Simulation fulfills an important mechanism for the study and the development of many areas. Quantum computation simulation tools have become essential, because no effective quantum hardware has been implemented yet. However, the currently available simulators have serious deficiencies, which makes the description of this new computational paradigm incomplete. This article presents a universal quantum circuit simulator, called Zeno, and the symbolic extension that is being developed to it. The extension will allow a symbolic description of the system's state allied to the graphical representation of the circuit to be visualized together. Users will be able to work in a faster and more efficient way than making this calculations by hand. The extension will make possible a faithful description of the system computation like the descriptions observed in related literature.


This book is the first comprehensive survey of resistance movements in Western Europe in World War II. Until now, most work on resistance has centred either on espionage networks, partisans and their external links, or on comparisons between national movements and theories of resistance. This book fills a major gap in the existing literature by providing an analysis of individual national historiographies on resistance, the debates they have engendered and their relationship to more general discussions of the occupation and postwar reconstruction of the countries concerned. Explaining the context, underlying motivations and development of resistance, contributors analyze the variety of movements and organizations as well as the extent of individual acts against the occupying power within individual states. While charting the growth of resistance activity as the war turned against the Axis, this book will also deal with the roles of specific groups and the theories which have been put forward to explain their behaviour. This includes patterns of Jewish resistance and the participation of women in what has largely been considered a male sphere. The conclusion then provides a comparative synthesis, and relates the work of the contributors to existing theories on the subject as a whole.This book will not only be core reading on courses on the social or military history of World War II but also, more generally, all courses covering the social and political history of Western European states in the twentieth century.


Distributed storage systems based on commodity hardware have gained in popularity because they are cheaper, can be made more reliable and offer better scalability than centralized storage systems. However, implementing and managing such systems is more complicated due to their distributed nature. This thesis presents efficient and reliable distributed storage that can be read and written by any number of clients. The focus is on atomic storage, which guarantees that from the clients' perspective, the distributed storage behaves exactly like a centralized one. Three key complexity metrics – time, number of logs and throughput – are considered. For each metric, precise performance bounds together with matching algorithms are provided. Experimental results are used to confirm the theoretical performance analysis wherever necessary. Time-complexity is an indication of the latency of read and write operations, i.e. the time between a client's invocation of an operation and the response of the storage. This thesis presents optimal fast atomic storage implementations, namely, implementations that complete both reads and writes in 1 round-trip between the client and the servers. Interestingly, the existence of fast implementations depends on the maximum number of clients that can read from the storage. More precisely, it is shown that a fast implementation is possible if and only if the number of readers is less than n/f – 2, with n servers out of which f can fail. Furthermore, it is shown that fast implementations are impossible for multiple writers if servers can fail. Log-complexity is an indication of the number of stable storage (hard disk) accesses needed in every read or write operation. Stable storage is used to log data in order to prevent data loss after a crash, in a context where servers can crash and recover. This thesis revises the notion of atomicity for this context, determines a lower bound on log-complexity and introduces an atomic storage matching this bound. The optimality of the storage is also established in terms of resilience, as well as time-complexity. Throughput measures the average number of client requests that can be completed per time unit. In order for a distributed storage to serve a high number of clients concurrently, high throughput is required. This thesis introduces an atomic storage that provides optimal read throughput for homogeneous clusters of servers. The storage organizes servers around a ring and uses only point-to-point communication. It is resilient to the crash failure of any number of readers and writers as well as to the crash failure of all but one server. The storage was evaluated on a cluster of 24 nodes. The same storage is modified to solve the more general uniform total order broadcast problem, which can be used to replicate any application reliably. Thus, the first uniform total order broadcast algorithm that is throughput optimal, regardless of message broadcast patterns, is introduced. The algorithm is based on a ring topology, only relies on point-to-point inter-server communication, and has a linear latency with respect to the number of processes. The implementation was benchmarked against two of the most widely used group communication packages and the results confirm that the algorithm is indeed throughput optimal.


Rhodes, 310 BC. Greek traders dominate the Eastern Mediterranean, from Italy and Carthage in the west to the Levant in the east. The great Alexander is thirteen years dead, and his feuding generals gaze covetously at one another's portions of empire. Amidst mounting tension, the trading city of Rhodes is prosperous - and studiedly neutral. There in Rhodes, Menedemos is a young, daring sea captain; scholarly, reserved Sostratos is his cousin. Their fathers jointly own a merchant galley, the Aphrodite, and they expect Menedemos and Sostratos to use it to enrich their families. But now the cousins plan their largest, most audacious trading voyage yet, which will take them from the shores of Asia Minor all the way to the coasts of faraway Italy, and to confrontations with the barbarians of an obscure town called "Rome." Each of them has strengths the other lacks. Now, in the troubled waters off of Sicily, they face a chance at untold riches...if they can evade the massed strength of the Carthaginian fleet.


AIMS
To evaluate the quality of life of patients affected by systemic sclerosis (SSc) through the application of the Medical Outcome Survey Short-Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire and to correlate the results with the disability index of the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ-DI) and the systemic involvement.

METHODS
We studied 95 (3 M, 91 F) patients affected by SSc (mean age 60 years, range 39-83, mean duration of disease 6 years, range 1-34). The organ system involvement was evaluated by skin score, chest High Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT), electrocardiography according to Holter, Doppler-echocardiography and esophagogram.

