In this article, according to Cambridge, we try to argue building the networked self improve and empower the construction of eportfolios at the same time that they involve empowering the construction of each student's personal learning environment. As Barrett says, we posit that Web 2.0 tools are suitable tools for the creation of artefacts in the first step of the construction of eportfoli- os. As stated by Shepherd and Skrabut, we try to argue as well, that these tools that encourage networking and empowering students' PLE, contribute to eport- folio sustainability. Finally, we argue that eportfolios and PLEs have also their main processes in common. We analyse the use of Web 2.0 tools for the creation of artefacts in our eportfo- lio case study. Although we cannot prove our students' eportfolio sustainability, at this point of our on-going project of eportfolios in Teacher Education, at the University of the Balearic Islands, Ibiza headquarters, we can still analyse our students' beliefs in the role of technology in their learning and in their teacher identity, which is still in construction. As we said last year, during the first school year of implementation, there was a large group of students with a nega- tive attitude towards technology, although we can now say that most of them have evolved considerably. Some of them still think that technology fails to en- rich their own learning process but in spite of this fact, all of them appreciate that the introduction of technology will have a positive effect on their teaching in the future.


In synchronization tapping tasks, tapping onset often precedes metronome one by a few tens of milliseconds, which is known as negative mean asynchrony. However, the mechanism by which negative mean asynchrony occurs remains incompletely understood. This study hypothesized that one of the mechanisms was the asymmetric error correction process for asynchrony. We examined this hypothesis using a generalized linear mixed model. The results suggested that the error correction rate for the positive asynchrony was larger than that for the negative asynchrony. This finding may contribute to improving mathematical models of the synchronization tapping task.


This contribution develops a comprehensive kinetic model of the N-nitrosation reaction mechanism, consisting almost entirely of elementary reaction steps and applies it to study the nitrosation of ammonia. The reaction mechanism features 26 species and 22 reactions, with 8 parallel reaction pathways for ammonia nitrosation and a side pathway for nitrous acid decomposition. We compiled forward and reverse rate constants for each of the reactions, either from the literature sources or by correlation with known rate and equilibrium constants. The concentration of each reaction species with respect to time can be obtained for any set of initial concentrations by invoking a simultaneous solution to the system of ordinary differential equations describing the reaction mechanism. The model successfully predicts previous experimental results for ammonia nitrosation, with and without the addition of the catalyst thiocyanate. The effect of pH on the rate and mechanism of ammonia nitrosation was studied with the model. For uncatalyzed nitrosation, the results indicate that between pH 6.0 and 1.5 the reaction proceeds predominantly via reaction with N 2O 3, whereas ON + nitrosation becomes the preferred pathway below pH 1.5. ONSCN is the dominant nitrosating agent across the entire pH range studied when the nucleophile thiocyanate was added in appreciable quantities. However, with the weak nucleophile Cl -, nitrosation by N 2O 3 and ON + governed the reaction kinetics at high and low pH, respectively, We demonstrate that nitrosating agent formation is rapid and does not limit the rate of ammonia nitrosation; however, nitrosating agent formation could become the rate-limiting step for the nitrosation of highly reactive substrates.


This paper explores the effects of technical factors, competition and strategies of firms on the water price in France. From data on the procedures of delegation of water utilities, we estimate a price equation, taking into account the unobserved strategies of private operators and geographical effects. We show that the local strategy of the operator has a significant impact on the water price level and that neglecting it would lead to bias the effects of other factors.


The distributed video coding (DVC) paradigm constitutes a flexible framework where computational complexity can be freely distributed between encoder and decoder, hence favoring up-link oriented video applications where recording devices are modest in terms of computational power and are faced with energy consumption constraints. This contribution presents an original transform domain DVC architecture, which performs hash-based motion estimation at the decoder combined with a novel probabilistic motion compensation technique to generate side information. The proposed probabilistic motion compensation incorporates knowledge of the correlation channel statistics and extracts additional information from the hash. Experimental results report Bj⊘ntegaard rate savings of up to 4.61%, when using the novel probabilistic motion compensation method instead of our previous approach. Moreover, the compression performance of the presented DVC architecture, featuring the proposed probabilistic motion compensation, surpasses the performance of the state-of-the-art DISCOVER codec, showing Bj⊘ntegaard rate savings of up to 15.69%.


The date palm is one of the most economically important perennial plants of the North Africa and in Morocco, where it is extensively cultivated for food and many other commercial purposes. Palm trees are threatened by many pests such as Potosia opaca newly identified in Morocco, especially in Marrakesh and Errachidia regions. In addition, olive mill wastewaters (OMW) are an environmental problem in olive oil producing countries such as Morocco. Generally, these effluents are drained into ecosystems without any pre-treatment. To reduce their negative impact and to get benefits in particular from their high phenolic content, OMW were used as bio-insecticides in crude form. The results showed that crude OMW were effective to control this pest causing a weight loss similar to Cordus insecticide (17% vs. 15%) and mortality almost similar to Kemaban insecticide. OMW's biocide potential was related principally to their high phenolic content. Based on HPLC analysis, ten phenolic molecules were identified, including two which were revealed as the major monomeric phenolic compounds in OMW, 0.248 g/L of hydroxytyrosol and 0.201 g/L of tyrosol. In this chapter, the potential use of OMW as bio-insecticides for the control of P. opaca in date palm is discussed.


This dissertation examines three contemporary social phenomena—globalization, the rise of secondary and tertiary education, and dramatic changes in marriage and divorce—and their relation to key demographic processes. This set of topics is purposely broad, in order to demonstrate the importance of interlinkages between demography and the social world. Classical demographic techniques can be extended to provide a toolkit through which one can investigate and provide insight into a diverse set of social processes. Chapter I examines the relationship between globalization and contemporary fertility transitions. Fertility transitions have been studied since the inception of the field of demography, but we still have a limited understanding of how they arise, progress, and diffuse across populations. I test the theory that since 1960, global normative forces led to fertility transitions in many developing countries. I show that countries that are more connected through the global network have converged in fertility. In particular, poor countries engaged in trade with rich countries have converged towards the fertility rates of their rich trade partners. Chapter II considers how the changing educational distribution in the United States has shaped educational differentials in life expectancy. Though educational gradients in longevity have widened since 1990, many have questioned whether this widening is due to people with less than high school becoming a smaller, increasingly select group. I use a composition-adjusted life expectancy measure to show that much of the change in education-specific life expectancy can be attributed to changing educational composition. Adjusting for compositional change shows that life expectancy gradients have not widened by nearly as much as we thought. Chapter III traces out the history of American marriage since 1960. I develop and extend two-sex models of the marital life cycle to quantify how changes in marriage, divorce, mortality, and assortative mating have shaped marital life cycles. I find that there has been an educational divergence in marriage and divorce, and demonstrate that much of the truncation in marriage can be attributed to later age at marriage and higher rates of divorce, but is partly offset by lower mortality and more extensive marital sorting. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Demography First Advisor Irma T. Elo


miRNAs have been involved in the pathogenesis of several cancers such as gastric cancer (GC.). In the following study we analyzed the expression of miR-7 in gastric cancer samples compared non-tumor tissues and gastric dysplasia (GD) samples with patients' clinico-pathological data and its potential as diagnostic biomarker. We first analyzed its expression by real-time qRT– PCR in human GD and GC tissues, in which it was greatly downregulated in each compared with the control non-tumor tissues. The current study supports participation of miRNA miR-7-5p in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer and highlights their potential as diagnostic biomarker.


AI Planning is concerned with the selection of actions towards achieving a goal. Research on cellular automata (CA) is concerned with the question how global behaviours arise from local updating rules relating a cell to its direct neighbours. While these two areas are disparate at first glance, we herein identify a problem that is interesting to both: How to reach a fixed point in an asynchronous CA where cells are updated one-by-one? Considering a particular local updating rule, we encode this problem into PDDL and show that the resulting benchmark is an interesting challenge for AI Planning. For example, our experiments determine that, very atypically, an optimal SAT-based planner outperforms state-of-the-art satisficing heuristic search planners. This points to a severe weakness of current heuristics because, as we prove herein, plans for this problem can always be constructed in time linear in the size of the automaton. Our proof of this starts from a high-level argument and then relies on using a planner for flexible case enumeration within localised parts of the ar gument. Besides the formal result itself, this establishes a new proof technique for CAs and thus demonstrates that the potential benefit of research crossing the two fields is mutual.


