforced concrete members, unlike flexural damage, the efficiency is significantly reduced by existing shear cracks.

This research study was carried out to investigate the behaviour of reinforced concrete beams with existing shear cracks when strengthened by external means. The study consists of two parts: experimental investigations of reinforced concrete beams with different parameters and numerical analysis of reinforced concrete beams using
simplified theoretical formulation and finite element modelling.

To study the behaviour of shear damaged concrete beams, two different strengthening techniques, namely external post-tensioning and external clamping, were used. In addition to the strengthening, the effect of cracks on the behaviour of reinforced concrete beams was investigated by repairing such cracks using epoxy resin injection. Experimental results showed that existing shear cracks have a substantial effect on the member capacity when strengthened by external posttensioning. Although there are concerns about the practical applications of external
clamping, the experimental results suggest that external clamping could be a more effective technique than external post-tensioning to reduce the effect of existing shear cracks on the behaviour of concrete beams. Furthermore, proper repair of the shear cracks could significantly reduce their impact.

In the numerical analysis, a simplified mathematical approach was developed to estimate the capacity of shear damaged reinforced concrete beam by expanding the
modified compression field theory (MCFT). In addition to the simplified theoretical formulation, a finite element model was developed using the commercial finite element package, Abaqus. Comparison between the predicted behaviour using finite element analysis (FEA) and the experimental data illustrated that the developed finite element model could be used as a reliable tool to estimate the capacity of shear damaged reinforced concrete beams. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the effect of different parameters such as concrete strength, amount of shear reinforcement and crack width, using the developed finite element model. From the numerical study, it was concluded that the simplified approach developed
in this study can be used as a reliable and conservative technique to predict the member capacity of a cracked reinforced concrete beam strengthened by external means. Furthermore, the parametric study showed that crack width is the most sensitive parameter that affects the capacity of a cracked beam strengthened by external post-tensioning.

Based on this research study it can be concluded that existing shear cracks have a substantial effect on the behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened by
external post-tensioning. The simplified mathematical approach developed in this study can be used to estimate the capacity of such beams.


Cryopreservation is beset with the challenge of protocol alignment across a wide range of cell types and process variables. By taking a cross-sectional assessment of previously published cryopreservation data (sample means and standard errors) as preliminary meta-data, a decision tree learning analysis (DTLA) was performed to develop an understanding of target survival using optimized pruning methods based on different approaches. Briefly, a clear direction on the decision process for selection of methods was developed with key choices being the cooling rate, plunge temperature on the one hand and biomaterial choice, use of composites (sugars and proteins as additional constituents), loading procedure and cell location in 3D scaffolding on the other. Secondly, using machine learning and generalized approaches via the Naïve Bayes Classification (NBC) method, these metadata were used to develop posterior probabilities for combinatorial approaches that were implicitly recorded in the metadata. These latter results showed that newer protocol choices developed using probability elicitation techniques can unearth improved protocols consistent with multiple unidimensionally-optimized physical protocols. In conclusion, this article proposes the use of DTLA models and subsequently NBC for the improvement of modern cryopreservation techniques through an integrative approach.


BACKGROUND
Studies describing the clinical features and short-term prognosis of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for menstrual toxic shock syndrome (m-TSS) are lacking.

METHODS
This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients with a clinical diagnosis of m-TSS admitted between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2020 in 43 French pediatric (n=7) or adult (n=36) ICUs. The aim of the study was to describe the clinical features and short-term prognosis, as well as assess the 2011 Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) diagnostic criteria, of critically ill patients with m-TSS.

RESULTS
In total, 102 patients with m-TSS (median age: 18 [16-24] years) were admitted to one of the participating ICUs. All blood cultures (n=102) were sterile. Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus grew from 92 of 96 vaginal samples. Screening for super-antigenic toxin gene sequences was performed for 76 of the 92 (83%) vaginal samples positive for Staphylococcus aureus and TSST-1 isolated from 66 (87%) strains. At ICU admission, no patient met the 2011 CDC criteria for confirmed m-TSS and only 53 (52%) fulfilled the criteria for probable m-TSS. Eighty-one patients (79%) were treated with anti-toxin antibiotic therapy and eight (8%) received intravenous immunoglobulins. Eighty-six (84%) patients required vasopressors and 21 (21%) tracheal intubation. No patient required limb amputation or died in the ICU.

CONCLUSIONS
In this large multicenter series of patients included in ICUs for m-TSS, none died or required limb amputation. The CDC criteria should not be used for the clinical diagnosis of m-TSS at ICU admission.


Scheduling Theory studies planning and timetabling of various industrial and human activities and, therefore, is of constant scientific interest. Being a branch of Operational Research, Theory of Scheduling mostly deals with problems of practical interest which can be easily (from a mathematical point of view) solved by full enumeration and at the same time usually require enormous time to be solved optimally. Therefore, one attempts to develop algorithms for finding optimal or near optimal solutions of the problems under consideration in reasonable time. If the output of an algorithm is not always an optimal solution then the worst-case analysis of this algorithm is undertaken in order to estimate either a relative error or an absolute error that holds for any given instance of the problem.

Scheduling problems which are usually considered in the literature assume that the processing facilities are constantly available throughout the planning period. However, in practice, the processing facility, e.g. a machine, a labour, etc. can become non-available due to various reasons, e.g. breakdowns, lunch breaks, holidays, maintenance work, etc. All these facts stimulate research in the area of scheduling with non-availability constraints. This branch of Scheduling Theory has recently received a lot of attention and a considerable number of research papers have been published. This thesis is fully dedicated to scheduling with non-availability constraints under various assumptions on the structure of the processing system and on the types of non-availability intervals.


The Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) is a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded research project designed to provide insights into how post-secondary institutions and community partners can establish and maintain successful relationships that ultimately maximize the value created for non-profit organizations. CFICE is organized into five self-managing research hubs; the focus of this report is the Peterborough and Haliburton section of the Community Environmental Sustainability (CES) hub. Hub members participated in interviews and a focus group to discuss the results of four first year demonstration projects. For the most part, results were favourable, especially for community-based organizations, who pointed to a high level of influence and a number of net gains such as increased capacity and the development of valuable resources. A notable finding was the important role of community-university bridging organizations, U-Links and the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education. Participants identified both organizations as a critical ingredient to the smooth functioning of demonstration projects. Challenges participants identified included delay of grant funds, delayed ethics approval and university resistance to community-based research projects in some areas.