RESULTS
Considering the values of the 8 question groups of the SF-36 the most different between the patients and the control population are the values relevant to the physical dimension. The general health values estimating the physical and social dimension are significantly lower in the patients than in the control population (t=9,324; p<0,0001). A very good correlation was found between the DI (r = -0,7903; p <0.0001) and all the scores of SF-36. The skin involvement showed a statistically significant correlation with the DI (r=0.3709; p=0.0002) and the PA score of the SF- 36 (r =0.2853; p=0.0051). No other statistically significant correlation was found between any of the SF-36 dimensions and involvement of a specific organ.

CONCLUSION
SF-36 showed to be a valid instrument to evaluate the quality of life and the disability of patients with SSc and it seems to correlate with extent of skin involvement.


This qualitative study was conducted to examine The Quest for Authentic Manhood: Men's Fraternity through a restorative justice lens and to evaluate the program"s effectiveness at meeting the needs of prisoners" invisible victims, their families. The study represents the inaugural evaluation of Men"s Fraternity in a maximum security prison. Drawing from in-depth, structured interviews with inmates who had completed Men"s Fraternity, researchers identified one major theme and four, closely related, sub themes. The major theme was that the delivery of Men"s Fraternity in an adult male maximum-secured correctional institution constitutes restorative justice. Theoretically, restorative justice attempts to repair harm caused to victims, victims" families, the community and the offender"s family but little, if any, focus is directed to the latter group of stakeholders. While unintended victims of military conflict are commonly referred to as collateral damage, the researchers believe offenders" families often remain invisible and their wounds and pains are seldom addressed. Men"s Fraternity is a much needed vehicle to include offender"s families in the restorative justice process. The four supporting sub themes were that Men"s Fraternity addressed issues with (a) parents, (b) spouses or partners, (c) children, and (d) fills a family void.


We revisit the density profile of the galaxies cluster MS 2137-23 by modelling strong lensing, weak lensing data and the velocity dispersion profile of the central cD galaxy. Though we are able to model the lensing properties with a NFW density profile, this latter model cannot explain well the velocity dispersion nor the X-rays properties. To accommodate all these independent constraints, one needs to go beyond the over-simplistic assumption of spherical symmetry. The higher mass and concentration inferred from lensing suggests that the dark matter halo is elongated along the line of sight. The misalignment between the projected dark matter and stellar components also supports this scenario. Neglecting projection effects leads to systematic discrepancies between mass estimates. We thus argue that a fully triaxial modelling of haloes is a major concern for precision mass estimates.


Abstract Background: This study aims to evaluate and compare central foveal thickness (CFT) changes after cataract surgery between normal and diabetic patients without retinopathy, using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Patients and Methods: Ninety-eight patients (49 patients with type 2 diabetes and 49 healthy controls, sex- and age-matched) undergoing phacoemulsification in one eye were included. The presence of retinopathy was an exclusion criterion. The OCT examination was performed preoperatively as well as one, three, six and twelve months postoperatively. CFT was evaluated and compared between groups. Results: Preoperative CFT showed no significant difference between the two groups (normals: 205 ± 18 μm vs. diabetics: 202 ± 23 μm, p > 0.1). Postoperative CFT in diabetics at all time-points of the follow-up period was significantly increased when compared to controls (first month, normals: 215 ± 28 μm vs. diabetics: 262 ± 33 μm, p < 0.05; third month, normals: 211 ± 19 μm vs. diabetics: 250 ± 27 μm, p < 0.05; sixth month, normals: 208 ± 12 μm vs. diabetics: 266 ± 13 μm, p < 0.05; and twelfth month, normals: 209 ± 13 μm vs. diabetics: 280 ± 11 μm, p < 0.05). The incidence of cystoid macular edema (CME) was 4.0 % and 28.6 % for the control group and the diabetic group, respectively, at the end of the follow-up period (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Eyes of diabetic patients without retinopathy present higher CFT and a higher incidence of CME after cataract surgery on OCT examination compared to eyes of healthy controls. This may explain the unsatisfactory visual acuity following cataract surgery in these patients.


The vitreous is an inert, transparent, colorless, hydrophilic gelatinous structure that fills the space between the lens and the retina. It maintains the intra ocular pressure and is important in maintaining transparency of the media for maximum photon transmission to the retina. With advancing age the vitreous undergoes liquefaction resulting in its transformation from a formed gel form to fluid form. Vitreous substitutes or the so called tamponading agents are used in vitreo-retinal surgery to restore intraocular pressure and provide intraocular tamponed. The type of substitute used is dependent on the individual clinical situation. The proper vitreous substitute for long-term drug delivery system should either reduce or eliminate the need for multiple intravitreal injections.