Aims and Objectives Trauma continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality world over. This study is aimed at the patterns of presentation and the outcome of management. Materials and Methods A prospective study of trauma patients admitted to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital through the Accident and Emergency units was commenced in January 2008.This preliminary report is for the period of 27months.The clinical history, physical examination and outcome of management recorded in a predesigned proforma, were analysed with SPSS 15 and the patients were followed up in the surgical outpatient department. Results A total of 4784 patients (3143 men and 1641 women) were admitted during this period for trauma. There were a total of 628(13.13%) deaths. Of the 42 consecutive patients identified with chest trauma35 (83.3%) were males and 7(16.7%) were females. The age range was from 5-75years and the mean age was 35.4years, while the most affected ages were in the range of 20 to 49years. Blunt injury constituted 71.4% and penetrating injury constituted 28.6%. Road traffic accident was responsible for 61.9%, stab injury 21.4%, falls 7.1%, gunshot injury 4.8%, impalement 2.4% and animal attack also 2.4%. The average time taken between accident and admission was 31hours,40minutes and 12seconds while the average duration of hospital stay was 16.10 days. The injury pattern included rib fracture(s) (23.8%), hemopneumothorax (14.3%), hemothorax (7.1%), pneumothorax (4.8%), combinations of chest injuries (7.1%), chest laceration 7.1%, bruises 11.9%, lung contusion 4.8%, subcutaneous empyema 2.4%, flail chest 4.8% and no specific injury (11.9%). Associated injuries included head injury (63.6%), orthopaedic injury (27.3%) and combinations (abdominal, head, orthopaedic (9.1%). The fatality of road traffic accident was 36.8%. No patient was attended to by paramedics at the scene of accident while 21.9% of the patients had prehospital resuscitation in peripheral clinics before admission. The transfusion requirement was 14.3%. One patient (2.4%) required a median sternotomy and cardiopulmonary bypass, 54.8% required tube thoracostomy while 42.9% had general resuscitation /non-operative intervention. Only one (2.4%) required ICU care. The complication rate was 4.8%. The mortality rate was 2.4%. Only 7(16.7%) patients were seen beyond the first outpatient clinic appointment. Conclusion Most patients arriving at the hospital survived, requiring general resuscitation or simple tube thoracostomy with few complications. Mortalities from trauma and the cause of death at the site of accident are often not accounted for due to nonpresentation to the hospital and lack of autopsy for those that present. Key words: Trauma, Chest, Presentations, Management,  Recommendations


Abstract. This study uses aircraft measurements of relative humidity and ice crystal size distribution collected during the SPARTICUS (Small PARTicles In CirrUS) field campaign to evaluate and constrain ice cloud parameterizations in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5. About 200 h of data were collected during the campaign between January and June 2010, providing the longest aircraft measurements available so far for cirrus clouds in the midlatitudes. The probability density function (PDF) of ice crystal number concentration ( N i ) derived from the high-frequency (1 Hz) measurements features a strong dependence on ambient temperature. As temperature decreases from −35 °C to −62 °C, the peak in the PDF shifts from 10–20 L −1 to 200–1000 L −1 , while N i shows a factor of 6–7 increase. Model simulations are performed with two different ice nucleation schemes for pure ice-phase clouds. One of the schemes can reproduce a clear increase of N i with decreasing temperature by using either an observation-based ice nuclei spectrum or a classical-theory-based spectrum with a relatively low (5–10%) maximum freezing ratio for dust aerosols. The simulation with the other scheme, which assumes a high maximum freezing ratio (100%), shows much weaker temperature dependence of N i . Simulations are also performed to test empirical parameters related to water vapor deposition and the autoconversion of ice crystals to snow. Results show that a value between 0.05 and 0.1 for the water vapor deposition coefficient, and 250 μm for the critical diameter that distinguishes ice crystals from snow, can produce good agreement between model simulation and the SPARTICUS measurements in terms of N i and effective radius. The climate impact of perturbing these parameters is also discussed.


Recent studies have shown that deep neural networks (DNN) are vulnerable to adversarial samples: maliciously-perturbed samples crafted to yield incorrect model outputs. Such attacks can severely undermine DNN systems, particularly in security-sensitive settings. It was observed that an adversary could easily generate adversarial samples by making a small perturbation on irrelevant feature dimensions that are unnecessary for the current classification task. To overcome this problem, we introduce a defensive mechanism called DeepMask. By identifying and removing unnecessary features in a DNN model, DeepMask limits the capacity an attacker can use generating adversarial samples and therefore increase the robustness against such inputs. Comparing with other defensive approaches, DeepMask is easy to implement and computationally efficient. Experimental results show that DeepMask can increase the performance of state-of-the-art DNN models against adversarial samples.


ln the present state of knowledge, thirty-one trace-fossil 'species' are known from the English Jurassic: seventeen (55%) are feeding burrows; eleven (36%) are dwelling burrows; two (6%) are crawling trails; one (3%) is a resting impression. No meandering grazing trails occur. Six new 'species' are described;- Arenicolites skeltonensim - basal Upper Lias, Yorkshire. Diplocraterion arkelli - widespread. Diplocraterion statheri - Bajocian, Yorkshire. Glossifungites lymensis - Ellerbeck Bed, Yorkshire. Asterosoma osteri _ Dogger, Yorkshire. Asterosoma multilobatum - Scarborough beds, Yorkshire. Bathymetric zones for the Jurassic sea may be defined in terms of commonly occuring assemblages of trace fossils. Littoral zones consist of monotypic banks of Thalassinoides; arenicolites spp. or Corophioides spp.; or Ophiomoreha. Gyrochorte from the littoral zone show strong orientation and U-turns are common. In sublittoral zones monotypic banks of Rhizocoralliua occur inshore; more varied assemblages, with Teichichnus. Asterosoma and Chondrites, offshore. Zoophycos, diagnostic of still-water neritic zones, is absent. Different trace-fossil 'species' are recognised from ironstone, calcareous and well-sorted sandstone "regimes" of sedimentation, though 'genera' may be identical. Rhizocorallium jenense and Rhizocorallium cicatricosus occur in ferruginous environments ; Rhizocorallium commune in impure calcareous environments. The stomatopoda are considered likely producers of Rhizocorallium commune. On basis of comparative ecological categories of trace fossils, the system which most strongly resembles the English Jurassic is the bohemian Ordovician. The middle Jurassic of Yorkshire does not compare closely with either the German middle Jurassic or the Northumbrian mamurian. The Jurassic trace-fossil fauna of England is the richest in dwelling and feeding burrows of any system so far described. In the total number of trace-fossil 'species' it is exceeded only by the Swiss Flysch.


Background: Caregiver burden and expressed emotion have been studied in patients with schizophrenia but literature is less regarding these in bipolar affective disorder (BPAD). No study could be found which compared the caregiver burden and expressed emotion in these two patient groups. Hence, the study is conducted to investigate and compare the caregiver burden and expressed emotion in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia and BPAD. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from outpatient department of psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health and Hospital, Agra regarding sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, domicile), followed by burden assessment schedule, family emotional involvement and criticism scale, positive and negative syndrome scale, Young mania rating scale, and hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS) from patients of schizophrenia and BPAD and their caregivers. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation (SD) and unpaired t test were applied for continuous data and chi square for categorical data. Spearman correlation was used to find correlation. Results: No statistically significant difference between the sociodemographic variable of either patient of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder or their caregivers was observed. Significantly higher total burden (P = 0.01) with mean value of 82.8 (SD = 8.8) in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia compared to BPAD with mean value of 76.7 (SD = 12.3) was noted. Emotional over-involvement was significantly more in patients with BPAD compared to patients with schizophrenia (P = 0.0007). Spearman correlation shows positive correlation among age of caregivers, education, and burden of care in both the groups (P < 0.05 in both groups). Conclusion: The presence of significant amount of burden of care and expressed emotion point out to the need for psychosocial support to the family members for mitigation of the burden and reduction in the expressed emotion, which in turn could reduce the relapse rates and facilitate the caregivers to effectively cope and manage the ill family member.


The DNA sequence analysis field has experienced a paradigm shift caused by the drastic reduction in the sequencing cost and time. With the availability of several reference genome assemblies, understanding of structural and functional aspects of genomes has started growing. Annotating a reference genome is the first and very crucial step that ensures its efficient usability to serve as a community resource. Unlike coding regions, non–coding regions do not translate into proteins but still play a central role in development and physiology of an organism by regulating gene expression. Identification and annotation of these regions are only initial steps, equally interesting and even more rewarding is to decipher the interplay between these two components of a genome. Identification of cis-regulatory elements (CREs), the functional components of the non-coding genome, is paramount to our understanding regarding the gene expression regulation. The role of CREs in regulating rhythmic (diurnal) expression of thousands of genes has been reported in several plants species (including Arabidopsis thaliana) but still only a few CREs have been reported so far.
In the first project, using extensive RNA-sequencing data, I substantially improved the annotation and usability of a Brassicaceae species, Arabidopsis lyrata. Gene model coordinates for over 90% genes are corrected, with improved UTRs (untranslated regions) annotation. Over 2,000 genes are now annotated as transposable element (TE)-related genes and around 8% annotated with alternate transcripts. With hundreds of cases of gene-merge and gene-split, improved annotation also corrects coding space of the genome. Experimentally validated data for several such cases strongly supported updated annotation, highlighting the importance of employing species-specific RNA-sequencing data for genome annotation.
In the second project, I compared time-series transcriptomics data for two Brassicaceae species, Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabis alpina. Around 30% genes were found under the control of diurnal regulation in both species. An interesting finding regarding phase-shift of the circadian clock genes and their direct targets was also observed. Gene Ontology term enrichment analysis suggested that diurnal genes associated to carbohydrate metabolism are the most affected by this phase shift while light-signaling associated genes are the least affected. I also demonstrated the usefulness of Phylogenetic shadowing to identify enriched CREs in the diurnal genes. Using several recently assembled Brassicaceae genomes, I analyzed the conservation patterns in promoters of orthologous diurnal genes. In total, I identified 54 and 45 DNA motifs for Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabis alpina respectively. Over 65% motifs were found common for both species including previously reported six motifs. Based on recently published open chromatin data, around 30% of the DNA motifs revealed protected sites from an endonuclease (DNase I), indicating their potential role as protein-binding sites. Several phase-specific co-occurring DNA motifs pairs were found conserved in both species, including previously known Evening Element (EE) and ABA Response Element Like (ABREL) pair, underlining the broad conservation of cis-regulation of diurnal expression.


