Graph based semi-supervised learning (SSL) methods play an increasingly important role in practical machine learning systems. A crucial step in graph based SSL methods is the conversion of data into a weighted graph. However, most of the SSL literature focuses on developing label inference algorithms without extensively studying the graph building method and its effect on performance. This article provides an empirical study of leading semi-supervised methods under a wide range of graph construction algorithms. These SSL inference algorithms include the Local and Global Consistency (LGC) method, the Gaussian Random Field (GRF) method, the Graph Transduction via Alternating Minimization (GTAM) method as well as other techniques. Several approaches for graph construction, sparsification and weighting are explored including the popular k-nearest neighbors method (kNN) and the b-matching method. As opposed to the greedily constructed kNN graph, the b-matched graph ensures each node in the graph has the same number of edges and produces a balanced or regular graph. Experimental results on both artificial data and real benchmark datasets indicate that b-matching produces more robust graphs and therefore provides significantly better prediction accuracy without any significant change in computation time.


Material prosperity of countries depends on the use of their endowment of natural
resources. Land management decisions, in particular, also affect the conservation of
biological diversity, which is an asset for not only for the host country, but also for the
rest of the world. There is a growing recognition that the contribution of biological
resources both to sustainable national development and to the well being of the
international community has been underestimated in the past.
Based on both theoretical analysis and case study material from Mexico, this dissertation
discusses the land-use related factors giving rise to the loss of biodiversity, as well policy
options and management practices that may allow sustainable land use and biodiversity
conservation. The introductory chapter summarises the scientific and economic debate,
including disagreements about the definition of biodiversity management objectives.
Chapter 2 analyses the sequence of land use changes typically observed in a number of
tropical countries, and discusses interventions which could alter the incentives for land
conversion.
The Convention on Biological Diversity stipulates that developing countries should be
reimbursed for the 'incremental cost' of activities that help conserving biodiversity.
Chapter 3 proposes a model which addresses the allocative and incentive implications of
the incremental cost mechanism.
The empirical part of the dissertation first discusses the social and economic factors that
have been responsible over the last few decades for land us change and depletion of
biological resources in the study area in Mexico (chapters 4 and 5). A linear
programming economic model is then proposed, for simulating, at the farm level, further
impacts over the next decade (chapter 5).
Based on a model of aggregation over space and time of farm-level decisions, chapter 6
analyzes the appropriate mix of conservation and sustainable use management options in
the study area, providing estimates of their cost implications and discussing possible
funding sources. Chapter 7 concludes with policy implications and options for future
research.


This study brings forward the results of previously published work of free surface flow simulation around a fast ship model. Experimental measurements and numerical simulations of a fast bare-hull ship model form are now extended to the same ship form with appendices for a wide range of Froude numbers. The governing equations are discretized by means of an unstructured finite volume mesh. The standard k-ε turbulence model and Volume of Fluid Method to capture the two phase media are used. The total resistance, due to wave and wake fields of the ship model with appendages and the resistance of the appendages alone are calculated numerically, and compared with the experiments. The experiments and computations were performed for 11 different Froude numbers between 0.103 and 0.322. For Froude numbers up to 0.25, numerical simulations found to be quite in agreement with the experiments. It has been found that appendages increase the total drag mainly by increasing the pressure resistance, and the effect of the appendages becomes more important as the flow speed gets higher.


Interactive systems are difficult to program, but high-level languages can make the task much simpler. Interactive audio and music systems are a particularly interesting case because signal processing seems to favor a functional language approach while the handling of interactive parameter updates, sound events, and other real-time computation favors a more imperative or object-oriented approach. A new language, Serpent, and a new semantics for interactive audio have been implemented and tested. The result is an elegant way to express interactive audio algorithms and an efficient implementation.


Adaptive QoS control is very useful particularly when the wireless/mobile network is not able to support QoS. One of the representative adaptive QoS control mechanisms is signaling-based adaptive encoding, which adjusts codec bit rate according to the channel condition. This paper proposes an efficient signaling mechanism to support QoS for real-time applications, e.g., voice over IP, which dynamically adjusts the codec bit rate in cellular networks using signaling. The proposed mechanism can provide adaptive media quality even when there is severe traffic congestion in the cellular network. This paper also presents simulation results in terms of delay which is a critical factor for real-time communication.


Why, despite clear economic incentives, did eighteenth-century slave traders fail to defend their business interests against the abolition campaign? We focus on the outport of Bristol as a case in point. Our main argument is that slave traders lacked an organizational basis to translate their economic interests into political influence. Supporting evidence from merchant networks over the 1698–1807 period shows that the Society of Merchant Venturers offered such an organizational site for collective political action. Members of this chartered company controlled much of Bristol's seaborne commerce and held chief elective offices in the municipal government. However, the Society evolved into an organization that represented the interests of a closed elite. High barriers to entry prevented the slave traders from using the Society as a vehicle for political mobilization. Social cohesion among slave traders outside the chartered company hinged on centrally positioned brokers. Yet the broker positions were held by the few merchants who became members of the Society, and who eventually ceased their engagement in slave trading. The result was a fragmented network that undermined the slave traders' concerted efforts to mobilize against the political pressure of the abolitionist movement.


This paper examines the long-run relationship between income and urban air pollution using a joint distribution dynamics approach. This approach enables to estimate the transition process and long-run distribution and to examine the mechanisms behind the evolution process. The approach is applied to a unique panel data of CO2, SO2 and PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5µm) for 286 Chinese cities over the period 2002-2014. Strong persistence in the transition dynamics suggests that this convergence process may require a long time. The distribution dynamics analyses indicate that multiple equilibria are the major characteristics in the long-run relationship between income and urban air pollution in China, which implies that inter-regional technology spillover may be an important way to accelerate convergence. Our results further support the existence of poverty-environmental trap in PM2.5 concentrations. Thus, new environmental models are expected to be developed to explain this new stylized fact. The findings provide strong support for taking more aggressive measures that consider income and urban environment simultaneously to reduce poverty and air pollutions together in the Chinese cities.


Objectives: To identify independent predictors for development of pressure ulcers in hospitalized patients and to develop a simple prediction rule for pressure ulcer development. Design: The Prevention and Pressure Ulcer Risk Score Evaluation (prePURSE) study is a prospective cohort study in which patients are followed up once a week until pressure ulcer occurrence, discharge from hospital, or length of stay over 12 weeks. Data were collected between January 1999 and June 2000. Setting: Two large hospitals in the Netherlands. Participants: Adult patients admitted to the surgical, internal, neurological and geriatric wards for more than 5 days were eligible. A consecutive sample of 1536 patients was visited, 1431 (93%) of whom agreed to participate. Complete follow up data were available for 1229 (80%) patients. Main outcome measures: Occurrence of a pressure ulcer grade 2 or worse during admission to hospital. Results: Independent predictors of pressure ulcers were age, weight at admission, abnormal appearance of the skin, friction and shear, and planned surgery in coming week. The area under the curve of the final prediction rule was 0.70 after bootstrapping. At a cut off score of 20, 42% of the patient weeks were identified as at risk for pressure ulcer development, thus correctly identifying 70% of the patient weeks in which a pressure ulcer occurred. Conclusion: A simple clinical prediction rule based on five patient characteristics may help to identify patients at increased risk for pressure ulcer development and in need of preventive measures.


In January 2009, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals filed a first of its kind qui tam suit on behalf of the federal government and several states alleging that its competitor, Aventis Pharma, violated the Federal False Claims Act (FCA) when it fraudulently acquired a patent and then overcharged the government for its patented drug. By utilizing a fraudulently acquired patent to elevate the price of Lovenox, a drug for treating deep-vein thrombosis, Amphastar alleged that Aventis had overcharged the government for every Lovenox pill purchased with government funds, including all prescriptions funded in part by Medicare or other federal insurance programs. The FCA provides a means for litigants to pursue recovery for fraud perpetrated against the federal government. In its complaint, Amphastar alleged that Aventis obtained its patent by engaging in inequitable conduct during prosecution of its patent application before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Our analysis of FCA claims based on this novel inequitable-conduct theory concludes that a patentee could be liable for violating the False Claims Act if (1) the government purchased the patented product, (2) the prices of that product were in fact elevated because of the exclusivity provided by the fraudulently obtained patent, and (3) the patentee knew, deliberately ignored, or showed reckless disregard in deciding to submit a claim for payment from the government at this elevated price. If the court in Amphastar finds Aventis liable under this novel theory, the consequences could be far-reaching. Given the nature of modern patent litigation, with inequitable conduct defenses being nearly ubiquitous, such a ruling could expose nearly every patent holder that does business with the federal government to possible liability under the FCA.This Article discusses the implications of bringing FCA claims based on an inequitable-conduct theory, explores the rationale behind invoking the FCA in this context, and suggests precautions that practitioners can take in such lawsuits. It proposes a variety of reforms to the False Claims Act to check the problems caused by these types of FCA claims. These proposals may become more relevant after the resolution of the Amphastar case if the court validates Amphastar's novel theory and others follow suit in bringing FCA claims against pharmaceutical patent holders.


We study the stability of three-dimensional, propagation-invariant wave packets in self-focusing media with anomalous dispersion at intensities where nonlinear absorption is significant. For light bullets with spherical symmetry in the two transversal dimensions and time, we show that nonlinear losses (NLLs) act as a strongly stabilizing mechanism for light bullet propagation, and, in practical settings, that longer-lived light bullet propagation requires, paradoxically, higher NLLs during the propagation, at the expense of higher input energy.


