Neo-Proterozoic (< 780 Ma) rocks in western North America compose a regionally persistent stratigraphic succession that contains basal sedimentary and volcanic rocks that accumulated during active faulting. In the Canadian Cordillera, the synrift component is overlain by a thick succession that includes shelf, shelf-edge, and basinal strata and implies substantial postrift subsidence. Although fragmentary in nature due to the effects of sub-cambrian erosion, when reconstructed the Canadian stratigraphic record is similar in thickness, facies, and lateral persistence to the overlying Cambrian-Ordovician passive margin. The neo-Proterozoic record of western North America is thus interpreted as a passive-margin succession, rather than a simple rift, which predates a younger rift that resulted in widespread early Paleozoic passive-margin sedimentation. If correct, this may imply that break-up of western Laurentia was a neo-Proterozoic phenomenon rather than early Paleozoic.


Background Illness accounts for a significant proportion of consultations with a team physician travelling with elite athletes. Objective To determine the incidence, type, cause and consequences of illness in Rugby Union players participating in a 16-week tournament. Setting 8 teams participating in the 2010 Super 14 Rugby tournament Participants A cohort of 259 elite rugby players from eight teams was recruited. Assessmen All players were followed daily over the 16-week competition period (22 676 player days). Each day, team physicians completed an illness log with 100% compliance. Information included the daily squad size and illness details including system affected, final diagnosis, type and onset of symptoms, training/match days lost and suspected cause. Main outcome measurement Incidence of illness (illness per 1000 player days). Results The incidence of illness in the cohort was 20.7/1000 player days (95% CI 18.5 to 23.1) with the highest incidence of illness in the respiratory system (6.4: 95% CI 5.5 to 7.3), gastrointestinal system (5.6: 95% CI 4.9 to 6.6) and the skin and subcutaneous tissue (4.6; 95% CI 4.0 to 5.4). Infections accounted for 54.5% of all illness and 26.1% of illness resulted in time loss of ≥1 day. In over 50% of illnesses, symptoms were present for ≥1 day before being reported to the team physician. Conclusion Infective illness involving the respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract together with dermatological illness was common in elite rugby players participating in this international tournament. A delay in reporting of symptoms >24 h could have important clinical implications in player medical care.


The paper studies large-dimention factor models with nonstationary factors and allows for deterministic trends and factors integrated of order higher then one.We follow the model speci.cation of Bai (2004) and derive the convergence rates and the limiting distributions of estimated factors, factors loadings and common components. We discuss in detail a model with a linear time trend. We ilustrate the theory with an empirical exmple that studies the fluctuations of the real activity of U.S.economy. We show that these .uctuationas can be explained by two nonstationary factors and a small number of stationary factors. We test the economic interpretation of nonstationary factors.


An Instructional Management and Leadership doctoral program (IML) incorporated the use of Twitter to examine what this looked like in practice. Did students actually use Twitter, and if so, how frequently, for what purpose(s), and were there differences between students on the pattern of use? Additionally, we sought to determine if Twitter is a legitimate instructional tool and if the use of Twitter can help mitigate feelings of isolation. Utilizing a descriptive case study design we implemented a survey methodology by distributing a modified version of the First Year Engagement Questionnaire to five IML cohorts. Active use of Twitter was infrequent. IML students used Twitter to gather news, follow experts, and find stimulating interactions. Active users and students who previously had a Twitter account were more positive about using Twitter. On average however, IML students were infrequent, passive Twitter users, aggregating information to supplement instruction. They did not use Twitter to reduce feelings of isolation. Female and male students used Twitter similarly. Younger students were more active than older students. Familiarity with the platform potentially moderates Twitter activity. Twitter has utility as a supplemental instructional tool but expanded use requires active student engagement.


This paper reports on a study of evaluation of online reference services (ORS). The paper focuses on the librarians' perception of the evaluation of online reference services of academic libraries in Nigeria. The study was guided by the following four objectives: to find out the extent of application of online reference services in academic libraries in Nigeria; to examine the benefits of using ORS in academic libraries in Nigeria, to identify the challenges associated with the use of ORS, and profer solutions for ameliorating the challenges faced by these academic libraries in Nigeria. The study adopted a survey design which was employed to derived responses from 198 librarians. Data were collected from the population using questionnaire. The statistical packages for social sciences(SPSS) was used to extract data while the data were presented with the help of 4-point Likert scale, mean and standard deviation. The result revealed that e-mail services ranked 1 in the overall application of ORS. Lack of ICT infrastructure to support ORS ranked first as reason for non-application of ORS. Most noted benefit is that it provides more alternatives and flexibility to users. Challenges include: lack of proper training on use of ICT infrastructure among libraries and lack of funds to support ORS.Recommendations were made at the end of the study.


The human parvovirus Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) type 2 can only replicate in cells co-infected with a helper virus, such as Adenovirus or Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1); whereas, in the absence of a helper virus, it establishes a latent infection. Previous studies demonstrated that the ternary HSV-1 helicase/primase (HP) complex (UL5/8/52) and the single-stranded DNA-Binding Protein (ICP8) were sufficient to induce AAV-2 replication in transfected cells. We independently showed that, in the context of a latent AAV-2 infection, the HSV-1 ICP0 protein was able to activate rep gene expression. The present study was conducted to integrate these observations and to further explore the requirement of other HSV-1 proteins during early AAV replication steps, i.e. rep gene expression and AAV DNA replication. Using a cellular model that mimics AAV latency and composite constructs coding for various sets of HSV-1 genes, we first confirmed the role of ICP0 for rep gene expression and demonstrated a synergistic effect of ICP4 and, to a lesser extent, ICP22. Conversely, ICP27 displayed an inhibitory effect. Second, our analyses showed that the effect of ICP0, ICP4, and ICP22 on rep gene expression was essential for the onset of AAV DNA replication in conjunction with the HP complex and ICP8. Third, and most importantly, we demonstrated that the HSV-1 DNA polymerase complex (UL30/UL42) was critical to enhance AAV DNA replication to a significant level in transfected cells and that its catalytic activity was involved in this process. Altogether, this work represents the first comprehensive study recapitulating the series of early events taking place during HSV-1–induced AAV replication.


The hotel and restaurant sector (hereafter called the hospitality industry), as a modern economic activity was shaped after World War Two and is closely linked with the development of mass tourism and the rapid growth of the airline industry. The hospitality and tourism industries together, are the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated that hospitality and tourism are directly and indirectly responsible for 11% of gross domestic product, 200 million jobs, 8% of total employment and 5.5 million new jobs per year up to 2010. Today, the hospitality industry is a steadily growing sector, generating a significant number of jobs globally.
The sector has proven to be extremely resilient to the global economic crisis and the volatile business environment. The rapid development and expansion in traditional destinations such as Europe and North America as well as new markets, such as the Middle East and Asia, requires the preparation and development of the future generation of hotel and restaurant managers (hereafter called hospitality managers). Given the growing demand for skilled hospitality managers, the numbers of enrollments in undergraduate hospitality, tourism and leisure programs (HTLPs) has increased significantly since the 1980s. For example, the National Centre for Education Statistics reported that numbers of HTLPs have rapidly grown in the USA, increasing from 128 in 1986 to 307 in 2010. Nowadays, hospitality management programs are a well-established part of tertiary management education (higher, post-secondary or further education) and it is expected to grow bigger in the following years. This entry explores the hospitality management curriculum approaches in terms of structure, content and future developments.


Objectives The risk of active tuberculosis increases in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving antitumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) therapy. Longitudinal data concerning serial interferon γ (IFNγ) assays for detecting tuberculosis have been limited. This study investigated the time course of the development of active tuberculosis, and evaluated the utility of serial QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-G) assays for detecting its emergence in RA patients undergoing long-term anti-TNFα therapy. Methods 242 RA patients who received anti-TNFα therapy and serial QFT-G assays were prospectively evaluated. QFT-G was performed by measuring IFNγ levels in whole blood treated with tuberculosis-specific antigens. Results Among 242 RA patients, 75 (31.0%) had a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) and 45 (18.6%) had positive QFT-G results, with another nine (3.7%) showing indeterminate QFT-G assay. Isoniazid prophylaxis was given to 37 patients with TST+/QFT-G+ results and 24 TST+/QFT-G− patients with TST induration diameter ≧10 mm. Four patients (three with baseline QFT-G+ results) developed tuberculosis within the first 3 months of anti-TNFα therapy, whereas five patients with baseline TST−/QFT-G− results developed active tuberculosis after 20–24 months' anti-TNFα therapy. Progressively rising levels of released IFNγ (2.17±0.98 vs 5.93±2.92 IU/ml in early secretory antigenic target-6-stimulated well; 1.12±0.84 vs 2.96±1.02 IU/ml in culture filtrate protein-10-stimulated well) were observed in those who developed tuberculosis early in anti-TNFα therapy. QFT-G conversion was found in baseline QFT-G-negative patients who developed tuberculosis late in treatment. Conclusion The emergence of active tuberculosis follows a biphasic pattern. Persistently high levels of released IFNγ or QFT-G conversion strongly indicate the development of active tuberculosis in patients undergoing long-term anti-TNFα therapy.