Over the past four decades, several functional hypotheses have been proposed for archaeological ochre. Ochre has been shown to have antiseptic properties and to inhibit the bacterial production of collagenase. These qualities are repeatedly cited to support the hypothesis that red ochre was used to preserve or 'tan' animal hides in prehistory. If clothing made from hides was worn by Homo sapiens in Africa, then hide tanning could have formed a part of the trend towards increasingly modern technological and social advances during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. This paper presents the results of an experimental study exploring the efficacy of ochre as a treatment for making unprocessed animal hide resistant to putrification and desiccation. This study shows that certain types of ochre do preserve animal hide. The implications of this technological advance for the emergence of human behavioural modernity in Africa are discussed.


In the Internet-of-Things (IoT), users might share part of their data with different IoT prosumers, which offer applications or services. Within this open environment, the existence of an adversary introduces security risks. These can be related, for instance, to the theft of user data, and they vary depending on the security controls that each IoT prosumer has put in place. To minimize such risks, users might seek an "optimal" set of prosumers. However, assuming the adversary has the same information as the users about the existing security measures, he can then devise which prosumers will be preferable (e.g., with the highest security levels) and attack them more intensively. This paper proposes a decision-support approach that minimizes security risks in the above scenario. We propose a non-cooperative, two-player game entitled Prosumers Selection Game (PSG). The Nash Equilibria of PSG determine subsets of prosumers that optimize users' payoffs. We refer to any game solution as the Nash Prosumers Selection (NPS), which is a vector of probabilities over subsets of prosumers. We show that when using NPS, a user faces the least expected damages. Additionally, we show that according to NPS every prosumer, even the least secure one, is selected with some non-zero probability. We have also performed simulations to compare NPS against two different heuristic selection algorithms. The former is proven to be approximately 38% more effective in terms of security-risk mitigation.


The characteristic functions of many affine jump-diffusion models, such as Heston's stochastic volatility model and all of its extensions, involve multivalued functions like the complex logarithm. If we restrict the logarithm to its principal branch, as is done in most software packages, the characteristic function can become discontinuous, leading to completely wrong option prices if options are priced by Fourier inversion. In this paper we prove without any restrictions that there is a formulation of the characteristic function in which the principal branch is the correct one. Seen as this formulation is easier to implement and numerically more stable than the so-called rotation count algorithm of Kahl and Jäckel [2005], we solely focus on its stability in this article. The remainder of this paper shows how complexd iscontinuities can be avoided in the Variance Gamma and Schöbel-Zhu models, as well as in the exact simulation algorithm of the Heston model, recently proposed by Broadie and Kaya.


SUMMARY Recent literature suggests that to make value chains in changing agrifood systems in sub-Saharan Africa more inclusive, intermediary institutions should foster coordination. The hub concept has been applied as such an intermediary institution that coordinates advisory services, input supply and smallholder access to markets. This study unravels hub coordination in smallholder dairy in Kenya, conceptualising the hub as a mix between a broker of relationships, a one-stop-shop for services and a cluster of producers and service providers, enabling horizontal coordination (between smallholders) and vertical coordination (between smallholders and value chain actors and service providers). Findings indicate that, in resolving challenges that limit smallholders' integration in value chains, synergies emerged as the hub combined different types of horizontal and vertical coordination. This was done by simultaneously organising clusters of farmers and input and service providers (clustering role) and actively facilitating delivery (broker and one-stop-shop role), where the hub structure stimulated the matching of demand (better articulation) to supply (better organised access). However, tensions emerged in the combination of horizontal and vertical coordination as farmer organisations as hub operators had to balance a role as an honest broker between farmers with the intent of enhancing collective action and as a business-oriented entity which resulted in the exclusion of some farmers who cannot deliver the quantity and quality required to minimise coordination costs. Given these tensions and capacity problems of farmers' organisations, complementary intermediary arrangements may be necessary to fulfil some coordination roles.


This paper uses newly gathered and available data and autoregressive methods to create an economic freedom index for the 1950s and 1960s for up to 95 countries. This index is designed to be as compatible as possible with the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index published annually by the Fraser Institute. Finally, the new index is used to investigate recent a claim attributed to Jeffrey Sachs by Tyler Cowen that institutions are poor predictors of long term economic growth.


We analyse the implications of the Planck data for cosmic inflation. The Planck nominal mission temperature anisotropy measurements, combined with the WMAP large-angle polarization, constrain the scalar spectral index to be ns = 0.9603 ± 0.0073, ruling out exact scale invariance at over 5σ. Planck establishes an upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio of r < 0.11 (95% CL). The Planck data thus shrink the space of allowed standard inflationary models, preferring potentials with V ′′ < 0. Exponential potential models, the simplest hybrid inflationary models, and monomial potential models of degree n ≥ 2 do not provide a good fit to the data. Planck does not find statistically significant running of the scalar spectral index, obtaining dns/dln k = −0.0134 ± 0.0090. We verify these conclusions through a numerical analysis, which makes no slowroll approximation, and carry out a Bayesian parameter estimation and model-selection analysis for a number of inflationary models including monomial, natural, and hilltop potentials. For each model, we present the Planck constraints on the parameters of the potential and explore several possibilities for the post-inflationary entropy generation epoch, thus obtaining nontrivial data-driven constraints. We also present a direct reconstruction of the observable range of the inflaton potential. Unless a quartic term is allowed in the potential, we find results consistent with second-order slow-roll predictions. We also investigate whether the primordial power spectrum contains any features. We find that models with a parameterized oscillatory feature improve the fit by ∆χeff ≈ 10; however, Bayesian evidence does not prefer these models. We constrain several single-field inflation models with generalized Lagrangians by combining power spectrum data with Planck bounds on fNL. Planck constrains with unprecedented accuracy the amplitude and possible correlation (with the adiabatic mode) of non-decaying isocurvature fluctuations. The fractional primordial contributions of cold dark matter (CDM) isocurvature modes of the types expected in the curvaton and axion scenarios have upper bounds of 0.25% and 3.9% (95% CL), respectively. In models with arbitrarily correlated CDM or neutrino isocurvature modes, an anticorrelated isocurvature component can improve the χeff by approximately 4 as a result of slightly lowering the theoretical prediction for the ` <∼ 40 multipoles relative to the higher multipoles. Nonetheless, the data are consistent with adiabatic initial conditions.


Ginning practices affect both economic returns to cotton producers and quality of fiber produced for textile mills and, ultimately, consumers. Because of the shift from a primarily domestic to an export market for U.S. cotton and the loss of textile market share to synthetic fibers, production of high-quality cotton is critical to maintaining the competitiveness of the U.S. cotton industry. The objectives of this review are to summarize the effects of ginning on cotton quality, focusing on recent research, and provide best practices for gin managers to maximize bale value and fiber quality. Higher fiber moisture content at the gin stand, with an optimum of 6 to 7%, better preserves fiber length and strength, but this moisture level reduces both seed cotton and lint cleaning efficiency; therefore, a fiber moisture content of 5 to 6% might be needed for efficient cleaning. Seed cotton cleaners are effective at removing larger foreign matter particles and cause minimal fiber damage. Lint cleaners are efficient cleaners and necessary for removing seed-coat fragments and other small particles created in the gin stand. However, lint cleaners break some fibers, create neps, and remove some good quality fiber. To maximize fiber quality, gins should encourage producers to grow high-quality cultivars and follow recommended harvesting practices. Modules need to be stored and handled properly. Gins should use the minimum amount of drying and lint cleaning that maximizes bale value. Avoiding contamination is vitally important to uphold the U.S. cotton industry's reputation as a supplier of high-quality cotton.


It is commonly observed that people who are consistent towards their goals and wants to achieve them are commonly happy and satisfied with their lives because they are academically successful, paving the path for a lucrative future. We also observed that these individuals tend to be happier and satisfied with their life as a whole. Therefore this research is co-relating the level of grit with higher level of happiness and life satisfaction among 100 professionals; like doctors, teachers, lawyers, engineers and bankers. This research incorporates grit scale by Angela Duckworth, subjective happiness scale by Lyubomirsky and satisfaction with life scale by Diener. Our study concluded that the level of grit, happiness and life satisfaction are positively correlated. Data was analyzed by applying SPSS Pearson's correlation test. This research will benefit people and give them motivation that one doesn't need to be academically strong throughout to become successful, since consistency and effort also play a major part in success. This can be applied to individuals in schools and organizations. In schools and academic institutions teachers can help students to build grit and organizations can apply this on their employees. It will also motivate students, since success can increase the chances of being happy and satisfied from life.


This article describes and discusses a group of newly trained vocational teachers' experiences of outcomes of their teacher education in terms of professional skills. Seven students participated in focus group discussions concering one of the professional teacher training national objectives. The results show that the newly trained vocational teachers acquired a new vision of the teaching profession and that they have strengthened both their professional identity and their self confidence. They have new, broader and more improved tools to use in teaching. and they see the importance of having a vocational teacher education. Skills that are considered important in new vocational teachers' profession are for example to able to see the individual students and reach out o them with a message, and to make just assessment and set fair grades.


The literature on religion and politics in Pakistan revolves around two themes: firstly, the conflicting role of religion in the making of Pakistan where it was used by the traditionalist ulama to negate the idea of territorial nationalism in South Asia and secondly by the modern advocates of the Pakistan Movement in a purely political context. The present study, however, attempts to see this co-relation at different levels. These levels are the state, the assembly, the political parties, elections and political leadership.