The Parenting Inventory: Young Children (PI) is a rating scale that measures the developmental expectations and behaviors of parents of children who are between the ages of 1 and 4 years, 11 months. Using a representative urban sample of 1,056 mothers, the PI was found to discriminate successfully between parents with children of different ages and to have substantial item-construct correlations (content validity). The PI was not strongly related to the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory, a measure of parenting attitudes (discriminant validity). Reasons for this latter finding are discussed. Potential uses of the PI for practitioners working with parents in the schools are described.


In a Single Secret Leader Election (SSLE), a group of participants aim to randomly choose exactly one leader from the group with the restriction that the identity of the leader will be known to the chosen leader and nobody else. At a later time, the elected leader should be able to publicly reveal her identity and prove that she has won the election. The election process itself should work properly even if many registered users are passive and do not send any messages. Among the many applications of SSLEs, their potential for enabling more efficient proof-of-stake based cryptocurrencies have recently received increased attention. This paper formally defines SSLE schemes and presents three constructions that provide varying security and performance properties. First, as an existence argument, we show how to realize an ideal SSLE using indistinguishability obfuscation. Next, we show how to build SSLE from low-depth threshold fully homomorphic encryption (TFHE) via a construction which can be instantiated with a circuit of multiplicative depth as low as 10, for realistically-sized secret leader elections. Finally, we show a practical scheme relying on DDH that achieves a slightly relaxed notion of security but which boasts extremely lightweight computational requirements.


The study was conducted in four phases. In the first phase, three methods of
analysis were studied on eight different types of foods. The methods were (i) the
Shipton's modification of the Monier-Williams' method or the Shipton method, (ii)
the modified Rankine method, and (iii) the Iodine distillation method. The eight types
of foods were meehoon, orange cordial, mashed potato (granule), pickled nutmeg,
strawberry jam, mayonnaise, orange juice and wine. Comparative studies showed that
the Iodine distillation method gave the highest mean values followed by the Shipton
and modified Rankine methods, and this was true for seven out of the eight types of
food studied. Recovery studies showed that the Shipton method was reliable for foods
with sulphur dioxide content of more than 50 ppm, namely meehoon, cordial, mashed
potato (granule) and pickled nutmeg. The second phase focussed on the study of methods for foods with less than 50
ppm, that is strawberry jam, mayonnaise, orange juice and wine. The methods were
(i) the Shipton method, and (ii) the Wedzicha method. Comparative studies showed
that results obtained by the Shipton method were higher than those obtained by the
Wedzicha method, and this was true for all the foods studied. From the recovery
studies, it was found that the Wedzicha method was the method of choice for foods
with less than 50 ppm of sulphur dioxide although it is also reliable for foods which
contain more than 50 ppm sulphur dioxide.
The correlation between the Shipton and Wedzicha methods were studied in
the third phase ofthe study. It was observed that the methods showed good correlation
for foods with sulphur dioxide content of more than 200 ppm, moderate correlation for
food with sulphur dioxide content of between 50 - 200 ppm and bad correlation for
food with sulphur content of less than 50 ppm.
The prevalence of sulphur dioxide in eighty-six types of foods were studied in
the last phase. It was found that 30.23% ofthe foods contravene the Food Regulations
1985 in the sulphur dioxide content. The estimate of the Daily Dietary Intake (DDI)
was calculated and it was much lower than the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for
sulphur dioxide.


In survivable optical networks, wavelength assignment is a major concern than assigning routes to the light path requests. Earlier wavelength assignment algorithm suffers from unbalanced utilization of wavelengths that leads to blocking probability for any connection request. This paper analyzes the performance of the wavelength assignment strategies to reduce the network block rate of the request considerably. Simulation results indicate that the round robin assignment algorithm achieves reduced network block rate and delay with increased bandwidth utilization and throughput.


Here, we present the palynological record from two shallow core holes (6611/09-U-01 and -02) from the Trondelag Platform offshore mid-Norway consisting of 750 m of Upper Permian and Lower Triassic sediments. The relatively homogeneous assemblages recovered from the Upper Permian deposits are dominated by gymnosperm pollen, mainly pteridosperms. At the base of the Griesbachian, numerous spore species appear in the record, leading to an increased diversity. The change at this boundary is also marked by the massive reduction of one group of pteridosperm pollen ( Vittatina ). Together with other typical Permian elements (e.g., Lueckisporites virkkiae ), this group is rare but consistently present in the lower part of the Griesbachian, and it gradually disappears in its upper part. The distribution of other groups such as taeniate and non-taeniate bisaccate gymnosperm pollen (pteridosperms and conifers) shows no significant change across the boundary, whereas spores and other gymnosperm pollen increase in diversity and abundance. These changes coincide with the formational change between the Schuchert Dal Formation (Upper Permian) and the Wordie Creek Formation (Griesbachian) equivalents. Late Permian and Griesbachian palynomorph assemblages display different patterns. The former show a homogeneous composition of low diversity, whereas the latter reflect diverse and variably composed floras. The data suggest that the arid phase of the Late Permian was followed by a humid phase at the base of the Griesbachian. In the Griesbachian section, a succession of six distinct palynological assemblages (phase II–VII) can be inferred. Comparable changes have been described from East Greenland. The variations in the palynological record are interpreted to reflect changing ecological conditions (e.g., changing humidity). Comparable variations in the distribution of δ 13 C isotope values reported from various sections from Greenland and China, showing stable values during the Late Permian and highly variable values during the Griesbachian, suggest common causes for the observed fluctuations. Multiphase volcanic activity of the Siberian traps seems to be the most likely candidate to have caused the variations in the δ 13 C isotope as well as in the palynological record. In contrast to the common claim that marine and terrestrial biota both suffered a mass extinction related to the Permian-Triassic boundary event, the studied material from the Norwegian midlatitudinal sites shows no evidence for destruction of plant ecosystems. The presence of diverse microfloras of Griesbachian age supports the idea that the climate in this area allowed most plants to survive the Permian-Triassic boundary event.


The booktube phenomenon is configured as a clear example of participatory culture, where users take control of media offering their own ideas, in this case referred to literature. This article discusses the character of audiovisual productions created by booktubers. Additionally, it tries to resolve if these cases are a fandom phenomenon that also can be considered as literary criticism. After reviewing some ideas towards the criticism, these videos are found to be in the category established by Edward W. Said composed by reviews and literary journalism, although taking into account their amateur nature. Also, it is remarked that the booktubers selection of literary forms do not take part in the central canon of the cultural system. This situation provides the selection of the titles with a great originality. Because of the importance of Booktube among the young audience of readers, new research is recommended in this area for reading promotion, especially at the university level.


Multivariable system is usually characterized with loop interactions which normally have deteriorating effect on closed loop performance. Thus, there is need to decouple the system for efficient performance of the multivariable feedback system. In this work, dynamic and static compensators were used to remove loop interactions. Inverse of the steady state gain was used as static compensator while dynamic compensator elements were obtained using feedforward design technique. These were applied to design feedback control system for Shell Heavy Oil Fractionator (SHOF) using Proportional integral (PI) control settings. PI controllers for the plant were tuned using Ziegler-Nichols, Tyreus-Luyben and PID modules built in MATLAB for different plant parameters. The closed loop system was implemented based on gain scheduling strategy. Good control performance was achieved using settling time, rise time and overshoot as performance metrics for the control strategy.


We describe a simple and robust technique for transmission confocal laser scanning microscopy wherein the detection pinhole is replaced by a thin second-harmonic generation crystal. The advantage of this technique is that self-aligned confocality is achieved without the need for signal descanning. We derive the point-spread function of our instrument and quantify both signal degradation and background rejection when imaging deep within a turbid slab. As an example, we consider a slab whose index of refraction fluctuations exhibit Gaussian statistics. Our model is corroborated by experiment.


Documentaries with science and nature as their subject matter have a great, untapped potential for art virtually unexplored in the history of film. A look at the general trend of these films shows a steady progression attempting more subjective and reflexive treatments of material, but science documentaries today are generally stuck in the classical expository mode. This lack of progression in films with scientific subject (including nature and wildlife) subject matter is largely due to producers' unwillingness to break from the conventions of genre. In their attempts to create art instead of craft, the next generation of science and wildlife filmmakers will recognize that the promise of art rests in its ability to restructure symbolic representation and therefore change how an audience understands the world. This restructuring of symbolic representation is important and necessary because of hidden and oppressive ideological forces in society ratified by "normal" symbols. The new generation of science documentary creator will discard the notion of film images as facts and instead pursue a more ambiguous goal of truth. This may involve fabrication; a "lie that makes us know the truth." Several individuals serve as examples in this endeavor, such as Brecht, Buñuel, Morris and Herzog. In their works, these artists employ reflexive techniques that elevate viewers' consciousness. My own thesis film project, The Last Run (2006), demonstrates some of these techniques more successfully than others. Creators of the new science and nature documentary must break step with decades of established conventions, moving beyond a literal, objective perspective and embracing an imaginative, subjective treatment of their material. These new "artistic" science and wildlife filmmakers will have three goals: 1) Escape from genre and its binary tendencies; 2) Make art by altering symbolic meanings or representations; and 3) Choose subjects of political (even controversial) or personal importance that are uncommon in today's television programs about science and nature.