Overcurrent abuse has been performed on commercial 48 Ah primary prismatic zinc (Zn)–Air battery cells with full air supply as well as with shut-off air supply. Compared to other battery technologies, e.g., lithium-ion batteries, metal–air batteries offer the possibility to physically stop the battery operation by stopping its air supply, thus offering an additional protection against severe battery damage in the case of, e.g., an accidental short circuit. This method may also reduce the electrical hazard in a larger battery system since, by stopping the air supply, the voltage can be brought to zero while maintaining the energy capacity of the battery. Measurements of overdischarge currents and current cut-off by suffocation have been performed to assess the safety of this type of Zn–air battery. The time to get to zero battery voltage is shown to mainly be determined by the volume of air trapped in the cell.


Abstract The Queen Charlotte Fault defines the Pacific–North America transform plate boundary in western Canada and southeastern Alaska for c. 900 km. The entire length of the fault is submerged along a continental margin dominated by Quaternary glacial processes, yet the geomorphology along the margin has never been systematically examined due to the absence of high-resolution seafloor mapping data. Hence the geological processes that influence the distribution, character and timing of mass transport events and their associated hazards remain poorly understood. Here we develop a classification of the first-order shape of the continental shelf, slope and rise to examine potential relationships between form and process dominance. We found that the margin can be split into six geomorphic groups that vary smoothly from north to south between two basic end-members. The northernmost group (west of Chichagof Island, Alaska) is characterized by concave-upwards slope profiles, gentle slope gradients (<6°) and relatively low along-strike variance, all features characteristic of sediment-dominated siliciclastic margins. Dendritic submarine canyon/channel networks and retrogressive failure complexes along relatively gentle slope gradients are observed throughout the region, suggesting that high rates of Quaternary sediment delivery and accumulation played a fundamental part in mass transport processes. Individual failures range in area from 0.02 to 70 km2 and display scarp heights between 10 and 250 m. Transpression along the Queen Charlotte Fault increases southwards and the slope physiography is thus progressively more influenced by regional-scale tectonic deformation. The southernmost group (west of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia) defines the tectonically dominated end-member: the continental slope is characterized by steep gradients (>20°) along the flanks of broad, margin-parallel ridges and valleys. Mass transport features in the tectonically dominated areas are mostly observed along steep escarpments and the larger slides (up to 10 km2) appear to be failures of consolidated material along the flanks of tectonic features. Overall, these observations highlight the role of first-order margin physiography on the distribution and type of submarine landslides expected to occur in particular morphological settings. The sediment-dominated end-member allows for the accumulation of under-consolidated Quaternary sediments and shows larger, more frequent slides; the rugged physiography of the tectonically dominated end-member leads to sediment bypass and the collapse of uplifted tectonic features. The maximum and average dimensions of slides are an order of magnitude smaller than those of slides observed along other (passive) glaciated margins. We propose that the general patterns observed in slide distribution are caused by the interplay between tectonic activity (long- and short-term) and sediment delivery. The recurrence (<100 years) of M > 7 earthquakes along the Queen Charlotte Fault may generate small, but frequent, failures of under-consolidated Quaternary sediments within the sediment-dominated regions. By contrast, the tectonically dominated regions are characterized by the bypass of Quaternary sediments to the continental rise and the less frequent collapse of steep, uplifted and consolidated sediments.


Problem statement: Low complexity image compression algorithms are necessary for modern portable devices such as mobile phones, wireless sensor networks and high constraint power consumption devices. In such applications low bit rate along with an acceptable image quality are an essential requirements. Approach: This study proposes low and moderate complexity algorithms for colour image compression. Two algorithms will be presented; the first one is intensity based adaptive quantization coding, while the second is a combination of discrete wavelet transforms and the intensity based adaptive quantization coding algorithm. Adaptive quantization coding produces a good Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), but with high bit rates compared with other low complex algorithms. The presented algorithms produce low bit rate whilst preserving the PSNR and image quality at an acceptable range. Results: Experiments were performed using different kinds of standard colour images, a multi level quantizer, different thresholds, different block sizes and different wavelet filters. Both algorithms considered the intensity variation of each colour plane. At high compression ratios the proposed algorithms produced 1-3 bpp bit rate reduction against the stand alone adaptive quantization coding for the same image quality. This reduction was achieved due to dropping of some blocks that claimed to be low intensity variation according to a comparison with predefined thresholds for each colour plane. The results show that the bit rate can be reduced by 72-88% for each low variation image block from the original bit rate. Conclusion: The results obtained show a good reduction in bit rate with the same PSNR, or a slightly less than PSNR of a standalone adaptive quantization coding algorithm. Further bit rate reduction has been achieved by decomposing the input image using different wavelet filters and intensity based adaptive quantization coding. The proposed algorithm comprises a number of parameters to control the performance of the compressed images.


We discuss in this paper the numerical approximation of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems dealing with strong added-mass effect. We propose new semi-implicit algorithms based on inexact block-$LU$ factorization of the linear system obtained after the space-time discretization and linearization of the FSI problem. As a result, the fluid velocity is computed separately from the coupled pressure-structure velocity system at each iteration, reducing the computational cost. We investigate explicit-implicit decomposition through algebraic splitting techniques originally designed for the FSI problem. This approach leads to two different families of methods which extend to FSI the algebraic pressure correction method and the Yosida method, two schemes that were previously adopted for pure fluid problems. Furthermore, we have considered the inexact factorization of the fluid-structure system as a preconditioner. The numerical properties of these methods have been tested on a model problem representing a blood-vessel system.


Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy has a role in minimizing the complications of peptic ulcer disease, namely, bleeding, perforation, and obstruction. However, the precise role of H. pylori eradication therapy in the complicated ulcers remains inconclusive, especially in perforation and gastric outlet obstruction. The prevalence of H. pylori in peptic ulcer bleeding patients has been widely underestimated owing to the differences in diagnostic tests and patient characteristics, and hence, it is recommended that an initial negative test should be followed up by a delayed repeat testing to rule out false negativity. It is well established now that eradication of H. pylori in patients with bleeding ulcers reduces rebleeding and ulcer recurrence. Multiple studies have attributed high recurrence rates of duodenal ulcer following simple closure to a high prevalence of H. pylori infection. Eradication therapy decreases the recurrence rate of perforated ulcers, thus justifying the role of H. pylori eradication therapy following the primary surgical management of perforated ulcers. The role of H. pylori in duodenal ulcer with gastric outlet obstruction is yet to be evaluated clearly. There are some reports of resolution of gastric outlet obstruction following therapy for H. pylori, obviating the need for surgery. Clarithromycin-containing regimens are recommended as first-line in areas of low resistance, whereas bismuth-containing quadruple therapy is the first-line empirical treatment in areas of high clarithromycin resistance. Treatment of H. pylori is beneficial in most of the patients with complicated peptic ulcer disease, especially in reducing recurrence of ulcer with or without complications.


Context: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important gender-based, social, and public health problem, affecting women globally. Aims: The aim was to report the prevalence of IPV and describe the coping strategies of the victims. Settings and Design: It was conducted in the general outpatient clinic of a tertiary care hospital using a cross-sectional design. Materials and Methods: A random sample of consenting women living in an intimate partnership for a minimum of 1 year were served with a three part structured questionnaire which sought information on sociodemographic characteristics, the experience of IPV and the Brief COPE Inventory. Statistical Analysis Used: SPSS version 17.0 software, Microsoft word and Excel were used in data handling and analysis. Means, percentages, standard deviations, and Chi-square were calculated. P < 0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: Of the 384 participants, 161 (41.9%) were physically abused. IPV was significantly common among women ≤40 years of age, married couples (78.5%), unemployed and in Christians. It was precipitated by argument with husband (19.25%) and financial demands (44.10%). The employed coping strategy with the highest score was religion. The least score was found in substance abuse. Conclusion: There was significantly high prevalence of domestic violence against women in this study. Hence, routine screening is advocated by family physicians to elicit abuse in order to avoid the more devastating psychological consequences after the incidence so as to institute appropriate treatment as multiple episodes of abuse appears to be cumulative in effect. The reason for violence mainly borders around the argument with husband and finance issues. The coping strategies utilized by the participants minimally involve substance abuse, but more of a religion.


A variety of logical frameworks supports the use of higher order abstract syntax in representing formal systems. Although these systems seem superficially the same, they differ in a variety of ways, for example, how they handle a context of assumptions and which theorems about a given formal system can be concisely expressed and proved. Our contributions in this paper are two-fold: (1) We develop a common infrastructure and language for describing benchmarks for systems supporting reasoning with binders, and (2) we present several concrete benchmarks, which highlight a variety of different aspects of reasoning within a context of assumptions. Our work provides the background for the qualitative comparison of different systems that we have completed in a separate paper. It also allows us to outline future fundamental research questions regarding the design and implementation of meta-reasoning systems.


Abstract. Current input technologies for wearable computers are difficult to use and learn and can be unreliable. Physical interfaces offer an alternative to traditional input methods. In this paper we propose that developing a well-designed physical interface requires an exploration of the psychological idea of affordance. We present our findings from a design study in which we explore the natural affordance of a cube and suggest possible requirements for the design of graspable cubeshaped physical interfaces as alternative rich-action input device. We expect that such a framework will enhance the precision and usability of devices for wearable and mobile computing.


