Corruption plays a central role in many nations and even in some international institutions. In this article, the author reviews a vast literature, including empirical studies and perceptual surveys, relating to the existence, effects and causes of corruption, giving particular emphasis to the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. He indicates that during the Cold War there was a taboo against discussing the subject, allegedly for fear of appearing judgmental toward Third World peoples whose support was desired, but also because the West sought the support of the leaders of these countries on the international scene. He argues that corruption is a moral problem, and is not to be understood simply as economic maladjustment. Key Words: Corruption; Justice; Fairness; Economic development; Post-Communist Eastern Europe. Nowadays hardly anyone discusses corruption as a moral problem. Most commentators perceive it as a technical problem to be solved by technical means only - like, say, solving the problem of high car-accident rate. Nobody, or almost nobody, sees it as something having to do with morals or ethics, as well. This is a strange phenomenon because corruption is intrinsically linked to moral ideas of fairness, equity and justice. Perhaps we are even born with a sense of fairness. Nevertheless, one could argue that corruption in public places is most likely as old as the state system itself, and a part and parcel of it. One of the oldest documents tackling this issue was written by an Indian author Kautiliya in the fourth century B.C., who shrewdly observed that "Just as it is impossible not to taste the honey thai finds itself at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the King's revenue." The King's revenue, he noted, can be "eaten up" in forty ways; that is, there are forty ways to commit embezzlement.2 Embezzlement, however, is not fully synonymous with corruption: the latter is wider than that, denoting not only economic corruption in public places but political corruption and corruption in the private sector. This paper, however, is limited to the discussion of corruption in public institutions in Eastern Europe since the demise of communism. The term "Eastern Europe" as used here means all post- communist countries in Europe. Three aspects of corruption will be discussed in detail: moral, political and economic. Deflning Corruption But what exactly is corruption? It is more than just stealing a ruler's wealth or taking bribes in exchange for political and economic favors. What does a concept of moral corruption imply? Does it involve "moral deterioration, decay or depravity?"3 Some writers define corruption in terms of the acceptance of money, goods or services by public officials in return for misusing their official powers: a misuse of authority for personal benefit, monetary or otherwise. A dictionary defines corruption as a "Perversion or destruction of integrity in the discharge of public duties by bribery or favor; the use or existence of corrupt practices, especially in a state, public corporation, etc."4 Transparency International, a non-governmental organization established in early 1990's to fight corruption globally, similarly defines corruption as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain. Even nepotism, that is, the giving of a favor such as employment by a person in position of authority to his relatives, is included. It seems that a description of corruption as an abuse of office by public officials is closest to the contemporary understanding of it by an average person. Not every act of corruption has to be illegal to be considered corrupt; some acts may be in compliance with legal norms and yet be regarded as corrupt by the populace at large. Indeed, in some cultures nepotism and gift-taking by officials are not seen as improper, corrupt acts. In others, they are not only improper but illegal. …


Background: Post-match fatigue has yet to be investigated in academy rugby union players. Objectives: To determine the magnitude of change in upper- (plyometric push-up (PP) flight-time) and lower-body (countermovement jump (CMJ) mean power) neuromuscular function (NMF), whole blood creatine kinase (CK) and perception of well-being following a competitive match in academy rugby union players. Methods: Fourteen academy rugby union players participated in the study. Measures were taken 2 h pre-match (baseline) and immediately post-match. Further testing was also undertaken at 24-, 48- and 72 h respectively post-match. Changes in measures from baseline were determined using magnitude-based inferences. Results: Decreases in CMJ mean power were likely substantial immediately (-5.5±3.3%) post-match, very likely at 24 h (-7±3.9), likely at 48 h (-5.8±5.4), while likely trivial at 72 h (-0.8±3.8) post-match. PP flight-time was very likely reduced immediately (-15.3±7.3%) and 24 h (-11.5±5.7%) post-match, while possibly increased at 48 h (3.5±6.0%) and likely trivial at 72 h (-0.9±5.4%) post-match. Decreases in perception of well-being were almost certainly substantial at 24 h (-24.0±4.3%), very likely at 48 h (-8.3±5.9%), and likely substantial at 72 h (-3.6±3.7%) post-match. Increases in CK were almost certainly substantial immediately (138.5±33%), 24 h (326±78%) and 48 h (176±62%) post-match, while very likely substantial at 72 h (57±35%) post-match. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the transient and multidimensional nature of post-match fatigue in academy rugby union players. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the individual nature of recovery, with many players demonstrating different recovery profiles from the group average. Keywords: collision sport, monitoring, sports injuries


Introduction: The aim of this research was to examine the sleep pattern characteristics of elderly individuals who live in a nursing home and who do not have a cognitive disorder. Materials and Methods: This research was conducted at Izmir Zübeyde Han›m Gürçeflme Nursing Home among 132 elderly individuals. Data were collected by a Descriptive Information Form and the Sleep Pattern Characteristics Questionnaire. Results: The sleep related problems frequently experienced by the elderly were "waking up frequently after falling asleep" (58.3%), "feeling sleepy/not well rested after waking up" (56.1%), "dozing off after waking up" (56%), "having difficulty going back to sleep after waking up" (49.3%), and "having difficulty falling asleep" (47.8%). It was determined that there were statistically significant differences in the elderly individuals' sleep pattern characteristics according to their gender (t=4.643, p<0.01), physical health perception (F=9.621, p<0.01), emotional health perception (F=9.045, p<0.01), status of using medications for physical complaints (t=2.776, p<0.05), sleep quality perception (F=63.540, p<0.01), medication use for staying in nursing home by choice (t=-2.468, p<0.05). Conclusion: Elderly individuals living in a nursing home were found to have difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep and dozing off.


The first simultaneous observations of fields and plasmas in Saturn's high-latitude magnetosphere and UV images of the conjugate auroral oval were obtained by the Cassini spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in January 2007. These data have shown that the southern auroral oval near noon maps to the dayside cusp boundary between open and closed field lines, associated with a major layer of upward-directed field-aligned current (Bunce et al., 2008). The results thus support earlier theoretical discussion and quantitative modelling of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at Saturn (Cowley et al., 2004), that suggests the oval is produced by electron acceleration in the field-aligned current layer required by rotational flow shear between strongly sub-corotating flow on open field lines and near-corotating flow on closed field lines. Here we quantitatively compare these modelling results (the "CBO" model) with the Cassini-HST data set. The comparison shows good qualitative agreement between model and data, the principal difference being that the model currents are too small by factors of about five, as determined from the magnetic perturbations observed by Cassini. This is suggested to be principally indicative of a more highly conducting summer southern ionosphere than was assumed in the CBO model. A revised model is therefore proposed in which the height-integrated ionospheric Pedersen conductivity is increased by a factor of four from 1 to 4 mho, together with more minor adjustments to the co-latitude of the boundary, the flow shear across it, the width of the current layer, and the properties of the source electrons. It is shown that the revised model agrees well with the combined Cassini-HST data, requiring downward acceleration of outer magnetosphere electrons through a ~10 kV potential in the current layer at the open-closed field line boundary to produce an auroral oval of ~1° width with UV emission intensities of a few tens of kR.


An important aspect of agent evaluation in stochastic games, especially poker, is the need to reduce the outcome variance in order to get accurate and significant results. The current method used in the Annual Computer Poker Competition's analysis is that of duplicate poker, an approach that leverages the ability to deal sets of cards to agents in order to reduce variance. This work explores a different approach to variance reduction by using a control variate based approach known as baseline. The baseline approach involves using an agent's outcome in self play to create an unbiased estimator for use in agent evaluation and has been shown to work well in both poker and trading agent competition domains. Baseline does not require that the agents are able to be dealt sets of cards, making it a more robust technique than duplicate. This approach is compared to the current duplicate method, as well as other variations of duplicate poker on the results of the 2011 two player no-limit and three player limit Texas Hold'em ACPC tournaments.


This is a valuable contribution to any audiologist's or neuro-otologist's library. It is a complete and thorough review of the various modalities and applications in auditory electrophysiology. Its unique clinical perspective distinguishes it from most other books in this area . -- Doody's Review Written primarily by audiologists familiar with cutting-edge research in a rapidly changing field, Auditory Electrophysiology provides a fresh perspective on the most current advances and practices in the specialty. Research and clinical information are presented separately to facilitate learning and provide a more practical organization of the material. In addition to clinical applications and case studies, this text includes sections on the foundational science and historical background of auditory evoked potentials as well as clinical practice and management. Key Features: * Includes case studies written by clinicians who are experts in auditory evoked potentials, helping to highlight clinical applications in the specialty * Discusses how auditory electrophysiology techniques are used in central auditory function testing * Provides practical guidelines on how to write a clinical report, with easy-to-use templates, helping readers quickly master report writing * Contains a chapter on the application of principles of evidence-based practice, to guide clinical technique and analysis of auditory evoked potentials Ideal as an introduction to the field for graduate students in audiology and ENT residents, Auditory Electrophysiology is also a useful guide for clinicians who want to refresh their skills or add to their practice. It fills a gap in the literature for an up-to-date text and reference on all aspects of auditory evoked potentials.