Public reporting of individual surgeon performance 543 Stephen Clarke, Justin G Oakley, David A Neil, Joseph E Ibrahim Measurement, monitoring and clinical governance 543 Sue M Evans, Peter A Cameron, Paul Myles, Johannes Stoelwinder, John J McNeil Optimising hospital systems comes first 544 Anthony P Morton Dramatic changes for the better are already occurring 544 Bruce H Barraclough It's time to plan our future health system 545 Peter M Brooks A half-day each month for quality and safety activities 545 R James Aitken Re-inventing the wheel? 546 Megan A Bohensky, Joseph E Ibrahim, David L Ranson 1928 Royal Commission "The fatalities at Bundaberg" 546 William Coote Moving forward 547 Martin B Van Der Weyden


In this paper, we describe the configuration tool Drive Solution Designer (DSD). The DSD is used by sales engineers of the company Lenze AG (www.lenze.com) for the configuration of complex drive systems in order to make on-site offers together with the customer. The aim of this process is to generate a consistent solution which fulfills the functional requirements of the user along with optimization criteria such as price and delivery time. The preparation of a technical offer requires fundamental knowledge of complex physical and in particular technical correlations of drive components, in depth knowledge of the product catalog as well as high empirical knowledge about the order of the parameterization of the components. In order to meet these requirements knowledge-based AI-techniques are required. In the DSD we use a domain independent incremental structure-based configuration approach with different knowledge representation mechanisms and a sophisticated declarative control. Currently DSD is used with great success by approx. 150 sales engineers of the company Lenze for the design layout task. The introduction of the DSD lead to a drastic time reduction for drive solution development and reduces incorrect solutions to nearly 0 percent.


Event-based cameras are a novel type of visual sensor that operate under a unique paradigm, providing asynchronous data on the log-level changes in light intensity for individual pixels. This hardware-level approach to change detection allows these cameras to achieve ultra-wide dynamic range and high temporal resolution. Furthermore, the advent of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) has led to state-of-the-art navigation solutions that now rival or even surpass human engineered algorithms. The advantages offered by event cameras and CNNs make them excellent tools for visual odometry (VO). This document presents the implementation of a CNN trained to detect and describe features within an image as well as the implementation of an event-based visual-inertial odometry (EVIO) pipeline, which estimates a vehicle's 6-degrees-offreedom (DOF) pose using an affixed event-based camera with an integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU). The front-end of this pipeline utilizes a neural network for generating image frames from asynchronous event camera data. These frames are fed into a multi-state constraint Kalman filter (MSCKF) back-end that uses the output of the developed CNN to perform measurement updates. The EVIO pipeline was tested on a selection from the Event-Camera Dataset [1], and on a dataset collected from a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight test conducted by the Autonomy and Navigation Technology (ANT) Center.


One difference between the forest canopy and the understory is that animals pollinate the majority of understory species in the tropical wet forest. Pollinators active in the understory are also different from those in the forest canopy and are adapted to the mesic conditions underneath the canopy. We used video cameras to observe flowers of understory Symphonia globulifera (Clusiaceae) in tropical wet forests of Costa Rica. We quantified the timing, frequency and behaviour of flower visitors to explore their potential contribution to pollination. A total of 82 flower visits were observed during 105 h of observations. Flowers were visited by ten insect species and one hummingbird species; the most active time period was between 1200-1700 h followed by the time between 0500-1000 h. The time period with fewer visitors was 1700-2200 h, during this period we observed flowers visited in multiple instances by a bushcricket (Tettigoniidae). The most frequent flower visitors were the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula and the hummingbird Phaethornis longirostris; both came in contact with anther and stigma during visits. We observed different flower visitors from those reported for canopy populations of S. globulifera. Insects predominated, in contrast to observations in canopy populations of S. globulifera, wherein perching birds predominated. We also documented the consumption of pollen by visiting insects. These findings highlight differences in flower visitors between the forest canopy and the understory for the same tree species and contribute to better understanding of the pollination ecology of understory tropical wet forest species.


Excerpt] In the past ten years, the pay of chief executive officers (CEOs) has more than doubled, and the ratio of median CEO to worker pay has risen to 179 to 1. High and rising executive pay could be an issue of public concern on two different grounds. First, it is contributing to widening income inequality that may be of concern from an equity perspective. Second, it could be the result of economically inefficient labor markets. It is difficult to determine whether executive pay is excessive across the board since executives' marginal product cannot be directly observed. An upward trend in pay over time is not sufficient proof that the market is not efficient since factors determining supply and demand, such as the skills required of the position, can change over time. To show that pay is excessive from an economic perspective, one must first demonstrate that there is a market failure that is preventing the market from functioning efficiently. The market failure could originate in the division in large modern firms between management and ownership, which is typically dispersed among millions of shareholders. Shareholders' interests are represented by a board of directors. Critics of executive pay have argued that boards have all too often been "captured" by the executive and are no longer negotiating pay packages that are in the shareholders' best interests. They point to a number of common practices that they call "stealth compensation" which are inconsistent with arm's length contracting. These include "golden parachutes," generous severance packages, company-provided perks, and bonuses that are unrelated to firm performance. Stock options have been the fastest growing portion of executive pay since the 1990s, and critics believe this pattern can also be explained through the prism of stealth compensation. Rewarding executives with employee stock options was often justified in terms of the "pay for performance" mantra, but options are usually designed to reward absolute, not relative, performance. This means that in the bull market of the 1990s, when virtually all stock prices were rising, a company could fall behind its competitors and its executives could still receive handsome options payouts. Indeed, a sizeable portion of the increase in executive pay in the 1990s was likely due to options that turned out to be much more valuable than expected because of the unprecedented price increases of the bull market. Many of the recent corporate scandals appear consistent with stealth compensation as well. Stock options backdating, earnings manipulation, and accounting fraud might have been motivated by attempts to covertly increase executive pay. If short-term fluctuations in the stock price are not good proxies of firm performance, then tying compensation to the stock price can create incentives for executives to engage in activities that are detrimental to shareholders. Policy proposals mostly focus on improving transparency, increasing board independence, and strengthening shareholder control rather than attempting to curb pay directly. S. 1181 (Obama) and H.R. 1257 (Frank), which the House approved on April 19, 2007, would give shareholders a non-binding vote on executive pay. Another proposal would modify the limit on deductibility of executive pay from corporate taxation. More broadly, income inequality could be reduced by increasing the progressivity of the tax system. For current developments and legislation, see CRS Report RS22604, Excessive CEO Pay: Background and Policy Approaches.


Active transposable elements (TEs) may result in divergent genomic insertion and abundance patterns among conspecific populations. Upon secondary contact, such divergent genetic backgrounds can theoretically give rise to classical Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities (DMI), a way how TEs can contribute to the evolution of endogenous genetic barriers and eventually population divergence. We investigated whether differential TE activity created endogenous selection pressures among conspecific populations of the non-biting midge Chironomus riparius, focussing on a Chironomus-specific TE, the minisatellite-like Cla-element, whose activity is associated with speciation in the genus. Using an improved and annotated draft genome for a genomic study with five natural C. riparius populations, we found highly population-specific TE insertion patterns with many private insertions. A highly significant correlation of pairwise population FST from genome-wide SNPs with the FST estimated from TEs suggests drift as the major force driving TE population differentiation. However, the significantly higher Cla-element FST level due to a high proportion of differentially fixed Cla-element insertions indicates that segregating, i.e. heterozygous insertions are selected against. With reciprocal crossing experiments and fluorescent in-situ hybridisation of Cla-elements to polytene chromosomes, we documented phenotypic effects on female fertility and chromosomal mispairings that might be linked to DMI in hybrids. We propose that the inferred negative selection on heterozygous Cla-element insertions causes endogenous genetic barriers and therefore acts as DMI among C. riparius populations. The intrinsic genomic turnover exerted by TEs, thus, may have a direct impact on population divergence that is operationally different from drift and local adaptation.


The computer architecture community of the late 1970s and early 1980s thought that a few things had been established and no longer needed questioning. One of these was the amount of intrinsic parallelism embedded in normal object code. Making what they considered to be self-evident assumptions about correctness, Tjaden and Flynn established that there was, on average, only a factor of two parallelism available. Breakthroughs often come from people who somehow transcend the assumptions and have the guts to follow the newly revealed path wherever it leads. This phenomenon first hand with Josh Fisher's VLIW work.


We show that MalT, the transcriptional activator of the Escherichia coli maltose regulon, specifically binds ATP and dATP with a high affinity (Kd = 0.4 microM) and exhibits a weak ATPase activity. Using an abortive initiation assay, we further show that activation of open complex formation by MalT depends on the presence of ATP in addition to that of maltotriose, the inducer of the maltose system. Similar experiments in which ATP was replaced by ADP or AMP‐PNP, a non‐hydrolysable analogue of ATP, demonstrate that this reaction does not require ATP hydrolysis. As revealed by DNase I footprinting, both ATP and maltotriose are required for the binding of the MalT protein to the mal promoter DNA.