Nocturnal Sphingidae (hawkmoths or sphinx moths) are important pollinators in tropical forests. Hawkmoth flowers are typically white to the human eye. As the retinas of hawkmoths contain ultraviolet-sensitive photoreceptors, flower patterns reflecting ultraviolet wavelengths (that are not visible to humans) might be significant to sphingid feeding behavior. The flowers of ten hawkmoth-pollinated species were examined with an ultraviolet sensitive video system in Monteverde, Costa Rica. All were found to lack ultraviolet reflectance. A common hawkmoth species, Manduca sexta, whose range extends to Costa Rica was then used in laboratory free choice experiments to determine which wavelengths elicited proboscis extension, probing and drinking of sugar water. When offered a choice between artificial flowers or backlighted filters, Manduca strongly preferred to feed at those reflecting or transmitting only wavelengths longer than 400 nm, avoiding those that also included ultraviolet wavelengths. That is, feeding behavior was best elicited by stimuli that mimicked the reflectance of typical hawkmoth flowers. Feeding behavior must be primarily activated by either the green- or violet-sensitive mechanisms (or both) of the hawkmoth visual system, while concurrent activation of the ultraviolet-sensitive mechanism interferes with it.


Forest dynamics are highly dimensional phenomena that are not fully understood theoretically. Forest inventory datasets offer unprecedented opportunities to model these dynamics, but they are analytically challenging due to high dimensionality and sampling irregularities across years. We develop a data-intensive methodology for predicting forest stand dynamics using such datasets. Our methodology involves the following steps: 1) computing stand level characteristics from individual tree measurements, 2) reducing the characteristic dimensionality through analyses of their correlations, 3) parameterizing transition matrices for each uncorrelated dimension using Gibbs sampling, and 4) deriving predictions of forest developments at different timescales. Applying our methodology to a forest inventory database from Quebec, Canada, we discovered that four uncorrelated dimensions were required to describe the stand structure: the biomass, biodiversity, shade tolerance index and stand age. We were able to successfully estimate transition matrices for each of these dimensions. The model predicted substantial short-term increases in biomass and longer-term increases in the average age of trees, biodiversity, and shade intolerant species. Using highly dimensional and irregularly sampled forest inventory data, our original data-intensive methodology provides both descriptions of the short-term dynamics as well as predictions of forest development on a longer timescale. This method can be applied in other contexts such as conservation and silviculture, and can be delivered as an efficient tool for sustainable forest management.


The objective of proposed research is development of catalysts with enhanced slurry phase activity and better selectivity to fuel range products, through a more detailed understanding and systematic studies of the effects of pretreatment procedures and promoters/binders (silica) on catalyst performance.


"Does music actually touch your heart?" Yes, it actually does. It has been shown that fast paced music increases heart rate and slow paced music decreases heart rate. The purpose of our experiment was to determine whether or not the two different kinds of music affect heart rate of adults in a high school setting. Thirty subjects above the age of 18 years were chosen randomly from the school. They were required to listen to two different songs with one being slow and the other being fast and upbeat, for a time period of 2.5 minutes each. The subject's heart rate was taken before and after each song (4 times total) with a resting period of 1 minute between songs to allow the heart rate to recover back to a steady state. We hypothesized that slow music would decrease heart rate whereas fast music would accelerate it. The results at the end of our experiment showed that 93% of subjects experienced a decrease in heart rate following the slow song and 100% of subjects experienced an increase in heart rate following the fast song. We concluded that there is, indeed, a relationship between music and heart rate.


In C3 plants, photorespiration is an energy-expensive process, including the oxygenation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) by ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) and the ensuing multi-organellar photorespiratory pathway required to recycle the toxic byproducts and recapture a portion of the fixed carbon. Photorespiration significantly impacts crop productivity through reducing yields in C3 crops by as much as 50% under severe conditions. Thus, reducing the flux through, or improving the efficiency of photorespiration has the potential of large improvements in C3 crop productivity. Here, we review an array of approaches intended to engineer photorespiration in a range of plant systems with the goal of increasing crop productivity. Approaches include optimizing flux through the native photorespiratory pathway, installing non-native alternative photorespiratory pathways, and lowering or even eliminating Rubisco-catalyzed oxygenation of RuBP to reduce substrate entrance into the photorespiratory cycle. Some proposed designs have been successful at the proof of concept level. A plant systems-engineering approach, based on new opportunities available from synthetic biology to implement in silico designs, holds promise for further progress toward delivering more productive crops to farmer's fields.


Worldwide, up to 20% of children and adolescents experience mental disorders, which are the leading cause of disability in young people. Research shows that serum zonulin levels are associated with increased intestinal permeability (IP), affecting neural, hormonal, and immunological pathways. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize evidence from observational studies on IP in children diagnosed with mental disorders. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic search of the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, PubMed, and the Web of Science identified 833 records. Only non-intervention (i.e., observational) studies in children (<18 years) diagnosed with mental disorders, including a relevant marker of intestinal permeability, were included. Five studies were selected, with the risk of bias assessed according to the Newcastle–Ottawa scale (NOS). Four articles were identified as strong and one as moderate, representing altogether 402 participants providing evidence on IP in children diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). In ADHD, elevated serum zonulin levels were associated with impaired social functioning compared to controls. Children with ASD may be predisposed to impair intestinal barrier function, which may contribute to their symptoms and clinical outcome compared to controls. Children with ASD, who experience gastro-intestinal (GI) symptoms, seem to have an imbalance in their immune response. However, in children with OCD, serum zonulin levels were not significantly different compared to controls, but serum claudin-5, a transmembrane tight-junction protein, was significantly higher. A meta-analysis of mean zonulin plasma levels of patients and control groups revealed a significant difference between groups (p = 0.001), including the four studies evaluating the full spectrum of the zonulin peptide family. Therefore, further studies are required to better understand the complex role of barrier function, i.e., intestinal and blood–brain barrier, and of inflammation, to the pathophysiology in mental and neurodevelopmental disorders. This review was PROSPERO preregistered, (162208).


Reversible logic circuits of certain logic width form a group, isomorphic to a symmetric group. Its Young Subgroups allow systematic synthesis of an arbitrary reversible circuit. We can choose either a left coset, right coset, or double coset approach. The tools are beneficial to both classical and quantum computers.


We document strong comovement in the stock returns of firms headquartered in the same geographic area. Moreover, stocks of companies that change their headquarters location experience a decrease in their comovement with stocks from the old location and an increase in their comovement with stocks from the new location. The local comovement of stock returns is not explained by economic fundamentals and is stronger for smaller firms with more individual investors and in regions with less financially sophisticated residents. We argue that price formation in equity markets has a significant geographic component linked to the trading patterns of local residents.