HIV affects the function of all lymphocyte populations, including B cells. Phenotypic and functional defects of B cells in HIV-infected adults have been well characterized, but defects in children have not been studied to the same extent. We determined the proportion of B cell subsets and frequencies of Ag-specific memory B cells in peripheral blood from HIV-infected children and healthy controls, using flow cytometry and B cell ELISPOT, respectively. In addition, we measured the quantities and avidities of plasma Abs against various Ags by ELISA. We also determined plasma levels of BAFF and expression of BAFF receptors on B cells. Children with high HIV viremia had increased proportions of activated mature B cells, tissue-like memory B cells and plasmablasts, and low proportions of naive B cells when compared with community controls and children with low HIV viremia, similar to adults infected with HIV. HIV-infected groups had lower proportions of resting memory B cells than did community controls. Notably, high HIV viremia prevented the age-dependent accumulation of class-switched resting memory B cells. HIV-infected children, regardless of the level of viremia, showed lower quantities and avidities of IgG and lower frequencies of memory B cells against Expanded Program on Immunization vaccines. The HIV-infected children had an altered BAFF profile that could have affected their B cell compartment. Therefore, B cell defects in HIV-infected children are similar to those seen in HIV-infected adults. However, control of HIV viremia is associated with normalization of activated B cell subsets and allows age-dependent accumulation of resting memory B cells.


This paper aims to review the potential and challenges of non-catalytic transesterification as a sustainable route for biodiesel synthesis. Recently, biodiesel production using supercritical technology has undergone rapid developments as it provides numerous advantages over conventional catalytic technologies, including elimination of catalyst preparation and product separation and purification processes, higher biodiesel yield, shorter reaction time, applicability to a wide variety of feedstocks without any pre-treatment requirements. Nevertheless, there are many concerns regarding the massive energy obligation to conduct the reaction at the supercritical conditions of methanol, which requires high temperature and pressure. Accordingly, the challenges facing the supercritical technology to be considered as a sustainable process have been elaborated through this review. Different production techniques using supercritical technology have been addressed. Several reaction variables affecting the supercritical reaction and their optimisation methodologies have been discussed in this review. Moreover, some constructive recommendations have been proposed thoroughly to overcome the limitations of this technology. Biodiesel production using supercritical technology could be considered as a sustainable route in the near future.


ABSTRACT
 Modern pinnipeds distributed along the coasts of continental South America consist almost entirely of otariids (sea lions and fur seals). In contrast, phocids (true seals) are present only on the southernmost extreme of Chile. This recent biogeographic pattern is consistent with the zooarchaeological record (∼8-2 ka), but it is incompatible with the pinniped fossil record during the Neogene. From the middle Miocene to the Pliocene, true seals exclusively dominated pinniped assemblages, and they were only replaced by the fur seals and sea lions sometime after the early Pliocene. Here, we describe pinniped material collected from two new localities in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, that clarifies this marine mammal faunal turnover. Specifically, these finds provide records of the first occurrence of Otariidae (late Pleistocene) and the last occurrence of Phocidae (early Pliocene) in Chile, which in turn constrain the timing of this turnover to between the early Pliocene and late Pleistocene. The stratigraphic context of these findings provides new insights into hypotheses that explain this faunal turnover in South America, and we briefly discuss them in the context of turnover events involving other marine vertebrates throughout the Southern Hemisphere.


The aim of this study was to develop a genetic transformation system for the plant pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani (teliomorph, Thanatephprus cucumeris Frank [Donk]). The availability of a transformation system would allow us to study gene exchange, epidemiology, and to use techniques such as gene disruption or gene silencing to investigate the role of fungal enzymes in pathogenesis.

The approach adopted was to use Agrobacterium tumefaciens to transform the fungus as reports in the literature suggested that this was the most efficient and easiest method to use. As a preliminary test, Fusarium oxysporum was transformed using a binary vector (pBINAN) containing a hygromycin resistance gene under control of an ascomycete promoter and terminator. Hygromycin resistant transformants were obtained after co-incubation of fungal conidia with the bacterium. The presence of the transgene was confirmed by analysis of DNA. The number of transformants depended on the genetic background of the A tumefaciens. Strains AGLO or AGRO gave higher numbers of transformants compared to LBA4404. No transformants were obtained when the hygromycin gene was under control of a basidiomycete (pBINHL1), or a plant (CaMV35S) promoter. Since the basidiomycete promoter used in pBINHL1 originates from Ustilago maydis, the vector was tested by transformation of Ustilago cynodontis. Stable transformants of U cynodontis were obtained with this vector.

A series of experiments were carried out on transformation of R. solani mycelium. Both the protoplast and the Agrobacterium transformation methods were tested. Parameters affecting protoplast production and regeneration were examined. Protoplast production varied with the age of the mycelium, with the osmotic stabilizer used, and with time of treatment with protoplasting enzymes. Regeneration of protoplasts was also affected by the osmotic stabilizer and the growth medium. Transformation of several isolates from different anastomosis groups (AG) was attempted by inducing protoplasts to take up DNA using polyethyleneglycol. Two plasmids were used; (1) pAN7-1 containing the resistance gene under control of an ascomycete promoter, and (2) pHL-1 in which the resistance gene is under control of a basidiomycete promoter. No transformants were obtained.

Attempts were then made to transform mycelium and protoplasts using A tumefaciens. The experiments used both mycelium and protoplasts as the recipient. A number of small resistant colonies were obtained using binary plasmid (pBINHL1) in which mycelium was transformed with the resistance gene was driven by the basidiomycete promoter. On transfer to fresh medium these colonies would grow to about 2cm diameter, and then stop growing. On a second transfer to fresh medium they failed to show any growth. No resistant colonies were obtained from A. tumefaciens transformation of protoplasts.

To improve transformation efficiency, a vector was constructed in which the hygromycin resistance gene was fused to an R solani laccase promoter sequence. No resistant colonies were obtained using this vector. Further experiments were carried out using a hygromycin resistance gene specially modified for expression in basidiomycetes by the insertion of artificial introns in the 5' and 3' untranslated regions, and a number of AT to CG conversions in the coding region. Most of the recipient isolates gave transformants with the unstable resistance phenotype. However, one AG 6 isolate gave transformants with a stable resistance phenotype. Of six transformants recovered from this isolate, five were shown by PCR and southern blotting to contain the transgene. In four of these transformants the resistance phenotype was stable in the absence of selection.


Computational social choice is an exciting interdisciplinary field at the intersection of computer science and social choice theory. In this article, I discuss some current and new directions in the field. This is an accompanying paper of my IJCAI 2016 Early Career Spotlight invited talk.


The view that colonialism did not have a major impact on the modernisation process of the colonising countries of Europe has not been critiqued adequately. Focusing primarily on the relationship between Britain and India, this paper argues that the economic development in Europe both in terms of the rise in living standards in human development and in the sense of the structural breakthrough with the rise of capitalism was closely linked with Europe's relationship with the rest of the world from about the 15th century. The imperial connection between Britain and India contributed to British industrialisation and its emergence as a hegemonic power in the world, sustained Britain through her period of relative decline in global competition in the industrial sphere, enabled her financial supremacy in the world till the first world war to finally seeing her through the crisis years of the 20th century and up to the second world war.


A view that has been gaining popularity is that humans are sensitive to frequency information at different levels, and that this information affects the processing of linguistic material, subsequently shaping our mental representations. Frequency effects have been reported extensively in word processing literature, but only a small number of studies have investigated frequency effects in units larger than a word. The question that the present thesis strives to answer is: Do units above the word level, both fully compositional and less so, exhibit frequency effects? In Study 1, using an eye-tracking paradigm, I investigate the comprehension of idioms used figuratively (at the end of the day – 'eventually'), literally (at the end of the day - 'in the evening'), as well as novel phrases (at the end of the war) in a first and second language. In Study 2, which also uses eye-tracking, native and non-native processing of frequent binomial expressions, such as bride and groom, is compared to their infrequent reversed forms, such as groom and bride. Finally, three ERP experiments, which form Study 3, further investigate on-line processing of frequent binomial expressions versus novel phrases in a first language. The results of the studies point to the following. Frequent phrases are processed faster than novel ones by native speakers. Non-native speakers, on the other hand, appear to have a "lexicon in transition", that is, their processing starts to approximate that of natives only with respect to very high frequency items. Overall, the processing of frequent multi-word sequences in a second language is more sequential than that in a first language (this is particularly the case with idioms). The processing advantage for binomials observed in the ERP study with native speakers also suggests that different neural correlates underlie the processing of familiar phrases when compared to novel ones. On the whole, the findings reported in the thesis suggest that the units that language users attend to are not limited to single words, but extend to multi-word sequences as well.


NEXUS is a novel simulation environment designed for modeling large neural systems. The simulator allows the user to incorporate complex functional properties and symbolic processing at the level of the individual unit. In addition, NEXUS takes advantage of the principle of topographic map organization, found throughout the mammalian nervous system, to facilitate the modeling and design process. An easy-to-use graphical interface allows the user to interactively build and test models. This paper describes the principles underlying the NEXUS design and its advantages over other current simulation approaches.


Cloud Computing is gaining popularity as a new IT arrangement in organizations, offering many advantages such as cost reduction and high flexibility that help in coping with high elasticity of demand. This study investigates organization"s propensity to adopt Cloud computing services. The decision is viewed as an IT outsourcing decision and as a technology adoption decision through three theoretical perspectives: Transaction cost theory, resource dependence theory and diffusion of innovation theory. Based on these theories, a conceptual model is proposed with research hypotheses for future empirical testing. The study makes an attempt to contribute to the emerging literature of cloud computing, in addition to offering organizations considering adoption a list of benefits and risks of adopting cloud computing.