Progressive loss of pulmonary function leads to early morbidity and mortality in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) due to both expiratory impairment with ineffective airway clearance, and inspiratory impairment leading to nocturnal and daytime hypoventilation and respiratory failure. Glucocorticoid steroids have become a mainstay of DMD therapy with well-documented efficacy on muscle strength and respiratory function. However, the side-effect profile restricts their long-term use, particularly in non-ambulant patients. Idebenone improves secondary mitochondrial dysfunction caused by dystrophin deficiency, intracellular calcium accumulation and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS). Idebenone-mediated improved bioenergetics leads to enhanced adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production and reduced ROS. Based on this rationale, idebenone has been investigated clinically for efficacy on reducing respiratory function decline in exploratory phase II (DELPHI) and confirmatory phase III (DELOS) trials. Idebenone significantly reduced the loss of respiratory function in 8–18-year-old DMD patients who were not using concomitant glucocorticoids. These results indicate that idebenone can modify the natural course of respiratory disease progression in DMD, which is relevant in clinical practice where loss of respiratory function continues to be a predominant cause of early morbidity and mortality in DMD.


This Independent Study Project attempts to uncover the workings of the orphanage system in Ghana, namely Osu Children's Home. My objectives were to develop a concrete understanding of the Home -the physical organization, the goals and if they are being accomplished, staff involvement and the children of the Home. With background literature on child development as a guide, I chose to examine the following three behaviors exhibited from the children: (1) aggression, (2) attachment, and (3) play patterns. I was interested in finding if any differences were present in the three areas between the children in the Home and the outside children, both of which were students in the day-care center. By participant observation in the day-care center, formal and informal interviews with staff and the reading of children's case studies, I was able to achieve my objectives. However, several questions remain unanswered due to the large scope of the project in the short duration of time. I found that the Home is working to achieve its objectives, however factors, namely the role of the extended family, make a child's stay at the Home extensive. With the three behaviors of focus, I found that (1) the orphanage does not perpetuate aggression in its children, as both the Home and outside children were equally aggressive, (2) the Home children do tend to more readily attach to any caregiver as compared to outside children, and (3) the Home children and outside children's play patterns are both consistent with what is normal for their age group.


Edge effects are among the most significant consequences of forest fragmentation. Therefore, understanding the impacts of edge creation on biodiversity is crucial for forest management and biological conservation. In this study, we used trait‐based and phylogenetic approaches to examine the effects of fragmentation on components of diversity and above‐ground biomass of rainforest tree communities in Madagascar in forest edge vs. interior habitats. Tree communities in forest edges showed lower phylogenetic diversity relative to those in interior habitats, suggesting that some clades may be more vulnerable to environmental filtering than others. Functional diversity was also significantly lower on the edge for productivity traits, but not for dispersal traits. Tree communities in the forest edge showed higher divergence of dispersal traits and lower divergence in productivity traits than expected, while functional diversity in interior forest did not differ from random expectations. This suggests that separate mechanisms affect productivity traits vs. dispersal traits in edge habitats. There was no significant difference in above‐ground biomass between edge and interior habitats, suggesting that edge effects have not yet negatively influenced the forest's potential for carbon storage. However, these changes may not have occurred yet, given the slow turnover of tree communities. Synthesis and applications. Our results highlight the role of edge effects in the erosion of functional and phylogenetic diversity of highly diverse tree communities. While above‐ground biomass did not appear to be affected by forest edge in our study, we suggest long‐term monitoring of forests for potential changes in ecosystem functioning. These findings also indicate the need to reduce edge creation and buffer existing edges for holistic biodiversity conservation.


The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) pose a call to action to all of humanity to end global poverty, and protect the planet while promoting shared prosperity and building peace. This chapter will explore some of the 17 SDGs, mainly health related, from a human rights framework and their relevance today and in the future. It will specifically focus on key areas of good health and well-being (SDG3), quality education (SDG4), gender equality (SDG5), decent work and economic growth (SDG8), reduced inequalities (SDG10), and climate action (SDG13) and specifically in terms of their implementation in Africa. The chapter focuses on the rights and duties of all people with an emphasis on our common humanity and the global commons. Despite the comprehensiveness of the consultation process, there was dissatisfaction among human rights advocates who felt the SDGs did not adequately reflect input from global leaders outside political spheres.


Enhancing the hydrothermal performance of plate-fin microchannels heat sink ( PFMCHS ) promises smaller size and lighter weight, and then improve the heat removal in consequently increase the speed of electronic devices. In this numerical study, an innovative hydrothermal design of PFMCHS is suggested by inserting elliptic pins inside microchannels in different; aspect ratio ( AR ) of pin, pin number ratio ( ψ ) in order to optimize the hydrothermal design of this kind of heat sinks. The main objectives of this study are; investigating the effect of pins on the performance of PFMCHS by investigating the best geometry in the pinned-fin MCHS and which is higher, thermal or hydraulic performance of this kind of heat sinks and what is the optimal number of pins numerically and what about the pressure drop penalty in the proposed design, little, modest or high increase. It is seen that the thermal resistance of the pinned fin MCHS is about 50% lower, and pressure drop of it is much higher than that of the ( PFMCHS ) under the condition of equal wind velocity. Maximum mechanical fan power reduction obtained is about 57% for the pinned fin MCHS with ψ = 1 and D h = 1 × 10 -3 m compared to the corresponding original channel heat sink. To show the overall performance of the two parameters; aspect ratio ( AR ), pin number ratio ( ψ ), the overall JF factor is estimated and the concrete findings shows that the best hydrothermal performance is obtained at the greater aspect ratio which is around overall JF = 1.2. In addition, the trend of overall JF is going down with the pin number ratio, starting from 1.2 to 1.15. And the concrete findings show that pinned fin MCHS provides thermal performance of 1.42 times greater than the smooth one under the corresponding conditions when one pin


Management of haemophilia involves on-demand or prophylactic intravenous administration of recombinant or plasma-derived replacement clotting factors or bypassing agents. These products are provided as lyophilised powder and diluent, which need to be mixed to produce a solution for infusion. While this process has previously involved multiple time-consuming steps, several reconstitution systems are now available to make mixing easier and more convenient. This study aimed to investigate experience of use and perceptions of the Novo Nordisk MixPro mixing device among patients and carers using activated recombinant factor VII (rFVIIa) or recombinant factor VIII (rFVIII) with MixPro, and nurse specialists who were either familiar or unfamiliar with MixPro. Nurses were asked to simulate the preparation of an inactive solution using MixPro. Semi-structured interviews were used to gain insight into participants' opinions of mixing systems in general and their perceptions of MixPro. Likert scales were used to rate the performance of MixPro against predefined characteristics of mixing systems, and the importance of the predefined characteristics to the design of a mixing system. Patients/carers and unfamiliar nurses identified low contamination risk when mixing as the most important characteristic of a mixing system; the most important criterion for familiar nurses was confidence that patients/carers could prepare the system correctly. MixPro was perceived to perform very well overall, particularly in parameters identified as most important. It was described as being user-friendly, simple and quick; its compactness and portability were highlighted as advantages for storage and travel. The main disadvantages reported related to its small components. The majority of nurses said that they were highly likely to recommend MixPro to their patients.


The present day business environment characterized by excessive competition, rapidly changing business cycle and increased uncertainty about outcomes, etc. have added to the complexity of the job of a CEO and other executive directors. Given the complexity of their job, it is essential that they must be adequately remunerated. But the astronomical level of compensation directors are getting is among the various issues which have been the source of concern for the societies across the world. The objective of this paper is to examine a linkage between corporate performance and the executive compensation. Net profits, earning per share and return of equity as measures of corporate performance and total assets as a measure of corporate size have been used. Executive compensation has been found to be associated significantly with earning per share and total assets.


This paper describes a genetic algorithm that tackles the pose-estimation problem in computer vision. Our genetic algorithm can find the rotation and translation of an object accurately when the three-dimensional structure of the object is given. In our implementation, each chromosome encodes both the pose and the indexes to the selected point features of the object. Instead of only searching for the pose as in the existing work, our algorithm, at the same time, searches for a set containing the most reliable feature points in the process. This mismatch filtering strategy successfully makes the algorithm more robust under the presence of point mismatches and outliers in the images. Our algorithm has been tested with both synthetic and real data with good results. The accuracy of the recovered pose is compared to the existing algorithms. Our approach outperformed the Lowe's method and the other two genetic algorithms under the presence of point mismatches and outliers. In addition, it has been used to estimate the pose of a real object. It is shown that the proposed method is applicable to augmented reality applications.


The third and final volume in this powerful trilogy, ""The Cattle Cars are Waiting"" follows the tragic fate of the inhabitants of the ghetto. Chava Rosenfarb, herself a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen, draws on her own history to create characters who struggle daily to retain a sense of humanity and dignity despite the physical and psychological effects of ghetto life. Although the novel depicts horrendous experiences, the light of faith in the human spirit shines through every page.


INTRODUCTION

1.1 The growth in demand for travel

Over the 20 years hm 1965, National Travel Survey (NTS) data shows a 61% growth in total person - km of travel. More detailed analysis suggests that this is made up roughly as follows:-

due to increased population 4%

due to more journeys 22%

due to longer journeys 35%

This implies that around 60% of the growth in travel has been due to people travelling further, rather than making more journeys.