The underlying theme is that both the modernists and the traditionalists used Islam to argue and advance their respective political objectives. The modernists equated Islam with the modern secular institutions while giving in to a few cosmetic changes in order to satisfy the ulama. They had not prepared themselves well about the applicability of Islam in the socio economic systems of the country. Some times they would use Islam to mobilize public opinion or to satisfy their political compulsions keeping in view the agitational politics at home as well as the diplomatic obligations abroad. This view is clearly demonstrated during the period of Bhutto's rule. This process, however, did not amount to any radical change in the body politik of Pakistan but yielded more ground to the political ambitions of the ulama. Subsequent political uses of Islam during the Zia period were aimed at achieving two objectives: Firstly, to keep the tempo of the agitational movement initiated by the ulama against Bhutto, and secondly to deny the masses elections and parliamentary democracy. General Zia-ul-Haq's constituency was certainly the army but his Islamization was meant both as a tool of legitimacy for the general public as well as to buy the loyalties of the religious spokesmen of the society. We could not read any higher motives in his so-called Islamization than just a way of perpetuating his political rule. His ordinances and public rhetoric were directed against the critics of his authoritarian regime and to keep the Pakistan People's Party away from the political arena. But the irony of the whole issue is that even the genuinely elected and legitimate political governments could not eliminate the impact of his Islamization.

This was the result of the fear of any possible public protest in the name of undoing what some circles believed to be the acts of Islamization. This process could be of interest to the political pundits of future development in Pakistani society. It has also been demonstrated that the real social and economic problems of the country could not be buried under the weight of religion as has been displayed in the secession of East Pakistan as well as the Martial Law of 1977. If religion has acted as an anchor for some politicians, it has also drowned their political ambitions in the strong currents of social and economic problems.


This study reports about disaster risk assessment undertaken at Roburnia Plantation, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were followed to collect data. A total of eight experienced foresters and fire fighters were purposively sampled for interview at Roburnia Plantation. A questionnaire survey was also used to collect the data. Risk levels were quantified using the risks equations of Wisner et al. (2004) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR 2002). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Analysis of variance (ANOVA, single factor) was also applied. This study found that Roburnia Plantation is highly exposed to fire risks. The mean (± s.d.) output from the Wisner risk equation shows that fire is the highest risk at 7.7 ± 0.3, followed by harsh weather conditions at 5.6 ± 0.4 and least by tree diseases, pests and pathogens at 2.3 ± 0.2. Similarly, the mean (± s.d.) output from the UNISDR risk equation also shows that fire is the highest risk at 2.9 ± 0.2, followed by harsh weather conditions at 2.2 ± 0.3 and least by tree diseases, pests and pathogens at 1.3 ± 0.2. There was no significant deference in the risk analysis outputs (p = 0.13). This study also found that the number of fire incidents were low during summer, but increased during winter and spring. This variation is mainly due to a converse relationship with rainfall, because the availability of rain moistens the area as well as the fuel. When the area and fuel is moist, fire incidents are reduced, but they increase with a decrease in fuel moisture.


In practice, techniques are initiated to tune friction into the desired level in mechanically interacting surfaces. One of them is lubrication. However, in lubricated parallel sliding contacts without any geometrical features on the surface, no film thickness is generated and the two interacting surfaces will stick to each other and high friction occurs. Another challenge in lubricated contacts is that in industrial applications insufficient lubricant is supplied to contacts which results in a friction increase of the interacting components; this starved lubrication situation can cause significant damage in mechanical systems. In industrial applications, when the operating conditions are fixed and the contact and lubricant characteristics are also fixed, the most important element to control the friction is the modification of interacting surfaces in contact. Over the past decades, surface engineers developed several methods to modify the physical and mechanical parameters of the surface techniques to have a better control on frictional behaviour. In parallel sliding contacts, by using surface texturing it is possible to create a lubricant film in contact and to trap wear debris, and cavities can act as oil reservoirs. In surface texturing, the geometrical properties of the texturing features can play an important role to minimize the friction in contact; therefore, investigating the influence of these properties is of interest. Another method to reduce friction is modifying the surface to create boundary slip. In this thesis, the effect of surface texturing and boundary slip on lubricant film formation and friction is studied. The effect of different patterns on film thickness and different texturing properties, e.g. the size, depth and number of cavities and their distance from each other, is investigated numerically. To study the effect of texturing and boundary slip, the Reynolds equation is modified based on boundary conditions of a slippery surface. To consider the effect of cavitation, the Elrod cavitation algorithm is applied and the Reynolds equation is therefore modified. In order to find the effect of texturing on friction, the mixed lubrication regime is studied. In the case of mixed and boundary lubrication due to the asperity contact, the solid on solid contact needs to be considered. Therefore, a deterministic asperity contact model is employed. By combining this approach with the film thickness algorithm, the coefficient of friction for different lubrication regimes is determined. Another important element that dominates the frictional behaviour of contacts is the amount of lubricant supplied to the contacts. In this study, the film thickness and friction for starved lubricated contacts are studied as a function of different texturing parameters. To validate the results from the numerical study, several experimental measurements are performed. The challenge in the experimental study of parallel sliding contacts is making a perfect flat on flat contact, since the existence of even a micro-scale misalignment results in film formation that is not due to surface texturing. Therefore, a setup is designed to modify the tribometer to encounter misalignments. By employing the new setup, several experiments are performed and the results showed a close agreement between the experimental measurements and numerical results.


Leukaemia is the most common form of haematological malignancy and includes a group of
diseases characterised by an uncontrolled growth of malignant haematopoietic cells. It accounts
for about 33% and 3% of cancer cases in children and adults, respectively. Worldwide,
approximately 350,000 new cases of leukaemia are diagnosed each year, with more than
250,000 deaths. Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is the most common form of acute
leukaemia, accounting for around 85% of adult cases, and a leading cause of cancer death in
young adults. Although chemotherapy is often effective in the treatment of AML, at least in
the short term, the agents currently in use are associated with a wide range of side effects
including increasing the risk of developing therapy-related cancers. Therefore, there is
considerable interest in the anti-cancer potential of natural agents with lower toxicities.
Fucoidan is a fucose-rich sulphated polysaccharide that exists in the cell wall matrix of brown
seaweeds. This component has shown immunomodulatory and anti-tumour activities.
However, the underlying mechanisms of these activities remain largely unknown.
Herein, the anti-tumour activities of fucoidan were examined in in vitro and in vivo models of
AML, and its activity as a potential adjunct therapy was investigated. Investigation of the
effects of fucoidan on leukaemic cells (NB4; a t(15;17) positive acute promyelocytic
leukaemia, KG-1a; a minimally differentiated AML, HL60; a t(15;17) negative acute
promyelocytic leukaemia and K562; an acute erythroleukaemia cell line) revealed evidence
that fucoidan has a selective inhibitory effect on acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) and not
other types of AML cells, initiating apoptosis. Examination of the pathways mediating the
observed apoptotic mechanisms revealed the observed effect was caspase-dependent as it was
significantly attenuated by pre-treatment with a pan-caspase inhibitor. P21/WAF1/CIP1 was
significantly up-regulated leading to cell cycle arrest. Fucoidan decreased the activation of
ERK1/2, and down-regulated the activation of AKT through hypo-phosphorylation of Thr(308)
residue but not Ser(473).
The anti-tumour activity of fucoidan was supported by in-vivo evidence which demonstrated
that oral doses of fucoidan significantly delayed tumour growth in the APL xenograft model in
athymic Balb/c nude mice, potentially by increasing the cytolytic activity of NK cells. This is
the first study to reveal the anti-tumour activity of fucoidan on leukaemia in vivo. The selective
inhibitory effect of fucoidan on APL cells and its protective effect against APL development
in mice may prove that fucoidan may be useful in treatment of certain types of leukaemias.
APL is one of the most aggressive types of AML characterised by differentiation arrest and
accumulation of abnormal promyelocytes. Current APL therapies are associated with various
side effects such as hyper-leucocytosis and differentiation syndrome which occurs in a quarter
of the patients and is a serious and potentially fatal complication. There is therefore interest in the possibility of reducing the incidence of these morbidities through the use of adjunctive
therapies which permit lower doses of toxic therapies to be used whilst maintaining efficacy.
Herein, the synergistic effects of fucoidan on current APL therapy, arsenic trioxide (ATO) and
all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), were investigated. In vitro, the effect of fucoidan combined
with both therapeutic and lower doses of these drugs was examined in APL cells. Fucoidan in
combination with ATO enhanced apoptosis in APL cells at both therapeutic and lower doses
of ATO as indicated by an increased sub G0/G1 population, DNA fragmentation and annexin
V positive apoptotic cells. Furthermore, the combination of fucoidan with low doses of ATRA
and ATO significantly enhanced cell differentiation as indicated by G0/G1 arrest and increased
CD11b expression. The triple combination of these agents resulted in the greatest myeloid
differentiation in APL cells compared to single or double combinations.
The efficacy of fucoidan as an adjuvant to the anti-leukaemic activity of ATO or ATRA was
identified in vivo in athymic Balb/c nu/nu mice bearing APL. Tumour growth was monitored
by measurement of tumour size and survival. When fucoidan and sub-therapeutic doses of ATO
were administered in APL-bearing mice, the median survival and tumour volume doubling
time significantly increased in mice treated with fucoidan alone and combined with ATO but
not ATO alone compared to the control group.
When fucoidan plus low dose ATRA were administered as the therapy regimen in APL-bearing
mice, the median survival and tumour volume doubling time significantly increased in all
treated groups compared to the control group. Moreover, the differentiation of APL cells
obtained from animal's tumour mass significantly increased in mice treated with fucoidan
alone and fucoidan+ATRA but not ATRA alone compared to the control group. A further novel
finding was that the differentiated APL cells derived from the excised tumour mass exhibited
a down regulation of CD44 in fucoidan+ATRA treated mice. The presence of differentiated
leukaemic cells with low or no expression of CD44 may be associated with decreased migration
of these cells in APL.
Taken together these findings provide important evidence that fucoidan may prove an effective
adjuvant therapeutic agent in the treatment of selected leukaemia sub-type APL and may permit
lower doses of ATO and ATRA to be employed to achieve better efficacy of treatment
accompanied by lower toxicity.