Digital images are becoming increasingly successful thanks to the development and the facilitated access to systems permitting their generation (i.e. camera, scanner, imaging software, etc). A digital image basically corresponds to a 2D discrete set of regularly spaced samples, called pixels, where each pixel contains the light intensity information (e.g., luminance, chrominance) of a very localized spatial region of the image. In the case of natural images, pixel values are acquired through one or several arrays of MOS semiconductors (Charge Couple Devices, CCDs), each generating an electrical information proportional to the incoming light intensity. The initial finalities of digital images were the storage on a dedicated medium (e.g., camera's memory, computer's hard drive, CDROM), eventual transmissions, and final display on a screen or printing. With such a narrow scope, the principal goal of image processing and coding tools was to face storage and transmission bandwidth limitations thanks to efficient compression algorithms reducing the image representation size. However, with recent developments in computing, algorithmic and telecommunication domains, many new applications (i.e. web-publishing, remote browsing etc.) have arisen. They generally require additional and enhanced features (i.e. progressive decoding, random-access, region of interest support, robustness to transmission errors, etc.) and have motivated the creation of a new generation of coding algorithms which, besides their good compression performance, present many other useful features. Hence, digital images are almost never represented as a simple set of pixel values (i.e. raw representation) but, instead, under a specific compact way (i.e. compressed or coded representation), chosen according to features it brings to the considered application. A compressed version of an image is obtained by removing as much spatial, visual and statistical redundancies as possible, thanks to appropriate coding methods, while keeping an acceptable visual quality. Noting that natural images have most of their energy concentrated in low frequency components, recent coding algorithms generally first decompose the image into a specific frequency domain DCT, DWT, etc). The goal is to obtain a representation, where few coefficients are sufficient for reconstructing the image with a good quality. The precision of transformed coefficients is then generally reduced by quantization in order to make them more compressible by an entropy coder, aiming at removing statistical redundancies of quantization indexes. The ultimate compressed representation, called codestream, is usually obtained by a rate-allocation process that tries to achieve the best trade-off between the compression ratio and the reconstructed image quality. JPEG 2000, the new still image coding standard developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group JPEG), is based on these state-of-the-art compression techniques, but is also designed to fulfill many requirements of recent applications. It only normalizes the decoding algorithm and consequently let some liberty for designing encoders optimized for some specific features or for building extensions that take profit from its compressed domain specifics. The success of the JPEG 2000 standard will not only depend on its intrinsic performance, but also on its ability to comply with specific demands of actual and future imaging applications. Thus, among the major concerns of image content providers are the security of the transmission over networks and of the image itself: with current facilities to instantly access on-line digital libraries from anywhere in the world, to perfectly copy and to easily modify the content of an image, solutions must be found in order to permit, at one hand, Intellectual Property Right (IPR) protection and image integrity verification and, at the other hand, the development of dedicated tools favoring exchange and purchase of images over communication networks. It is worth pointing out that some cryptographic-based solutions to these problems already exist. However, they need to be adapted to the digital image and its compressed domain representation in order to take full advantage from their specifics and to avoid restraining fields of applications. The JPEG 2000 coding algorithm is mainly based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), embedded scalar quantization and adaptive arithmetic coding. From a terminology point of view, this means that compressed domain representation can indifferently refer to either wavelet coefficients, or quantized wavelet coefficients, or bit streams (i.e. entropy coded group of quantization indexes) or the codestream (i.e. aggregation of bit streams and headers containing necessary decoding information). The choice of the appropriate compressed domain actually depends on the considered application. The quality of a JPEG 2000 image, at a given compression ratio, mainly depends on the rate-allocation procedure used at the encoder side. Such a procedure applies on entropy coded quantization indexes and favors groups of quantization indexes (i.e. code-blocks) offering the best rate-distortion trade-offs. However, this does not necessary correspond to the most interesting part of the image, from an end-observer point of view. Hence, the standard provides with ways to define Regions Of Interest (ROI) which are prioritized during the encoding process in order to exhibit a higher quality than the rest (i.e. background) at any decoding time. This feature applies either in the quantized wavelet domain or at the bit stream level, but its parameters are generally not very explicit for a standard end-user and only provide with a rough control of the decoded ROI quality. Consequently, the first objective of this thesis is to create and also extend compressed domain tools for controlling the quality of a JPEG 2000 ROI. In the meantime, several image processing techniques, such as watermarking, are applied directly in the spatial domain or in a specific transform space defined from the spatial domain. However, since digital images are preferably available under a compressed/encoded format, which we assume to be JPEG 2000 in this thesis, their implementation first imply decompressing the image, then apply the considered processing task and finally re-encode the resulting image. Such a scheme has two main drawbacks: First, it generally implies time and complexity overheads compared to equivalent methods (if they exist) in the JPEG 2000 compressed domain. Such effects become important when the scheme is repeatedly applied on multiple images. Second, since encoding and decoding operations are generally lossy, the introduced distortion can become non negligible whenever several processing tasks are repeated on a same image. These observations lead to the second objective of this thesis, which is to adapt or create a watermarking algorithm dedicated to the JPEG 2000 compressed domain. Finally, there are imaging algorithms, such as authentication and access control, that already exist and could be directly applied to JPEG 2000 images but, because they do not take into account the coding algorithm specifics, they either decrease compression performance or remove useful features of the encoded representation (scalability, random access, etc). This leads to the third objective of this thesis, which is to adapt, create and combine authentication and access control algorithms with JPEG 2000 coding and decoding. Thus, the common goal of the three objectives described above is the deep integration of selected processing and security algorithms into a JPEG 2000 codec in order to provide with minimum complexity, JPEG 2000 compliant codestreams and an unified framework for many imaging applications.


The purpose of this paper is to fabricate a model of human knee joint, bone whose raw image data's were obtained from a computerized tomography machine using Stratasys "U Print SE Plus" 3D printer based on fused deposition modeling technique and validate the design by comparing the reproduced bone models with the original human knee joint bones and which will lead to detailed pre surgical studies and initiating step in implantation techniques. An integrated approach of imaging technology, segmentation using MIMICS software package and rapid prototyping technology was adopted in order to construct the human knee joint bones. Models of all the human knee joint bones- the femur, tibia, fibula and patella were constructed. The Patella bone in specific was constructed exactly as the same size of the original patella bone and was qualitatively validated by an expert anatomist and found to be satisfactory in design and the surface finish which may possibly be affected by mesh generation during a constructing phase in MIMICS software. As far as limitations are concerned, the femur, tibia and fibula bones exceeded the maximum dimensions of the "U Print SE Plus" 3D printer (203 x 203 x 152 mm). Followed by another limitation is that ABS plus – P430 and P400 thermoplastic are the only compatible material and other materials such as ABS-M30, PC-ABS, PC, Nylon 12 are not compatible with the machine. This paper deliberates a 3D visualization of the human knee bone model, particularly the patella which is constructed in its original size and was found to be validated. The present study enhances the versatility of fabricating bone models by RP for implantation as well for pre complex surgical studies.


Symbolic model checkers can construct proofs of safety properties over complex models, but when a proof succeeds, the results do not generally provide much insight to the user. Recently, proof cores (alternately, for inductive model checkers, Inductive Validity Cores (IVCs)) were introduced to trace a property to a minimal set of model elements necessary for proof. Minimal IVCs facilitate several engineering tasks, including performing traceability and analyzing requirements completeness, that usually rely on the minimality of IVCs. However, existing algorithms for generating an IVC are either expensive or only able to find an approximately minimal IVC. Besides minimality, computing all minimal IVCs of a given property is an interesting problem that provides several useful analyses, including regression analysis for testing/proof, determination of the minimum (as opposed to minimal) number of model elements necessary for proof, the diversity examination of model elements leading to proof, and analyzing fault tolerance. This paper proposes an efficient method for finding all minimal IVCs of a given property proving its correctness and completeness. We benchmark our algorithm against existing IVC-generating algorithms and show, in many cases, the cost of finding all minimal IVCs by our technique is similar to finding a single minimal IVC using existing algorithms.


Much work has been done in recent years developing software engineering curricula. SE research has traditionally focused on the needs of very large corporations undertaking equally mammoth and complex development projects, consequently, current curricula tend to focus on this model. Yet by far the majority of software development is undertaken by Small to Medium Enterprises. The rise of the internet as a platform for commercial applications has partly driven this move away from monolithic software development. Depending on the nature of the application itself many of these products can be described as 'critical' with the failure of such a product more likely to involve substantial losses for the customer. Many of these smaller development efforts are either undertaken with little or no adherence to any SE standard process or by attempting to tailor processes intended for larger organizations. Neither of these alternatives is ideal, with both introducing new elements of risk. One of the newer elements of risk includes the possibility of litigation. While current curricula already include elements of ethics and social responsibility, the changing nature of both development teams and today's software products places today's software engineer in a position where litigation is a very real possibility. In this paper we discuss the factors contributing to the possibility of litigation in detail, and suggest that consideration of legal consequences of decision-making should be included as a vital part of teaching software engineers about risk management.


President George W. Bush initiated several major policy reversals that involve administrative politics. For example, in June 2002, he gave a national address promoting the creation of a Department of Homeland Security after having long opposed a cabinet-level office for domestic security. This speech and the president's subsequent actions helped create the office with features he desired (Canes-Wrone 2006; Maltzman and Adams 2003). Four years later, only a day after the Democrats had gained majorities in the House and Senate, Bush again abruptly initiated a significant administrative change. This time, he fired Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld despite having claimed a week before that Rumsfeld would remain in office for the remainder of the term (Gerstenzang 2006). Political commentators were quick to declare that public opinion drove these policy switches. In the case of the Department for Homeland Security, observers maintained the decision was motivated by polling data that suggested the administration was not adequately addressing the threat of terrorism (Balz 2002; Bettelheim and Barshay 2002). In the case of Rumsfeld, Bush suggested that public opinion was a factor. Speaking to the press the day after the midterm elections, Bush surmised that "many Americans voted to register their displeasure at the lack of progress we are making [in Iraq]" and announced that the Pentagon needed a "fresh perspective" that would involve new leadership (Bush 2006). One might expect scholarship to shed light on whether these incidents fit general patterns of how public opinion affects presidents' decisions regarding the federal bureaucracy. After all, in recent years, the literature on the administrative presidency has produced a wealth of systematic knowledge about a range of topics, including the politicization of appointments (e.g., Lewis 2008; Moe 1985b), presidential control of the bureaucracy (e.g., Aberbach and Rockman 2000; Hammond and Knott 1996; Wood and Waterman 1991), budgetary politics (e.g., Carpenter 1996; Krause 1996), and White House centralization (e.g., Rudalevige 2002). Yet scant attention has been paid to the ways in which a president's public relations affect his (or her) decisions and behavior with respect to the federal bureaucracy. A couple of studies suggest that lower personal approval ratings increase the likelihood that a president will issue executive orders (e.g., Deering and Maltzman 1999; Mayer 1999). (1) A few other studies, which I will review in the next section, analyze the relationship between personal popularity and the appointments process. Finally, Whitford and Yates (2003) find that presidents' public statements about drug control policy have affected the willingness of U.S. attorneys to prosecute narcotics-related cases. In sum, we know exceedingly little about how presidents' public relations affect administrative politics. When will presidents create new agencies to satisfy public pressure to "do something" about a problem? How, if at all, are agencies that have been created to satisfy such public pressure likely to differ from others? And what are the consequences of these answers for the size and organization of the federal bureaucracy? Likewise, under what conditions, and for what types of appointments, is public opinion apt to affect the president's choice of nominee or the prospect of confirmation? And when does public opinion provoke presidents to fire officials? The dearth of scholarship on such questions is striking, particularly given the emphasis in the literature on the establishment of a public or plebiscitary presidency (e.g., Lowi 1985; Skowronek 1993). Research suggests that chief executives have increasingly utilized opinion polls for a variety of purposes (e.g., Geer 1996; Jacobs and Shapiro 1995) and taken presidential-legislative debates to the public (Canes-Wrone 2006; Edwards 2003; Kernell 2007; Tulis 1987). Also, many studies indicate that personal popularity increases a president's influence with Congress (e. …


To examine the effect of soaking in ozonated water (OW) on development of adventitious roots, basal ends of chrysanthemum cuttings (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) were soaked in 1, 3 or 5 mg L−1 OW, in an indol-3-butyric acid (IBA) solution prepared from a commercial root promoting agent or in distilled water (DW). At 20 day after transplanting (DAT), a significant increase in adventitious root number (ARN) was observed in the IBA-treated cuttings but early root elongation was delayed. When soaked in the 5 mg L−1 OW, ARN and total root length (TRL) grown over 40 mm were increased with a decrease in soaking duration (from 50 to 5 min). Lateral root number (LRN) of the cuttings soaked in the 3 mg L−1 OW for 1 h showed four times higher than that of the DW treatment at 19 DAT. Optimal combination of dissolved ozone concentration and soaking duration can promote early root elongation and LRN of chrysanthemum cuttings. From a comprehensive standpoint, a high DOC of OW with a short soaking duration (3 mg L−1 × 1 h and 5 mg L−1 × 5 min) worked as well as IBA for adventitious rooting of chrysanthemum cuttings. These findings indicate that ozonated water can be an alternative to root promotion agents for adventitious rooting of chrysanthemum cuttings.