Biomicroelectromechanical systems (bio-MEMS) are MEMS which are designed for medical or biological applications. As with other MEMS, bio-MEMS frequently, have to be packaged to provide an interface to the macroscale world of the user. Bio-MEMS can be roughly divided in two groups. Bio-MEMS can be pure technical systems applied in a biological environment or technical systems which integrate biological materials as one functional component of the system. In both cases, the materials which have intimate contact to biological matter have to be biocompatible to avoid unintentional effects on the biological substances, which in case of medical implants, could harm the patient. In the case of biosensors, the use of nonbiocompatible materials could interfere with the biological subcomponents which would affect the sensor's performance. Bio-MEMS containing biological subcomponents require the use of "biocompatible" technologies for assembly and packaging; e.g., high temperatures occurring, for instance, during thermosonic wire bonding and other thermobonding processes would denature the bioaffinity layers on biosensor chips. This means that the use of selected or alternative packaging and assembly methods, or new strategies, is necessary for a wide range of bio-MEMS applications. This paper provides an overview of some of the strategies, technologies, and applications in the field of bio-MEMS packaging. It includes the following: strategies for the partitioning of subsystems within integrated microsystems for (bio)chemical analysis/synthesis; methods for microassembly of bio-MEMS; technologies for bonding of polymer bio-MEMS components; packaging of miniature medical devices; packaging of biosensors for in vitro applications; packaging of micropumps as a bio-MEMS component. The applications discussed are derived from different fields to demonstrate the plethora of bio-MEMS considerations. In commercial production, packaging is possibly the major cost factor of bio-MEMS-based products, and its development requires special attention.


The social care evidence base reveals a distinct preference for qualitative methods covering a broad range of social care topics. This review provides an introduction to the different ways in which qualitative research has been used in social care and some of the reasons why it has been successful in identifying under-researched areas, in documenting the experiences of people using services, carers, and practitioners, and in evaluating new types of service or intervention. Examples of completed research on a selection of topics are chosen to give an understanding of some of the differing underpinning approaches to qualitative research, including grounded theory, case studies and ethnography. These are used to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of the methods of data collection used most frequently in qualitative research, including in-depth interviews, focus groups and observation as well considering issues such as sampling and data analysis. The review ends with a discussion on how qualitative social care research might be improved in terms of its quality and in extending the repertoire of research methodologies on which it draws.


Over the past 40 years the research area of motor learning and control has developed into a field closely aligned with information processing in neuroscience. The basic, implicit assumption is that motor learning and control is the domain of the brain. Several crucial studies and developments from the past and the present are presented and discussed that highlight this position. The future of following that current path is discussed. Then, the case is made that the control of movement is not just a brain process, and thus scientists in kinesiology need to study movement behavior at a coarser level of analysis. Motor control in kinesiology should use the Newell framework and thus should examine the nature of individual attributes, environmental information, and task constraints on learning and performance of motor skills.


Adenosine (ADO) has an antiadrenergic action in the heart that causes an attenuation of contractile and metabolic responses elicited by fi-adrenergic stimulation. The effect of an increase in oxygen consumption elicited by either f-adrenergic stimulation or an increase in contraction frequency on interstitial fluid and coronary effluent ADO levels was investigated in isolated perfused isovolumically contracting rat hearts. ADO in left ventricular surface transudates and coronary effluents was rendered fluorescent with chloroacetaldehyde, and the formed ethenoadenosine derivative was quantitated with high-performance liquid chromatography fluorescence detection. Heart preparation integrity was verified by determining the activities of lactate dehydrogenase and ADO deaminase in the transudates. Isoproterenol (10-8 M) elicited a 45% increase in oxygen consumption and a 54% increase in developed left ventricular pressure in hearts paced at 240 beats/min. With isoproterenol the control transudate ADO concentration (304 pmol/ml) increased 493%, and the control effluent ADO concentration (48 pmol/ml) increased 259%. Increasing the contraction frequency from 180 to 300 beats/min in the presence of 10-6 M propranolol increased oxygen consumption by 45% and decreased left ventricular pressure by 291%. With the increase in contraction frequency, the transudate ADO concentration did not increase significantly. However, the ADO concentration in the effluent was an average of 269% greater in hearts contracting at the higher frequency. Increasing the contraction frequency of hearts treated with both 10-6 M propranolol and 10` M atropine also had no significant effect on the level of transudate ADO. The effluent level ofADO increased only 78%. Levels ofADO in transudates were not significantly affected by mesothelial cell metabolism. These results suggest that with /8-adrenergic stimulation the interstitial level of ADO in the heart increases to levels that are sufficient to manifest its antiadrenergic effects. Furthermore, there is not always a correlation between the levels of fluid compartments. (Circulation Research


Object rearrangement is important for many applications but remains challenging, especially in confined spaces, such as shelves, where objects cannot be accessed from above and they block reachability to each other. Such constraints require many motion planning and collision checking calls, which are computationally expensive. In addition, the arrangement space grows exponentially with the number of objects. To address these issues, this work introduces a lazy evaluation framework with a local monotone solver and a global planner. Monotone instances are those that can be solved by moving each object at most once. A key insight is that reachability constraints at the grasps for objects' starts and goals can quickly reveal dependencies between objects without having to execute expensive motion planning queries. Given that, the local solver builds lazily a search tree that respects these reachability constraints without verifying that the arm paths are collision free. It only collision checks when a promising solution is found. If a monotone solution is not found, the non-monotone planner loads the lazy search tree and explores ways to move objects to intermediate locations from where monotone solutions to the goal can be found. Results show that the proposed framework can solve difficult instances in confined spaces with up to 16 objects, which state-of-the-art methods fail to solve. It also solves problems faster than alternatives, when the alternatives find a solution. It also achieves high-quality solutions, i.e., only 1.8 additional actions on average are needed for non-monotone instances.