Little systematic research has been conducted in Australia to develop a picture of women's experiences of violence and abuse across their lifetimes. The present study was designed to address this deficiency by assessing the prevalence of different types of abuse, the situations in which they occur, how women have coped, and the effect of abusive encounters on general health and wellbeing. Using self-report questionnaires, data were obtained from 1,159 women aged 48 to 53, previously recruited in the Women's Health Australia longitudinal project. Measures included descriptors of the abuse and help-seeking behaviours, and measures of general wellbeing and depression. The most frequently reported forms of abuse were emotional, physical, and sexual. These overwhelmingly occurred in the home, and across all life stages, but mostly in adulthood on an occasional or weekly basis. Perpetrators were usually persons known to the victim. Most abusive encounters were not recent but, when experienced, had persisted over time and had negatively affected mental and physical health. The majority of women had discussed their circumstances with close relatives, friends, or professional persons. One-third of respondents had reported abusive episodes to the police, and almost half of these had found it helpful to do so. The data show that abuse is a fact of life for many Australian women and demonstrate a continuing need for appropriate prevention and intervention strategies.


An essential guide for design engineers who use the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) during the product development process, this book turns the FEA into a productivity tool that will help to avoid costly and potentially dangerous mistakes. During the 50 years of its development, FEA evolved from an exotic analysis method accessible only to specialized analysts into a mainstream engineering tool. Phenomenal progress in computer hardware and operating systems combined with similar progress in computer-aided design made FEA the tool of choice for design engineers, who now use it during the product design process. Many books have been written about FEA, however very little FEA literature takes a middle ground approach and specifically addresses the needs of design engineers who use FEA as an everyday design tool. This book attempts to fill that void by focusing on an understanding of FEA fundamentals, which are explained through simple and intuitive examples that can be used by any engineer. This book also takes a practical approach, characteristic to the attitudes of design engineers, and offers readers an opportunity to try all discussed topics by solving downloadable exercises using either their own FEA software or the commercial FEA software StressCheck(R), which is licensed for free to readers.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the communication competence of supervisors upon an employee's job satisfaction. Results obtained supported the 5 hypotheses proposed. Findings indicated the importance of supervisory communication responsiveness in areas of listening, sensitivity, and expression of interest in subordinate's ideas and concerns in ensuring satisfaction with supervision received. Support was also generated for the value of an "open" communication climate where continual feedback and idea exchange interact to produce organizational identification. Significant relationships were found to exist between communication climate and dimensions of the JDI: satisfaction with supervisor, work satisfaction, pay satisfaction, satisfaction with promotion opportunities, satisfaction with coworkers. Finally, communication skills training for supervisors was recommended to animate organizational growth and development.


Novelty search is a state-of-the-art evolutionary approach that promotes behavioural novelty instead of pursuing a static objective. Along with a large number of successful applications, many different variants of novelty search have been proposed. It is still unclear, however, how some key parameters and algorithmic components influence the evolutionary dynamics and performance of novelty search. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive empirical study focused on novelty search's algorithmic components. We study the "k" parameter -- the number of nearest neighbours used in the computation of novelty scores; the use and function of an archive; how to combine novelty search with fitness-based evolution; and how to configure the mutation rate of the underlying evolutionary algorithm. Our study is conducted in a simulated maze navigation task. Our results show that the configuration of novelty search can have a significant impact on performance and behaviour space exploration. We conclude with a number of guidelines for the implementation and configuration of novelty search, which should help future practitioners to apply novelty search more effectively.


This study tested the ability of sixteen different electrical stimulation trains to produce repetitive lower leg movements through a fifty-degree target excursion. Five constant-frequency trains (CFTs), five variable-frequency trains (VFTs), five doubletfrequency trains (DFTs) and a high-frequency (lOOHz) burst were tested. The results indicated that the DFT was the most successful train type, and that the high-frequency burst was the most successful train overall. The repetitive doublet activation offered by DFTs may have stimulated force augmentation mechanisms many times within a train, therefore improving performance in fatigued muscle. In addition, the success of the high-frequency burst may have been due to activation of the same mechanisms responsible for force augmentation as those triggered by doublets.


While traces of pharmaceuticals have been found in the environment, the pharmaceutical industry produces waste streams high in pharmaceutically active compounds concentration along with other components such as salts. This work investigated the removal of three common pharmaceuticals, carbamazepine, ibuprofen, and diclofenac, at concentrations found in the pharmaceutical industry, under different monovalent salt concentrations of sodium chloride using a commercially available nanofiltration membrane. The influence of a monovalent salt concentration and temperature on the removal were determined. Pharmaceutical rejection was found to be dependent on the compounds' molecular weights, charge, and hydrophobicity. Diclofenac and ibuprofen rejections were found to be high (90-99%) and (85-96%) respectively, and the rejection increased with increasing salt concentration. Meanwhile, moderate retention values were found for the neutral carbamazepine (65-77%) and these values decreased with increasing salt concentration, and also decreased with increasing temperatures. A threshold salt concentration was found at which these effects were buffered or even reversed.


Noncontaminating procedures were used during the hollow-stem auger installation of 12 observation wells on three hazardous waste sites in Kansas. Special precautions were taken to ensure that water samples were representative of the ground water in the aquifer and were not subjected to contamination from the land surface or cross contamination from within borehole. Precautions included thorough cleaning of the hollow-stem auger and casing, keeping drill cuttings from falling back into the borehole while drilling, and not adding water to the borehole. These procedures were designed to prevent contamination of the ground water during well installation.

Because the use of water during well installation could contaminate the aquifer or dilute contaminants already present in the aquifer, two methods of well installation that did not introduce outside water to the borehole were used. The first method involved using a slotted 3/4-inch coupling that was attached to the bit plate of the hollow-stem auger, allowing formation water to enter the auger, thereby preventing sand-plug formation. This method proved to be adequate, except when drilling through clay layers, which tended to clog the slotted coupling. The second method involved screened well swab that allowed only formation water to enter the hollow-stem auger and prevented sand from plugging the hollow-stem auger when the bit plate was removed.


Avoidance of collapse is the most important objective in earthquake resistant design, but assessing the probability of collapse of a structure during an earthquake is technically challenging and it is computationally demanding. This paper summarizes recent investigations conducted by the authors at Stanford University aimed at improving the assessment of the probability of collapse of structures. It is shown that methodologies based on estimating the probability of collapse at a single ground motion intensity, such as those that only evaluate the level of safety at the so called maximum considered earthquake are inadequate. Results are presented showing that estimating the probability of collapse using incremental dynamic analyses in which a model of the structure is subjected to ground motions scaled at increasing levels of intensity until collapse is produced may introduce significant bias in the results. An improved procedure, referred to as Enhanced Two Stripe Analysis, E2SA is presented which provides not only more accurate results compared to those obtained with an incremental dynamic analysis but can be obtained at a small fraction of the computational effort. The new approach is based on careful observation of the deaggregation the mean annual frequency of collapse that reveals that is typically dominated by earthquake ground motion intensities corresponding to the lower half of the collapse fragility curve. Therefore, rather than focusing on the estimation of the median collapse intensity as proposed in previous studies, the new method proposes to focus on intensities in the lower tail of the collapse fragility function. Furthermore, it is shown that the uncertainty in the collapse fragility curve and on the mean annual frequency of collapse is significantly reduced by increasing the number of ground motions used in the analysis, so instead of using a small ground motion set scaled at many increasing levels of intensity, the proposed method recommends conducting nonlinear response history analyses with a larger number of ground motions but only at two levels of intensity. Results indicate that using a larger number of ground motions at two intensity levels provides improved results. Finally, recent investigations conducted by the authors show that rather than selecting and scaling ground motions based on spectral accelerations at a period equal to the fundamental period of the structure alone or in combination with epsilon, a much better approach is to use an averaged spectral acceleration over a wide range of periods extending to periods shorter than the fundamental period to significantly longer than the fundamental period. Extensive studies conducted by the authors over a wide range of structures indicate that this new intensity measure is significantly better correlated with collapse and therefore leads to a more reliable estimation of the mean annual frequency of collapse while at the same time reducing the computational effort involved since the number of ground motions to be used in the analysis can be reduced.


We present our ALCHEMY platform that supports the automatic parallelization of R programs during execution. Parallelization occurs fully transparent to the user. Different parallelization techniques can be implemented as modules, linked into the platform, and combined with each other. The parallelization analysis modules and code transformation modules use a new intermediate representation for sequential and parallelized R code. Successfully parallelized parts of the R program are executed on a multicore processor, the results and the remaining sequential parts are fed back into the standard R interpreter and evaluated to completion. This way, an R user can benefit from multiprocessor performance without writing a single line of parallel code. At this stage of the research project, the main goal is to enable ample experimentation with different approaches to the automatic parallelization of scripting languages such as R.