Background: Quantitave research and systematic reviews have long supported the pivotal role of emotions in the development and maintenance of bulimia nervosa (BN). However, few are the qualitative studies examining the relationship between affect and the bulimic cycle.Aims: The current study aims to gain an in depth understanding of the experienced positive emotions and their interaction with beliefs and behaviors of bulimic individuals. It is focused on the experiences of women in order to achieve sample homogeneity and attempts to explore the perceived positive emotions and their association with different parts of the bulimic cycle, as well as their impact on various aspects of the disorder.Method: Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 5 women who have been diagnosed with BN and were undergoing treatment for their disorder. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methods.Results: Participants interpreted binge eating as a practice to fill the void they felt from the absence of positive emotions and situations. It also served as a transformation technique to concretize these situations into something manageable by them. Self induced vomiting and extreme exercise provided comfort and catharsis as short term results but also instilled faith, hope and optimism for the future. Bulimia as a whole was experienced as a valuable companion and friend, allowing freedom for the true self to emerge and provided a sense of normality to self and others.Conclusion: Bulimia was conceptualized as the bearer of many positive attributes into bulimic individuals' lives and disordered eating behaviors seemed to play a significant role to the resilience, perpetuation and secretive nature of BN.


A probabilistic finite element analysis procedure for laminated composite shells has been developed. A total Lagrangian finite element formulation, employing a degenerated 3-D laminated composite shell with the full Green-Lagrange strains and first-order shear deformable kinematics, forms the modeling foundation. The first-order second-moment technique for probabilistic finite element analysis of random fields is employed and results are presented in the form of mean and variance of the structural response. The effects of material nonlinearity are included through the use of a rate-independent anisotropic plasticity formulation with the macroscopic point of view. Both ply-level and micromechanics-level random variables can be selected, the latter by means of the Aboudi micromechanics model. A number of sample problems are solved to verify the accuracy of the procedures developed and to quantify the variability of certain material type/structure combinations. Experimental data is compared in many cases, and the Monte Carlo simulation method is used to check the probabilistic results. In general, the procedure is quite effective in modeling the mean and variance response of the linear and nonlinear behavior of laminated composite shells.


Despite the hundreds of existing stone fruit (Prunus spp.) cultivars used for fresh market, there is a continuing need to develop new stone fruit cultivars as the requirements of the industry change. Over the last 20 years there has been a shift toward private breeding as the public sector decreases its support of these longrange programs. As a result there are fewer public breeding programs and many of those still operating protect their releases and partially fund their programs with royalty payments. Other trends that are shaping the development of new stone fruit cultivars are a need for smaller or more easily managed tree architecture, a trend toward the use of fewer agricultural chemicals, the expansion of production zones into the milder winter zones to allow year-round availability of stone fruit, a general diversifi cation of fruit types being marketed, the increased awareness of the health benefi ts of fruit consumption, the need for better and more consistent quality, and given the global marketing of these fruit the increased need for enhanced postharvest qualities. The breeding programs of the world are responding to these trends and working toward developing the cultivars for the world markets of the future.


We find 'sticky' 2D diffusion of poly-L-lysine–polyethylene glycol (PLL–PEG) coated silica colloids sedimented onto a brush of long, double stranded λ-DNA. The interaction is hypothesised to be hydrophobic, due to known physical properties of single and double stranded DNA and the systematic elimination of other known forces. The colloids are found to have variable affinity to the surface when prepared at different pH, even when the electrostatic environment of the brush is kept identical. Varied diffusive behaviour is observed: the diffusivity increases when the incubation pH is higher, and fewer beads are stuck to the brush surface. This sensitivity is found to agree with a simple model for the adsorption conditions of the PLL on the silica spheres. The significance of hydrophobicity is confirmed by capping the ssDNA 'sticky' end of the DNA, leading to a drastic enhancement of diffusivity of the particles on the brush.


Hybrid layered aluminosilicate nanoparticles (HLNP) containing octadecylamine (ODA) as the organic part, and silica nanoparticles with spherical morphology containing ODA (HSNP) or without ODA (SNP) were prepared by the sol–gel method and used for the formation of nanocomposites with polypropylene. The polypropylene matrices, of different molecular weight and polydispersity, were prepared using polymers obtained via Ziegler–Natta or metallocene catalysts. A strong influence of the morphology and the presence of ODA on the surface of the nanoparticles was found on the formation and characteristics of the nanocomposites. The mechanical properties and thermal stability of these materials were determined and compared with those of nanocomposites prepared with 2:1 phylosilicate clays such as montmorillonite and hectorite in similar polymer matrices. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and the study of mechanical properties showed that the use of HLNP allows nanocomposites with considerably improved mechanical properties to be obtained, compared with nanocomposites prepared with exfoliated clays. In the case of nanocomposites prepared with spherical particles functionalized with ODA (HSNP), materials with high specific strength combined with high elongation before rupture were obtained. The thermal stabilization of polypropylene matrices containing the synthesized nanoparticles (HLNP, HSNP or SNP) occurs about 50 °C higher than that attained with clays.


Citrus reticulata is considered one of the four main ancestral taxa of cultivated citrus and is widely associated with the mandarin horticultural group. However, several studies suggest introgressions of other taxa and the precise structure of the mandarin group is not known. To analyse the structuration of mandarin germplasm and the potential interspecific introgressions, 208 accessions were genotyped by the KASPar method, with sixty-seven single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers mined in 27 nuclear genes and in clementine BAC-ends. These SNP markers were employed for the study of 208 genotypes comprised of 169 'mandarin-like' genotypes and 39 genotypes belonging to ancestral taxa. Structure software was used to identify groups within the mandarin germplasm. Six mandarin groups were identified, some of them in agreement with the species defined by Tanaka. Many mandarins were located between these mandarin groups, indicating a high level of admixture between the identified parental groups. New insights in the organization of mandarin germplasm and its structure are presented in this work, which will be useful for better management of citrus germplasm collections. (Resume d'auteur)


This volume offers an integrative approach to the application of evolutionary theory in studies of cultural transmission and social evolution and reveals the enormous range of ways in which Darwinian ideas can lead to productive empirical research, the touchstone of any worthwhile theoretical perspective. While many recent works on cultural evolution adopt a specific theoretical framework, such as dual inheritance theory or human behavioral ecology, Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution emphasizes empirical analysis and includes authors who employ a range of backgrounds and methods to address aspects of culture from an evolutionary perspective. Editor Stephen Shennan has assembled archaeologists, evolutionary theorists, and ethnographers, whose essays cover a broad range of time periods, localities, cultural groups, and artifacts. © 2009 by The Regents of the University of California.


Health and wellbeing in old age are influenced by genetic, environmental and social factors throughout the life course. At present, few longitudinal studies offer information from childhood through to old age. Data linkage between multiple sources of health data enhances the value of existing longitudinal data. Regulations governing access to personal data for health research exist to protect the privacy and confidentiality of data on behalf of the individual. This paper outlines the process of obtaining permission for data linkage from a researchers' perspective, using a case study which offers an unusual opportunity to understand life course influences such as socio-economic status, childhood deprivation and measured intelligence on health and wellbeing in old age in an entire year-of-birth population. The Scottish Mental Survey 1947 (SMS1947, n = 70,805) has childhood intelligence data from individuals born in 1936 and attending schools in Scotland in June 1947. Representative sub-groups of the SMS1947 provided additional sociological information. The 6-Day Sample (n = 1,208), born on 6 days of 1936, were followed up for 16 years to age 27. Their younger siblings also took an intelligence test and were followed up for several years. Our team's planned research on the SMS1947 falls into two distinct parts. The first is a revival of the 6-Day Sample study involving tracing Sample members and inviting survivors to a follow-up study. The second part aims to carry out linkage between existing data on the SMS1947, its sub-groups, and the younger siblings, and morbidity and mortality data from central databases in Scotland and in England and Wales. We conclude by offering some recommendations for simplifying the process of obtaining permission to access linked health data, and place these into the context of the shifting landscape of data linkage in the UK and beyond.