We propose a novel technique for analyzing adaptive sampling called the {\em Simulator}. Our approach differs from the existing methods by considering not how much information could be gathered by any fixed sampling strategy, but how difficult it is to distinguish a good sampling strategy from a bad one given the limited amount of data collected up to any given time. This change of perspective allows us to match the strength of both Fano and change-of-measure techniques, without succumbing to the limitations of either method. For concreteness, we apply our techniques to a structured multi-arm bandit problem in the fixed-confidence pure exploration setting, where we show that the constraints on the means imply a substantial gap between the moderate-confidence sample complexity, and the asymptotic sample complexity as $\delta \to 0$ found in the literature. We also prove the first instance-based lower bounds for the top-k problem which incorporate the appropriate log-factors. Moreover, our lower bounds zero-in on the number of times each \emph{individual} arm needs to be pulled, uncovering new phenomena which are drowned out in the aggregate sample complexity. Our new analysis inspires a simple and near-optimal algorithm for the best-arm and top-k identification, the first {\em practical} algorithm of its kind for the latter problem which removes extraneous log factors, and outperforms the state-of-the-art in experiments.


Vermicomposting is a sustainable means of waste management, rural development, and eco-agricultural improvement. This study examines its potential in Lebanon, specifically from a microenterprise angle. First, we conducted four interviews with rural residents already practicing vermicomposting, and the interviews reveal that community-scale vermicomposting enterprises hold considerable promise. This positive feedback led us to undertake a feasibility study that examines the economic dynamics of a micro-vermicompost industry across three sectors. We calculate that the government or municipalities who pay for waste management stand to save $190 1  per ton of vermicompost produced due to a reduction in the amount of solid waste requiring collection, handling, and processing. According to the microenterprise model proposed here, one ton of vermicast could sell for $1,970. The farmer/ consumer can expect approximately $110–$350 in additional income from applying one ton of vermicompost due to offset costs of traditional fertilizer and pesticides, reduced irrigation costs, and foregone illness expenses (associated with pesticide exposure). Combined, the value of one ton of vermicompost is estimated between $2,280 and $2,510. It becomes clear that rurally based vermicomposting microenterprises offer immediate socioeconomic advantages, such as those mentioned above, as well as a host of indirect advantages, including environmental improvements, support of local economies, and a more wholesome and locally based food system. Considering that the body of knowledge surrounding vermi¬composting is largely science-oriented, this study is significant in its contribution to the often-overlooked aspects of socioeconomics and practical application.


It is recognized that to date there has been an overemphasis on received images and their impact on the selection and evaluation of tourist destinations; this paper will therefore focus on projected images. While the merit of both semiotic and discursive approaches to analysing place image are recognized, it is proposed that the discursive approach is more appropriate as it takes into account the advantage of deriving meaning from its broader context. Drawing on examples from Liverpool, UK, the discussion indicates firstly, how projected image is formed by a complex and dynamic network of agents and secondly the implications for urban regeneration. Particular reference is made to the influence of the media, the circle of growth and the promotion of culture. Importantly, it is argued that while projected images can influence perceptions, the consumer also plays a key role in this process. It is concluded that while image campaigns can play a role in the regeneration of the urban landscape, drawing on the cultural dynamics of the local population could enhance it further.


Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is a condition that occurs when the refluxed stomach contents lead to troublesome symptoms and complications. Prevalence of GERD differs in various geographical regions. Factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, certain medications and foods have a significant effect on the aggravation of the diseaseA prospective observational study was conducted between August 2015 & January 2016 in department of Gastroenterology, Gandhi hospital, Secunderabad after approval from Institutional Ethical Committee, CMRCP. Cases included according to study criteria. A total of 2460 subjects participated, out of which 130 subjects were found to be affected with GERD. Data obtained from cases were analyzed to obtain final outcome by statistical analysis using ANOVA. The prevalence of GERD in males was 58.46%. 70.77% of the patients belonged to the age group of below 50 years. Alcoholism 36.93%, smoking 42.31%, tea consumption twice daily (47.69%), meat consumption 72.31% are the factors that aggravate disease. 99 patients who presented for second endoscopy were compared to know the efficacy of each proton pump inhibitors (Pantoprazole, Rabeprazole and Esomeprazole) considered in this study. Rabeprazole showing 37.81% symptomatic relief followed by esomeprazole 35.37% and pantoprazole 26.82%. several factors such as change in the diet, lifestyle, smoking and alcohol consumption can affect the prevalence of GERD in this rapidly progressing society. The prescribed proton pump inhibitors are well tolerated with Rabeprazole showing better efficacy than Esomeprazole and Pantoprazole for the relief of esophageal lesions and GERD related symptoms.