Context: Water is an essential commodity for the sustenance of life, yet its availability is drastically reducing due to pollution. The conventional methods used for the treatment of water is relatively expensive and not readily available and hence the need for alternative sustainable means of water treatment. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of Adansonia digitata L. seeds as a biocoagulant and disinfectant in the purification of water. Materials and Methods: Dried fruits of A. digitata were collected from the Department of Biological Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The seeds were excised, washed, sun-dried, powdered and defatted using n-hexane. Synthetic turbid water used for the biocoagulant study was prepared using beneficiated kaolin while that used for disinfection studies was prepared using Escherichia coli isolate. Surface water was also used for the study and was obtained from the Kubanni Reservoir, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The experimental design was complete randomized design (CRD). Experiments were performed in triplicates using 0 mg/L (control), 50 mg/L, 100 mg/L, 150 mg/L and 200 mg/L of A. digitata seed extract. Statistical Analysis: One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the means of the various parameters measured. Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) was used in separating means where significant. The level of significance was taken at P < 0.05. Results: Results revealed that as a biocoagulant, an optimum dose of 150 mg/L was able to reduce turbidity of synthetic water significantly (P < 0.05) by 96.7% while there was no significant reduction in the turbidity of surface water. As a disinfectant, a dose of 200 mg/L was able to significantly reduce (P < 0.05) the concentration of E. coli of synthetic water from 1.65 × 104 cfu/mL to 5.00 × 102 cfu/mL (97.0%) and that of surface water from 4.27 × 102 cfu/mL to 6.67 × 101 cfu/mL (84.4%). Conclusion: From the investigations done, A. digitata seeds possess biocoagulant and disinfectant potentials, which may be harnessed for water purification.


The dynamics and formation mechanisms of marine snow aggregates from abandoned larvacean houses were examined by laboratory experiments and field sampling during a spring diatom bloom in a shallow fjord on the west coast of the USA. Intact aggregates were sampled both from sediment traps and directly from the water column by divers. All aggregates were composed of 1 abandoned house of the larvacean Oikopleura dioica to which numerous diatoms, fecal pellets, c~liates, and amorphous detritus were attached. High vertical flux rates (20000 to 120000 houses m-2 d") and settling velocities (average 120 m d-') imply a rapid turnover of suspended larvacean houses, and concentrations of diatoms and fecal pellets in the aggregates exceeding ambient concentrations by 3 to 5 orders of magnitude suggest their potential importance in driving the vertical flux of particles. Iden- tical particle assemblages were observed in aggregates collected in the water column and in sediment traps. Most of the fecal pellets found in the houses were most likely produced by the larvaceans them- selves. Numbers of diatoms per house corresponded with the diatom concentrations in the ambient water and, on average, each aggregate contained diatoms in abundances corresponding to those found in 4.5 ml of ambient water. Laboratory measurements showed that larvacean houses scavenge diatoms and fecal pellets while sinklng, and observed scavenging rates were similar to those predicted from theory. However, both predicted and observed scavenging rates In experiments were orders of magnitude too low to account for the particle content observed on aggregates from the water column. Based on models, shear coagulation was also assessed to be insignificant in forming aggregates. It is concluded that most of the particles become attached to the incurrent filters of the larvacean house while it is still inhabited, and that shear and sinking insignificantly contribute to particle collisions and adhe-sions on the abandoned house


We have solved and refined the crystal structure of the orthorhombic gamma-phase of Ca(BD4)(2) by combined synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction, neutron powder diffraction, and ab initio calculations. Among five structural candidates giving the same quality of the fit of the diffraction data, the structural model with the highest symmetry and space group Pbca is the most appropriate. This is supported by the implicit presence of the Pbca symmetry operations in the low-symmetry space groups in both experimental and DFT calculated structures. The Ca atoms are surrounded by six BD4 groups that have similar distortions as reported for the beta-phase of Ca(BD4)(2). On the basis of the experimental structures, free energies of the alpha-, beta-, and gamma-phases are calculated in the range 300 K < T < 620 K. The phase transitions are observed in the same temperature range by means of X-ray diffraction on Ca(BD4)(2) + MgD2 and pure Ca(BD4)(2) samples. According to the ab initio calculations, the alpha-phase is the ground state at 0 K. At room temperature, the calculated free energies of the alpha-phase, beta-phase, and gamma-phase were found to be within similar to 0.13 eV/f.u., in agreement with the observed coexistence of these phases. Moreover, calculations provide insight into trends for relative stabilities of alpha-, beta-, and gamma-phases. That is, with increasing temperature, the beta-phase becomes more stable, while the metastable gamma-phase becomes more destabilized with respect to the alpha-phase.


This paper explains two main aspects of RFID supply chain management – the generic supply chain management and the specific military application for the purpose of asset viability. The generic supply chain management is studied by examining how to improve supply chain management through accurately determining inventory levels in real time without human interaction. For the military application, the current legacy systems used by the military for Supply Chain Management and Asset Visibility are analyzed and suggestions are made for improvements in the form of Total Asset Visibility through Radio Frequency Identification tags, and Geographic Information Systems.


This work focused on the catalytic performance of hypercrosslinked sulfonic acid for esterification of carboxylic acids. The commercially available hyercrosslinked poly(styrene-divinylbenzine)sulfonic acids, Purolite D5081 and D5082 were found to be active than macroporous Amberlyst 35 for esterification of long-chained carboxylic acid with ethanol. The high activities have been attributed to the high accessibility of the acid sites in the catalysts. However, a relationship between the deactivation od D5081 and D5082 and acid site leaching was observed, and the acid sites were found to leach out only in polar liquids. Further investigation revealed that the leachable acid sites are mainly sulphuric acid trapped in the polymer. Based on these findings, a series of solid sulfonic acids on the hypercrosslinked poly (St-DVB)MN 200 were prepared, with the trapped sulphuric acid thoroughly removed. The surface areas and porosities were measured, and the structures were characterised by solid-state NMR. The home-made catalysts were used for catalysing esterification of acetic acid with ethanol, and the catalyst that showed no site leaching was used for kinetic modelling of the reaction. It was shown that the Eley-Rideal(single site) model best fits acetic acid esterification catalysed by the chosen hypercrosslinked sulfonic acid. The home-made catalyst which was highly active and reusable in esterification of pure oleic acid was tested in esterification of oleic acid esterification blended with rapeseed oil in biodiesel synthesis. The catalytic synthesis was compared with that of macroporous Amberlyst 35 and gel-type C100X4. The effect of reaction parameters on the reaction kinetics was evaluated for the oil-blended esterification over the hypercrosslinked sulfonic acid catalysis, and the reaction conditions were optimised. Finally, the reusability of the hypercrosslinked sulfonic acid was studied. This home-made hypercrosslinked catalyst in this reaction suffered from deactivation which is due to pore blocking and the loss of functional acid groups. The latter is caused by both sulfonic acid leaching and cation exchange with metal ions in the acidic oil.


PURPOSE
Accurate deformation vector field (DVF) acting on organ surface is vital for surface dose summation of deformable cavitary organs in adaptive radiotherapy. The aim of this study is to develop a contour-guided deformable image registration (DIR) scheme to establish accurate DVF on an organ surface.

METHODS
A critical cavitary organ, for example bladder, is delineated by a clinician on fraction 1 and fraction 2 CT images used for cervical high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy planning. Both CT sets are preprocessed by creating binary images by setting one inside of the organ under evaluation and zero outside. The organ surface is subsequently extracted and discretized with a triangular mesh. The DVF on designed vertices is estimated through an inverse-consistent demons-DIR between the paired binary images. Due to shortcomings in DIR algorithms, the DVF derived through DIR always has limited accuracy. To increase the DVF accuracy, an iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm is adopted in this study to match corresponding vertices of the paired surface meshes through an affine registration. The accuracy of the resulting registration is then evaluated.

RESULTS
Using contours drawn by a clinician as ground truth we evaluated DVF accuracy through organ surface-to-surface distance (SSD), defined as the shortest Euclidean distance between the vertices on the target and the deformed surfaces. In our evaluation case, the maximum SSD is 27.8mm before registration, decreases to 15.0mm following demons registration, and 8.33mm after further affine alignment. The 95 percentile SSD decreases from 23.9mm to 10.8mm and to 3.8mm, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The proposed contour-guided DIR scheme substantially improves the accuracy of DVF on organ surfaces. Results from the evaluation case demonstrate that the proposed contour-guided DIR scheme can provide accurate DVF making it a useful approach to be applied in adaptive radiotherapy.


Brain-damaged subjects who had previously been identified as suffering from a visual attention deficit for contralesional stimulation were tested on a series of visual search tasks. The experiments examined the hypothesis that the processing of single features is preattentive but that feature integration, necessary for the correct perception of conjunctions of features, requires attention (Treisman & Gelade, 1980 Treisman & Sato, 1990). Subjects searched for a feature target (orientation or color) or for a conjunction target (orientation and color) in unilateral displays in which the number of items presented was variable. Ocular fixation was controlled so that trials on which


Dendrites perform spatial and temporal discrimination during input processing. Animal survival depends on the ability to analyze the environment and act on it: escape predators, find food, select a mate. Understanding how the brain achieves this is one of the most fascinating and challenging problems in neuroscience. What sequence of steps converts sensory cues into behavior? In other words, how does the brain compute? In 1943, McCulloch and Pitts noted that neurons firing action potentials act like binary devices that can either be on or off. In a seminal paper (1), they showed how connected networks of neurons could represent any logical expression, and 60 years of subsequent work in theoretical neuroscience has devised models of neuronal networks that can implement computational tasks. The basic operation in these models is the conversion of input into action potentials—the process of turning a neuron on. How is this conversion achieved? What are the rules for integrating input, and what kind of information can a single neuron interpret and process? The traditional view is that neurons sum input and, if the sum reaches a certain threshold, an action potential is triggered. The important variable is thus the amount of synaptic input—if neurons had a language and each synapse were a letter, they would only care about how long a word is. However, most neurons seem to have the ability to be more powerful than this. Contrary to the assumption of McCulloch and Pitts, synapses are not made onto the soma (cell body) but onto dendrites, protrusions from the cell body separating the input and the action potential initiation zone. Dendrites filter, transform, and compute thresholds of synaptic input and can, in theory, implement basic arithmetic operations by themselves (2). I first became interested in dendrites during my Ph.D. work. Monitoring the properties of single synapses in hippocampal neurons, I found that dendrites can implement a negative feedback that regulates the amount of input each branch receives (3). Dendrites can thus independently process and regulate input information. Can these properties be used by single neurons to perform high-order computations?