The Supply of National Park Products A Theoretical and Applied Analysis Judith Carol Houston, Doctor of Philosophy Utah State University, 1976 Major Professor: Dr. Herbert H. Fullerton Department: Economics The central objective of the investigation in this study is to determine a means of attaining an economically efficient combination of resources to maximize the level of services provided by a national park under the conditions of a limited budget, a constrained production possibilities set, and a limited availability of inputs. First, a theoretical model is built which elucidates the collective and private good natures of national park products. The theory identifies the optimality criteria for the provision of park products in a system of limited resources. It is noted, however, that the theoretically determined optimal solution cannot be expected to emerge automatically in a market situation due to the social good nature of some park products. Therefore, a second-best objective of maximizing the value of the park's output as evaluated by the park's superintendent is adopted for use in the study's applied analysis. The empirical model which is then constructed, combines concepts from economic theory and mathematical programming which lend themselves to solving the production economizing problems facing a park. It offers national park managers operational tools for aiding in their decision-making. While the paper points to important implications for current policy, it also indicates promising directions for future study .


While postharvest operations account for more than 55 percent of the economic value of the agricultural sector, losses are high, the science or technology is relatively new, and the postharvest horticulture extension delivery system in the Philippines has not met the challenge. Thus, the delivery of extension services to the people involved needed to be assessed. Primary data from key informant interviews and secondary data from available publications and reports were analyzed. The two major extension providers for postharvest handling of fresh fruits, vegetables, and cut flowers are the Postharvest Horticulture Training and Research Center (PHTRC) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), and the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA). From 2000–2010, the PHTRC implemented 93 percent of national extension projects and services in terms of training (51 training programs with 1,132 participants), technical assistance, production and dissemination of information (24 extension materials with 21,105 copies), and a few action research projects. On the other hand, out of the remaining 7 percent of the extension projects, which were implemented by PhilMech, 99 percent were related to development and establishment of tramlines, cold chain facilities, and facilities support for hot water tanks and packinghouses including 16 training programs with 437 participants. The number of extension workers, who have been trained over the last three decades and who could be potential trainers of growers and traders, was only 4.8 percent of the total number of participants of training programs of both institutions. The number of personnel in extension delivery was also reduced due to budget constraints for PHTRC and rationalization moves for PhilMech. Twenty-five personnel, 10 from PHTRC and 15 from PhilMech rendered extension services. All PHTRC staff and three from PhilMech were trained on perishables handling. Government support for the extension delivery of postharvest handling of horticultural perishables remains negligible. The major recommendations to improve the extension delivery system on postharvest horticulture sector are training of more extension workers in this field and establishment of zonal centers on postharvest research and extension.


Latest since the early eighties destandardisation of employment became a term of wide comprehension. Especially in Germany the once predictable employment biography would have been dissolving for an occupational career with phases of unemployment and many job changes. Employment careers are seen to be more heterogeneous, former guaranteed securities would have been broken and working future would be no more predictable. By means of a longitudinal dataset on the basis of the German Socio-economic panel covering the years 1985 to 2000 this dissertation is showing that the destandardisation of work in West Germany is first beginning in the middle of the nineties. This is reflected in the increase of flexibilisation, the reduction of job stability (quantitative dimension) and the decrease of job security (qualitative dimension). These developments do not affect the collectivity of the work force. In the course of time a polarisation of social unemployment is arised along occupational classes and levels of education.


We introduce two different systems of coupled-mode equations to describe the interaction of two waves coupled by the Bragg reflection in the presence of saturable nonlinearity. The basic model assumes the ordinary linear coupling between the modes. It may be realized as a photorefractive waveguide, with a Bragg lattice permanently written in its cladding. We demonstrate the presence of a cutoff point in the system's bandgap, with gap solitons existing only on one side of it. Close to this point, the soliton's norm diverges with power −3/2. The soliton family between the cutoff point and the edge of the bandgap is stable. In this model, stationary bound states of two in-phase solitons are found too, but they are unstable, transforming themselves into breathers. Another model assumes a photoinduced longitudinal bulk grating, with the corresponding intermode coupling subject to saturation along with the nonlinearity. In that model, another cutoff point is found, with the soliton's norm diverging near it with power −2. Solitons are stable in this model too (while it does not give rise to two-soliton bound states). Collisions between moving solitons are always quasi-elastic, in either model.


About the book: This important and accessible book identifies the key elements in the quest for best practice in online language teaching. The authors, all of them international experts who have made significant contributions to the debate about how to exploit the new technologies, consider online language teaching from three crucial perspectives: design, tools and pedagogy. Their recommendations are such that they can actually be realised in spite of the limitations of today's educational environments.
The book demonstrates that the new technologies offer far greater potential for authentic encounters and constructivist learning than even the best classroom simulations; that automated exercise and feedback structures can be individualised and meaningful; and that if we have to teach fully by distance, these ventures no longer need to represent impoverished versions of live classes but can engender a strong sense of community. To achieve this we need to understand what elements constitute good design both in technical and pedagogical terms, to think seriously about providing the best feedback possible, and to have the courage to take the risks associated with letting go of traditional learner/teacher relationships.


In the reform era, the lecturers' work ethos needs to be reformulated. This formulation will give a clearer information about lecturers' behavior in teaching and in other activities so that the efforts to speed up the quality of education in the universities in this era will be easier. The formulation of the lecturers' work ethos is demonstrated by dedication in terms of moral and morale dimensions, problem solving skills, human relationships, participation in educational activities, mastery of subject matters, mastery of learning-teaching procedures, research capabilities, and abilities in conducting community services


Accountability is an important issue for design, in more than one sense. In software engineering literature, accountability is mainly seen as a goal for quality assurance of design processes. In ethnomethodological studies, accountability is a central concept for understanding how people organize their everyday actions and interactions. Where the different research approaches meet, in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) literature, new and hybrid understandings of accountability arise. In this paper, I explore and compare uses of the concept of accountability in a selection of texts. Finally, using a specific case as an example, I discuss what focusing on ethnomethodological understandings of accountability might imply for design of information technologies.


Language is a hallmark of our species and understanding linguistic diversity is an area of major interest. Genetic factors influencing the cultural transmission of language provide a powerful and elegant explanation for aspects of the present day linguistic diversity and a window into the emergence and evolution of language. In particular, it has recently been proposed that linguistic tone—the usage of voice pitch to convey lexical and grammatical meaning—is biased by two genes involved in brain growth and development, ASPM and Microcephalin. This hypothesis predicts that tone is a stable characteristic of language because of its 'genetic anchoring'. The present paper tests this prediction using a Bayesian phylogenetic framework applied to a large set of linguistic features and language families, using multiple software implementations, data codings, stability estimations, linguistic classifications and outgroup choices. The results of these different methods and datasets show a large agreement, suggesting that this approach produces reliable estimates of the stability of linguistic data. Moreover, linguistic tone is found to be stable across methods and datasets, providing suggestive support for the hypothesis of genetic influences on its distribution.