The efficient and accurate characterization of the robustness of neural networks to input perturbation is an important open problem. Many approaches exist including heuristic and exact (or complete) methods. Complete methods are expensive but their mathematical formulation guarantees that they provide exact robustness metrics. However, this guarantee is valid only if we assume that the verified network applies arbitrary-precision arithmetic and the verifier is reliable. In practice, however, both the networks and the verifiers apply limited-precision floating point arithmetic. In this paper, we show that numerical roundoff errors can be exploited to craft adversarial networks, in which the actual robustness and the robustness computed by a state-of-the-art complete verifier radically differ. We also show that such adversarial networks can be used to insert a backdoor into any network in such a way that the backdoor is completely missed by the verifier. The attack is easy to detect in its naive form but, as we show, the adversarial network can be transformed to make its detection less trivial. We offer a simple defense against our particular attack based on adding a very small perturbation to the network weights. However, our conjecture is that other numerical attacks are possible, and exact verification has to take into account all the details of the computation executed by the verified networks, which makes the problem significantly harder.


Purpose – The UK experienced a number of Extreme Weather Events (EWEs) during recent years and a significant number of businesses were affected as a result. With the intensity and frequency of weather extremes predicted in the future, enhancing the resilience of businesses, especially of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), who are considered as highly vulnerable, has become a necessity. However, little research has been undertaken on how construction SMEs respond to the risk of EWEs. In seeking to help address this dearth of research, this investigation sought to identify how construction SMEs were being affected by EWEs and the coping strategies being used. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methods research design was adopted to elicit information from construction SMEs, involving a questionnaire survey and case study approach. Findings – Results indicate a lack of coping strategies among the construction SMEs studied. Where the coping strategies have been implemented, these were found to be extensions of their existing risk management strategies rather than radical measures specifically addressing EWEs. Research limitations/implications – The exploratory survey focused on the Greater London area and was limited to a relatively small sample size. This limitation is overcome by conducting detailed case studies utilising two SMEs whose projects were located in EWE prone localities. The mixed method research design adopted benefits the research by presenting more robust findings. Practical implications – A better way of integrating the potential of EWEs into the initial project planning stage is required by the SMEs. This could possibly be achieved through a better risk assessment model supported by better EWE prediction data. Originality/value – The paper provides an original contribution towards the overarching agenda of resilience of SMEs and policy making in the area of EWE risk management. It informs both policy makers and practitioners on issues of planning and preparedness against EWEs.


In this study, we present a significant advance in the growth of epitaxial GeTe-Sb2Te3 alloys on Si(111)-(√3 × √3)R30°-Sb reconstructed surface by means of Molecular Beam Epitaxy. By employing X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, we show how phase, composition, and vacancy ordering can be tailored by tuning the growth parameters such as Ge and Te elemental fluxes as well as the substrate temperature. The effect of each parameter on the GeSbTe composition and phase is also discussed. A very surprising finding is that GeSbTe alloys are more ordered when grown at lower substrate temperatures. In addition, it was possible to fabricate ordered GeSbTe even for substrate temperatures as low as 120 °C. In situ high-energy electron diffraction is employed to monitor the crystallinity and surface roughness of GeSbTe films at different stages of growth. Thus, we identify the deposition parameter ranges whereby high structural quality GeSbTe with flat surfaces can be obtained.In this study, we present a significant advance in the growth of epitaxial GeTe-Sb2Te3 alloys on Si(111)-(√3 × √3)R30°-Sb reconstructed surface by means of Molecular Beam Epitaxy. By employing X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, we show how phase, composition, and vacancy ordering can be tailored by tuning the growth parameters such as Ge and Te elemental fluxes as well as the substrate temperature. The effect of each parameter on the GeSbTe composition and phase is also discussed. A very surprising finding is that GeSbTe alloys are more ordered when grown at lower substrate temperatures. In addition, it was possible to fabricate ordered GeSbTe even for substrate temperatures as low as 120 °C. In situ high-energy electron diffraction is employed to monitor the crystallinity and surface roughness of GeSbTe films at different stages of growth. Thus, we identify the deposition parameter ranges whereby high structural quality GeSbTe with flat surfaces can be obtained.


The interaction of electrons with a periodic potential of atoms in crystalline solids gives rise to band structure. The band structure of existing materials can be measured by photoemission spectroscopy and accurately understood in terms of the tight-binding model, however not many experimental approaches exist that allow to tailor artificial crystal lattices using a bottom-up approach. The ability to engineer and study atomically crafted designer materials by scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) helps to understand the emergence of material properties. Here, we use atom manipulation of individual vacancies in a chlorine monolayer on Cu(100) to construct one- and two-dimensional structures of various densities and sizes. Local STS measurements reveal the emergence of quasiparticle bands, evidenced by standing Bloch waves, with tuneable dispersion. The experimental data are understood in terms of a tight-binding model combined with an additional broadening term that allows an estimation of the coupling to the underlying substrate.