Sir John Egan's 1998 report on the construction industry (Construction Task Force 1998) noted its confrontational and adversarial nature. Both the original report and its subsequent endorsement in Accelerating Change (Strategic Forum 2002) called for improved working relationships—so-called 'integration'—within and between both design and construction aspects. In this paper, we report on our observations of on-site team meetings for a major UK project during its construction phase. We attended a series of team meetings and recorded the patterns of verbal interaction that took place within them. In reporting our findings, we have deliberately used a graphical method for presenting the results, in the expectation that this will make them more readily accessible to designers. Our diagrams of these interaction patterns have already proved to be intuitively and quickly understood, and have generated interest and discussion among both those we observed and others who have seen them. We noted that different patterns of communication occurred in different types of meetings. Specifically, in the problem-solving meeting, there was a richness of interaction that was largely missing from progress meetings and technical meetings. Team members expressed greater satisfaction with this problem-solving meeting where these enriched exchanges took place. By making comparisons between the different patterns, we are also able to explore functional roles and their interactions. From this and other published evidence, we conclude that good teamworking practices depend on a complex interplay of relations and dependencies embedded within the team.


The source water area for the drinking-water supply of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, encompasses major transportation corridors, as well as large areas of light industrial, commercial, and residential land use. Because of the large amount of roadway in the drinking-water source area, the Cambridge water supply is affected by the usage of deicing compounds and by other constituents that are flushed from such impervious areas. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has monitored surface-water quality in the Cambridge Reservoir and Stony Brook Reservoir Basins, which compose the drinking-water source area, since 1997 (water year 1998) through continuous monitoring and the collection of streamflow samples. In a study conducted by the USGS, in cooperation with the City of Cambridge Water Department, concentrations and loads of calcium (Ca), chloride (Cl), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), and sulfate (SO4) were estimated from continuous records of specific conductance and streamflow for streams and tributaries at 10 continuous water-quality monitoring stations. These data were used to characterize current (2015) water-quality conditions, estimate loads and yields, and describe trends in Cl and Na in the tributaries and mainstem streams in the Cambridge Reservoir and Stony Brook Reservoir Basins. These data also were used to describe how stream-water quality is related to various basin characteristics and provide information to guide future management of the drinking-water source area. Water samples from 2009–15 were analyzed for physical properties and concentrations of Ca, Cl, Mg, Na, potassium (K), SO4, and total phosphorus (TP). Values of physical properties and constituent concentrations varied widely, particularly in composite samples of stormflow from tributaries that have high percentages of constructed impervious areas. Median concentrations of Ca, Cl, Mg, Na, and K in samples collected from the tributaries in the Cambridge Reservoir Basin (27.2, 273, 4.7, 154.5, and 2.8 milligrams per liter (mg/L), respectively) were higher than those for the Stony Brook Reservoir Basin (22.2, 128, 4.3, 77.1, and 2.5, respectively). Differences between tributary samples for concentrations of Cl and Na were related to the percentage of developed land and constructed impervious area in the drinking-water source area. Median concentrations of SO4 in samples collected from the tributaries in the Cambridge Reservoir Basin (10.7 mg/L) were lower than those for the Stony Brook Reservoir Basin (18.0 mg/L). Concentrations of dissolved Cl and Na in samples and those concentrations estimated from continuous records of specific conductance (particularly during base flow) often were greater than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) secondary drinking-water standard for Cl (250 mg/L), the chronic aquatic-life guideline for Cl (230 mg/L), and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection drinking-water guideline for Na (20 mg/L). Concentrations of TP (range from 0.008 to 0.69 mg/L in all subbasins) in tributary samples did not differ substantially between the Cambridge Reservoir and Stony Brook Reservoir Basins. About one-half of the concentrations of TP in samples collected during water years 2013–15 exceeded the EPA proposed reference concentration of 0.024 mg/L. For most tributaries, about 70 percent of the annual loads of Ca, Cl, Mg, Na, and SO4 were associated with base flow. Concentrations of major ions were negatively correlated with streamflow, indicating that these constituents were diluted during stormflow and tend to increase during the summer when streamflow is low. In contrast, between 57 and 92 percent of the annual load for TP was transported during stormflows. Mean annual yields of Ca, Cl, Mg, Na, and SO4 in the drinking-water source area were 13, 75, 2.6, 40, and 6.9 metric tons per square kilometer, respectively, for water years 2009–15. The mean annual yield of TP in the drinking-water source area for water years 2013–15 was 0.012 metric tons per square kilometer. Yields for major ions and TP were highest in tributary subbasins adjacent to Interstate 95. Temporal trends in mean annual concentrations for Cl and Na were not significant for water years 1998‒2015 (period of record by the USGS) for the outlet of the Cambridge Reservoir and for the main stem of Stony Brook downstream from the reservoir. Median values of base-flow concentrations of TP at three stations were higher for samples collected during base-flow conditions during water years 2005–7 than for samples collected during water years 2013–15. However, the results were not significant for statistical tests between concentrations in samples collected during storms for the same periods, indicating that the quality of stormwater remains similar. 2 Deicing Compounds and Total Phosphorus in the Cambridge Drinking-Water Source Area, Mass., Water Years 2009–15


This paper explores advocates of political change in authoritarian regimes in a comparative perspective through case studies of Chinese lawyers, Chinese journalists, and Russian journalists. We are interested in understanding how these actors manage to advocate change while still largely staying out of trouble in regimes that are known not only for stringent controls on political participation, but for harsh retribution against those who oppose them. Rather than focusing on the extent of their success in advocating change, we are interested in the tactics these actors use to protect themselves and persevere in their work. We further ask whether, how and why these tactics differ across the two types of actors and the two authoritarian regimes. The key difference across the two regimes was the use of 'cross-jurisdiction' strategy by lawyers and journalists in China, but not the journalists in Russia. The reason for the use of this tactic by Chinese lawyers and journalists is that it allows them to bypass pressure from local authorities that have limited ability to retaliate against actors from other jurisdictions. Both Chinese lawyers and journalists, however, face some limitations in using this strategy, including more aggressive tactics by local authorities, and in the case of journalists, official restrictions on cross-regional supervision. Russian journalists do not seem to engage in 'cross-jurisdiction' reporting because of a more centralized state and the lack of administrative censorship. The main difference we found in the tactics of journalists and lawyers was the more widespread use of self-censorship among journalists. Whereas journalists often alter their writing or wait out the sensitive times for publishing critical reports, the nature of lawyers' work does not allow for as much self-censorship. It is also important to note that the nature of self-censorship may differ between the Chinese and Russian journalists due to the nature of the pressures they face, with the former facing more administrative censorship, and the latter more informal pressures from the state and the private sector. Uniting all three of our actors is the embeddedness strategy, or the use various networks to stay out of trouble. For all three groups of actors, networks are an important way to get information, either about cases for lawyers, or sources for reports for journalists. In addition, all three actors use networks as protection mechanisms in case of retaliation by authorities or other groups.We conclude that advocates of change in different authoritarian regimes generally draw from similar repertoires of tactics, but that differences in tactics highlight the impact of different types of authoritarian governance.


The paper provides an update on the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), an open source event database that now includes information on over 82,000 domestic and international terrorist attacks since 1970. [1] GTD was launched by computerizing data originally collected by the Pinkerton Global Intelligence Service (PGIS).[2] Following computerization, the research team has continued working to update and validate the data. This paper describes original data collection efforts and the strategies employed to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of the data, addressing also the strengths and weaknesses of Open Source data in general and the GTD in particular. The paper also provides descriptive statistics on the contents of the most recently available version of the GTD and offer observations about the future of event databases.