The fifteen articles composing this volume focus on recent developments in complex analysis. Written by well-known researchers in complex analysis and related fields, they cover a wide spectrum of research using the methods of partial differential and algebraic geometry. The topics include invariants of manifolds, the complex Neumann problem, complex dynamics, Ricci flows, the Abel-Radon transforms, the action of the Ricci curvature operator, locally symmetric manifolds, the maximum principle, very ampleness criterion, integrability of elliptic systems, and contact geometry. Among the contributions are survey articles, which are especially suitable for readers looking for a comprehen-sive, well-presented introduction to the most recent important developments in the field. The contributors are R. Bott, M. Christ, J. P. D'Angelo, P. Eyssidieux, C. Fefferman, J. E. Fornaess, H. Grauert, R. S. Hamilton, G. M. Henkin, N. Mok, A. M. Nadel, L. Nirenberg, N. Sibony, Y.-T. Siu, F. Treves, and S. M. Webster.


Abstract The public lacks knowledge and connectedness to agriculture and natural resources in the United States, leading to a need for effective communications from agricultural and natural resources organizations. Trust is an integral component of communications, but it is not well understood how the public trusts the various organizations communicating agricultural and natural resources issues. The study evaluated non-profit, for-profit, and governmental organizations. A survey was conducted of a representative sample of the U.S. population to assess the public's awareness, knowledge, and trust of organizations and their communications. The highest number of respondents was aware and knowledgeable of governmental organizations, except for Extension. Communications from non-profit organizations tended to be trusted the most compared to for-profit organizations and governmental organizations, except for Extension. Respondents' trust of the non-profit organizations was typically higher than for-profit organizations and governmental organizations, except for Extension. The relationship between trust of an organization and trust of its communications were statistically significant for all organizations, while relationships between trust of an organization and knowledge of an organization were typically negligible and not statistically significant. For-profit organizations and governmental organizations should work to improve the public's trust. Extension should seek to improve the public's awareness and knowledge given the level of trust the knowledgeable respondents had for the organization. Future research should address what factors are influencing the public's trust in organizations and organizations' communications.


We use a simple non-parametric regression approach to measure the relationship between employment growth, hirings and separations in a large panel of German establishments over the period 1993--2009. Although it is often claimed that firms in Europe have less flexibility in their ability to hire and fire, we find that the relationship between employment growth and worker flows in German establishments is very similar to the behaviour of US establishments. The relationship is stable over time, even during the most recent economic crisis, and across different types of establishment. We verify our results with independent measures from administrative data. We suggest that this result is due to: the strong relationship between employment reductions and voluntary separations; the low level of ``churning''; and the heterogeneity of jobs within establishments.


Mechanosensory hair cells (HCs) and surrounding supporting cells (SCs) in the mouse cochlea are important for hearing and are derived from the same prosensory progenitors. Notch1 signaling plays dual but contrasting and age-dependent roles in mouse cochlear development: early lateral induction and subsequent lateral inhibition. However, it has been difficult to directly visualize mouse cochlear cells experiencing various levels of Notch1 activity at single cell resolution. Here, we characterized two knock-in mouse lines, Notch1 Cre (Low)/ + and Notch1 Cre (High)/ + , with different Cre recombinase activities, that can detect Notch1 receptor proteolysis or Notch1 activity at high and low thresholds, respectively. Using both lines together with a highly sensitive Cre reporter line, we showed that Notch1 activity is nearly undetectable during lateral induction but increases to medium and high levels during lateral inhibition. Furthermore, we found that within the neonatal organ of Corti, the vast majority of cells that experience Notch1 activity were SCs not HCs, suggesting that HCs kept undetectable Notch1 activity during the entire lineage development. Furthermore, among SC subtypes, , 85–99% of Deiters' and outer pillar cells but only , 19–38% of inner pillar cells experience medium and high levels of Notch1 activity. Our results demonstrate that Notch1 activity is highly heterogeneous: 1) between lateral induction and inhibition; 2) between HC and SC lineages; 3) among different SC subtypes; 4) among different cells within each SC subtype. Such heterogeneity should elucidate how the development of the cochclear sensory epithelium is precisely controlled and how HC regeneration can be best achieved in postnatal cochleae.


This paper proposes a partitioning structure learning method for segmented linear regression trees (SLRT), which assigns linear predictors over the terminal nodes. The recursive partitioning process is driven by an adaptive split selection algorithm that maximizes, at each node, a criterion function based on a conditional Kendall's τ statistic that measures the rank dependence between the regressors and the fit- ted linear residuals. Theoretical analysis shows that the split selection algorithm permits consistent identification and estimation of the unknown segments. A suffi- ciently large tree is induced by applying the split selection algorithm recursively. Then the minimal cost-complexity tree pruning procedure is applied to attain the right-sized tree, that ensures (i) the nested structure of pruned subtrees and (ii) consistent estimation to the number of segments. Implanting the SLRT as the built-in base predictor, we obtain the ensemble predictors by random forests (RF) and the proposed weighted random forests (WRF). The practical performance of the SLRT and its ensemble versions are evaluated via numerical simulations and empirical studies. The latter shows their advantageous predictive performance over a set of state-of-the-art tree-based models on well-studied public datasets.


Invariances to translation, rotation and other spatial transformations are a hallmark of the laws of motion, and have widespread use in the natural sciences to reduce the dimensionality of systems of equations. In supervised learning, such as in image classification tasks, rotation, translation and scale invariances are used to augment training datasets. In this work, we use data augmentation in a similar way, exploiting symmetry in the quadruped domain of the DeepMind control suite (Tassa et al. 2018) to add to the trajectories experienced by the actor in the actor-critic algorithm of Abdolmaleki et al. (2018). In a data-limited regime, the agent using a set of experiences augmented through symmetry is able to learn faster. Our approach can be used to inject knowledge of invariances in the domain and task to augment learning in robots, and more generally, to speed up learning in realistic robotics applications.