High social value is fundamental to justifying these studies Development of an effective vaccine is the clearest path to controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To accelerate vaccine development, some researchers are pursuing, and thousands of people have expressed interest in participating in, controlled human infection studies (CHIs) with severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (1, 2). In CHIs, a small number of participants are deliberately exposed to a pathogen to study infection and gather preliminary efficacy data on experimental vaccines or treatments. We have been developing a comprehensive, state-of-the-art ethical framework for CHIs that emphasizes their social value as fundamental to justifying these studies. The ethics of CHIs in general are underexplored (3, 4), and ethical examinations of SARS-CoV-2 CHIs have largely focused on whether the risks are acceptable and participants could give valid informed consent (1). The high social value of such CHIs has generally been assumed. Based on our framework, we agree on the ethical conditions for conducting SARS-CoV-2 CHIs (see the table). We differ on whether the social value of such CHIs is sufficient to justify the risks at present, given uncertainty about both in a rapidly evolving situation; yet we see none of our disagreements as insurmountable. We provide ethical guidance for research sponsors, communities, participants, and the essential independent reviewers considering SARS-CoV-2 CHIs.


We present a fully automated technique for compositional verification of probabilistic systems. Our approach builds upon a recently proposed assume-guarantee framework for probabilistic automata, in which assumptions and guarantees are probabilistic safety properties, represented using finite automata. A limitation of this work is that the assumptions need to be created manually. To overcome this, we propose a novel learning technique based on the L* algorithm, which automatically generates probabilistic assumptions using the results of queries executed by a probabilistic model checker. Learnt assumptions either establish satisfaction of the verification problem or are used to generate a probabilistic counterexample that refutes it. In the case where an assumption cannot be generated, lower and upper bounds on the probability of satisfaction are produced. We illustrate the applicability of the approach on a range of case studies.


Observers across the ideological spectrum have criticized benefit–cost analysis for as long as it has been part of the rulemaking process. Still, proponents and detractors agree that analysis has morphed into a mechanism often used by agencies to justify regulatory decisions already made. We argue that a simpler analysis of more alternatives conducted earlier in the regulatory process can resuscitate it as a tool to inform policy. Recognizing that requiring a procedure does not ensure that regulators will follow it, we offer possible remedies, including strengthening or relaxing subsequent review of proposed rules, which raise the cost of circumventing the reform or lower the cost of following it.


We study the impact that financial intermediation can have on productivity through the alleviation of credit constraints in occupation choice and/or an improved allocation of risk, using both static and dynamic structural models as well as reduced-form OLS and IV regressions. Our goal in this paper is to bring these two strands of the literature together. Even though, under certain assumptions, IV regressions can accurately recover the true model-generated local average treatment effect, this is quantitatively different, in order of magnitude and even sign, from other policy impact parameters (e.g., ATE and TT). We also show that laying out clearly alternative models can guide the search for instruments. On the other hand, adding more margins of decision, that is, occupation choice and intermediation jointly, or adding more periods with promised utilities as key state variables, as in optimal multiperiod contracts, can cause the misinterpretation of IV as the causal effect of interest.


Achieving a purified fraction of diatom frustules from soft sediment samples is an essential requirement for using their biogenic silica as a carrier of paleolimnological and paleoenvironmental information. Because diatom frustules behave hydrodynamically unlike most mineral grains, these types of particles can theoretically be separated in liquids. Based on this principle, a new method has been developed, which employs split‐flow thin fractionation (SPLITT) as a tool for separating diatom frustules from other sedimentary particles. The SPLITT channel selected for this study had a length of 20 cm, a breadth of 4 cm, and a height of 371 µm. For optimum results, samples were pretreated, e.g., suspended and wet‐sieved prior to any processing with the SPLITT cell. The sample concentrations used in the fractionation process were below 0.1% (w/v) to minimize particle‐particle interaction, which affects the quality of the separation. The advantages of SPLITT fractionation over other tested methods are good reproducibility, high throughput by continuous flow, minimum losses of frustules, and minimum contamination of the diatom fraction by minerals or sponge spicules. Separation results from representative sediment samples of different origin, age, and compaction as well as various organic (0.5% to 10% total organic carbon) and biogenic opal contents (1% to 20% biogenic silica) are presented and discussed. They demonstrate that the developed separation technique yields highly purified and, within the processing tolerances, quantitative samples of diatom frustules from bulk lacustrine sediments.


This paper presents the fabrication of a microchemical chip for the detection of fluorescence species in microfluidics. The microfluidic network is wet-etched in a Borofloat 33 (Pyrex) glass wafer and sealed by means of a second wafer. Unlike other similar chemical systems, the detection system is realized with the help of microfabrication techniques and directly deposited on both sides of the microchemical chip. The detection system is composed of the combination of refractive microlens arrays and chromium aperture arrays. The microfluidic channels are 60 /spl mu/m wide and 25 /spl mu/m deep. The utilization of elliptical microlens arrays to reduce aberration effects and the integration of an intermediate (between the two bonded wafers) aluminum aperture array are also presented. The elliptical microlenses have a major axis of 400 /spl mu/m and a minor axis of 350 /spl mu/m. The circular microlens diameters range from 280 to 300 /spl mu/m. The apertures deposited on the outer chip surfaces are etched in a 3000-/spl Aring/-thick chromium layer, whereas the intermediate aperture layer is etched in a 1000-/spl Aring/-thick aluminum layer. The overall thickness of this microchemical system is less than 1.6 mm. The wet-etching process and new bonding procedures are discussed. Moreover, we present the successful detection of a 10-nM Cy5 solution with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 21 dB by means of this system.