Background: The anxiety reduction before coronary angiography has clinical advantages and is one of the objectives of nursing. Reflexology is a non-invasive method that has been used in several clinical situations. Applying reflexology might have effect on the reduction of anxiety before coronary angiography. Objectives: The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to investigate the effect of reflexology on anxiety among patients undergoing coronary angiography. Patients and Methods: This trial was conducted in Shahid Beheshti Hospital, in Kashan, Iran. One hundred male patients who were undergoing coronary angiography were randomly enrolled into intervention and placebo groups. The intervention protocol was included 30 minutes of general foot massage and the stimulation of three reflex points including solar plexus, pituitary gland, and heart. The placebo group only received the general foot massage. Spielbergers state trait anxiety inventory was used to assess the anxiety experienced by patients. Data was analyzed using Man-Witney, Wilcoxon and Chi-square tests. The stepwise multiple regressions used to analyze the variables that are involved in anxiety reduction. Results: The mean range of anxiety decreased from 53.24 to 45.24 in reflexology group which represented 8 score reduction (P = 0.0001). The reduction in anxiety was 5.9 score in placebo group which was also significant (P = 0.0001). The anxiety reduction was significantly higher in reflexology group (P = 0.014). The stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that doing reflexology can explain the 7.5% of anxiety reduction which made a significant model. Conclusions: Reflexology can decrease the anxiety level before coronary angiography. Therefore, reflexology before coronary angiography is recommended.


Palm oil sector is a human capital-intensive industry with the good average ratio of worker per hectare in the range of 0.12-0.17 or six to eight hectares per worker. The human capital is central to the sustainability of palm oil industry, and consequently, the employee wellbeing is critical in contributing to a sustainable business operation. We believe that the empowered and engaged employees make the difference towards driving positive improvements.


Accumulated evidence indicates that, by the phosphorylation of its physiological substrates, Akt promotes cell survival, proliferation and angiogenesis. While a number of Akt targets have been identified, the mechanism by which Akt regulates cell survival and growth and induces malignant transformation still remains elusive. During the last 5 years, I have shown that AKT1 cross-talks with Src/Stat3 pathway. AKT1 is a direct target gene of Stat3. Protein/mRNA levels and promoter activity of AKT1 are significantly induced by constitutively active Src and Stat3. Knockdown of Stat3 or dominant-negative Stat3 reduced AKT1 expression induced by constitutively active Src. Blockage of AKT1 expression largely reduced Stat3 function in cell survival and angiogenesis. Furthermore, I have shown that proapoptotic protein 24p3 is a major target of Akt to mediate IL3 signaling in hematopoietic cells. Forkhead transcription factor FOXO3a directly binds to and activates 24p3 promoter leading to expression of 24p3 in response to IL3 withdrawal. Akt phosphorylates FOXO3a and inhibits its action toward 24p3. Finally, I have identified a novel transcription factor TZP that interacts with Akt and p53. Expression of TZP inhibits cell growth and survival and induces both G1 and G2/M cell cycle arrest. TZP directly binds to the p53 promoter and induces p53 transcription. In addition, TZP interacts with p53 and prevents p53 from Mdm2-mediated degradation. In response to genotoxic stress, both TZP and p53 were upregulated and knockdown of TZP reduced p53 expression. Akt phosphorylated TZP resulting in its translocation from the nucleus into the cytoplasm, and thus inhibits TZP function. These data indicate that Akt induced by STAT3 confers oncogenesis through inhibition of the transcription factors.


A lucid and stimulating explanation of how the body's natural healing mechanisms work - and how they can be triggered in non-chemical ways via the 'placebo effect'. Can we really cure ourselves of disease by the power of thought alone? Faith healers and alternative therapists are convinced that we can, but what does science say? Contrary to public perception, orthodox medical opinion is remarkably confident about the healing powers of the mind. For the past fifty years, doctors have been taught that placebos such as sugar pills and water injections can relieve virtually any kind of medical condition. Yet placebos only work if you believe they work, so the medical confidence in the power of the placebo effect has provided scientific legitimacy to popular claims about the healing powers of the mind. In this intriguing exploration, Dylan Evans exposes the flaws in the scientific research into the placebo effect and reveals the limits of what can and cannot be cured by thought alone. Drawing on new ideas in immunology and evolutionary biology, Evans proposes a new theory about how placebos work, and asks some searching questions about our concepts of health and disease.


DNA was extracted from several Hevea sources; namely, various Hevea
species, several cultivars from within the Hevea brasiliensis species such as
clones and in vitro cultured H. brasiliensis. Four DNA molecular marker
techniques were used to analyze the DNA. These techniques included a
hybridization-based marker technique called restriction fragment length
polymorphism (RFLP) and three polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based
techniques viz. random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), DNA amplified
fingerprinting (DAF) and sequence-tagged microsatellite sites (STMS). In the
RFLP study, a wheat ribosomal DNA, pTa71 (rDNA) probe was able to detect a
reduction in rDNA loci number in DNA from in vitro cultured plants compared to
DNA from control plants. Hybridization with M13 DNA fragments revealed interand
intraspecific variations among the DNA samples. Neither of thesehybridization probes could detect somac1onal variation within a sample of in vitro
cultured plants. On the other hand, RAPD and DAF were able to detect
somaclonal variation within the in vitro cultured plants. The polymorphic patterns
produced by RAPD could be neither correlated with any particular morphological
trait nor the source of calli i.e. anther or ovule. Meanwhile, DAF proved to be
more sensitive as it was able to detect a high degree of variation in the DNA
extracted from anther derived calli. STMS could not detect any variation nor
insertion/deletion mutation at the HMGR-l gene within the in vitro culture DNA.
RAPD and DAF molecular markers were found to be dominant while RFLP and
STMS markers were co-dominant in all of the H brasiliensis crosses tested in this
study. No change in the methylation sites for both in vitro culture and control
plants were detected when the DNAs were digested with both isoschizomeric
restriction enzymes Hpall and MspI. A micro satellite enriched library was
constructed and was found to be enriched with (GA)n repeats (39%).
Hybridization with one of these clones revealed inter- and intraspecific variations
with DpnII -restricted DNAs. This clone was subsequently sequenced and found to
be an imperfect repeat.


Dolomite can (1) selectively replace certain components of a rock such as coralline algae and (2) mimically replace certain fossils such as echinoid fragments. We dolomitized coralline alga, echinoid, foram, pelecypod, Halimeda, gastropod and coral fragments at 250 °C in two-molar CaCl 2 /MgCl 2 solutions and found that coralline algae, echinoids, Halimedae, and forams dolomitized faster than the other fossils. Echinoids and forams were mimically replaced, whereas pelecypods, gastropods, and corals were replaced by dolomite, which destroyed the original skeletal architecture. Artificial conversion of high-Mg calcite coralline algae and echinoid fragments to low-Mg calcite prior to dolomitization had no discernible effect on the rate of dolomitization or the fabric of the dolomitized fossils. On the basis of these results and petrographic analyses of natural, low-temperature dolomites, we conclude that mimic replacement and fossil selective replacement is more likely to be affected by the crystal size than by mineralogy.


Genetically modified (GM) potatoes were a market failure in North America in the 1990s. In spite of benefits to growers, processors, consumers, and the environment, concerns about GM potatoes are still prevalent. We surveyed people in the North American potato industry regarding their opinions of GM potato issues. Results suggest that: (1) growers may be more likely than consumers to accept GM potatoes and (2) all-native technology may be more acceptable than transgenic technology. Potato growers, females, Canadians, and former Monsanto GM potato customers were more likely to be optimistic about allnative GM potatoes. Proactive marketing of all-native potatoes with consumer attributes—and perhaps with the approval of an environmental group—could lead to market success in the future.


The 17 November 2015 M w 6.6 earthquake in Leucas (Leukas, Lefkas, or Lefkada) Island in the Ionian Sea, western Aegean arc, was modeled using teleseismic long‐period P and SH waveforms and Global Positioning System (GPS) slip vectors. Detailed fault modeling in this region, characterized by intense seismicity and deformation rates, usually assigned to the Cephalonia Transform fault, is a challenge because of the unfavorable observation system. To overcome this problem, we independently analyzed seismological and geodetic data and then jointly evaluated the results. The adopted model indicates that the 2015 earthquake can be assigned to a shallow strike‐slip fault, with a minor component of thrusting, along the southwest coasts of Leucas and with relatively high slip for the area. Additionally, mostly low‐angle fault solutions satisfying geodetic observations were identified but were not further investigated. The preferred fault model permits recognition that recent M w>6.0 earthquakes in the area, some marked by extreme peak ground accelerations, are associated with a string of strike slip (or oblique slip), occasionally overlapping fault segments with variable characteristics, along or close to the west coasts of Leucas and Cephalonia (Keffalinia, Kefalonia) Islands, whereas the catastrophic 1953 M w 7.2 Cephalonia and other previous major earthquakes were associated with thrust faulting.

[Electronic Supplement:][1] Table of the Global Positioning System (GPS)‐derived displacements and figures of P ‐wave first‐motion polarities, comparison of earthquake source parameters, GPS time series, 2D projections of geodetic solutions, the variance–covariance matrix of the geodetic solution, and the geodetic variable slip model.