Confucius has become China's biggest celebrity. Enjoying an unprecedented revival of interest from China's population, he has also become the country's cultural ambassador to the world: his words adorned the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony, his teachings are being studied by millions of Chinese from all backgrounds, and his physical spirit itself is being revitalized through the acting of international movie star Chow Yun-Fat in a soon-to-be released, government-supported film on his life. In other words, Confucius is being resurrected. Even more significant, this resurrection is occurring in the backdrop of a national resurgence of interest in guoxue, or "national learning," the study and appreciation of traditional Chinese history, culture, arts, and literature. It is hard to believe that just a little over thirty years ago, Confucius was vilified by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Cultural Revolution. His teachings were denounced as oppressive remnants of China's feudal past. Confucian intellectuals were persecuted. Indeed, traditional Chinese culture itself was attacked through the "smash the Four Olds" campaign, which aimed at stamping out the traces of China's old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. Confucius became the symbol of, in the eyes of the CCP, a tyrannical and backward "old China." Not only was he rejected on an intellectual level, he also faced very physical destruction. Mao's Red Guards swarmed through Confucius's hometown of Qufu in Shandong province, destroying thousands of cultural relics. The government aimed for a complete and total eradication of Confucius and the historical China he represented. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Today, the CCP has not only ended its previous oppression of Confucius, but has also become an important ally of Confucianism, taking an active interest in revitalizing the great philosopher and elevating the importance of Chinese historical culture. In the eyes of the CCP, Confucianism may be a valuable source of legitimacy to strengthen its rule, filling the ideological void left by Marxism. Some commentators have expressed concern that Confucius, and more generally, guoxue, is already being politicized and used as a tool by the government. Others have suggested that public interest in guoxue and Confucius is turning into a dangerous public obsession that will lead to cultural chauvinism. Despite such pessimism, it appears that the revival of guoxue and Confucianism in China is by and large a positive thing. Moreover, we should not be surprised of this government-supported resurgence of interest in Confucianism or classical Chinese studies, especially when we put such events in historical context. While the Chinese government would do well to promote more domestic and international involvement in guoxue, it still must be careful not to inadvertently create a standardization of interpretation of Confucius or traditional Chinese culture. Rather, the innate complexity and diversity of Chinese culture and history welcomes and necessitates a wide-ranging, open, and varied discussion and presentation of guoxue. Nor is it advisable to allow this resurgence of interest in guoxue--termed "national studies fever" by some to emphasize some individuals' obsessive interest in guoxue--to get out of control. Confucius's Comeback and the Rise of Guoxue What are some of the signs of Confucius's comeback in China, and more importantly, of government support for such a resurgence? One single person--Yu Dan, a professor of media studies at Beijing Normal University--has become the symbol of the public interest in Confucius. Her book, "Yu Dan's Reflections on The Analects," has become a best-seller in China, selling over 4.2 million copies and an estimated 6 million pirated versions since hitting book-shelves in December 2006. The book has been described as a "chicken-soup" presentation of Confucius, using Confucius's sayings to show readers how his philosophies can help them better their lives. …


Day by day, computing is going to be more punctilious in size and functionalities, faster in communication, more effective and reliable in awareness, more flexible and user friendly in behaviour and very much constant in operation and interaction. Such a computer which fulfils all the above requirements is wearable computer, a computer that is subsumed in the personal space of the user. Though the entry of wearable computer into the computer world was not so remarkable and admirable, it is getting attracted by the current civilization day by day for the realization of its requirements for the future world. A person busy with several workloads at the same time likes to acquire much more output from the same span of time and wearable computer substantiates this type of un-restriction. This is one of the most important and salient features of wearable computer and this type of typical, goal oriented requirements of wearable computer are the point of discussion of this paper. An empirical study of the requirements of wearable computer has been done in the SoftWEAR project led by University of Hohenheim and IAO, Fraunhofer, Stuttgart. This paper will organise these requirements according to current RE methods. This kind of requirement analysis based on current RE methods might identify important research issues for the enthusiastic researchers in this field and ascertain potentially fruitful future research directions in a conducing environment.


The objectives of this study are to present a real case study for evaluating the impact of SESAR enhancements on the capacity and efficiency of the Barcelona – El Prat Airport by analyzing the impact of the future SESAR enablers on the capacity
and efficiency indicators and by evaluating the effectiveness and the applicability of
the SESAR concept on increasing its capacity and efficiency.
The first half of the study is dedicated to analyze the following aspects of T1:
- Capacity: current capacity of T1 was assessed, which in this case turns to be
the capacity of the global Airport. Capacity is always given by the most restrictive subsystem, which in this case is the runway component.
- Efficiency: a good indicator for evaluating the airport's efficiency is an
estimation of the delays. Given that runway component is the subsystem which limits the capacity of the airport, the delay introduced is a good KPI for efficiency.
The results obtained from selected methodologies used in the capacity and efficiency assessments, (mainly FAA methods for airside and IATA for landside) show that, on 19th July 2009, Barcelona's Airport capacity is 62 operations per hour and its
efficiency 18.4 minutes of delay per hour on the runway component.
Such conditions will be not enough to absorb the future traffic, even if operating at
best performance, and it is here were SESAR will play a key role for the survival of
Barcelona's airport.
The second half of the study is devoted to evaluate the SESAR scenario. The objective is to assess by how much SESAR will improve the capacity and efficiency of the airport and how this improvement will evolve over time. To this effect, the list of SESAR KPIs that will help in the determination of such parameters is obtained.
The study concludes that both capacity and efficiency of Barcelona's Airport are
going to increase in the incoming years thanks to the new systems and procedures of
the SESAR Program.
- Thanks to new approach procedures (CDA), Barcelona's landing capacity will
be incremented, but because of current airspace limitations this improvement
could not be reached by means of runway capacity since the airport is "closed" in terms of noise in the takeoff phase.
- Thanks to SESAR CDM, delays will be reduced by a 3%, in means of improving Barcelona's efficiency, which in values means 17.8 min delay per hour.
Both factors will experience their biggest evolution rate from 2012 on until their entire completion on 2020 (63% for capacity and 67% for efficiency). This theoretical
increase would mean, for example, that a capacity of 80 operations per hour could be
reached by 2020.
In terms of environment, SESAR will increase the capacity and efficiency of the
Airport of Barcelona while minimizing the environmental impact of aviation on the
surroundings of the airport by implementing its new environmental tools and procedures, such as CDA operating techniques which will reduce aircraft's emissions and noise.
The implementation of SESAR will represent an investment for the airport, and to this
effect, a business case is presented, containing the analysis of the costs derived
from implementing the SESAR requirements in the airport and the balance with the
benefits obtained.
CBA results show that Airport CDM is a solid investment given its technical applicability and economic viability, since benefits are 4 times bigger than implementation costs and the payback period is within only 2 years; all this at a nearly non-existent financial loss risk.
To sum up, SESAR is an extremely positive option for the Airport of Barcelona, since
it brings the necessary increases in capacity and efficiency in order to cope with
future scenarios, and gives substantial economic benefits.


The object of my research is the examination of the ambivalent relationship of ethics and politics in the context of twentieth-century literary criticism. The main and most general thesis that I put forward is that all moral discourses are directly complicit with the broader political and economic realities within which they are articulated. In my case, I attempt to show the validity of this proposition by examining three instances where literary criticism and ethics have converged, each instance belonging to a different national and ideological paradigm. In doing so I attempt to identify those elements that may be said to constitute a sort of an archaeology, in the Foucaultean sense, of the contemporary trend in literary theory that openly espouses a moral/ethical problematic. I do this by looking closely at the critical work of F. R. Leavis, Jean-Paul Sartre and Lionel Trilling. In the process of discussing the work of these critics I attempt to show to what extent their moral critical discourse was determined by their own ideological assumptions, on the one hand, and the general historical context, on the other. In my view, their critical work, with the notable exception of Sartre's, betrays a double need. Firstly, the need to distance themselves from the denotative language of politics and secondly, the need to articulate desires that are thoroughly political in their nature and consequences. In doing favis and Trilling, in contradistinction to Sartre, only succeeded in mystifying the conditions that enabled the articulation of their literary and cultural critiques and thus disassociated themselves from social, political and economic interests. Finally, my work implicitly argues for the need for the rearticulation of the relation btween ethics and material interests not only in the rather confined space of literary criticism but in all aspects of critical endeavour and social practice.


The planetary gearbox is a critical mechanism in helicopter transmission systems. Tooth failures in planetary gear sets will cause great risk to helicopter operations. A gear pitting damage level estimation methodology has been devised in this paper by integrating a physical model for simulation signal generation, a three-step statistic algorithm for feature selection and damage level estimation for grey relational analysis. The proposed method was calibrated firstly with fault seeded test data and then validated with the data of other tests from a planetary gear set. The estimation results of test data coincide with the actual test records, showing the effectiveness and accuracy of the method in providing a novel way to model based methods and feature selection and weighting methods for more accurate health monitoring and condition prediction.


A cultural storm swept through the 1960s - Pop Art, Bob Dylan, psychedelia, underground movies - and at its centre sat a bemused young artist with silver hair: Andy Warhol. Andy knew everybody (from the cultural commissioner of New York to drug-driven drag queens) and everybody knew Andy. His studio, the Factory, was the place: where he created the large canvases of soup cans and Pop icons that defined Pop Art, where one could listen to the Velvet Underground and rub elbows with Edie Sedgwick and where Warhol himself could observe the comings and goings of the avant-guarde.


The term "group genitive" refers to all constructions in Swedish where the invariable genitive morpheme is attached to the right edge of complex NPs, instead of to the head noun. This paper focuses on one particular type of group genitive, in which the genitive marker is enclitically attached to a postmodifying prepositional phrase. Drawing data from a selection of Middle and Early Modern Swedish texts, it discusses the emergence, in Late Middle Swedish, of a set of competing genitive constructions involving possessors with postmodifying prepositional phrases, of the type The king of Denmark's son . It will be examined whether these constructions, of which the group genitive was one, arose independently or out of each other, and how these developments relate to the shift of genitive - s from inflectional word marker to phrase marker.


We focus on amoral taxpayers who are aware of having a biased perception of the audit probability but are unable to correct such bias without the help of a tax preparer. The tax preparation market is characterized by imperfect competition. Profit maximization implies that the suggested correction of the evasion amount is partial and the report is not aligned with the one authored by an unbiased amoral taxpayer. Assisted returns are still more compliant than the self-made unbiased ones when the detection probability is overestimated, while the opposite occurs in the case of underestimation. Tax preparers thus appear to exert an ambiguous role on compliance, fostering a median stance. This provides an explanation for the ambivalent attitudes of tax authorities towards tax preparers. Sanctions on taxpayers are more effective than sanctions on tax assistants in deterring tax evasion.