A total of 6000 people are infected with Malaria in Iran annually. Sistan & Baluchistan province is ranked in the first place in the country. A before-after intervention was conducted in 2011 in Chabahar city, Iran. Eleven questions were used to assess cognitive skills, 8 questions were to assess attitude skills and 6 questions were used for measuring behavioral skills. Three hundred participants were enrolled from three districts of Chabahar regional area. Chi-Square, independent & paired T-test and one-way ANOVA were performed for data analysis using SPSS software. The cognitive skills were increased significantly from 6.04 to 8.8 after intervention. The attitude skills were increased significantly from 15.8 to 18.2 following intervention. Among the behavioral skills, all of them (Using anti-mosquito net at nights, referring to the health facilities once the fever occurred, receiving all the medications if infected, sleeping under anti-mosquito net when infected, trying to dry the waste water and attending the malaria-related training courses) improved after the intervention. Perceived behavioral control was increased from 10.4 to 12.1 significantly. Subjective norms were enhanced significantly from 10.4 to 12.4. Mean behavioral intense was increased significantly from 10.4 to 12.1. The findings demonstrated that implementing educational intervention programs can increase the level of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of community regarding malaria preventive initiatives.


The Scholarship examination is a longstanding feature of secondary school assessment. Scholarship is available to our "brightest and best" students in geography, and it is designed to recognise excellence and thereby enhance access to the tertiary education system. It is surprising, therefore, that geography Scholarship in New Zealand secondary schools has received little attention. Perhaps this is because Scholarship is a must-have feature of an education system shaped by meritocracy: it is hard to imagine a secondary education system that did not encourage students to think, act and perform independently at the highest level. Yet Scholarship is largely hidden; it has a publically available assessment specification and achievement standard, but it affects only a small proportion of the student population and teacher involvement in preparation for Scholarship is often modest, especially if low numbers cannot sustain a regular timetable slot. I will argue that while the intent of Scholarship is positive, the mechanism is crude: some very good students don't enter Scholarship geography, some of the best don't do themselves justice on the day, and not all forms of scholarship are revealed. The first substantive section of this chapter looks at the use of the word 'Scholarship' (capitalised) to describe the outcome of an assessment process in secondary schools. This section is followed by a commentary on 'scholarship' (lower case) as a broader description of learning, teaching, research and intellectual developments in a discipline. The initial focus is thus on geography Scholarship as a prescription in the secondary sector, the second on scholarship as a career aspiration of those engaged in geography in the tertiary sector: two different uses of the word underpinning a commitment to lifelong education. While there are clear connections between school geography Scholarship and the development of tertiary scholarship in geography, retaining them as discrete, item-bound entities is artificial. In the Formatted


During the last two decades, there has been a great deal of interest in addressing issues related to medical and nursing ethics. As these issues are addressed internationally, it is important to consider how ethical principles are interpreted in a national context. This column describes how Iranian cultural beliefs need to be considered while developing ethical guidelines for nurses in Iran. Iran is an ancient country with more than 2,500 years of civilization. Over 90% of the approximately 72 million people in Iran are Muslim. Since respect for human beings is important in the Iranian Islamic culture, it is surprising that the concept of patients' rights and ethical codes have not been considered until recently. To bring attention to healthcare ethics and to enhance the quality of healthcare in Iran, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education has introduced a strategic plan to advance the study of medical ethics at the national level (La rija ni, Malek-Afzali. Zahedi. & Motevaseli. 2QQ6I. The Ministry (20_0_2) also published a Patients' Bill of Rights. However, the Bill is an amalgamation of western versions of such bills and is not based primarily on the Iranian sociocultural context. It is not yet clear how this Bill relates to the provision of services offered by the Iranian healthcare system Uoolaee. NasrabadL Parsa-Yekta. Tschudin, & Mansouri. 2006). In over 19 years of nursing practice in Iran, the authors have witnessed incidents in which patients' rights to practice their religion or cultural beliefs have been ignored and cases in which patients were not even fully aware of their rights. In some situations patients with gastritis were forbidden to fast while they were in the hospital, regardless of their religious obligations. In other situations patients were asked to provide preoperative informed consent themselves (as stated in the international nursing codes); yet this practice contradicts the Islamic rule that one ask the husband to consent to perform a reproductive-system operation on his wife. Although many aspects of current international codes are practical in Iran, there remains a need to establish ethical guidelines that are compatible with the unique cultural and religious characteristics of the Iranian people in order to provide more effective nursing and medical services to them. During the last two decades, the rapid advances in science and concurrent development of bioethics have prompted important questions which call out for practical answers and appropriate actions in policy-making, organizing, and teaching ethics. Because of the special Iranian cultural beliefs, development of a code of ethics for nurses in Iran is still in the early stages. More research is needed to complete this code. To advance the development of ethical codes in Iran the Medical Ethics Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences focused their second Medical Ethics Conference on topics of professional commitment, research ethics, the beginning and end of life, teaching ethics to students, resource allocation, and equity in health and medical services (The 2nd International Congress, 2008). The remainder of this column will focus on two important issues that evolved from this ethics conference, namely patients' rights and nursing ethics. Patients' Rights An important tenet of nursing is respecting the human rights and dignity of all patients. The priority of healthcare organizations must be protection of patients' rights. After the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Iranian government began to focus on specific rights in healthcare and the accessibility of healthcare services for its population. Since that time great strides have been made in the study of biomedical ethics fHamidian, 2007: LarijanL Zahedi, & Malek-AfzalL 2005). It has been said that one's rights define the other's responsibilities; therefore a patient's rights define the healthcare professional's responsibilities fHasanian. …


Seven insulin-dependent diabetic patients (aged 16–34 yr) were treated for 10 mo with a combination of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) during the night and premeal boluses of insulin during the day. The technology and strategy of the system are discussed. Three of these patients had been on CSII for 1 yr before the start of this study. Mean fasting (126 ± 44 mg/dl), mean preprandial blood glucose (131 ± 54 mg/dl), and mean postprandial blood glucose (216 ± 73 mg/dl) before starting this treatment fell to 86 ± 12 mg/dl, 83 ± 19 mg/dl, and 132 ± 1 7 mg/dl, respectively, after 1 mo of treatment. Glycosylated hemoglobin (10,8 ± 2.9% before the study) reached normal values (7.8 ± 0.6%) after 2 mo of treatment. Improvement of glycemic control may be achieved with this form of insulin administration, which is of immediate practical application, until an ideal system of insulin delivery becomes available. This technique provides the conditions for testing the hypothesis that near normalization of glycemic control prevents or minimizes the degenerative complications associated with diabetes mellitus.