 [1]: http://www.bssaonline.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1785/0120160080/-/DC1


Introduction: Open heart surgery is one of the most common surgeries in the world for cardiovascular patients. Physical and psychological dysfunctions are the most common complications of this surgery that lead to rehospitalization and increasing depression in the patients. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of the telephone follow-up care on rehospitalization and depression in the patients undergoing an open heart surgery in the 502 Military Hospital. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on all adult patients underwent an open heart surgery in the 502 Military Hospital during 2015-2016. The patients were recruited by the convenience sampling method and randomly allocated into the two groups of intervention and control. The Beck depression questionnaire was used to collect the data. The telephone follow-up care was performed in patients in the intervention group. Data were analyzed by the SPSS 19 software. Resuls: The results of the Fisher's exact test showed that the telephone follow-up care was effective in reducing the rate of rehospitalization in the patients (P=0.035). Also, the results of an independent sample t-test showed a statistically significant difference in the mean score of depression between the intervention (33±9.68) and control (39.27±11.43) groups after the intervention (P= 0.026). Discussion and Conclusion: Telephone follow-up care reduces a short-term depression after the heart surgery and decreases the rehospitalization of patients undergoing a heart surgery. So, it is suggested that the telephone follow-up care be used in these patients.


I) Selective defects in the mitochondrial respiratory
chain and in the coupling of respiration to phosphorylation
underlie weakness and exercise intolerance in certain
mliopatbies (see Carafoli and Roman 1980: Morgan-Hughes
1981). In this study specific defects in these pathways
have been reproduced in the rat using the respiratory chain
inhibitors diphenyleneiodonium and antimycin A and the
uncoupling agent dinitrophenol. These disease models
have been characterised using electrophysiological, biochemical
and morphological techniques and the findings
have furthered the understanding of the pathophysiology
of human mitochondrial myopathies. Mitochondrial inhibitors
were either injected intraarterially into anaesthetised
animals or given by repeated daily subcutaneous injection.
Isometric twitch tension and compound muscle action
potentials evoked by nerve or by direct muscle stimulation
were recorded from the gastrocnemius muscle in vivo during
various stimulus patterns. The gastrocnemius muscle was
either freeze clamped for metabolite assay or fixed for
histological study at various times after injection. In
a second series of experiments, the biochemical changes
were followed using 31 phosphorous nuclear magnetic resonance.
The effects of acute ischaemia and blocked glycolysis
were also studied in vivo for comparative purposes.
In vitro intracellular recordings were made from individual
soleus muscle fibres in separate experiments. 2) Intra-arterial injection of dinitrophenol resulted
in irreversible failure of twitch tension and loss of
muscle action potential associated with the development
of an electrically silent contracture. In vitro intracellular
recordings from soleus muscle fibres demonstrated
a progressive broadening of the action potential, with a
fall in amplitude and eventual failure of propogation.
This was associated with a small reduction in resting
potential. Force failure was accompanied by a rapid depletion
of phosphocreatine and adenosine triphospbate (ATP)
accumulation of inosine monophosphate (IMP) and a fall in
intramuscular pH with lactate accumulation. Enlarged mitochondria
with whorled, fractured or lysed cristae, myelin
figures, and intracristal linear inclusions were seen 60
minutes after infusion.
3) Intra-arterial or repeated subcutaneous injection
of diphenyleneiodonium which is known to inhibit NADH
ubiquinone reductase resulted in a progressive fall in
twitch tension with 1 and 5c/sec stimulation patterns
accompanied by a marked prolongation of relaxation time.
Failure of muscle excitation paralleled force failure.
Contracture as determined by a rise in resting tension ;
developed inconsistently as a late finding only in animals
given large doses of DPI. Considerable recovery of force
generation occurred with rest. After a single injection
a pattern of rapid fatiguability followed by a Partial
recovery was established with repeated bursts of 5c/sec stimulation. With DPI, force failure was associated
with depletion of PCr but ATP levels were similar to
those in control muscle exposed ,1 to the same stimulus,
pattern. A massive rise in muscle lactate concentrations
with light work was seen in animals given subcutaneous
DPI.
With DPI mitochondrial changes were minor after
intra-arterial infusion. In animals given repeated
subcutaneous injections, the changes were more marked
and resembled those'seen more acutely_ after dinitrophenol.

4) Abnormal force failure followed injection of antimycin
A, but systemic toxicity limited the usefulness of
this agent and only 5 experiments were undertaken. 5) Intra-arterial infusion of the glycolytic inhibitor
iodoacetate resulted in a rapid failure of twitch tension
and muscle exictability, associated with contracture.
Severe ATP depletion and IMP accumulation were found in
contractured_muscle.


Cascading Style Sheets isan essential stylesheet languageto designers who want their webpages to stand out among the trillions on the Web. In straightforward language, this book explains CSS. Author Mike McGrath begins with a brief history of Web design and then explains how style sheets determine the presentation of elements within HTML documents, and how CSS makes for a simpler and more streamlined HTML markup. Examples show how CSS rules control the appearance of text, content boxes, lists, tables, backgrounds, and how they can create dynamic effects. This updated edition covers Web 2.0 components and includes useful screenshots illustrating each aspect of CSS.


This thesis presents an investigation into the structure of proof in non-standard analysis using proof-planning. The theory of non-standard analysis, developed by Robinson in the 1960s, offers a more algebraic way of looking at proof in analysis. Proof-planning is a technique for reasoning about proof at the meta-level. In this thesis, we use it to encapsulate the patterns of reasoning that occur in non-standard analysis proofs. We first introduce in detail the mathematical theory and the proof-planning architecture. We then present our research methodology, describe the formal framework, which includes an axiomatisation, and develop suitable evaluation criteria. We then present our development of proof-plans for theorems involving limits, continuity and differentiation. We then explain how proof-planning applies to theorems which combine induction and non-standard analysis. Finally we give a detailed evaluation of the results obtained by combining the two attractive approaches of proof-planning and non-standard analysis, and draw conclusions from the work.


Abstract A group of free-living bacteria known as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) inhabit the rhizosphere and aid root development. These rhizobacteria bacteria are vital to the growth of plants and can serve as bio-fertilizer and can enhance food security through green agricultural practices. They exhibit special features which make them potential candidates as bio-fertilizer. Isolation and characterization of rhizobacteria is the first step toward their utilization as bio-fertilizers. Ten rhizobacteria from two different rice farms were isolated and characterized for plant growth promoting properties. The isolated rhizobacteria were identified morphologically, microscopically, biochemically, and molecularly. Plant's growth promoting properties of these rhizobacteria was also analyzed which includes; Indole 3-acetic acid production (IAA), phosphate solubilisation, hydrogen cyanide production (HCN), ammonia production (NH3), and zinc solubilisation. Out of the ten isolates, three were found to have the best plant growth enhancing properties and were therefore the best candidates as bio-fertilizers. 16SrRNA study and phylogenetic analysis was performed in order to unravel the specie of these three isolates and they were identified as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus niacini, and Bacillus cereus with accession numbers OM184294, OM1842295 and OM184296 respectively. These isolates have the potential to be used as bio-fertilizer, which would significantly contribute to food security.


As anthropogenic pressures including over-fishing and climate change intensify, high-order predators are being threatened within coastal communities. Predicting consequences hinges on our understanding of how species similarities and differences shape ecosystem function and resilience. I compared ecological similarity between two morphologically similar carcharhinids, bull (Carcharhinus leucas) and pigeye (C. amboinensis) sharks in northern Australia. Ecological similarity was measured by comparing a) age structure and growth dynamics, b) habitat use and c) genetic population structure and phylogeography. Age structure and growth dynamics were quantified by analysing vertebrae of 199 pigeye and 94 bull sharks. Model averaging results indicated female pigeye sharks matured at 13 years, lived > 30 years and with a growth coefficient (k) of 0.145 year –1. Male pigeye sharks matured slightly earlier (12 years), survived > 26 years and grew faster (k = 0.161 year –1) than females. Bull sharks matured at 9.5 years and displayed similar growth coefficient (k = 0.158 year –1) and survival (> 27 years) as pigeye sharks. Analysis of vertebral microchemistry identified unique elemental signatures in each of the freshwater bull shark nurseries, but these signatures did not occur in adult vertebrae. Furthermore, age-specific changes in microchemistry synonymous with known ontogenetic changes in patterns of habitat use were also evident. However, vertebral microchemistry could not discriminate among natal habitats of pigeye sharks and age-specific changes in vertebral microchemistry were absent. Inter-specific differences in vertebral microchemistry suggest species display different patterns of habitat use. Population genetic structure and phylogeography of pigeye sharks defined two populations within northern Australia on the basis of mitochondrial DNA evidence, but this result was not supported by nuclear microsatellite or RAG 1 markers. Phylogeography identified three distinct clades present in differing frequencies across northern Australia. Bull sharks displayed starkly different patterns. High genetic diversity among juveniles sampled from different rivers supported the hypothesis of female reproductive philopatry. Furthermore, phylogeography identified only one clade across northern Australia. Despite similar age and growth structure, different patterns of habitat use and genetic evolution confirm that morphological likeliness does not equate to similar ecologies in these large carcharhinid sharks.