Production of hollow fibers by co-electrospinning o f cellulose Acetate The study concerns the use of the electrospinning t echnique for the formation of cellulose acetate hollow nanofibers. These hollow f ibers are used to manufacture hollow fiber membranes. Important properties that s hould be inherent to these hollow-nanofibers include excellent permeability an d separation characteristics, and long useful life. They have potential applications i filtration, reverse osmosis, and the separation of liquids and gases. It is apparent from the available literature on ele ctrospinning and co-electrospinning that the diameter and the morphology of the resulti ng fibers are significantly influenced by variations in the system and process parameters, which include the solution concentration, solvent volatility, solutio n viscosity, surface tension and the conductivity of the spinning solution. The materials used include cellulose acetate (CA) ( concentration = 11~14 wt %), (feed rate = 1~3 ml/h), acetone:dioxane (2:1) and m ineral oil (feed rate = 0.5~1 ml/h) with core and shell linear velocity of 2 and 0.7 mm/min respectively. These materials were used as received without further pur ification. The co-electrospinning setup used comprised a compo und spinneret, consisting of two concentric small-diameter capillary tubes/needl s, one located inside another (core-shell/co-axial design). The internal and exte rnal diameters of the inside and outside needles were 0.3 and 1.2 mm respectively (0 .3 mm shell/core gap space). The liquids CA (shell) and mineral oil (core) are p umped to the coaxial needle by a syringe pump, forming a compound droplet at the tip of the needle. A high voltage source is used to apply a potential of several kilo volts over the electrospinning distance. One electrode is placed into the spinning solution and the other oppositely charged (or neutral) electrode attached to a conduc tive ollector. If the charge build up reaches approximately 15 kV the charged compound droplet, (poorly conductive polymer solution) deforms into a conical structure called a Taylor cone. On further increasing, the charge at the Taylor cone to some c ritical value (unique to each polymer system) the surface tension of the compound Taylor cone is broken and a core-shell jet of polymer solution ejects from the apex of the Taylor cone. This jet is linear over a small distance, and then deviates in a course of violent whipping from bending instabilities brought about by repulsive ch arges existing along the jet length. The core-shell jet is stretched and solvent is evap orated and expelled, resulting in the thinning and alignment of the fiber. Ultimately dry (most solvent having been removed) submicron fibers are collected in alignmen t form in a simple collector design (water bath). The shell to core solution flow rate ratio was chos en according to the parameter response of shell-core diameter of the resulting fi bers in order to achieve an optimal hollow structure after removal of the mineral oil c ore. The mineral oil of the dry collected core-shell fibers is removed by immersion in octane. The aforementioned response is determined by measurement of core-shell diameters using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained results showed that the ability of the spinning solution to be electrospun was directly dependent on its concentra tion and the feed rate of the spinning solution and also parameters such as the s pinning distance and type of solvents used. The preferable polymer solution conc entration is 14 wt %, shell feed rate of 3 ml/hr, core feed rate of 0.5 ml/hr (2 and 0.7 mm/s core and shell linear velocity respectively), applied voltage of 15 KV, s pinning distance of 8 cm and coaxial spinnerets having internal diameters of 0.3 mm and 1.2 mm core and shell needles respectively (0.3 mm shell/core gap space) have been found to make uniform cellulose acetate hollow fibers with an ave r ge inside and outside diameter of approximately 495 and 1266 nm, respectively.


The past decade has produced a wealth of observational data on the energy spectra of prompt emission from gamma-ray bursts. Most of the data cover the energy range from a few to several hundred keV. One set of higher energy
observations comes from the Imaging Compton Telescope COMPTEL on the Compton Observatory, which measured in the energy range from 0.75 to 30MeV. We analyzed the full 9.2 years COMPTEL data to reveal the significant detection of 44 gamma-ray bursts. We present preliminary results obtained in the process of preparing a final catalog of the spectral analysis of these events. In addition, we compare
the COMPTEL spectra to simultaneous BATSE measurements for purposes of cross-calibration.


God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law challenges the pervasive assumption that all religious conduct deserves constitutional protection. While religious conduct provides many benefits to society, it is not always benign. The thesis of the book is that anyone who harms another person should be governed by the laws that govern everyone else – and truth be told, religion is capable of great harm. This may not sound like a radical proposition, but it has been under assault since the 1960s. The majority of academics and many religious organizations would construct a fortress around religious conduct that would make it extremely difficult to prosecute child abuse by clergy, medical neglect of children by faith healers, and other socially intolerable behaviors. This book intends to change the course of the public debate over religion by bringing to the public's attention the tactics of religious entities to avoid the law and therefore harm others. God vs. the Gavel will bring much-needed balance to the contemporary, heated debate about religion and its role in society.


This paper presents an embryo of a literary guide on the Carnation Revolution to be explored for educational historical excursions other than leisure and tourism. We propose a historical trail through the centre of Lisbon, city of the Carnation Revolution, called Walk through the Revolution. The trail aims to reinforce collective memory about the major events that occurred in the early moments leading to the coup. The trail is made up by nine places of rememberance, for which literary excerpts are suggested and which are supported by a digital research procedure. A set of seven fixed and observer-independent categories are used to analyse the literary contents of 23 literary works published up to 2013. These literary works refer to events that happened between the eve of April 25 and May 1, 1974. At the same time, literary descriptions are explored using a spatial approach in order to define the literary geography of the most iconic military actions and popular demonstrations that occurred in Lisbon and the surroundings. The literary geography and the cartography of the historical events are then compared. Data analysis and visualization benefit from the use of standardised and quantitative methods, including basic statistics and geographic information systems.


Cancer is a serious threat to human health and is now one of major causes of death worldwide. However, the complexity of the cancer makes the development of new and specific diagnostic tools particularly challenging. A number of different strategies have been developed for biomarker discovery in cancer using microarray data. The problem that typically needs to be addressed is the scale of the data sets; we simply do not have (or are likely to obtain) sufficient data for classical machine learning approaches for biomarker discovery to be properly validated. Obtaining a biomarker that is specific to a particular cancer is also very challenging. The initial promise that was held out for gene microarray work for the development of cancer biomarkers has not yet yielded the hoped for breakthroughs. This work discusses the construction of a strategy for a systematic approach to biomarker discovery validation using lung cancer gene expression microarray data based around non-small cell cancer and in patients which either stayed disease free after surgery (a five year window) or in which the disease progressed and re-occurred. As a means of assisting the validation purposes we have therefore looked at new methodologies for using existing biological knowledge to support machine learning biomarker discovery techniques. We employ text mining strategy using previously published literature for correlating biological concepts to a given phenotype. Pathway driven approaches through the use of Web Services and workflows, enabled the large-scale dataset to be analysed systematically. The results showed that it was possible, at least using this specific data set, to clearly differentiate between progressive disease and disease free patients using a set of biomarkers implicated in neuroendocrine signaling. A validation of the biomarkers identified was attempted in three separately published data sets. This analysis showed that although there was support for some of our findings in one of these data sets, this appeared to be a function of the close similarity in experimental design followed rather than through specific of the analysis method developed.


Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are likely to have made a number of significant impacts on the Earth during the last billion years. The gamma radiation from a burst within a few kiloparsecs would quickly deplete much of the Earth's protective ozone layer, allowing an increase in solar UVB radiation reaching the surface. This radiation is harmful to life, damaging DNA and causing sunburn. In addition, NO2 produced in the atmosphere would cause a decrease in visible sunlight reaching the surface and could cause global cooling. Nitric acid rain could stress portions of the biosphere, but the increased nitrate deposition could be helpful to land plants. We have used a two-dimensional atmospheric model to investigate the effects on the Earth's atmosphere of GRBs delivering a range of fluences, at various latitudes, at the equinoxes and solstices, and at different times of day. We have estimated DNA damage levels caused by increased solar UVB radiation, reduction in solar visible light due to NO2 opacity, and deposition of nitrates through rainout of HNO3. For the "typical" nearest burst in the last billion years, we find globally averaged ozone depletion up to 38%. Localized depletion reaches as much as 74%. Significant global depletion (at least 10%) persists up to about 7 yr after the burst. Our results depend strongly on time of year and latitude over which the burst occurs. The impact scales with the total fluence of the GRB at the Earth but is insensitive to the time of day of the burst and its duration (1-1000 s). We find DNA damage of up to 16 times the normal annual global average, well above lethal levels for simple life forms such as phytoplankton. The greatest damage occurs at mid- to low latitudes. We find reductions in visible sunlight of a few percent, primarily in the polar regions. Nitrate deposition similar to or slightly greater than that currently caused by lightning is also observed, lasting several years. We discuss how these results support the hypothesis that the Late Ordovician mass extinction may have been initiated by a GRB.