It is interesting to note, too, that the same phenomenon occurs even in the most congested areas. Between 1975 and 1985, NTS shows an 11% growth in person -km by London residents, at a time when population fell by 5%. In this case, the growth is made up roughly as follows:-

due to lost population -5%

due to more journeys 4%

due to longer journeys 12%

It is of course difficult to estimate the extent to which future growth in travel will be generated by longer journeys. The NRTF, which predicts a growth in car-km of between 120% and 180% between 1985 and 2025, is not based on a procedure which enables the effects of journey making and journey length to be separated. However, it is worth noting that if the same pattern were to exist at a national level in future, the predicted growth in car travel due to longer journeys could be equivalent to between 75% and 100% of today's car travel. It seems appropriate to ask whether it is a wise use of scarce resources to provide the infrastructure and energy needed to enable people to carry out their activities further from home.
(Continues...)


The aim of this study is to describe how nature is portrayed in swedish poet and critic Aase Berg's two earliest poetry collections, Hos radjur (1997) and Mork materia (1999), and how it relates to notions of humanity, culture and civilisation. The concept of "nature" is problematized in a short survey of how it has been used by and critizised in ecocritical literary theory, which is used as the main theoretical framework for this survey, with an emphasis on selected theoretical concepts by Donna Haraway. As a methodological starting point, "nature" is tentatively defined as "that which does not let itself be subsumed under the human, culture or civilisation", and this definition is contrasted with how the concepts are handled in the texts.The investigation shows that the relationship of nature to the human is a fundamental theme that provides a structure for both poetry collections. In Hos radjur, wild nature takes the shape of a "raw" animal that seems to threaten the human characters. In Mork materia the threat to humanity comes from matter itself, matter that is dark and unruly. The nature/culture relationship is complex and continuously evolving, with several different and mutually exclusive possibilities being explored in the poems. Berg's poetry has often been characterised as transcending boundaries, and metamorphoses and dissolution of boundaries between humans, animals and other organisms are abundant in the two poetry collections. Despite this, the study demonstrates how dualistic notions of nature and culture, body and spirit, are upheld throughout the texts.


Objectives To examine the prevalence of binge drinking in adolescence and its persistence into adulthood in an Australian cohort. Design 15-year prospective cohort study. Setting Victoria, Australia. Participants 1943 adolescents were recruited from secondary schools at age 14–15 years. Primary outcome measures Levels of past-week 'binge' drinking (5+ standard drinks on a day, each 10 g alcohol) and 'heavy binge' drinking (20+ standard drinks on a day for males, 11+ for females) were assessed during six adolescent waves, and across three adult waves up to age 29 years. Results Half of the males (52%) and a third of the females (34%) reported past-week adolescent binge drinking. 90% of male and 70% of female adolescent-onset binge drinkers continued to binge in young adulthood; 70% of males and 48% of females who were not adolescent-onset binge drinkers reported young adult binge drinking. Past-week heavy bingeing was less common in adolescence than adulthood. Overall, 35% of the sample (95% CI 33% to 38%) reported past-week binge drinking in adolescence and young adulthood and one-third (33%; 30% to 35%) first reported binge drinking in young adulthood; only 7% of the sample (6–8%) had binge drinking in adolescence but not young adulthood. 'Heavy binge' drinking occurred in adolescence and young adulthood for 9% (8% to 10%); 8% (7% to 10%) reported it in adolescence but no longer in young adulthood; and 24% (22% to 26%) began 'heavy binge' drinking in young adulthood. Among adolescent binge drinkers (n=821), young adult binge and heavy binge drinking were predicted by being male, adolescent antisocial behaviour and adverse consequences of drinking in adolescence. Conclusions Binge alcohol use is common and persistent among young Australians. Efforts to prevent the onset of binge drinking during adolescence may substantially reduce harmful patterns of alcohol use in young adulthood.


In spite of the technologies developed during the last decade, the level of food loss is still high and is reported in many countries. According to the United Nations, more than 30 per cent of the mortality rate world-wide is caused by alimentary diseases. The desire of most countries to make food safer for consumption requires better food preservation and production techniques. In this regard, irradiation is an interesting alternative to be considered Food irradiation is a process exposing food to ionizing radiations such as gamma rays emitted from the radioisotopes 60Co and 137Cs, high energy electrons and X-rays produced by machine sources. Some agricultural products are important commodities in international trade. The trade of these products is often seriously hampered by infestation of several species of insects and mites. The presence of parasites, some microorganisms, yeast and moulds are also the source of problems, sometimes directly or indirectly through toxin formation in the food products. Irradiation alone or combined with others processes can contribute to ensuring food safety to healthy and compromised consumers, satisfying quarantine requirements and controlling severe losses during transportation and commercialization. Depending on the absorbed radiation dose, various effects can be achieved resulting in reduced storage losses, extended shelf life and/or improved microbiological and parasitological safety of foods. However, hindering factors in the way of commercial implementation of the food irradiation process are politics and consumer advocacy. This paper reviews the application of irradiation for preserving some fruit and vegetables.


We present experimental results highlighting the physica mechanism responsible for the initial spectral broadening of femtosecond Ti:Sapphire pulses in a highly birefringent microstructured fiber having a small effective area. By rotating the input polarization and varying the injected power while monitoring the resulting changes in the output spectrum, we are bringing clear evidences that the initial broadening mechanism leading to a broadband supercontinuum is indeed the fission of higher-order solitons into redshifted fundamental solitons along with blueshifted nonsolitonic radiation.


OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to establish an incidence and assess the effect of tethered cord release for tethered cord syndrome in patients with myelomeningocele.

METHODS
The study population was based on the Western Denmark Myelomeningocele Database, which contains all patients born with myelomeningocele in western Denmark since 1970. The study population was cross-referenced in 2015 with a database for surgical procedures containing all surgical procedures performed in the central Denmark region since 1996. Patients alive between 1996 and 2015 were identified. Incidences was calculated and presented for year of age. File reviews were conducted for all patients who underwent the procedure. Follow-up was divided into short-term and long-term follow-up.

RESULTS
One hundred sixty-six patients were alive during various time periods between 1996 and 2015. Of these, 45 patients underwent the procedure. Seven underwent reoperation. The median age for the procedure was 12 years and the highest incidence was found at 15 years of age. Incidence was bimodal with highest incidence in children and adolescents. The most common indications were progressive spine deformity (40%), deteriorating ambulation (38%), and deteriorating neurogenic bladder and/or bowel dysfunction (32%). The mean short-term follow-up was 4.7 months and the mean long-term follow-up was 72.6 months. Postoperatively, the majority had improved (27%) or stabilized (27%) at short-term follow-up. At long-term follow-up, most patients were stable (27%) or had deteriorated (24%). For both follow-up terms there was a loss of approximately one-third of all patients. Complications occurred in 17% of the procedures.

CONCLUSIONS
In this population-based study, tethered cord release has the highest incidence in children and adolescents. The beneficial effect of the procedure seems to be short term. Due to the uncertainty of a long-term effect of the procedure in patients with myelomeningocele and the registered complications, the authors suggest that this surgical indication should be reserved for well-selected patients.


ABSTRACT This paper explores whether Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) products and strategies in South Africa take environmental sustainability into account. It is based on a qualitative, empirical survey of 22 organisations which are signatories to the United Nation's Principle for Responsible Investment or offering an SRI product. By looking at how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are practically used in investment decision making and share ownership decisions, we found that most SRI products and strategies largely focus on social developmental goals whereas environmental criteria do not yet receive comparable attention from the SRI South African fund management industry.


A computationally efficient numerical method is developed for the prediction of transient response phenomena in composite structures including guided wave propagation and impact. The method takes advantage of the outstanding properties of compactly supported Daubechies wavelet scaling functions and their capability to provide global-local spatial approximations of displacements in specified finite domains of the structure, hence is termed Finite Wavelet Domain method. The theoretical background and numerical formulation are summarized. Its advantages are outlined, including the capability to provide consistent diagonal mass matrices. Formulations for the simulation of impact events and active guided wave generation are presented. Numerical results are shown for two distinct cases of transient dynamic problems: anti-symmetric and symmetric straight-crested wave (S and A ) propagation in composite plate structures generated by piezoelectric actuators; and simulation of impact events and impact detection. Comparisons against traditional finite elements quantify the benefits in computational time, convergence rate and accuracy of the new method. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/222


BACKGROUND
Orange juice-a rich source of vitamin C, folate, and flavonoids such as hesperidin-induces hypocholesterolemic responses in animals.

OBJECTIVE
We determined whether orange juice beneficially altered blood lipids in subjects with moderate hypercholesterolemia.

DESIGN
The sample consisted of 16 healthy men and 9 healthy women with elevated plasma total and LDL-cholesterol and normal plasma triacylglycerol concentrations. Participants incorporated 1, 2, or 3 cups (250 mL each) of orange juice sequentially into their diets, each dose over a period of 4 wk. This was followed by a 5-wk washout period. Plasma lipid, folate, homocyst(e)ine, and vitamin C (a compliance marker) concentrations were measured at baseline, after each treatment, and after the washout period.

RESULTS
Consumption of 750 mL but not of 250 or 500 mL orange juice daily increased HDL-cholesterol concentrations by 21% (P: < 0.001), triacylglycerol concentrations by 30% (from 1.56 +/- 0.72 to 2.03 +/- 0.91 mmol/L; P: < 0.02), and folate concentrations by 18% (P: < 0.01); decreased the LDL-HDL cholesterol ratio by 16% (P: < 0.005); and did not affect homocyst(e)ine concentrations. Plasma vitamin C concentrations increased significantly during each dietary period (2.1, 3.1, and 3.8 times, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Orange juice (750 mL/d) improved blood lipid profiles in hypercholesterolemic subjects, confirming recommendations to consume >/=5-10 servings of fruit and vegetables daily.