This is a book for those of us who believed that we didnt need to learn Perl, and now we know it is more ubiquitous than ever. Perl is extremely flexible and powerful, and it isnt afraid of Web 2.0 or the cloud. Originally touted as the duct tape of the Internet, Perl has since evolved into a multipurpose, multiplatform language present absolutely everywhere: heavy-duty web applications, the cloud, systems administration, natural language processing, and financial engineering. Beginning Perl, Third Edition provides valuable insight into Perls role regarding all of these tasks and more. Commencing with a comprehensive overview of language basics, youll learn all about important concepts such as Perls data types and control flow constructs. This material sets the stage for a discussion of more complex topics, such as writing custom functions, using regular expressions, and file input and output. Next, the book moves on to the advanced topics of object-oriented programming, modules, web programming, and database administration with Perls powerful database interface module, DBI. The examples and code provided offer you all of the information you need to start writing your own powerful scripts to solve the problems listed above, and many more. Whether you are a complete novice or an experienced programmer, Beginning Perl, Third Edition offers an ideal guide to learning Perl. What youll learn How to use the power of Perl How to handle Perl data structures How to build database applications regardless of the underlying database How to parse complex data How to write industrial-strength object-oriented Perl How to start web programming in Perl Who is this book for? This book is for programmers of all shades and persuasions who thought they could do without Perl. Think again.


Lignin is a complex phenolic hetropolymer with an established role in structure, support and defence in higher plants. The chemical structure of lignin is as yet undefined but controlled by an enzymatic pathway leading to three monomeric subunits. Lignin accumulates in plants in response to pathogen challenge. A scanning densitrometric assay to detect lignin was developed that was non-invasive, quantitative and quick to perform. The assay was used in conjunction with assessments of phytotoxicity, mycotoxity and pathogen resistance to assess the efficacy of potential biochemical inhibitors of the phenylpropanoid pathway in vivo. With this information, tolerances for biochemical inhibition of the phenylpropanoid pathway were obtained. This allowed further investigation of the basis of genetic and metabolic regulation of one form of one enzyme of the pathway, phenylalanine ammonia lyase, in wheat. Evidence of a potential role for endogenous elicitation in the ligninification pathway was also gained by the use of the assay. Elicitation in terms of the hypersensitive response was also investigated during attempts to purify the fungal elicitor Avr2 using the tovnaXo!Cladosporium fulvum model; however this work was completed by an alternative genetic screen protocol published elsewhere. Control of ligninificiation and the enzymes that produce the polymer is therefore an essential part of the defence response in wheat. This has important implications for genetic modification of the pathway. It was shown in this study that the phenylpropanoid pathway controls one aspect of resistance in wheat and concludes that care must be taken when manipulating the pathway in plants for increased digestibility or ease of pulping. In addition, a separate project was undertaken in order to purify an avirulence protein possessed by the Cladosporiumfulvum fungus. The projects aim was to obtain amino acid sequence(s) of potential interacting proteins that would be used to design primer sequences to provide a genetic sequence of the target avirulence protein Avr2. Although several candidate proteins were obtained and amino acid sequencing attempted; a competing group obtained the genetic sequence of Avr2. The sequence of this clone predicts a protein whose molecular weight and isoelectric point falls within a region of proteins whose isoelectric points and molecular weights show activity in a bioassay for Cf-2 interacting proteins. This data supports the conclusion that the work by Luderer et al (2002) defines the genetic sequence of Avr 2.


This contribution presents a comprehensive summary of the first phase of the research project SEMERGY, aimed towards exploring the potential of Semantic Web Technologies to accommodate and support building performance assessment and optimization. Previous research on the adoption of performance assessment tools by the design community suggested that the extensive amount of time, effort and expertise required to accumulate and provide input information for various performance evaluations, limits the application of such tools for improvement of building design in early stages. Even the most rudimentary performance inquiries require large quantities of data regarding the properties of incorporated building materials and systems, climatic conditions, building codes, etc. Much of this data is available on the internet, yet its use is severely hampered by lack of appropriate structure and format. The SEMERGY research and development project was conceived with the aim of acquiring and utilizing the abundant, yet ill-structured building-related data available on the World Wide Web, through implementation of Semantic Web Technologies. This web-based data is utilized within a flexible, multi-objective design optimization environment, incorporating various performance assessment applications. The present contribution describes some of the major challenges of the project, discusses the adopted approaches, and presents SEMERGY's main features.


Many studies have been conducted on how to detect emotion classes or magnitudes from multimedia information such as text, audio, and images. However, the methods that can use predicted emotion classes and magnitudes to render emotion expressions in Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA) are still unclear. This paper proposes a computer graphics methodology that uses predicted non-linear regression values to render facial expressions using mesh morphing techniques. Results of the rendering technique are presented and discussed.


Climate change resulting from the augmented "greenhouse effect" is likely to have significant effects on the terrestrial hydrological system and the social and ecological systems linked to it. Climate change could potentially affect inputs to the agrohydrological system such as rainfall, temperature and potential evaporation; processes within the system such as vegetation dynamics and crop production; and hydrological responses such as runoff, recharge of soil water into the vadose zone and net irrigation demand. This study outlines the use of a daily water budget model, ACRU, and SCENGEN, a climate change scenario generator, to assess potential impacts of global climate change on agricultural production and hydrological responses in southern Africa. This study also considers potential impacts of climate change on plant response which may determine the extent of potential impacts of climate change on agricultural production and hydrological response. Two approaches to climate change impact studies are adopted for use in this study. The first, and more conventional approach considers the impact of a specified climate change scenario, in this case developed with the use of SCENGEN, on the terrestrial hydrological system. The second approach considers the degree ofclimate change, in this case precipitation change, required to perturb the hydrological system significantly in the various climate regimes found in southern Mrica. A comparative analysis of the sensitivity of selected hydrological responses to climate change produced the following results, in ascending order of sensitivity: net irrigation demand < stormflow response < runoff < recharge into the vadose zone. The impacts of a specific climate scenario change on hydrological responses produced unexpected results. A general decrease in mean annual precipitation over southern Mrica is predicted for the future with SCENGEN. However, widespread simulated increases in runoff, soil moisture content in the Aand B-horizon and recharge into the vadose zone are obtained. These increases are a product of the CO2 "fertilisation" feedback, which is incorporated as a maximum transpiration suppression routine, in the ACRU model. Net irrigation demand, which is not linked to this routine, is simulated to increase in the future.


Research focused on design integrated CAD and CAM has been conducted since the 1980s and will continue in order to achieve CAD/CAM integration. CAD/CAM systems have become a common tool in industries to design parts and simulate the manufacturing machining. This research focuses on the area of interoperable CNC machining systems and CNC systems based on the evolving STEP-NC standard. This paper describes and illustrates a STEP compliant CAD/CAPP/CAM System for the manufacture of rotational components on CNC turning centres. A structured view of a STEP compliant CAD/CAPP/CAM system framework supporting the next generation of intelligent CNC controllers for turn/mill component manufacture is provided. Finally the proposed system is outlined by the modelling of a turning workstation and through the use of user interface dialogs that depict the information held in the models. The case study demonstrates that the new approach can generate machining instructions equivalent to currently used G-codes for the same component.


Abstract. In the fall of 2011, iodine-131 (131I) was detected at several radionuclide monitoring stations in central Europe. After investigation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed by Hungarian authorities that 131I was released from the Institute of Isotopes Ltd. in Budapest, Hungary. It was reported that a total activity of 342 GBq of 131I was emitted between 8 September and 16 November 2011. In this study, we use the ambient concentration measurements of 131I to determine the location of the release as well as its magnitude and temporal variation. As the location of the release and an estimate of the source strength became eventually known, this accident represents a realistic test case for inversion models. For our source reconstruction, we use no prior knowledge. Instead, we estimate the source location and emission variation using only the available 131I measurements. Subsequently, we use the partial information about the source term available from the Hungarian authorities for validation of our results. For the source determination, we first perform backward runs of atmospheric transport models and obtain source-receptor sensitivity (SRS) matrices for each grid cell of our study domain. We use two dispersion models, FLEXPART and Hysplit, driven with meteorological analysis data from the global forecast system (GFS) and from European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) weather forecast models. Second, we use a recently developed inverse method, least-squares with adaptive prior covariance (LS-APC), to determine the 131I emissions and their temporal variation from the measurements and computed SRS matrices. For each grid cell of our simulation domain, we evaluate the probability that the release was generated in that cell using Bayesian model selection. The model selection procedure also provides information about the most suitable dispersion model for the source term reconstruction. Third, we select the most probable location of the release with its associated source term and perform a forward model simulation to study the consequences of the iodine release. Results of these procedures are compared with the known release location and reported information about its time variation. We find that our algorithm could successfully locate the actual release site. The estimated release period is also in agreement with the values reported by IAEA and the reported total released activity of 342 GBq is within the 99 % confidence interval of the posterior distribution of our most likely model.


Background/Context Educational reform has emphasized the importance of parent involvement. Perhaps the most common instantiations of parent involvement are various efforts to encourage particular reading practices in the home. Although there is some research supporting the efficacy of "family literacy" initiatives, these efforts have been criticized for their deficit orientation and cultural insensitivity. Some educators have attempted to create family literacy practices considerate of the cultural and material demands of families, but no one has investigated how parents actually experience these initiatives. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This research examined parent perceptions of school-to-home literacy initiatives intended to encourage particular literacy practices in the homes of families living in two predominantly poor urban communities served by underperforming schools; specifically, How do African American and immigrant ESL parents living in these two urban communities experience various school-to-home literacy initiatives? These groups of urban parents were interviewed because they and their children are especially likely to be targeted by family literacy initiatives. The study focused on school-to-home literacy practices that attempted to influence literacy in the home because these are the most common instantiations of family literacy. Population/Participants/Subjects The participants included 18 African American and 14 immigrant ESL parents living in two large urban centers in the northeastern United States. Research Design: Open-ended, qualitative interviews were conducted with the participants to elicit parents' perceptions of school-to-home literacy practices. Interviews ranged from 30 to 60 minutes in length and were conducted by two doctoral students trained by the author. Data Collection and Analysis Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and, if necessary, translated into English. Based on multiple readings of the data, several core themes were identified that were the focus of the data analysis. Data were analyzed through a process called modified analytic induction to develop a "loose descriptive theory" of how these urban parents experienced school-to-home literacy initiatives. Conclusions/Recommendations The analysis of the data indicated that school-to-home literacy practices, as experienced by these parents, did not always fit well with family routines, cultural values, or expectations. The analysis also highlighted a one-way model of school-home communication that provided few opportunities for school-to-home literacy initiatives to respond to the needs of individual families. It was concluded that a model of family literacy considerate of families' cultural and material needs depends on creating spaces for parents to share their needs, expectations, and values—and for school officials to listen.