This paper investigates issues related to referent tracking in discourse, in particular whether and how contrastive focus interacts with other factors – in particular pronominalization and subjecthood – to influence comprehenders' and speakers' expectations about what entities will be referred to/mentioned in upcoming discourse. On the basis of data from two psycholinguistic experiments, I argue that to better understand the discourse-structuring effects of contrastive focus, we need to consider not only pronoun interpretation but also production-based questions having to do with choice of upcoming referent and choice of referential form. I suggest that looking at the discourse-level consequences of contrastive focus from the perspective of the comprehender as well as the perspective of the speaker (i) allows us to gain new insights about the effects of focus and the discourse-status of focus-induced alternatives, and (ii) highlights (potentially unexpected) asymmetries between likelihood of upcoming mention and likelihood of pronominalization.


Melanoma of the gastrointestinal tract is a rare, highly malignant neoplasm of poor prognosis. This is description of an unusual case of surgically treated patient with two metachronous malignant melanomas of the stomach and the esophagus. The former lesion was located in the cardia and effectively treated with R0 total gastrectomy. The latter was recognized after 67 mo and appeared as irregular, flat, pigmented areas located in the mid esophagus. Subtotal esophagectomy via right-sided thoracotomy, laparotomy and left-sided cervicotomy was performed, but neoplastic cells were found in distal margin (R1). Fourteen months after esophagectomy multiple lung metastases were detected. Patient died 2 mo later.


This paper revisits the classical neuroscience paradigm of Hebbian learning. We find that a necessary requirement for effective associative memory learning is that the efficacies of the incoming synapses should be uncorrelated. This requirement is difficult to achieve in a robust manner by Hebbian synaptic learning, since it depends on network level information. Effective learning can yet be obtained by a neuronal process that maintains a zero sum of the incoming synaptic efficacies. This normalization drastically improves the memory capacity of associative networks, from an essentially bounded capacity to one that linearly scales with the network's size. It also enables the effective storage of patterns with heterogeneous coding levels in a single network. Such neuronal normalization can be successfully carried out by activity-dependent homeostasis of the neuron's synaptic efficacies, which was recently observed in cortical tissue. Thus, our findings strongly suggest that effective associative learning with Hebbian synapses alone is biologically implausible and that Hebbian synapses must be continuously remodeled by neuronally-driven regulatory processes in the brain.


Hot-melt extrusion (HME) is one of the most widely used technologies in the plastic, rubber and food industries and it has also been extensively explored and used in academia and the pharmaceutical industry over the last decade. This project aims to investigate the efficiency of hydrophilic polymers to enhance the dissolution rate of poorly water-soluble APIs processed by HME. Indomethacin (INM) and famotidine (FMT) were selected as model active substances while polyvinyl caprolactam graft copolymer, Soluplus® (SOL) and vinylpyrrolidone-vinyl acetate copolymer grades Kollidon® VA64 (VA64) and Plasdone® S630 (S630) were used as hydrophilic polymeric carriers. For the purpose of the study, all drug-polymer binary blends at various ratios were processed by a Randcastle single screw extruder. The physico-chemical properties and the morphology of the extrudates were evaluated via x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). INM and FMT exhibited strong plasticization effects at specific concentrations and were found to be molecularly dispersed within the polymer blends. The in vitro dissolution studies showed increased INM/FMT release rates for all formulations compared to that of pure APIs alone. Ibuprofen was also embedded in a methacrylate copolymer (Eudragit® EPO) matrix to produce solid dispersions by hot-melt extrusion processing. The obtained granules were incorporated into orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs). The tablets were developed by varying the ratio of superdisintegrants such as sodium croscarmellose and cross-linked polyvinylpyrrolidone while a direct compression process was used to compress the ODTs under various compaction forces to optimize tablet robustness. The properties of the compressed tablets which included porosity, hardness, and friability and dissolution profiles were further evaluated and compared with commercially available Nurofen® Meltlet ODTs. In vitro dissolution of the extruded ODTs showed rapid release of ibuprofen compared to that of Nurofen® Meltlets. The in vitro and in vivo evaluation of the masking efficiency of hot melt extruded paracetamol (PMOL) formulations was examined. Extruded granules containing high PMOL loadings in Eudragit EPO® (EPO) or Kollidon® VA64 (VA64) were prepared by HME. Similarly propranolol HCl (PRP), diphenhydramine HCl (DPD), cetirizine HCl (CTZ) and verapamil HCl (VRP) were used as model cationic active substances while pH sensitive anionic methacrylic acid based methyl methacrylate coplolymers Eudragit® L100 (L100) and ethyl acrylate copolymer Eudragit® L100-55 (Acryl-EZE®) (L100-55) were used as polymeric carriers in order to produce taste masked extruded formulations determining drug-polymers intermolecular interactions. The taste masking effect of the processed formulation was evaluated in vivo by a panel of six healthy human volunteers. In addition, in vitro evaluation was carried out by an Astree e-tongue (Alpha MOS) equipped with seven sensors and Taste Sensing System TS5000Z (INSENT), respectively.

The taste and sensory evaluation in human volunteers demonstrated that the formulation masked the bitter taste of the APIs and improved tablet palatability. In addition to that the taste sensing technology demonstrated taste improvement for all polymers by correlating the data obtained for the placebo polymers and the pure APIs alone. The e-tongue results were in good agreement with the in vivo evaluation. Molecular modelling (Gaussian 09) predicted the existence of two possible H-bonding types while Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR) and NMR studies confirmed drug-polymer interactions between the functional groups of both components (cationic drugs–anionic polymers). Furthermore, the intermolecular interactions evaluated by Flory-Huggins interaction parameters theory and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed stronger interactions between drug-polymer in L100 systems compared to that of L100-55 systems. The mechanism of the intermolecular interactions derived from this research showed the presence of H bonding between the amine group of the active substances and the carboxylic groups in the polymer.

Hydrocortisone (HCS) was also embedded and extruded with ethyl cellulose N10 (EC N10) or ethyl cellulose Premium 7 (EC P7) in order to develop sustained release tablets processed by HME. The compressed tablets were subsequently coated with an enteric coating polymer, Eudragit® S100 (15-20%), which showed sustained release over 12 hrs with a lag time of 2 hrs. Further analysis of the release mechanism of HCS from tablets was performed by implementing five different kinetic release models which confirmed that the release of HCS from both coated and uncoated tablets followed a first order kinetic model.