These studies tested the hypothesis that physiological increments in plasma insulin concentrations have selective effects on the synthesis of hepatic proteins in humans. Leucine kinetics and fractional synthetic rates of albumin, fibrinogen, antithrombin III, and apoB-100 were determined in 6 normal subjects, on two different occasions during either the infusion of saline (control study) or a euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic (0.4 mU.kg−1 · min−1 for 240 min) clamp, by a primed-constant infusion of [1-14C]Leu. The insulin infusion significantly decreased the rates of nonoxidative Leu disposal (1.70 ± 0.10 vs. control 2.06 ± 0.09 mol.kg−1 · min−1), increased the albumin (7.2 ± 0.4 vs. 6.2 ± 0.6%/day), decreased the fibrinogen (18 ± 1 vs. 23 ± 2%/day), and antithrombin III (28 ± 3 vs. 40 ± 4%/day) fractional synthetic rate, whereas it did not affect the total apoB-100 (49 ± 5 vs. 52 ± 6%/day) fractional synthetic rate. Thus, the insulin-induced decrement in the estimates of whole-body protein synthesis (nonoxidative Leu disposal) represents the mean result of opposite effects of hyperinsulinemia on the synthesis of proteins with different functions. The positive effect of insulin on albumin synthesis may play an important anabolic role during nutrient absorption by promoting the capture of a relevant amount of dietary essential amino acids into the protein, whereas the negative effect of insulin on fibrinogen synthesis might, at least partially, account for the increased plasma fibrinogen concentrations previously reported in poorly controlled diabetic patients.


The detection of newborn babies with potentially life-threatening, critical congenital heart defects (CCHD) before they collapse or die remains an important clinical challenge. The absence of physical signs and the difficulty assessing mild cyanosis means that the newborn baby check misses up to a third of babies. Fetal anomaly ultrasound scanning identifies an increasing proportion, but this screen is operator-dependent and therefore highly variable; although some units report very high detection rates, overall most babies with CCHD are still missed. Pulse oximetry screening (POS) is an additional test that meets the criteria for universal screening. POS increases overall detection of CCHD to over 90% and also identifies babies with non-cardiac, hypoxaemic conditions (such as congenital pneumonia, early-onset sepsis and pulmonary hypertension), which are usually included in the false positives. There is a wealth of published data on POS, both in a research setting and more recently in routine clinical practice, and consideration of POS is becoming increasingly widespread particularly among high-income countries. But a degree of controversy still remains and debate continues regarding the most appropriate time to screen, the most effective screening pathway and screening outside the well-baby nursery. So, should all newborn babies be screened with POS, if so, when and where should screening take place, what saturations are acceptable and which conditions are we trying to identify? This review will look at the available evidence and try to suggest the way forward for those considering its introduction into their clinical practice.


An analysis of duplomere (= segment) distribution within the cephalon, thorax, and pygidium of Cambrian trilobites was undertaken to determine if the Arthropod Pattern Theory (APT) proposed by Schram & Emerson (1991) applies to Cambrian trilobites. The boundary of the cephalon/thorax occurs within the predicted duplomere node 1 (duplomeres 4 or 6). The boundary between the thorax and pygidium generally occurs within node 2 (duplomeres 11—13) and node 3 (duplomeres 18—20) for corynexochids and ptychopariids, respectively. This boundary occurs within field 4 (duplomeres 21—n) for olenellids and redlichiids. The termination of the body generally occurs within node 3 for corynexochids and within field 4 for olenellids, redlichiids, and ptychopariids. In addition, the location of macropleural spines, which may indicate the location of the gonopores or anus, generally falls at the predicted duplomeres. The boundary between the prothorax and opisthothorax of olenellids occurs within or near node 3. These results indicate that the number and distribution of duplomeres within Cambrian trilobites were somewhat constrained by some genetic patterning program. However, the common distribution of boundaries outside of the predicted locations and the possible shifting of nodes suggest that other factors were also controlling the number of duplomeres within the body parts. This variation supports the idea that Cambrian arthropods, unlike modern arthropods, had a simpler genetic program, which easily allowed for changes in the Bauplan.


Using Soft Systems Methodology, this dissertation presents an evaluation of the incidence of HIV/AIDS among ABET educators and learners in the Lebombo Ward Centres. The researcher aims to recommend ways and means that it is hoped could decrease the alarmingly high death rate of educators and learners in this part of northern KwaZulu-Natal. The painful physical and emotional effects of the virulent HIV/AIDS pandemic, and also the longterm consequences for both individuals and their families, are making many ABET educators' lives extremely complex and difficult. Many ABET Centres are facing teething problems connected to HIV/AIDS because centre managers and tutors do not have sufficient knowledge, skills and resources to be able to cope proactively and resourcefully with the difficulties that confront them. The unabated spread of HIV/AIDS in this particular area (Lebombo) is damaging and ravaging the society and undermining education at large. The researcher also wants to contribute towards a stage being reached, both by the education authorities and by individuals within the society, at which relevant and effective ways and means can be found to understand better the underlying factors that are feeding this scourge, to transmit requisite knowledge more effectively, and to introduce measures that will begin to turn around the tragically high incidence of HIV/AIDS in this area. Further, the researcher will point to, and explore, social issues and social behaviours that are impacting negatively on the spread of HIV/AIDS, such as sexual abuse of schoolgirls by educators, the widespread practising of unprotected sex by educators, the disregard for human rights that this entails, continuing gender-based prejudices, the prevalence of superstition, and the tendency among many people to disregard warnings about HIV/AIDS.