Despite extensive literature on content creators' identities, strategies, and activities, there remains a gap in understanding how the constantly changing platform environment impacts their brand subjectivities. Against this backdrop, our article explores how evolutions in platforms—including constant updates to their affordances—shape the activities and interpretive processes of content creators. Drawing on interviews with 35 Chilean content creators in the field of fashion and lifestyle, along with an analysis of their Instagram images (N = 165) and stories (N = 150), we show how creators feel compelled to enact different versions of their brand subjectivities. Our findings show how creators experience platform changes based on three interrelated levels: in the form of communicative styles, as a sense of temporal acceleration, and as a constant negotiation with other actors in the social network through which commercial activities are configured. Thus, when platforms tend to make changes to improve their commercial viability, content creators have to adapt their brand subjectivities and practices across platforms and affordances. In addition to shedding light on the new routines and intensified economic pressures demanded of today's digital workers, we also reveal how the ideal of creation has been supplanted with intensified competition amid constantly changing technological, social, and commercial ecologies.


The hinterland of the Sevier orogenic belt in Nevada and western Utah (United States) has been interpreted as an ancient high-elevation orogenic plateau, or Nevadaplano, that collapsed extensionally during Tertiary time. To illustrate the preextensional structural relief of this region, a new paleogeologic (or subcrop) map showing the distribution of Neoproterozoic to Triassic rocks exposed beneath a regional Paleogene unconformity is presented here. The map area extends between the traces of the westernmost major Sevier thrust system and the Roberts Mountains thrust. Three across-strike subcrop domains can be defined: (1) Cambrian to Mississippian subcrop levels in the leading part of the Delamar–Wah Wah–Canyon Range (DWC) thrust sheet, indicating high (as much as 7 km) structural relief; (2) a broad region of eastern Nevada and westernmost Utah devoid of surface-breaching thrust faults, with Mississippian–Triassic subcrop levels, indicating low (2 km) structural relief; and (3) subcrop levels varying between Neoproterozoic and Permian in the central Nevada thrust belt (CNTB), indicating high (as much as 8 km) structural relief. Using published isopach maps of depositional thickness of Neoproterozoic to Triassic sedimentary rocks, the paleogeologic map has been converted into a map that contours the thickness of rock eroded between the top of the Triassic section and the Paleogene subcrop level, and thus illustrates magnitudes and spatial patterns of synorogenic erosional exhumation. Characteristic exhumation magnitudes for the three subcrop domains are: (1) 4–8 km in the leading part of the DWC thrust sheet; (2) 4–10 km, 2 km, and 4–6 km in the southern, central, and northern parts of the CNTB, respectively; and (3) 1–3 km in the intervening low-relief region. Isolated exposures of southern CNTB structures can be correlated by their subcrop and exhumation patterns into two through-going thrust systems that connect with structures of the Sevier thrust belt in southern Nevada. This supports previously suggested correlations, and implies a direct structural link between these two thrust systems. Subcrop and exhumation patterns do not reveal a surface-breaching thrust trace that would represent a southern continuation of the Windermere thrust south of the Pequop or Ruby Mountains. Thus, if the Windermere thrust model is correct, this implies either termination at a lateral structure such as a tear fault, or a transition to a blind geometry. The ∼2 km structural relief that characterizes much of the Sevier hinterland indicates that the majority of high-magnitude (>1–2 km throw), regionally distributed, surface-breaking normal faulting that dismembered the orogenic highland and produced the high structural relief observed today had to be post-Oligocene. Although the traces of 70 normal faults that are overlapped by the Paleogene unconformity are identified, the throw on nearly all of these structures is limited to a maximum of 1–2 km. This further highlights the paradox of extensive Late Cretaceous and Paleogene exhumation of mid-crustal rocks now exposed in metamorphic core complexes without corresponding high-magnitude upper crustal extension. The close spatial association of high exhumation magnitudes with the hanging walls of major thrust faults suggests that erosional exhumation is a response to relief generation accompanying contractional deformation in orogenic plateaus. The lack of significant along-strike exhumation variability within much of the Sevier hinterland implies that relief generation was relatively uniform along strike. The steep across-strike exhumation gradient between the leading part of the DWC sheet and the low-exhumation region to the west is interpreted as the result of shielding of the western area from headward erosion by long-lived uplift, erosion, and relief development through passive eastward translation of the DWC thrust sheet and growth of antiformal culminations at depth. A significant difference between the Sevier and central Andean orogenic plateaus is emphasized here. Much of the interior part of the Sevier plateau was an eroding highland, composed of preorogenic rocks, with low structural relief, while the interior part of the Andean plateau consists of a variably deformed and exhumed, synorogenic hinterland basin as much as 12 km thick, with very high structural relief. Thus, comparison of the structural level of the stratigraphic contact between preorogenic and synorogenic rocks indicates a difference in rock uplift between the interior parts of these two plateaus of as much as 14–15 km.


Working at the cutting edge of live performance, an emerging generation of artists is employing digital technologies to create distinctive forms of interactive, distributed, and often deeply subjective theatrical performance. The work of these artists is not only fundamentally transforming the experience of theater, it is also reshaping the nature of human interaction with computers. In this book, Steve Benford and Gabriella Giannachi offer a new theoretical framework for understanding these experiences--which they term mixed reality performances--and document a series of landmark performances and installations that mix the real and the virtual, live performance and interactivity. Benford and Giannachi draw on a number of works that have been developed at the University of Nottingham's Mixed Reality Laboratory, describing collaborations with artists (most notably the group Blast Theory) that have gradually evolved a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to combining practice with research. They offer detailed and extended accounts of these works from different perspectives, including interviews with the artists and Mixed Reality Laboratory researchers. The authors develop an overarching theory to guide the study and design of mixed reality performances based on the approach of interleaved trajectories through hybrid structures of space, time, interfaces, and roles. Combinations of canonical, participant, and historic trajectories show how such performances establish complex configurations of real and virtual, local and global, factual and fictional, and personal and social.


An investigation into the theological message and preaching of Psalm 117 Psalm 117 is at the same a well-known and an unknown psalm. It is well-known as the shortest psalm in the Psalter, but there actually is remarkable little theological reflection on the psalm. To answer the question about the theological message of the psalm, it is subjected to an exegetical investigation giving attention to matters such as the extent of the psalm, text-critical questions, structural features, literary genre, "Sitz im Leben", dating, the use of traditional material, et cetera. The exegetical details lead to a theological conclusion where it was found that the steadfast love and faithfulness of Yahweh experienced by his people in history serve as the reason why foreign nations are called upon to praise Him. The psalm probably originated in an exilic situation, reflects on the past and motivates people towards a future where Yahweh's love and faithfulness will once again be experienced by his people.


BACKGROUND
Green tea extracts have gained popularity as ingredients in topical skin care preparations to treat aging skin. Green tea polyphenolic compounds have significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and studies suggest that these extracts help mediate ultraviolet radiation damage.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of a combination regimen of topical and oral green tea supplementation on the clinical and histologic characteristics of photoaging.

METHODS
Forty women with moderate photoaging were randomized to either a combination regimen of 10% green tea cream and 300 mg twice-daily green tea oral supplementation or a placebo regimen for 8 weeks.

RESULTS
No significant differences in clinical grading were found between the green tea-treated and placebo groups, other than higher subjective scores of irritation in the green tea-treated group. Histologic grading of skin biopsies did show significant improvement in the elastic tissue content of treated specimens (p<.05).

CONCLUSION
Participants treated with a combination regimen of topical and oral green tea showed histologic improvement in elastic tissue content. Green tea polyphenols have been postulated to protect human skin from the cutaneous signs of photoaging, but clinically significant changes could not be detected. Longer supplementation may be required for clinically observable improvements.


Viruses that originate in bats may be the most notorious emerging zoonoses that spill over from wildlife into domestic animals and humans. Understanding how these infections filter through ecological systems to cause disease in humans is of profound importance to public health. Transmission of viruses from bats to humans requires a hierarchy of enabling conditions that connect the distribution of reservoir hosts, viral infection within these hosts, and exposure and susceptibility of recipient hosts. For many emerging bat viruses, spillover also requires viral shedding from bats, and survival of the virus in the environment. Focusing on Hendra virus, but also addressing Nipah virus, Ebola virus, Marburg virus and coronaviruses, we delineate this cross-species spillover dynamic from the within-host processes that drive virus excretion to land-use changes that increase interaction among species. We describe how land-use changes may affect co-occurrence and contact between bats and recipient hosts. Two hypotheses may explain temporal and spatial pulses of virus shedding in bat populations: episodic shedding from persistently infected bats or transient epidemics that occur as virus is transmitted among bat populations. Management of livestock also may affect the probability of exposure and disease. Interventions to decrease the probability of virus spillover can be implemented at multiple levels from targeting the reservoir host to managing recipient host exposure and susceptibility.


This paper examines how international production/distribution networks provide individual firms with exporting/importing responsiveness to exchange rate movements. With the micro-data of Japanese manufacturing firms from 1994 to 2004, we find that firms' exports tend to respond to exchange rate movements, in particular (1) when firms are large in size, (2) when majority-owned affiliates are dominant among their foreign affiliates, and (3) when their intra-firm trade ratio is moderately high. Furthermore, these tendencies are more salient for machinery firms, one of the major players in international production networks in East Asia. The results suggest that Japanese manufacturing firms, particularly machinery firms, with greater foreign operations under their own corporate control would more fully absorb shocks of exchange rate movements by adjusting intra-firm transactions. We do not find such tendencies for imports, however. The study provides implications for international production networks, which have developed drastically in East Asia.