Landing a tenure-track position is no easy task. Achieving tenure is even more difficult. Under what policies and practices do faculty find greater clarity about tenure and experience higher levels of job satisfaction? And what makes an institution a great place to work? In 2005-2006, the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education surveyed more than 15,000 tenure-track faculty at 200 participating institutions to assess their job satisfaction. The survey was designed around five key themes for faculty satisfaction: tenure clarity, work-life balance, support for research, collegiality, and leadership. "Success on the Tenure Track" positions the survey data in the context of actual colleges and universities and real faculty and administrators who talk about what works and why. Best practices at the highest-rated institutions in the survey-Auburn, Ohio State, North Carolina State, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Iowa, Kansas, and North Carolina at Pembroke - give administrators practical, proven advice on how to increase their employee satisfaction. Additional chapters discuss faculty demographics, trends in employment practices, what leaders can do to create and sustain a great workplace for faculty, and what the future might hold for tenure. An actively engaged faculty is crucial for American higher education to retain its global competitiveness. Cathy Ann Trower's analysis provides colleges and universities a considerable inside advantage to get on the right track toward a happy, productive workforce.


Magnesium (Mg) has an atomic number of 12 and belongs to the alkaline earth element (Group II) of the Periodic Table. The pure Mg is a silvery white metal and has a melting point of 650 °C and boiling point of 1090 °C at 1 standard atmosphere (Lide 1993–1994). The electronic configuration of Mg is [Ne]3s2, with low ionization energies, which makes Mg ionic in character with a common valance state of 2+ and a typical ionic radius of 0.72 A (Shannon 1976).

Magnesium is a major element and widely distributed in the silicate Earth, hydrosphere and biosphere (Fig. 1a). It is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth (after O, Fe and Si, MgO = 25.5 wt%) (McDonough and Sun 1995), the fifth most abundant element in the bulk continental crust (MgO = 4.66 wt%) (Rudnick and Gao 2003) and the second most abundant cation in seawater (after Na, Mg = 0.128 wt%) (Pilson 2013). Nonetheless, the mantle has > 99.9% of Mg in the Earth because of its high MgO content (37.8 wt%, McDonough and Sun 1995) and mass fraction. The high abundance of Mg in the silicate Earth makes it a major constituent of minerals (e.g., olivine, pyroxene, garnet, amphibole, mica, spinel, carbonate, sulfate, and clay minerals) in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.

Magnesium has three stable isotopes, with mass numbers of 24, 25 and 26, and typical abundances of 78.99%, 10.00% and 11.01%, respectively (Berglund and Wieser 2011) (Fig. 1b), and a standard atomic weight of 24.305 (CIAAW 2015). Because of the limitations in the mass spectrometry, many previous Mg isotopic studies have concentrated on either mass independent isotope anomalies to look for the radiogenic 26Mg produced by the decay of short-lived 26Al (Gray and Compston 1974; Lee and …


A new proprietary herbomineral formulation was formulated, consisting of essential ingredients viz. herbal root extract ashwagandha and minerals (zinc, magnesium, and selenium). The aim of the study was to evaluate the immunomodulatory potential of Energy of Consciousness Healing (The Trivedi Effect®) Treatment on the herbomineral formulation in male Sprague Dawley rats. The test formulation was divided into two parts. One part was denoted as the control without Biofield Energy Healing Treatment, while the other part was defined as the Biofield Energy Treated sample, which received the Biofield Energy Healing Treatment remotely from seven renowned Biofield Energy Healers. Additionally, one group of animals was also received Biofield Energy Treatment per se (day -15) by Biofield Energy Healers under similar conditions. The IgM, IgG, CD4+, and CD8+ were altered in the Biofield Energy Treated test formulation (G4) compared to the disease control (G2). TLC was significantly increased by 19.35% in the G4 compared to the G2. Neutrophil was significantly increased by 31.53%, 29.73%, 31.53%, and 33.84% in the G4, untreated test formulation (G5), G6, and G7, respectively compared to the G2. The levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) were significantly lowered by 18.18% (p≤0.01), 46.33% (p≤0.01), and 46.41% (p≤0.01), respectively in the G4 compared to the G2. Additionally, the levels of TC, TG, low density lipoprotein (LDL), and VLDL were significantly reduced by 25.50% (p≤0.001), 96.39% (p≤0.001), 13.91%, and 55.08% (p≤0.001), respectively in the G6 compared to the G2. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was significantly reduced by 33.65% (p≤0.001) in the G4 compared to the G2. Moreover, the levels of serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), ALP, and creatine kinase myocardium band (CK-MB) were significantly decreased by 29.44% (p≤0.05), 25.54% (p≤0.01), 27.97% (p≤0.01), and 36.07% (p≤0.01), respectively in the G7 group compared to the G2. Testosterone was significantly increased by 83.68%, 305.90%, 1271.03% (p<0.001) and 745.35% (p<0.05) in the G4, G5, G6 and G7, respectively compared to the G2. The level of catalase enzyme was significantly increased by 57.91% (p<0.01) and 98.51% (p<0.001) in Biofield Energy Treatment per se at day -15 (G6) and Biofield Energy Treated test formulation at day -15 (G7), respectively compared to the G2. Overall, results suggested that the Biofield Energy Treated herbomineral formulation and Biofield Energy Treatment per se can be used for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, stress management and prevention, and anti-aging by improving overall health.


This volume contains the proceedings of the first conference ever of the two professional organizations, Computer Applications and Quantitive Methods in Archaeology (CAA), and the Union International des Sciences Prehistorique et Protohistorique (UISPP), Commission IV. The conference was held (April 2000) in Ljubljana, and brought together experts and members of two of the largest professional organizations in computer and quantitative methods in archaeology. Fifty-six papers from the conference are presented in the collected proceedings.