An overview of the development of linepipe and offshore structural steel manufacturing technology at POSCO is presented. As more energy production sites are being developed under the constrained conditions, there is currently a strong need for linepipe steels that can withstand severe conditions, such as extreme cold, deep seabed and corrosive environments. To meet current market needs, POSCO has developed API-X80/X100/sour X70 grade hot rolled strip and plates with low temperature toughness for energy transportation. Several mill trials with multiple process variables have been performed to optimize the production processes of high strength/high toughness linepipe steel, such as reheating/rolling/cooling conditions. API 2W Gr. 50 and 60 class steel plates have also been developed using TMCP techniques for offshore structures. Steel composition and manufacturing parameter were optimized to obtain high strength and good weldability. POSCO has now established an API Steel Application Center to provide total solutions for pipe manufacturers, energy firms, and construction companies. The API Steel Application Center consists of three laboratories, each specializing in pipe forming, pipe corrosion evaluation and welding research. Especially, in the forming laboratory, the world's first UOE simulator is installed with several evaluation facilities for full-scale pipes. The UOE simulator can carry out U-ing, O-ing and expansion at the same machine. The present review describes the recent POSCO activity for new development of linepipe and offshore structural steels and briefly introduces the API Steel Application Center International Symposium on Microalloyed Steels for the Oil and Gas Industry Edited by W.J. Fazackerley, P. Bordignon, K. Hulka, and F. Siciliano TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2007


The photovoltaic (PV) industry has grown rapidly as a source of energy and economic activity. Since 2008, the average manufacturer-sale price of PV modules has declined by over a factor of two, coinciding with a significant increase in the scale of manufacturing in China. Using a bottom-up model for wafer-based silicon PV, we examine both historical and future factory-location decisions from the perspective of a multinational corporation. Our model calculates the cost of PV manufacturing with process step resolution, while considering the impact of corporate financing and operations with a calculation of the minimum selling price that provides an adequate rate of return. We quantify the conditions of China's historical PV price advantage, examine if these conditions can be reproduced elsewhere, and evaluate the role of innovative technology in altering regional competitive advantage. We find that the historical price advantage of a China-based factory relative to a U.S.-based factory is not driven by country-specific advantages, but instead by scale and supply-chain development. Looking forward, we calculate that technology innovations may result in effectively equivalent minimum sustainable manufacturing prices for the two locations. In this long-run scenario, the relative share of module shipping costs, as well as other factors, may promote regionalization of module-manufacturing operations to cost-effectively address local market demand. Our findings highlight the role of innovation, importance of manufacturing scale, and opportunity for global collaboration to increase the installed capacity of PV worldwide.


Asymmetric cell divisions occur widely during many developmental processes in plants. In most angiosperms, the first zygotic cell division is asymmetric resulting in two daughter cells of unequal size and with distinct fates. However, the critical molecular mechanisms regulating this division remain unknown. Previously we showed that treatment of tobacco zygotes with beta-glucosyl Yariv (βGlcY) could dramatically alter the first zygotic asymmetric division to produce symmetric two-celled proembryos. In the present study, we isolated zygotes and two-celled asymmetric proembryos in vivo by micromanipulation, and obtained symmetric, two-celled proembryos by in vitro cell cultures. Using suppression-subtractive hybridization (SSH) and macroarray analysis differential gene expression between the zygote and the asymmetric and symmetric two-celled proembryos was investigated. After sequencing of the differentially expressed clones, a total of 1610 EST clones representing 685 non-redundant transcripts were obtained. Gene ontology (GO) term analysis revealed that these transcripts include those involved in physiological processes such as response to stimulus, regulation of gene expression, and localization and formation of anatomical structures. A homology search against known genes from Arabidopsis indicated that some of the above transcripts are involved in asymmetric cell division and embryogenesis. Quantitative real-time PCR confirmed the up- or down-regulation of the selected candidate transcripts during zygotic division. A few of these transcripts were expressed exclusively in the zygote, or in either type of the two-celled proembryos. Expression analyses of select genes in different tissues and organs also revealed potential roles of these transcripts in fertilization, seed maturation and organ development. The putative roles of few of the identified transcripts in the regulation of zygotic division are discussed. Further functional work on these candidate transcripts will provide important information for understanding asymmetric zygotic division, generation of apical-basal polarity and cell fate decisions during early embryogenesis.


This paper demonstrates the feasibility of controlling motion and vibration of a class of flexible systems with inaccessible or unknown outputs through measurements taken from their actuators which are used as single platforms for measurements, whereas flexible dynamical systems are kept free from any attached sensors. Based on the action reaction law of dynamics, the well-known disturbance observer is used to determine the incident reaction forces from these dynamical systems on the interface planes with their actuators. Reaction forces are considered as feedback-like signals that can be used as alternatives to the inaccessible system outputs. The sensorless action reaction based motion and vibration control technique is implemented on a flexible system with finite modes and all results are verified experimentally.


We present a new numerical method for designing dispersion compensating optical fibers. The method is based on the solving of the Helmholtz wave equation with a finite-difference modesolver and uses topology optimization combined with a regularization filter for the design of the refractive index profile. We illustrate the applicability of the proposed method through numerical examples and, furthermore, address the problem of keeping the optimized design single moded by including a singlemode constraint in the optimization problem.


Some of North Carolina's finest fiction and nonfiction writers come together in Every True Pleasure, including David Sedaris, Kelly Link, Allan Gurganus, Randall Kenan, and more. Within the volume-featuring writers who identify as gay, trans, bisexual, and straight-are stories and essays that view the full spectrum of contemporary life though an LGBTQ lens. These writers, all native or connected to North Carolina, show the multifaceted challenges and joys of LGBTQ life, including young love and gay panic, the minefield of religion, military service, having children with a surrogate, family rejection, finding one's true gender, finding sex, and finding love. One of the only anthologies of its kind, Every True Pleasure speaks with insight and compassion about living LGBTQ in North Carolina and beyond.
Contributors include Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Brian Blanchfield, Belle Boggs, Emily Chávez, Garrard Conley, John Pierre Craig, Diane Daniel, Allan Gurganus, MinroseGwin, Aaron Gwyn, Wayne Johns, Randall Kenan, Kelly Link, Zelda Lockhart, Toni Newman, Michael Parker, Penelope Robbins, David Sedaris, Eric Tran, and Alyssa Wong.


This paper examines the development issues and strategic considerations involved in Internet Applications Development. The prevalent development environments are discussed highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. Issues regarding the development of Internet applications are viewed under the headings of human resource, organizational, technological, investment and Legal Issues. Lastly the paper gives an overview of the strategic implications for an organization considering the development of Internet Applications. These include security, quality and the look & feel of the application. This paper is not intended as a definitive resource on the area of Internet Applications Development, its aim is to highlight the areas of interest and concern for organizations considering a move into the area of Internet Applications Development.


The following is a synopsis of the findings of the first AAAI Workshop on AI Applications to Battle Management held at the University of Washington, 16 July 1987. The workshop organizer, Pete Bonasso, sent a point paper to a number of invited presenters giving his opinion of what AI could and could not do for battle management. This paper served as a focus for the workshop presentations and discussions and was augmented by the workshop presentations; it can also serve as a roadmap of topics for future workshops. AI can provide battle management with such capabilities as sensor data fusion and adaptive simulations. Also, several key needs in battle management will be AI research topics for years to come, such as understanding free text and inferencing in real time. Finally, there are several areas -- cooperating systems and terrain reasoning, for example -- where, given some impetus, AI might be able to provide help in the near future.