For half a century, Congress has required that tobacco companies include text-based warning labels on cigarette packages. In 2009, Congress decided that these warnings were insufficient and should be supplemented by graphic images of cigarette smoke flowing out of exposed tracheas and warnings of nicotine's addictiveness. Congress's decision was informed by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's research in behavioral economics, which ranks salient, emotion-evoking images as being more effective than textual statements in promoting the internalization of advertising messages. Ill-equipped to handle the First Amendment implications of this measure, courts have fumbled over the question of whether these graphic images reshape warning information into a form of speech, compelling a state-imposed ideology upon the tobacco industry.This Article consolidates the economic and legal theory needed to properly analyze the impact of salience measures on the commercial speech doctrine. By walking through various First Amendment scenarios, this Article describes and differentiates between the two main governmental interests motivating graphic image requirements on cigarette labels: reducing smoking and informing consumers. The Article then sets up a game-theoretic model of the compelled commercial speech doctrine and uses Bayesian inference to make assumptions about how the Supreme Court would rule if it eventually rules on similar graphic images placed on cigarette labels. Solving the model by way of forward induction yields the prediction that the constitutionality of the graphic image requirements will depend on whether the images are ideologically neutral.This Article makes three basic arguments. First, it argues that, to assess the constitutionality of the salience measure, we must first understand the economic underpinnings that motivated Congress to implement the graphic image requirements in the first place. Specifically, the measure's constitutionality depends on whether Congress is using increased salience solely to promote effective internalization or whether it is going beyond that to compel expression of smoking is disgusting. Second, this Article contends that Daniel Kahneman's two-system model of cognitive function should be used to make this determination. Finally, it argues that certain images attempted to manipulate consumers' emotions to prevent rational decision-making, and that the measure should therefore have been held unconstitutional.


We present the first Open Gravitational-wave Catalog, obtained by using the public data from Advanced LIGO's first observing run to search for compact-object binary mergers. Our analysis is based on new methods that improve the separation between signals and noise in matched-filter searches for gravitational waves from the merger of compact objects. The three most significant signals in our catalog correspond to the binary black hole mergers GW150914, GW151226, and LVT151012. We assume a common population of binary black holes for these three signals by defining a region of parameter space that is consistent with these events. Under this assumption, we find that LVT151012 has a 97.6% probability of being astrophysical in origin. No other significant binary black hole candidates are found, nor did we observe any significant binary neutron star or neutron star–black hole candidates. We make available our complete catalog of events, including the subthreshold population of candidates.


Reinforcement learning theories propose that humans choose based on the estimated values of available options, and that they learn from rewards by reducing the difference between the experienced and expected value. In the brain, such prediction errors are broadcasted by dopamine. However, choices are not only influenced by expected value, but also by risk. Like reinforcement learning, risk preferences are modulated by dopamine: enhanced dopamine levels induce risk-seeking. Learning and risk preferences have so far been studied independently, even though it is commonly assumed that they are (partly) regulated by the same neurotransmitter. Here, we use a novel learning task to look for prediction-error induced risk-seeking in human behavior and pupil responses. We find that prediction errors are positively correlated with risk-preferences in imminent choices. Physiologically, this effect is indexed by pupil dilation: only participants whose pupil response indicates that they experienced the prediction error also show the behavioral effect.


The traditional reference evaluation method treats all citations equally. However, a citation can serve various functions. It may reflect the citing paper author's motivation as well as his/her true attitude towards the cited paper. Investigating such information can be achieved through citation content analysis. This thesis develops an 8-category classification scheme on citation function and polarity to help understand what role a citation played in scientific papers. A biomedical citation corpus is annotated with this scheme and experimented with supervised machine learning methods. Several types of features that capture the characteristics of citation sentences are extracted by natural language processing techniques to serve as the inputs of automatic classifiers. The importance of cue phrases in citation classification is also addressed and discussed.


Hydrated iron(III) oxide has been widely used for the concentration of trace amounts of metal ions from aqueous solutions, including sea-water. In this study, the negatively-charged carrier was used to recover saxitoxin, one of a group of highly toxic paralytic shellfish poisons (PSPs), from aqueous solution as a monovalent cation. Although the recovery was not quantitative (65%), it has been demonstrated that coprecipitation can be used to recover saxitoxin, and probably other suitably charged toxins, from solution. As such, the procedure is less tedious than those currently involving the passage of PSP-containing solutions through columns of weak cation-exchange resin, and gel-filtration media.


Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have delivered superior performance in many computer vision tasks. In this paper, we propose a novel deep fully convolutional network model for accurate salient object detection. The key contribution of this work is to learn deep uncertain convolutional features (UCF), which encourage the robustness and accuracy of saliency detection. We achieve this via introducing a reformulated dropout (R-dropout) after specific convolutional layers to construct an uncertain ensemble of internal feature units. In addition, we propose an effective hybrid upsampling method to reduce the checkerboard artifacts of deconvolution operators in our decoder network. The proposed methods can also be applied to other deep convolutional networks. Compared with existing saliency detection methods, the proposed UCF model is able to incorporate uncertainties for more accurate object boundary inference. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed saliency model performs favorably against state-ofthe-art approaches. The uncertain feature learning mechanism as well as the upsampling method can significantly improve performance on other pixel-wise vision tasks.


PURPOSE: To compare the measurement of nasal air escape, carried out using the Glatzel mirror, in children with and without upper respiratory tract obstruction, according to sex and age. METHODS: The sample comprised 43 subjects, with mean age of 6.9 years, divided into four groups: children with surgical indication to clearing of the upper respiratory tract (surgical group), allergic children with upper respiratory tract obstruction (allergic group), allergic children with obstruction and surgical indication (surgical and allergic group), and children without obstruction (control group). Nasal air escape measurement was carried out using the Altmann's Millimetered Nasal Mirror, and data was measured in cm2 by the AutoCAD 2002 software. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and hypotheses testing, with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: The control group presented the highest mean (6.53 cm2) of nasal air escape, while surgical and allergic group presented the lowest mean (3.07 cm2). The means of the allergic group and the surgical group were 4.74 cm2 and 5.91 cm2, respectively. Only the surgical and allergic group presented statistically significant difference compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: The Glatzel mirror demonstrated not to be a trustworthy instrument for the evaluation of nasal permeability in the analyzed sample, except in cases of severe nasal obstruction, that is, allergic patients with surgical indication. No correlations were found with the variables sex and age.


Part I of this Article provides an overview of path dependence theory. It outlines the theory and briefly describes three separate strands of the theory: increasing returns path dependence, evolutionary path dependence, and sequencing path dependence, which are rooted in the economics, biological, and rational choice theory literatures, respectively. Although each of these strands has specific and unique characteristics, they are linked by a central insight: In each, an outcome or decision is shaped in specific and systematic ways by the path leading to it. Each of these strands of path dependence in turn has important implications for the course and pattern of change in the common law system. Accordingly, Part II applies path dependence theory to the common law. At the core of the common law system is the requirement that courts adhere to the body of principles and rules of action that derive their authority "solely from usages and customs of immemorial antiquity, or from the judgments and decrees of the courts recognizing, affirming, and enforcing such usages and customs." Under the doctrine of stare decisis, higher courts' previous decisions are controlling, courts give their own decisions significant weight, and courts look to non-binding decisions for persuasive precedent. Consequently, although there is some flexibility in the system, precedent remains central to legal deliberation. The doctrine of stare decisis thus creates an explicitly path-dependent process. Later decisions rely on, and are constrained by, earlier decisions. More important, the way in which history shapes legal outcomes corresponds to the three-fold division introduced in Part I. Because each legal decision increases the probability that the next will take a particular form, the common law exhibits increasing returns path dependence. Because the law changes through a process of punctuated yet historically constrained evolution, the common law exhibits evolutionary path dependence. And because the legal process involves sequential decisionmaking in a process marked by competing alternatives and multiple actors, the common law exhibits sequencing path dependence. Therefore, just as biological and social processes are constrained by history, the law is firmly guided by the heavy hand of the past. Finally, Part III turns from the descriptive to the normative. It analyzes the implications of path dependence theory for the doctrine of stare decisis. Path dependence theory reveals that significant costs may arise out of the reliance on precedent in a common law system. The Article concludes with the claim that, all other things being equal, where the costs of path dependence are expected to be especially significant, courts should consider relaxing the doctrine of stare decisis. This prescription not only supports modifying existing practices of reliance upon precedent, but also provides a theoretical basis for some existing distinctions in the degree that judges rely on certain categories of precedent.


A new nonspreading beam is proposed for the case in which diffraction occurs only in one transverse coordinate. The beam has the shape of a pulse in one dimension and is constant in the other (slitlike shape). The intensity of the pulse's peak remains almost constant along a finite interval on the propagation axis. The proposed beam is analyzed and demonstrated experimentally. The analogy between this beam and the temporal pulse in a dispersive medium is discussed.