Recent research in perceptual sociolinguistics has investigated a host of variables—primarily segmental—to assess the extent to which social meanings are constructed in perception similarly to the way they are constructed in ongoing production. Despite production research in sociolinguistics that has demonstrated how speakers use intonational variation to index various ethnic identities and social stances (Burdin 2015, Holliday 2016, Reed 2016), there has been a general lack of perceptual research on the social meanings of intonational variables. At the same time, research in perceptual sociolinguistics has not confronted the issue of whether social meanings are incremental—that is, does a more phonetically extreme token of a socially marked variable correspond to a stronger social meaning? We address these gaps in research by testing listener judgments of manipulations of Barack Obama's utterances in one interview. In this perceptual task, critical stimuli were declarative Intonational Phrases with H* and/or L+H* pitch accents (Beckman et al. 2007) that were manipulated to four manipulation steps, with successively more extreme F0 maxima and minima with each step. Ninety-three American English listeners rated 80 critical stimuli and 40 filler stimuli (excerpted from the same interview of Obama) on the question, "How Black does Obama sound here?", using a slider bar. A mixed-effects regression model was conducted for listener ratings of blackness by assessing the interaction of Phrase Type (H* only vs. L+H*) and Manipulation Step. Listeners perceived stimuli with at least one L+H* token as sounding more black than those without, but only for phrases with more phonetically extreme realizations of the L+H* contour. These results demonstrate that listeners are sensitive to stepwise manipulations of the F0 contour, indicating that incrementality affects social meanings of intonational variables and providing a promising new direction for studies on listener judgments of ethnicity. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/


Aspergillus flavus, causal agent of the Aspergillus ear rot (AER) of maize, also produces aflatoxins that cause aflatoxicosis in humans and livestock. Ten maize inbred lines were evaluated in replicated trials in two aflatoxicosis outbreak hot spots in Kenya and in three maize-growing areas in South Africa for resistance to AER, A. flavus colonization, and pre-harvest aflatoxin accumulation during the 2012/13 growing season. AER severity was measured by visual assessment, while A. flavus colonization and aflatoxin content were quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, respectively. Genotype by environment interaction (GEI) was determined using analysis of variance (ANOVA), additive main effects and multiplicative models (AMMI), and genotype plus by environment (GGE) biplot analyses. Stability of genotypes was evaluated using AMMI analysis. AER severity and fungal colonization significantly (p < 0.001) varied between genotypes. GEI influenced the severity of AER symptoms and aflatoxin accumulation significantly (p < 0.001), while fungal colonization was not affected. The inbred lines response was consistent for this trait in the test environments and was thus considered a desirable measure to indicate maize lines with a high risk of aflatoxin accumulation. CML495, CKL05019, LaPosta, and MIRTC5 were the least diseased lines, with the lowest aflatoxin contamination and a stable phenotypic response across the environments. Kiboko was determined as the ideal representative test environment, with discriminative ability of the genotypes for selection of the desired stable responses of the three traits.


Continued on Page 3 Koukopoulos et al. published a study of the anti-Alzheimer's drug memantine in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2012. The study of memantine (10-30mg/day) as an add-on to patients' regular treatment for highly treatment-resistant bipolar disorder was open (i.e. not blind, randomized or placebo-controlled), but it deserves careful attention for its noteworthy results. Of the 40 patients in the study, who had been severely ill for long periods of time, 72.5% showed a rating of much or very much improved on the Clinical Global Impressions Scale for Bipolar Disorders (CGI-BP) after both 6 months and 12 months. Among rapid cyclers, 68.4% stabilized and remitted on memantine. Editor's Note: Memantine is an antagonist of glutamate NMDA receptors and is approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of Alzheimer's dementia, but not for other indications. Nonetheless, few (if any) drugs have this high a response rate in such a difficult-to-treat population, and the researchers suggest that even based on these preliminary data (which replicate their previous observations), careful clinical trials of memantine in individual patients would be worthy of consideration. The data are so promising that fast-track development of this drug for FDA approval would be warranted. More formal randomized controlled clinical trials are needed. We have written before about a few treatments that have rapid-onset antidepressant effects, including intravenous (IV) ketamine (at a dose of 0.5mg over 40 minutes). Ketamine works by blocking glutamate NMDA receptors, but the rapid antidepressant effects it produces (within 2 hours of treatment) last only 3 to 4 days. Given the similar mechanisms of action of ketamine and memantine and memantine's high success rate in this study by Koukopoulos, it is plausible that treatment with memantine could extend the rapid onset effects of IV ketamine. However, this speculation has not yet been tested. At the very least, the similarity between the mechanisms of memantine and ketamine in blocking the glutamate NMDA receptor lends additional support to the clinical rationale for using adjunctive memantine in bipolar disorder. Anti-Alzheimer's Drug Memantine (Namenda) Has High Sustained Success Rate As Adjunct in Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Disorder


Summary form only given. Loose coupling is a cornerstone for service-oriented architecture (SOA). Service contracts enable loose coupling, because they hide service-internal details from the outside world behind a facade. In the Web services world, the service contract is commonly understood as a WSDL document possibly decorated with WS-policy annotations. Such formal XML description is not immediately useful to business people. This paper proposes the notion of a service metadata document that contains human-readable business aspects of the service in addition to technical artifacts. Stakeholders at the business and technical level work collaboratively on the service metadata document and use it as a common framework for discussion. We see the service contract as a composition of functional metadata and a set of policies, such as security constraints, access restrictions for user groups, transport and service level agreements, charging, etc. For example, enterprises often have different security requirements when a service is consumed from within the company than when it is consumed by an external business partner. The service lifecycle is initiated by business people on the basis of a service contract template; the first step is a high-level description of the desired service characteristics. In an iterative process the document is then successively refined as it percolates from the management level to service architect and other stakeholders and as business requirements are tested against technical realities. Technical artifacts (WSDL, XSD, etc.) are added to the service contract and could be placed in a registry so that the service is visible to other departments or external partners. The clear distinction between service metadata and policies also helps maintaining a consistent model over runtime WSDL proliferation. Typically, policies are enforced by intermediaries, such as XML firewalls, enterprise service bus (ESB) or other WS-infrastructure. Each such intermediary offers a virtual service endpoint to the actual service implementation. Because different policies may be enforced at each endpoint and because of the different locations, the WSDL for each of these virtual service endpoints is different