Oak forests on loess are floristically one of the richest types of broadleaved forests and are among the most threatened types of natural habitats in the Carpathian Basin. They are classified in several communities in Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. These syntaxa are distinguished mostly on the basis of traditional phytosociological methods without comparison across a larger geographical scale. The recognition of some of these local syntaxa in the field, therefore, can be difficult, and the application of their names to communities in other areas may be questionable. The goal of this study was to develop an international typology for oak forests on loess based on a numerical analysis. A data set of 437 phytosociological relevés (stands of 12 associations from three countries) was stratified and 270 relevés were analysed using multivariate statistical methods. Six types were distinguished: Primula vulgaris type (xero-mesic to mesic sub-Mediterranean closed-canopy oak forests); Ruscus aculeatus type (xeric to xero-mesic sub-Mediterranean type); Vinca herbacea type (xeric continental open-canopy woodlands); Pulmonaria mollis type (xeric to mesic continental closed-canopy forests); Corydalis cava type (mesic closed-canopy oak forests in nutrient-rich habitats); and Stellaria media type (xeric to mesic oak forests in nutrient-rich habitats). The vegetation types identified are related to syntaxa traditionally recognized by phytosociologists. Our analysis did not support the distinction of some associations with local distributions. The geographical distributions of the two main forest types exhibited a gradient-like pattern in a north-east–south-west direction. The dry continental forest steppe woodland is mainly distributed in the north-eastern part of Hungary, whereas the xero-mesic sub-Mediterranean forests are restricted to the southwestern and southern part of our study area. This pattern corresponds to a climatic gradient from the North Hungarian Mts to north-eastern Croatia and northern Serbia.


On behalf of 65 professors, this brief supports the student-athletes in NCAA v. Alston. The brief has three main points.

First, the Petitioners (the NCAA and athletics conferences) seek to unwind a century of antitrust law by obtaining immunity for anticompetitive conduct. The NCAA, alone among antitrust defendants, seeks to choose values of its own liking — not price, quality or output — and use them to excuse conduct that would otherwise be illegal. The NCAA also desires a unique authority to preserve a product in a particular form, even one at odds with consumer preference expressed through free markets.

Second, the Petitioners do not gain support from the Supreme Court's 1984 decision in NCAA v. Board of Regents. That decision, which ruled against the NCAA, discussed amateurism only in dicta, and was issued at a time in the 1980s when per se antitrust rules were being repealed and the Supreme Court was stressing the need for empirical caution. Finally, the lower court cases cited by the NCAA draw the same distinction between procompetitive and anticompetitive restraints that the courts drew in this case.

Third, the district court, affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, offered an example of hornbook antitrust law in applying the four-step burden-shifting analysis courts use under the Rule of Reason. At the first stage, the plaintiffs demonstrated "severe" anticompetitive effects, as "the challenged restraints suppress competition and fix the price of student-athletes' services."

Petitioners' showing at the second stage was also very weak. They largely rested on their definition of "amateurism" without showing benefits to price, quality, or output. And they succeeded at all only because the courts worked to help them, looking for evidence within their presentation on "amateurism" that could be understood in legally cognizable terms of consumer demand.

At the third stage, the Petitioners' claim that the court applied a "least restrictive alternative" requirement bears no support in the caselaw. Based on a review of the 897 Rule-of-Reason cases in the modern era, we explain that the "less restrictive alternative" formulation used by the courts was the most demanding standard imposed on plaintiffs by any court in the past four decades.

Finally, even if plaintiffs had not shown a competitively preferred alternative, the case would have proceeded to the fourth stage — balancing — and under the lopsided evidence of net competitive injury, the plaintiffs most likely would have won.

The brief concludes that, because the Petitioners advance no other basis for reversal, and the law was otherwise applied properly below, the decision of the Ninth Circuit should be affirmed.


AIMS
To test the feasibility, acceptability and initial effectiveness of a text message-based aftercare treatment programme among alcohol outpatients.

METHODS
Clients treated for alcohol use disorders from three Swiss outpatient alcohol treatment centres were invited by their counsellors to participate in a study testing an interactive aftercare programme employing the use of text messages and personal phone calls. Fifty study participants were randomly assigned to either the 6-month aftercare programme (n = 25) or treatment as usual (n = 25). The intervention consisted of (a) monitoring of self-selected drinking goals at regular intervals, (b) motivational text messages to stick to self-selected drinking goals and (c) proactive telephone calls from counsellors when participants neglected to stick to their drinking goals or expressed a need for support. Follow-up interviews were conducted 6 months after randomization.

RESULTS
Throughout the programme, participants received a total of 421 text message prompts. Out of these, participants provided valid replies to 371 (88.1%) within 48 h. Out of the 25 participants in the intervention group, 11 (44.0%) sent at least one call-for-help reply. Based on complete case data, at risk alcohol use at follow-up was 41.7% in the control group and 28.6% in the intervention group (OR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.16-1.95, P = 0.36).

CONCLUSIONS
The interactive low-intensive aftercare programme was well accepted by the participants. Testing its efficacy within an adequately powered randomized controlled trial might be reasonable.


Virginia Power has developed and licensed a facility for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in metal spent fuel storage casks. The modifications to the design of these casks necessary for licensing for both storage and transport of spent fuel are discussed along with the operational advantages of dual purpose storage-transport casks. Dual purpose casks can be used for storage at utility and DOE sites (MRS or repository) and for shipment between these sites with minimal spent fuel handling. The cost for a standardized system of casks that are compatible for use at both DOE and utility sites is discussed along with possible arrangements for sharing both the cost and benefits of dual purpose storage-transport casks.


Lentic water bodies (lakes and reservoirs) offer favorable conditions for silica (SiO2) burial in sediments. Recent global estimates suggest that (1) lentic SiO2 trapping is a globally important SiO2 flux, and (2) through reservoir construction, humans have dramatically altered river dissolved SiO2 (DSi) transport and coastal DSi delivery. However, regional to global scale patterns and controls of DSi removal in lentic systems are poorly constrained. Here we use 27 published lake and reservoir DSi budgets to develop insights into patterns and controls of lentic DSi retention and to develop a new, spatially explicit, global model of lentic DSi removal called SiRReLa (Silica Retention in Reservoirs and Lakes). In our analysis, lentic DSi removal (kg SiO2 yr−1) was significantly and positively related to DSi loading (P < 0.0001; r2 = 0.98), and DSi removal efficiency was significantly and positively related to water residence time (P < 0.0001; r2 = 0.68). In addition, DSi settling rates were, on average, 6.5‐fold higher in eutrophic systems than in non‐eutrophic systems (median settling velocities: 11.1 and 1.7 m yr−1 for eutrophic and non‐eutrophic systems, respectively; P < 0.01). SiRReLa, which incorporates these insights, performed quite well in predicting both total DSi removal (kg SiO2 yr−1; Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (N.S.E) = 0.88) and DSi removal efficiency (% Si removed; N.S.E. = 0.75), with no detectable bias in the model. Global application of SiRReLa confirms that lentic systems are important sinks for DSi, removing 89.1 Tg DSi yr−1 from watersheds globally, roughly 19–38% of all DSi inputs to surface waters. Small lakes and reservoirs (<50 km2) were critical in the analysis, retaining 81% (72 Tg DSi yr−1) of the globally retained total. Furthermore, although reservoirs occupy just 6% of the global lentic surface area, they retained approximately 35% of the total DSi removed by lentic systems. Regional hot spots for lentic DSi removal were identified and imply that lentic systems can remove the vast majority of DSi across a large fraction of Earth's land surface. Finally, a sensitivity analysis indicates that future improvements in DSi trapping and transport models should focus on improving estimates of DSi input to surface waters.


INTRODUCTION: Genetic factors that lie within the Class I and Class III regions of the MHC have strong positive predictive associations with the abacavir hypersensitivity reaction in the West Australian HIV cohort. We investigated if chronic exposure to abacavir is needed to elicit an immunological response in abacavir naive patients carrying markers of the 57.1AH.

METHODS: PBMCs from abacavir hypersensitive (n=10) and naive (n=8) patients were cultured in the presence of the drug for 48 hours. INFγ levels were quantified by ELISAs. To elicit a priming response, PBMCs from a subset of these HIV infected abacavir naive patients (n=4) were continuously cultured with the drug for 15 days. In addition, PBMCs from two individuals both carrying the entire 57.1AH, one from the abacavir hypersensitive group and the second an HIV-negative healthy control were also exposed to the drug for the same period.

RESULTS: INFγ levels in potentially susceptible individuals with no previous exposure to abacavir were significantly lower after a 48 hour culture in comparison to patients who had the hypersensitivity reaction (Students T-test: p=0.025). However, after chronic exposure to abacavir, 100% of HLA-B*5701-positive abacavir naive individuals (n=3/3) had abacavir specific INFγ as did the individual who had the hypersensitivity reaction. Extracellular levels of this cytokine could not be detected in the HIV infected naive patient who lacked HLA-B*5701 (but expressed the Class II haplospecific markers HLA-DRB1*0701 and HLA-DQ3), nor in the genetically susceptible HIV-negative individual.

CONCLUSIONS: Prior exposure to the drug is needed for the development of the hypersensitivity reaction. Chronic exposure of PBMCs from naive patients carrying HLA-B*5701 is sufficient to mount an immune response characterised by elevated INFγ production. Our current investigations have extended to a larger patient cohort with different haplotypes since this in vitro assay may assist in the further identification of potential susceptibility factors and genetically susceptible patients.