Showing transitions between different states of consciousness, using sound and image, is an effective tool for creating a particular kind of narrative immersion. One might argue that conveying the inner state of a protagonist in a novel is purely a matter of skill with words and phrases, whereas with visual, aural and tactile technology at hand, storytelling has become a more intricate process. This paper will investigate a game text that illustrates Bergsonian notions of time, movement and affect through the sonic portrayal of altered states of consciousness. The example is Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005), a digital game in the "survival horror" genre that exhibits temporal and spatial anomalies during certain segments of first-person gameplay. What is interesting about this text is that it has a sonic trigger unlocking the transition into the realm of postmodern temporal and spatial flux, and its succeeding connection with the realm of the virtual, or potential. In other words, it shows manifestations of altered states of mind that are brought on by stress. To map out the postmodern and metaphysical conditions under which these transitions occur, the theories regarding time, perception and movement outlined by Henri Bergson in Matter and Memory (1911) are the most useful. His theories have subsequently influenced French theorist Gilles Deleuze is concept of the timeimage. These concepts, together with Brian Massumi's theories on affect in Parables of the Virtual (2002) provide a comprehensive theoretical framework for an expanded Bergsonian philosophy of time, movement and affect


The relationship between concept and perception is crucial in accessing the multi-dimensionality of drawing as a canon of visual languages. Modernity has raised questions about authorship in the creative process. A section of this paper investigates the use of the term ready-made and of the term sub-conscious in relation to drawing and mark making. Within this the "doodle" takes a special place, as an activity, which is practised across specially trained artists and designers and the uninitiated layperson alike. Within this a distinction is sought between sketch, doodle, and diagram. Diagrams are closer to materialisation or objectification than the doodle, or the sketch, due to their anchorage in accepted systems of representation of knowledge. The drawn visual diagram facilitates data comparison used by a community of specialists. Scientific drawing is objectifying, as it employs constant and replicable methods of visualisation. A concluding section is paying particular attention to the presumably different function of drawing in contemporary concept-led fine art, and why this should warrant a separate category of address: Deanna Petherbridge points out that contemporary fine artists refuse to conform to demands of universally intelligible visual production. She holds responsible post-modern and post-structuralist relativist positions for contemporary artist's distrust in universal truth. The paper further examines the rift between concept-led and other forms of drawing due the philosophical underpinning of much contemporary visual art. Conceptually informed contemporary fine art drawing often tends to obscure rather than simplify meaning. If here drawing complicates meaning rather than contributes to universal intelligibility or ease of communication, is objectivity confined to the uses of diagram and computations of science? Do the latter than form a different category of drawing? And is the function of drawing in science an illustrative one rather than a creative one?


The growth of laws and judicial decisions of questionable economic benefit, and the current debt crisis, pose the question of how bad choices can be reversed. That problem is prominently on display in southern Europe, and indeed throughout much of the first world. Parliamentary systems seem better able to undo bad laws than the U.S. presidential system, with its separation of powers, which does not augur well for America. Bad judicial decisions might be even harder to reverse, because of the conservatism of judges who follow precedent. However, judicial elections in the states appear to offer a solution to the problem. The objections which have been raised against such elections seem less than compelling.


As 3D acquisition devices and modeling tools become widely available there is a growing need for automatic algorithms that analyze the semantics and functionality of digitized shapes. Most recent research has focused on analyzing geometric structures of shapes. Our work is motivated by the observation that a majority of man-made shapes are designed to be used by people. Thus, in order to fully understand their semantics, one needs to answer a fundamental question: "how do people interact with these objects?" As an initial step towards this goal, we offer a novel algorithm for automatically predicting a static pose that a person would need to adopt in order to use an object. Specifically, given an input 3D shape, the goal of our analysis is to predict a corresponding human pose, including contact points and kinematic parameters. This is especially challenging for man-made objects that commonly exhibit a lot of variance in their geometric structure. We address this challenge by observing that contact points usually share consistent local geometric features related to the anthropometric properties of corresponding parts and that human body is subject to kinematic constraints and priors. Accordingly, our method effectively combines local region classification and global kinematically-constrained search to successfully predict poses for various objects. We also evaluate our algorithm on six diverse collections of 3D polygonal models (chairs, gym equipment, cockpits, carts, bicycles, and bipedal devices) containing a total of 147 models. Finally, we demonstrate that the poses predicted by our algorithm can be used in several shape analysis problems, such as establishing correspondences between objects, detecting salient regions, finding informative viewpoints, and retrieving functionally-similar shapes.


Given the complex nature of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there are increasing calls for new inclusive and bottom-up governance mechanisms in building a relationship between governments and their citizens, in particular, the youth, to localise the 2030 Agenda. But such successful bottom-up multi-stakeholder engagement tools have yet to emerge in practice. Hence, of specific interest in this study is exploring bottom-up approaches useful for localising the SDGs and harnessing real transformative change to leave no one behind by 2030. Using a case study from the UK, we present a novel integrated mechanism to achieve this. An integrated Social Innovation (SI) and Scenarios Thinking (ST) mechanism remains a valuable bottom-up tool capable of empowering citizens, including the youth and decision-makers in delivering coherent SDGs plans, policies, and programmes. The study reveals that although the SDGs are distinct, they are also interconnected. A scenario development workshop with youth with no prior knowledge of the SDGs showed a common thread of policy measures for different SDG future images. Standard policy measures amongst different SDGs call for an equitable society at all levels; that all energy sources be from clean and renewable sources; investment in low-carbon technologies and research; and financial support for promoting sustainable transportation and consumption measures. This study highlights that we need to change how we think and talk about SDGs and recommends socially innovative steps to embrace cross-sectoral and nexus thinking as the backdrop of the citizen science concept. We conclude that the SDGs should not become a performative exercise or failed social experiment. And any practical localisation from the UN's Member States across the northern and southern hemispheres will require robust measures addressing future-oriented systemic thinking, inclusivity and good governance, together with standards for community resilience and sustainability.


National legal systems increasingly appear to be burdened with the necessity of coping. Situations of an "outdating" of the Law can arise when law-making tasks insist on being entirely joined with the nation-state viewpoint. These everyday situations can introduce matters whose legal solutions may not be found within systemic boundaires, rather, beyond them. To an extent, the Law, as it has been respectively defined through time, is loosing its effectiveness as a means of regulation in correlation with increasing globalization. This paper seeks to confine the unforeseen consequence of the current economic and financial crises by arguing that the constitutional recognition of the rule of budgetary stability can precisely serve as a solution to exit the current crisis. Whether or not this rule is adequate, necessary, feasible, and/or acceptable to a modern Democracy is subject to current legal and political, academic debate.


This study aims to investigate the relationship among determinants of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) and organisational performance of automobile sales professional of Pakistan. Determinants of OCB including personal (self-efficacy and wellbeing at work), attitudinal/behavioural (job satisfaction and self-control) and environmental (work design) variables were selected based upon social cognitive learning and need motivation theory. The automotive industry of Pakistan has shown rapid growth over a long period of recession that requires strategies for enhancing performance. It was hypothesised that determinants of OCB would be positively related to OCB and organisational performance.
The study utilised the quantitative method of survey research. Data was gathered by disseminating standardised survey form of General Perceived Self-efficacy, Basic Need Satisfaction at Work Subscale, Job Satisfaction Scale, Self-Control Scale, Work design scale, OCB Scale and Organisational Performance Scale from automobile sales professionals (N=500) of five cities of Pakistan. Moreover, the self-prepared socio-demographic form was also administered. Results statistically confirmed the hypotheses. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used for Model testing. The Model was found a good fit. Multiple regression was conducted to measure the predictive association of OCB with personal, attitudinal/behavioural, environmental variables and employee perceived performance. The Multiple Regression analysis predicted the significant association of OCB with its determinants, whereas, the relationship between OCB and performance was found significant (p< .01). Partial correlation, ANOVA and Multiple regression were conducted for additional statistical analysis.
During the implementation stage, the action learning method was applied to test the hypothesis that OCB will be positively related to an action learning method. Strategies of the situational analysis, business model and organisational model canvas and rating scales were applied. Many risk factors were identified including OCB, communication, commitment, culture and innovation.
To contribute to the existing pool of knowledge in the field of OCB and organisational performance, this study provided in-depth knowledge of OCB determinants based upon the theoretical framework of SCT and NMT and to provide implementation action learning plan for automobile sales professionals to enhance organisational performance in Pakistan. The current study is the first attempt to measure the effects of OCB on organisational performance of automobile sales professionals in Pakistan. Insights from this study could be used by the automobile sector to enhance OCB with minimum efforts and can increase the organisational performance of the automobile sales professionals in Pakistan.


Most landslides on the Loess Tableland (Shaanxi, China) are of the sliding-flow type, with long run-out distances. These landslides, which tend to be triggered by irrigation, result in loss of life and damage to infrastructure. In order to reveal the characteristics and mechanisms of sliding-flow landslides, field investigations, surveys and indoor tests, including consolidated undrained triaxial tests and ring-shear tests, were conducted. The apparent friction of sliding-flow loess landslides triggered by irrigation in the study area ranged from 0.01 to 0.25, with a mean of 0.159. These values are lower than those associated with the landslides triggered by the Wenchuan Earthquake. The deviation stress decreased to about 99% of its peak value, while the path of the effective stress revealed that the effective normal stress approached zero. Consequently, saturated loess samples were highly liquefiable under consolidated undrained triaxial tests. The pore pressures increased sharply and up to their peak value (mean of 130 kPa), corresponding to 92% of the applied normal stress. The path of effective stress did not reach the failure line. The loose structure and macro-pore content of loess provide the framework for static liquefaction to occur as a consequence of the generation of fine particles.