For if it is rash to walk into a lion's den unarmed, rash to navigate the Atlantic in a rowing boat, rash to stand on one foot on the top of St Paul's, it is still more rash to go home alone with a poet. ---Virginia Woolf, Orlando I first encountered the work of forgotten women poets when, as research assistant to Virginia Blain in 1994, I sat down in front of a microfiche reader to prepare reports on the dazzling, and somewhat daunting, number of writers sitting quietly in bright red boxes on the shelves of Fisher Library in the University of Sydney, Australia. Anyone who has done it can attest to the fact that reading poetry on microfiche is not the most alluring of reading scenes, but even in that unsympathetic environment the power of these women's words was compelling; they have haunted me ever since. The historical irony of the situation was not lost on me: a technical, electronic revolution the Victorians set in motion, but did not foresee, has fetched them--all of them, it seems, who put pen to paper--from the bowels of the British Library to hurl them half way across the world so that people like me, who have never polluted the shades of reading rooms in the northern hemisphere, can read them without so much as a grain of dust or spore of mold intervening. The odd poem addressed to convict women, my ancestors, seemed like a friendly wave: a salute from another time and another place that I was happy to be able to return. The sheer volume of work by forgotten women poets in the nineteenth-century points to an ephemerality produced by the closeness of fit between mass demand, mass production, and undemanding product. The forgotten exemplify the extent to which the lyric is, in many crippling ways, a hostile environment for women in spite of, or rather because of, the (treacherously) easy fit between lyric expressiveness and the feminine stereotype: self-conscious, voluble, emotional, sensitive, nicely engaged but reliably passive. The focus of my work on Mary Boddington has been to use her work as a case study of the problems the forgotten represent and to construct reading strategies to address the peculiar demands they make on readers. I believe it is important to open up the reading of these difficult, uneven, disconcertingly illuminating, radically marginalized texts rather than participate in their continued exclusion. I think--hope--it is useful to keep open a category of outsiders. In a century that, like most other centuries, thrived on the suppression of women, but, unlike others, allowed them a substantial voice in the literary marketplace, amateurs who are allowed to play the game for a while to fill (market) space if nothing else, constitute an intriguing field. Although it is not true to say that I have been looking for bad poetry, I have read sympathetically, and taken dismay at an apprehension of banality, for example, as an invitation to read more carefully, not to stop. Feminism allows the assumption that women's minds/imaginations, unlike Mr. Vincy's silk, (1) are not rotted by the cheap dye of gender ideology no matter how aggressively applied. There is always, as Irigaray has it, the possibility of "disruptive excess"(2) on the feminine side. How does it manifest itself in the lyric production of the forgotten? I would like to develop a critical discourse and theoretical methodology that can function outside considerations of biography or tradition partly because these have been so dominant in work on women, and partly because biography and tradition can, as well as enable recognition/recovery, perpetuate an exclusionary mechanism for lost writers) What happens when one reads women in a context that is intertextual and ideological, rather than intersubjective and biographically/socially/historically embedded? Mary Boddington's poetry intersects in illuminating ways with dominant forms. Reading her further opens out the interrogation of how women's poetry troubles and destabilizes the lyric "I" (in a way that men's does not), and thus what "expressive" means at the level of both author/poet and lyric discourse. …


The blood‐brain barrier (BBB) plays an important role in HIV trafficking into the brain and the development of the central nervous system complications in HIV infection. Tight junctions are the main structural and functional elements that regulate the BBB integrity. Exposure of human brain microvascular endothelial cells (hCMEC/D3 cell line) to HIV‐infected monocytes resulted in decreased expression of tight junction proteins, such as junctional adhesion molecule‐A (JAM)‐A, occludin, and zonula occludens (ZO)‐1. Control experiments involved exposure to uninfected monocytes. Alterations of tight junction protein expression were associated with increased endothelial permeability and elevated transendothelial migration of HIV‐ infected monocytes across an in vitro model of the BBB. Notably, overexpression of the peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor (PPAR)α or PPARγ attenuated HIV‐mediated dysregulation of tight junction proteins. With the use of exogenous PPARy agonists and silencing of PPARα or PPARγ, these protective effects were connected to down‐regulation of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and proteasome activities. Indeed, the HIV‐ induced decrease in the expression of JAM‐A and occludin was restored by inhibition of MMP activity. Moreover, both MMP and proteasome inhibitors attenuated HIV‐ mediated altered expression of ZO‐1. The present data indicate that down‐regulation of MMP and proteasome activities constitutes a novel mechanism of PPAR‐induced protections against HIV‐induced disruption of brain endothelial cells.— Huang, W., Eum, S. Y., Andras, I. E., Hennig, B., Toborek, M. PPARa and PPARy attenuate HIV‐induced dysregulation of tight junction proteins by modulations of matrix metalloproteinase and proteasome activities. FASEBJ. 23, 1596–1606 (2009)


A growing concern of cyber threats towards industrial plants has prompted industrial practitioners to focus on secure communication solutions which can protect their systems from vulnerabilities and as well as their brand image. The security concerns and the solutions for industrial communication networks have become well-discussed topics in research communities. Despite a huge research effort in the area of industrial communication network security, there are several issues that need to be addressed properly such that a unified security solution can be adopted in the industrial domain. In this article, we aim to outline the research direction for industrial communication security. Though security is considered as an on-going process, the major issues that still need to be addressed are trust management for heterogeneous networks, managing network performance with security requirements, usable security and key management.


The aim of the present research is to investigate the learning strategies which are used for the acquisition of English by graduate students. This research encompasses
the strategies which are used during the acquisition process in general as well as the strategies used for the acquisition of specific areas of the foreign language. Before carrying out the investigation proper, we shall look at the students' previous learning experience of English as well as their beliefs about the foreign language itself and the leaning process in general.

Furthermore, in order to determine the extent to which these strategies could have been the result of previous teaching, we have included an investigation of their
teachers' background and teaching practices.

Our study differs from the ones which have been carried out so far in this field in many respects. First, it is we believe, among the very few studies which investigates the strategies learners use for the acquisition of English as a Foreign language. In addition, unlike other studies, it will try to establish whether the strategies used are inherent to the learning process itself or are the result of previous learning experience.

Since our concern is an applied one, we shall not limit ourselves to the theoretical side of the problem only. Instead, we shall look at potential applications in the classroom. Our investigation of the learners' strategies will primarily rely on the use of Verbal Report Data, i. e. the use of a Questionnaire and an Interview in which we
have included different language learning tasks which will allow us to observe how learners deal with the various aspects of the acquisition process.

In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis is divided into five main chapters. The first chapter gives a very brief description of the language situation in Algeria and explains the role English plays in the educational system. The next two chapters, two and three, look at the theoretical developments in Linguistics and Psychology which have gradually led to the present interest in learners' strategies. The fourth chapter discusses in great details the rationale and design of our experiment as well the items which have been included in our eliciting instruments. The last chapter analyses the results and in the light of these discusses our hypotheses.

Our findings suggest that learning strategies are inherent to the learning process itself and are used by all learners irrespective of their proficiency in the foreign language. Furthermore, they show that some strategies tend to occur more often with the acquisition of a particular area of the language than with another which itself will tend to be associated with another set of strategies.

Finally, we shall discuss the important implications these findings have for the classroom teacher. This is why we conclude our study by making various suggestions for the incorporation of these findings in the foreign language classroom, which we are convinced will help less able students to perform better in the foreign language.


This thesis addresses the question: how do individuals in a conflict society engage in
peaceful dispute resolution through mediation? It provides a close look at Israeli
society, in which people face daily conflicts. These include confrontations on many
levels: the national, such as wars and terror attacks; the social, such as ethnic,
religious and economic tensions; and the personal level, whereby the number of
lawyers and legal claims per capita are among the highest in the world. The
magnitude, pervasiveness, and often existential nature of these conflicts have led
sociologists to label Israel a 'conflict society'.
Mediation practice came into this society and challenged the existing ethos and
norms by proposing a discourse of dialogue and cooperation. The thesis focuses on
the meeting point that mediation engenders between narratives of conflict, which
have developed in this environment, and the mediation processes, which set out to
achieve a collaborative discourse and mutual recognition.
The fieldwork, forming the core of the thesis, consists of the observation of
supervised mediation processes of civil disputes in two leading mediation centres,
and interviews with professionals and key figures in the discipline. The wide variety
of voices of a broad range of interviewees and many different parties provide for
rich, qualitative data.   The use of the narrative‐ethnographic approach in observing
mediation processes helps identify key themes in participantsʹ  narratives. The
subsequent analysis leads to the insight that these mediation processes reflect, in a
subtle way, the narratives, beliefs and needs of individuals in a conflict society.
The findings from this study indicate that perceptions of life in a conflict society are
clearly manifested through mediation processes. These place obstacles and inhibit
the attainment of agreements. Yet, surprisingly, some of the findings also
demonstrate an aversion to conflict and a well‐expressed desire to maintain
communication and to achieve peaceful resolution.


Volume 324 of "Methods in Enzymology" supplements Volume 166. It includes genetic information (cloning, gene expression) and information on human genetic diseases not available when Volume 166 was published. The critically acclaimed laboratory standard for more than forty years, "Methods in Enzymology" is one of the most highly respected publications in the field of biochemistry. Since 1955, each volume has been eagerly awaited, frequently consulted, and praised by researchers and reviewers alike. Now with more than 300 volumes (all of them still in print), the series contains much material still relevant today - truly an essential publication for researchers in all fields of life sciences. It includes topics such as: preparation of substrates and assay of enzymes; cloning, expression, and purification of enzymes; and, detection and consequences of genetic defects; and, regulation and expression of enzymes.


Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, a chronic metabolic disorder which results from a high blood glucose level, is one of the most prevalent and costly diseases of our time. Considering increasing rates of obesity and the aging population in Korea, the number of diabetic patients is likely to rise rapidly in the future. There are five conventional diabetic drugs which work through different mechanisms; sulfonylureas, biguanide, meglitinide, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, and thiazolidinedione. Although they all have antidiabetic effects, some side effects such as hypoglycemia, weight gain and gastrointestinal intolerance are associated with them. Incretin based therapies, utilizing glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, which have a lower risk of adverse side effects, have recently been introduced. At present PPAR-targeting drugs are being actively developed. In this research review, particular emphasis has been placed on the current trends and possible biological targets for the new generation of antidiabetic drugs.