Operating and processing conditions as well as the selection of the screw design in injection molding industry are largely based on trial-and-error exercise, which is expensive and time consuming. A better approach is to develop mathematical models for prediction of the final process performance where the conditions and parameters of a process can be used as inputs in those models. However, most of the models developed and used so far contain unrealistic geometrical and mathematical simplifications. The objective of this work is to develop a steady-state three dimensional mathematical model to describe the flow of an incompressible polymer melt inside a helical geometry, which represents the polymer's true motion in extrusion and injection molding processes. In order to develop the model in helical geometry, where at least two axes are not perpendicular, the mathematical model is first developed in a natural system (i.e. cylindrical) and using transformation tools are then changed to the physical helical one. In this initiative, we develop an iterative computational alogrithm based on shooting Newton-Raphson method in order to simulate the process. The transformation matrices to adapt the equations of change form a natural system (i.e. orthogonal cylindrical systems) to a physical system (i.e. Helical coordinates) are also developed for velocity and derivative profiles. Subsequently the solution approach to solve the indirectly coupled equations of change is explained and the simulation results are compared with experimental data. The simulation results are vallidated against data obtained from ten different experiments with an industrial injection molding machine, processing two different polymers - high density polyethylene (HDPE) and poly ethylene terephthalate (PET). It is observed that the simulation results are in good agreement with experimental data. This outcome demonstrates the utility of the developed mathematical model and simulation approach. Important features of this work are the consideration of the linear backward motion of the screw leading to calculation of proper process shot size and the incorporation of the tapering screw designs with upward and downward sections in the direction of the flow into the model. Another important feature in the development of the mathematical model is that the rheological and physical properties of plastic resins are not constant and change as the melt temperature changes during the process. From the standpoint of industrial practice, the direct benefit of this work is the ability to effectively calculate adequate shot size, recovery rate, and various state variables throughout the extent of the machine.


The main aim of this study was to identify the morphological characteristics, to determine the tendency in the physical structure, differences and similarities according to categories based on age of the Chilean team of Rhythmic Gymnastics. We performed an anthropometric analysis of 60 gymnasts, fractioned by categories: preschoolers and schoolers (n = 11), junior (n = 28) and senior (n = 21). The anthropometric analysis was determined based on the study of the body composition, through pentacompartimental fractionation method (Kerr), somatotype (Heath & Carter) and the body mass index (Quetelet). The results showed significant differences between preschoolers and schoolers and higher categories (junior and senior) in the general anthropometric variables of body mass, height and BMI. Regarding the body composition, we only found significant differences in the percentage of muscle mass between the preschoolers and schoolers when being compared with the other two categories. In the study of somatotype, the prevalence of ectomorphic categorization was only found in the preschoolers and schoolers (meso-ectomorph), while in the junior category a mesomorph-ectomorph somatotype was observed and a central type in the senior category. We conclude that the morphology of the selected Chilean Rhythmic gymnastics depends on the category, as observed in the anthropometric characteristics related to the body composition and somatotype. Therefore, this factor is not useful in establishing a clearer tendency in the morph structure for this sport at a national level.


Background Enhancing water provision services is a common target in forest restoration projects worldwide due to growing concerns over freshwater scarcity. However, whether or not forest cover expansion or restoration can improve water provision services is still unclear and highly disputed. Purpose The goal of this review is to provide a balanced and impartial assessment of the impacts of forest restoration and forest cover expansion on water yields as informed by the scientific literature. Potential sources of bias on the results of papers published are also examined. Data sources English, Spanish and Portuguese peer-review articles in Agricola, CAB Abstracts, ISI Web of Science, JSTOR, Google Scholar, and SciELO. Databases were searched through 2015. Search terms Intervention terms included forest restoration, regeneration/regrowth, forest second-growth, forestation/afforestation, and forestry. Target terms included water yield/quantity, streamflow, discharge, channel runoff, and annual flow. Study selection and eligibility criteria Articles were pre-selected based on key words in the title, abstract or text. Eligible articles addressed relevant interventions and targets and included quantitative information. Results Most studies reported decreases in water yields following the intervention, while other hydrological benefits have been observed. However, relatively few studies focused specifically on forest restoration, especially with native species, and/or on projects done at large spatial or temporal scales. Information is especially limited for the humid tropics and subtropics. Conclusions and implications of key findings While most studies reported a decrease in water yields, meta-analyses from a sub-set of studies suggest the potential influence of temporal and/or spatial scales on the outcomes of forest cover expansion or restoration projects. Given the many other benefits of forest restoration, improving our understanding of when and why forest restoration can lead to recovery of water yields is crucial to help improve positive outcomes and prevent unintended consequences. Our study identifies the critical types of studies and associated measurements needed.


The legal profession was hit particularly hard by the recent recession. Law firms laid off lawyers in record numbers, and law school graduates found few if any employment opportunities. Clients also started rethinking the terms of the lawyer-client relationship, at least in the larger law firm context. Some commentators suggest that these changes are indicative of things to come; that the legal profession is undergoing a long-overdue paradigm shift that will permanently change the nature of the legal profession. This Essay examines these developments through the lens of Larry Ribstein's The Death of Big Law and Richard Susskind's The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. It compares and contrasts Ribstein's and Susskind's analyses of the profession and assesses potential lessons for lawyers, clients, and legal educators. This Essay concludes by encouraging professionals to remain open to changes that improve efficiency and client service. It also stresses the value of preserving and promoting the hallmark of being a lawyer - that is, thinking like a lawyer.


Technological change has brought about rapid changes in the world of work over the past decade. The World Bank's World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work is a welcome contribution as it discusses the transformations that are taking place and tries to advise governments on how best to adapt to them. The report also brings out the concern related to the growing risks associated with tax evasion by large corporations that control the market power and have an ever-greater share of economic activity. However, the report is flawed in many ways as it portrays these changes in the nature of work as essentially benign, requiring "adaptation" and skills acquisition by workers facilitated by the provision of skills and "universal" social coverage by governments, with the latter understood as a prelude to labour-market deregulation. Such a narrow perspective ignores the growing body of research that points to very serious risks and challenges faced by workers in ensuring decent working conditions due to technological changes. This article provides a critique of the World Bank report by focusing on five areas related to technology and the future of work that are fundamental for ensuring minimum standards for workers and to ensure social cohesion: inequality, jobs, labour regulations, trade unions and social protection.
KEYWORDS future of work; technology; inequality; jobs; labour regulation; trade unions; social protection


High temperature oomycete Phytophthora parsiana is one of the causal agent of pistachio gummosis in Iran which originally was isolated from fig in Iran. Phytophthora hydropathica and P. irrigata two newly described high temperature species similar to P. parsiana were recently isolated from irrigation streams and some ornamental plants from USA .In the present study all three species produced chlamydospores in infected crown and root tissues of apricot.. No morphological differences were observed among species. Among woody plants inoculated Pistacia vera cv Sarakhs, almond and apricot were highly susceptible to all species. Pistacia mutica, P. khinjuk, walnut, fig and mango were susceptible to P. parsiana and P. hydropatica but P.vera cv Qazvini was infected only by P. hydropathical . Loquat ( Eriobotryae japonica) and Christ,thorn jupube (Zizyphus spina-christi ) were not infected by all species. All annual herbaceous plant species used none were infectd with all species.