After completing his degree, PGCE and PhD at Bristol University, Ian Colwill taught history at Archbishop Tennyson's School in London from 1973-86. From 1979, he began working as an examiner on the Schools History Project paper at O level and was subsequently appointed Chief Examiner for the Joint O level and CSE course for the London Board. From 1986-88, Ian worked as an ILEA history advisory teacher based at the Teachers' Centre in Clapham. In 1988, he joined SEAC as the Professional Officer for history and was involved in running the committees that approved new GCSE and A level syllabuses. During the gestation of the National Curriculum in the early 1990s, Ian sat on the NCC group which significantly revised the History Working Group's proposals. From 1993-5, working for SCAA, he was responsible for the review of the history orders as part of the Dearing review. In 1997, he joined the curriculum review team at QCA which was responsible for monitoring the history NC and for managing the implementation of the 2000 revision to the curriculum. Ian discusses his early career, the impact of the National Curriculum and assessment on the teaching of history, the controversies that have surrounded the subject and his role in national developments related to history teaching. Interviewed by Nicola Sheldon.


Subject/Research problem: Hospitals traditionally segregate resources into centralized functional departments such as diagnostic departments, ambulatory care centres, and nursing wards. In recent years this organizational model has been challenged by the idea that higher quality of care and efficiency in service delivery can be achieved when services are organized around patient groups. Examples are specialized clinics for breast cancer patients and clinical pathways for diabetes patients. Hospitals are struggling with the question whether to become more centralized to achieve economies of scale or more decentralized to achieve economies of focus. In this paper service and patient group characteristics are examined to determine conditions where a centralized model is more efficient and conversely where a decentralized model is more efficient. - Research Question: When organizing hospital capacity what service and patient group characteristics indicate efficiency can be gained through economies of scale vs. economies of focus? - Approach: Using quantitative Queueing Theory and Simulation models the performance of centralized and decentralized hospital clinics is compared. This is done for a variety of services and patient groups. - Result: The study results in a model measuring the tradeoffs between economies of scale and economies of focus. From this model management guidelines are derived. - Application: The general results support strategic planning for a new facility at the Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital. A model developed during this research is also applied in the Chemotherapy Department of the same hospital.


We applied microelectrode array (MEA) recordings to study the generation and propagation of epileptform activity in various connected regions of cortico-hippocampal slices obtained from SynapsinI/II/III knockout (TKO) mice and the effects of the synaptic vesicle-targeted anti epileptic drug levetiracetam (LEV). Synapsins (SynI, SynII and SynIII) are synaptic vesicle phosphoproteins playing a role in synaptic transmission and plasticity. TKO mice display an epileptic phenotype and mutation of the SYN1 gene is associated with epilepsy in man. We found that both interictal (IIC) and ictal (IC) discharges induced by 4AP were more pronounced and widespread in TKO mice, revealing a state of hyperexcitability of TKO networks. To get insight into the frequencies characterizing the IC seizures, we analyzed the average IC power spectral density (PSD) in the 10-50 Hz range in different cortical regions. TKO slices exhibited an increase of power for frequencies above 20Hz with respect to Wild- Type (TWT). To determine whether the hyperexcitability of TKO slices is also reflected by an increased spread of IC discharges and taking advantage of the spatial resolution of the MEA device, we measured the percentage of electrodes recording IC discharges over the total number of cortical electrodes. The spread of excitation was significantly higher in TKO slices than in TWT ones and treatment with LEV decreased the spread of IC discharges in the entorhinal of TKO slices. In order to better characterize the propagation of the IIC events in the hippocampus, we recently coupled MEA recordings with optical imaging using voltage-sensitive dyes by exploiting the possibility of simultaneous recordings with a high spatial and temporal resolution to reveal more detailed patterns of propagation.


. Semiotics of mediation is based on comparative analysis of mediation processes, on typology of forms of mediation and on the subsequent complementary analysis of culture. Not only does cultural analysis that is based on semiotics of mediation proceed from communication processes, it also searches for possibilities of correlation between concepts of describability, analysability, translatability. Depending on the strategy of mediation semiotics it is possible to create an overview of the main parameters of cultural analysis and to specify the boundaries of semiotic analysis of culture. The main types of mediation are simultaneously parameters of cultural analysis. The main types include autocommunicative mediation, metalingual mediation, intertextual mediation, interdiscursive mediation, and inter- or transmedial mediation. Typology of mediation types facilitates the understanding of the autocommunicative aspect of culture and creates the basis for analysing communication processes not on the level of the immediate sender and receiver but as part of the culture's communication with itself. Semiotics of mediation starts from semiotic mediation and ends with a culture of mediation in which one and the same cultural language or text operates as a means of dialogue with itself, as a means of communication with others, as part of some textual system or discourse, or as a transmedial phenomenon. Semiotics of mediation is a means of studying the correlation between implicit semiotic mediation and forms of explicit semiotic mediation, thus complementing cultural semiotic study of culture.


Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) is one of North America's most troublesome exotic weeds; it has infested 45 states and three Canadian provinces and millions are spent annually on control. Three insects have been considered for the biological control of Eurasian watermilfoil and all three taxa are present in the northern US and southern Canadian provinces. The naturalized pyralid caterpillar, Acentria ephemerella, has been associated with milfoil declines in some eastern states, but rarely reaches high densities in the midwest. The native midge, Cricotopus myriophylli, also does not generally reach high densities, but deserves further study. The native milfoil weevil, Euhrychiopsis lecontei, has been associated with milfoil declines across North America. The weevil, which is highly specific to watermilfoil species, has been shown to control Eurasian watermilfoil via stem mining in laboratory, tank and mesocosm studies, as well as in several field studies. During the summer, all life stages subsist on submersed watermilfoil, and after 3-5 generations are produced, adults move to shore to overwinter in shoreline leaf litter. The milfoil weevil has an induced preference for the exotic Eurasian watermilfoil and prefers and performs better on the exotic compared to native watermilfoils. Field declines of Eurasian watermilfoil due to weevil feeding will occur with sufficient weevil density and a positive native plant community response. At many sites, weevil populations are too low to effect control. Predation by sunfish (Lepomis) is likely an important factor limiting densities of adult weevils and other herbivores. Population modeling indicates that adult reproductive lifespan and fecundity are key factors for end-of summer population densities. The weevil and perhaps the other herbivores can be useful biocontrol agents if factors limiting their density can be ameliorated. This work demonstrates that herbivory by aquatic insects can be substantial, resulting in 50-95 % reductions in plant biomass and shifts in macrophyte community structure. Furthermore, important insights on the evolution of host range and host range expansion have been gained from study of this system and a better understanding of trophic cascades in littoral zones is being developed.


There are a variety of reasons to support the premise that public lighting is beneficial to urban communities. At the same time, a key challenge for the provision of public lighting in informal settlements is their constant physical transformation. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the application of virtual environments (VEs) in lighting planning and policy making. Despite the fact that VEs offer the opportunity to explore an environment by freely navigating through it, including environments that change over time, this feature is rarely taken into account in decision-making processes. A VE-based analysis tool for informal settlement lighting is presented using a case-study street in the informal settlement of Caracolí in Bogotá as its basis. A household survey, spatial measurements, participants' observations, and luminous intensity distribution curves constituted the main data set for the VE scenarios. Time-related data on the incremental construction of Caracolí's informal dwellings was collected by the household survey and that data was then projected into past, present, and future night-time scenarios. The lighting quality of these different scenarios was systematically evaluated via lighting calculation software, revealing a variety of shortcomings caused by the current lighting approach. Based on these findings, an alternative lighting approach was developed and re-examined using lighting calculations. Finally, custom game-engine technology and GPU computing were deployed, which allowed for real-time visualisation of the different lighting scenarios and their lighting quality. This setup therefore enables fast iterative feedback loops for current and future lighting policy scenarios and the resulting lighting design. In the first instance, a VE can illustrate well how current lighting policy results in a significant delay of lighting provision in the early stage of a settlement as well as highlighting the mismatch between lighting technology and the built environment during the vertical densification phases. Second, the VE is able to showcase alternative lighting technologies and policy approaches as well as the resulting lighting effects, enabling a visual comparison of different policy scenarios over several decades. In conclusion it will be argued that the dynamic VE technology appears to be a promising decision-making tool for illustrating potential planning and design shortcomings to policy stakeholders in a manner understandable to the layman.


Cardio-protection includes" all mechanism and means that contribute to the preservation of the heart by reducing or even preventing Myocardial damage. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the principle cause of death in both developed and developing countries. It may present as a typical heart attack, a sudden death or it may be detected at an advanced stage and be described as a silent infarct. CVD includes high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke and accounts Myocardial infarction is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing heart cells to die, commonly due to blockage of coronary artery. Herbal drugs are known to exhibit creditable medicinal properties for the treatment of heart ailments and need to be explored to identify their potential application in prevention and therapy of human ailments. Cardio-vascular disease remains a leading cause of death in India. Therefore, finding ways to reduce the mortality of cardiovascular disease remains an important health goal. This review deals with medicinal plants possessing cardioprotective and cardio tonic activity. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death globally and is projected to remain the leading cause of death. This review work explains chemical and pharmacological status of various cardio-protective plants including phyto constituents responsible for cardio-protection, extract employed, dosage, pharmacological screening model and mechanism involved in cardio-protection. This review work definitely helps in enlisting the Indian plants having cardioprotective activity.