As health insurers try to navigate the new limitations set forth under the ACA, including prohibitions on denying individuals with pre-existing conditions and limitations on the rating of patients, insurers are looking towards models that will enable them to control costs without access to their usual tools. What they have developed is not so much a new insurance model, but actually a concept that first arose during the rise of managed care; that is, limited provider networks utilized within health maintenance organizations ("HMOs"). These "new" insurance products, often referred to as narrow networks or high-performance networks, offer beneficiaries a more limited network of physicians typically in exchange for lower premiums. These insurance plans are becoming increasingly common both on the federal and state health insurance exchanges as well as in insurance product offerings outside the exchanges. As these limited provider networks become more prevalent, there is evidence of a number of similarities between the narrow networks of today and the HMOs that increased in popularity during the 1980s and 1990s. But, if narrow networks are in fact simply a redux of HMOs, can it be surmised that narrow networks are likely be a short-lived trend? Will narrow networks fall into disfavor and suffer the same consumer backlash and financial challenges as the HMOs of twenty-plus years ago? Or, is there something unique and distinct about the narrow networks arising in the current health insurance market that will create greater longevity for these insurance products that was not achievable with HMOs, despite their similarities? This article argues that the narrow networks that have emerged in the current healthcare marketplace are indeed unique and distinct from their HMO predecessors and, because of such distinctions, appear poised to experience greater success and longevity than HMOs. Part II of this article will examine the history of limited provider organizations, specifically HMOs, including their rapid rise and then subsequent descent into disfavor with consumers and providers alike. It will then review the movement back towards limited provider networks, defining what constitutes a narrow network and highlighting current prevalence of these products on the insurance market. Part III will then review the existing legal structure (much of which arose during the time of HMOs) surrounding narrow networks, including examination of a few recent lawsuits against insurers under both federal and state law and the state and federal statutes designed to protect both providers and consumers. This Part will identify some of the challenges for providers and consumers with the existing legal structure in connection with taking action against limited provider networks. Next, Part IV will consider the advantages and disadvantages of narrow networks and forecast the potential outlook for narrow networks based on such factors. Part IV will also examine the current activities of certain "high-cost providers," such as academic medical centers, to create their own alternative networks or alternative product offerings, and what impact such activities might have on the sustainability of narrow networks. Finally, in Part V, this article will conclude that narrow networks are likely to realize more sustained longevity and success than their HMO predecessors because of the following three distinctions between narrow networks and HMOs: (a) unlike HMOs, narrow networks, especially those offered on federal and state health insurance exchanges, are consumer-driven products, responding to a specific need for insurance offerings at a lower cost; (b) existing laws in place to protect against potential ills of limited provider networks are either too narrowly focused on HMOs or too discretionary for consistent application and enforcement against modern narrow network products; and (c) so long as large and influential high-cost providers continue to create alternative structures rather than fight exclusion from narrow networks, there is a greater likelihood of a co-existence of both narrow networks and alternative networks (which cater to different segments of the population) and thus greater longevity of narrow networks.


 A clinical trial conducted by the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, supported by the Obra Social "la Caixa" and the Department of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Fight AIDS Foundation has induced HIV control in 5 people who have been in an antiretroviral pause for 5, 13, 17, 20 and 27 weeks, respectively. Usually virus rebounds during the first 4 weeks after treatment interruption.  This is the first therapeutic intervention against HIV that has proved to be successful in reeducating the immune system of HIV-infected people, enabling it to keep the virus under control while not taking antiretroviral drugs. Now the aim of the researchers is to understand how to improve the effectiveness of this strategy in more patients.  The study, still ongoing, enrolls 15 HIV-positive people who received a therapeutic vaccine designed by researchers of the Oxford University, combined with a drug from Celgene pharmaceutical company intended to 'awaken' the latent virus.  The clinical trial is carried out at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital (Barcelona), the Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS of Barcelona and the community center BCN Checkpoint. IrsiCaixa sponsors the study, with funding from "la Caixa" Foundation, the Fundació Glòria Soler, the Gala Sida Barcelona and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, among others.


The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how policymakers draw on both neoliberal and neoconservative elements to craft educational policies. When employed together, neoliberalism and neoconservatism can create a powerful mechanism for educational policymakers and others to drive educational change that is more market based. While separate, and even at times contradictory, it is important to understand how both of these theories work in conjunction with each other. I specifically examine performance based funding in the United States.  Performance based funding policies are state level policies which stipulate that public institutions of higher education must meet certain targets, such as producing a certain amount of degrees in a given year (McClendon & Hearn, 2013). Currently, 30 U.S. states employ a version of performance based funding. I specifically examined Tennessee because Tennessee is the national leader of performance based funding (Gorbunov, 2013).


How newcomers interact with their experienced colleagues has been thought to affect their socialization and performance. In a field study of 169 new employees, team leaders provided measures of values and newcomers rated their relationships and attitudes. Structural equation analysis results suggest that relationships and open discussion values promote socialization by developing cooperative goals and integrative interaction. Results were tentatively interpreted as suggesting that values affect socialization by altering newcomer goal interdependence and interaction with experienced team members. By embracing the values of relationships and open discussion, supplemented with cooperative goals and integrative interaction, teams can more effectively socialize newcomers.


Background Autonomous cell-based control of heterologous gene expression can simplify batch-culture bioprocessing by eliminating external monitoring and extrinsic control of culture conditions. Existing approaches use auto-induction media, synthetic cell-cell communication systems, or application-specific biosensors. A simpler, resource-efficient, and general-purpose expression control system responsive to common changes during batch culture would be useful. Results We used native E.coli promoters and recombinase-based switches to repurpose endogenous transcription signals for control of heterologous gene expression. Specifically, natural changes in transcription from endogenous promoters result in recombinase expression at different phases of batch culture. So-expressed recombinases invert a constitutive promoter regulating expression of arbitrary heterologous genes. We realized reversible and single-use switching, reduced static and dynamic cell-to-cell variation, and overall expression amplification. We used "off-the-shelf" genetic parts and abstraction-based composition frameworks to realize reliable forward engineering of our synthetic genetic systems. Conclusion We engineered autonomous control systems for regulating heterologous gene expression. Our system uses generic endogenous promoters to sense and control heterologous expression during growth-phase transitions. Our system does not require specialized auto-induction media, production or activation of quorum sensing, or the development of application-specific biosensors. Cells programmed to control themselves could simplify existing bioprocess operations and enable the development of more powerful synthetic genetic systems.


Litigating the right to non-discrimination on the ground of sex has produced mixed results in a number of African jurisdictions. In spite of the fact that courts have looked at laws that discriminate against women with varying degrees of success, some issues such as women's property rights continue to be the most unpredictable terrain when subject to litigation. Increasingly, in the region and internationally, courts have begun to understand that discrimination on a prohibited ground cannot be justified. This has not, however, stopped some courts from insisting that discrimination on the basis of sex can still be justified, particularly when dealing with women's inheritance rights. It is when courts seek to justify the unjustifiable that the judicial precedent and recognised standards on non-discrimination have fallen foul of the law.


Kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) of the protozoan Crithidia acanthocephali consists mainly of an association of approximately 27,000 covalently closed, 0.8-micron (1.58 X 10(6) daltons) circular molecules apparently held together in a particular structural configuration by topological interlocking. The sensitivities of circular kDNA molecules to the restriction endonucleases EcoRI and HindIII have been studied using agarose gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy. Digestion with EcoRI or HindIII of collections of single circular molecules obtained from sonicated kDNA associations resulted in a single cleavage of 9.3 and 12% of the molecules, respectively. Digestion of intact kDNA associations with EcoRI or HindIII resulted in cleavage of 9.2 and 10.4%, respectively, of the component circular molecules, but not in detectable disruption of the characteristic structure of the associations. Analysis of the products of sequential digestion of kDNA with the two enzymes indicated that approximately 8% of the circular molecules each contain a single site sensitive to EcoRI and a single site sensitive to HindIII; 1.5-3% contain only an EcoRI-sensitive site; 3-4% contain only a HindIII-sensitive site; and the remainder (approximately 86%) are insensitive to either enzyme. Further, data obtained from sequential digestion experiments and from studies of the partial denaturation products of the circular molecules digested with EcoRI or HindIII indicated that when they occur the EcoRI site and the HindIII site are each at a unique position in all molecules, 10-13% of the circular contour length apart. Similar digestion products were found for kDNAs from different cloned organisms, suggesting that the four different kinds of circular molecules, in regard to EcoRI and HindIII sensitivity, are found in similar proportions in the kDNA association of different organisms.


Abstract Objective Neighbourhood differences in access to fresh fruit and vegetables may explain social inequalities in diet. Investigations have focused on variations in cost and availability as barriers to the purchase and consumption of fresh produce; investigations of quality have been neglected. Here we investigate whether produce quality systematically varies by food store type, rural–urban location and neighbourhood deprivation in a selection of communities across Scotland. Design Cross-sectional survey of twelve fresh fruit and vegetable items in 288 food stores in ten communities across Scotland. Communities were selected to reflect a range of urban–rural settings and a food retail census was conducted in each location. The quality of twelve fruit and vegetable items within each food store was evaluated. Data from the Scottish Executive were used to characterise each small area by deprivation and urban–rural classification. Setting Scotland. Results Quality of fruit and vegetables within the surveyed stores was high. Medium-sized stores, stores in small town and rural areas, and stores in more affluent areas tended to have the highest-quality fresh fruit and vegetables. Stores where food is secondary, stores in urban settings and stores in more deprived areas tended have the lowest-quality fresh produce. Although differences in quality were not always statistically significant, patterns were consistent for the majority of fruit and vegetable items. Conclusions The study provides evidence that variations in food quality may plausibly be a micro-environmental mediating variable in food purchase and consumption and help partially explain neighbourhood differences in food consumption patterns.