The development of use of knowledge throughout a corporate enterprise is the way of the future and the route to its becoming a good world citizen "GLOBALIZATION is where the market is going. They've seen the trend, and they've gone along with it." So said Mark Lynch of SBC Warburg Dillon Read in commenting on the activities of the United Kingdom household products company Reckitt & Colman. This is not an isolated observation. It applies across the board, from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to household goods, from utilities to oil and gas and mining, from chemicals to engineering, from banking to insurance and from telecommunications to transport. In common with many U.K. companies, Reckitt & Colman evolved by expanding first into the countries of the old British Commonwealth, recruiting locally and permitting local management a great deal of autonomy. A similar path was followed by the likes of Imperial Chemical Industries. These businesses were international, but not global. They did not pursue a coherent global strategy. U.K. companies were not alone in evolving in this way. That pattern of evolution was inevitable in the early part of this century. The most significant factors influencing the ending of local or regional hegemonies have been the advances made in transport and telecommunications, making possible what was previously impossible. It is no longer necessary for locally based subsidiaries to be empowered and for the corporate headquarters to be nothing more than a financial holding company. The old system has given way to a global structure controlled from the U.K., the United States, Germany or Japan in such a way as to ensure continuity of supplies, consistency of product formulation, sharing of knowledge and global branding. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER We are beginning to see just how wide-ranging are the issues that require managing, ranging from product safety through protection of intellectual property rights to environmental, health and safety issues. Influences range from the political to the economic, and from the regulatory to the social to the technological. They are complex issues made all the more difficult in a world where enhanced communications not only enable a business to become global rather than international but also empower and enfranchise those who claim to have suffered harm. Documents disclosed in U.S. litigation, more often than not without the benefit of any protective order, are now posted on the Internet, and so are accessible by or on behalf of potential claimants world-wide. There is no implied undertaking, as there is in the U.K., to use documents only for the purpose of the litigation in which they were disclosed. Failure to comply with regulatory standards, inconsistent submissions to regulatory authorities, failure to act in a manner advocated by interest and pressure groups--all these can result in the rapid dissemination of information, sometimes justifiably, sometimes not. There are examples of "scare stories" that have depicted global businesses as pariahs. If that happens, can lost ground be retaken? While the Internet is anarchic, it does empower the individual. The same is sometimes said of the U.S. tort system. Just as one has been exported, so will be the other. In a globalized economy, to be frank, the ultimate globalization will be that of American law--or, perhaps more accurately stated, of the common law that fathered the U.S. tort system. Some commentators even go so far as to label "globalization" as "Americanization." Since the end of the Cold War, a tidal wave of energy, once concentrated in the national defense and government sectors, has been redirected into commercial life. An individual in Malaysia exposed to some toxicological agent is more likely than ever before to seek a remedy. A judge in Guatemala, Peru or Zimbabwe is more likely than ever before to be offended by inconsistencies in the giving of warnings or in compliance with regulatory requirements as between, say, their countries and the United States. …


Georgia Land Surveying History and Law is the first definitive history and analysis of Georgia's land system and the laws that govern it.The book's opening section tells the story of the surveyor's role in transforming Georgia from a frontier to a bounded, populated, and productive colony and state. Paced by anecdotes of surveyors' wilderness experiences, the narrative traces the evolution of Georgia's land subdivision system, beginning with the original, and ultimately impractical, scheme of land granting and rectangular land subdivision under the Trustees of the Georgia Colony. The volume then covers the more flexible but easily abused headright procedure, and the subsequent lottery and succession of systematic, rectangular surveys under which most of the state was laid out and granted in the early nineteenth century.Finally, in lay terms supported by meticulous citation of authority, the volume discusses the legal aspects of land surveying, including the interests that make up land ownership, the transfer of real property, the interpretation of property descriptions, the location of boundaries, riparian and littoral rights, and other topics. The book examines every point concerning boundaries found in any Georgia case or statute.Based solidly on primary sources and the author's fifteen years of experience in land surveying and title abstracting, Georgia Land Surveying History and Law is an exhaustively researched and scholarly reference that will be useful to surveyors, title attorneys, title abstractors, real estate professionals, geographers, cartographers, historians, and genealogists.


The astrolabe – often quoted as "the earliest computer" – is a mechanical instrument capable of performing astronomical computations. This study offers a new interpretation of its role in the Latin culture of the High Middle Ages, highlighting its epistemological significance. For Latin scholars around the year 1000, the astrolabe became the earliest, non-verbal channel to access and assimilate mathematical knowledge from the Arabic culture, and could be seen as representing a divine 'architectonical rationality' which humans could share in the mathematical experience. The novel methodology of this work combines the results of historical and philological analyses of manuscripts and material sources with the most recent insights on different kinds of mathematical thinking. Focussing on drawings and text fragments, with a new, detailed analysis of ms. Paris BnF 7412 (11th c.), the study reconstructs the Latin high medieval mathematical experience, its non-verbal modes of communication and its relationship with both practice and philosophy.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the effect of simulated soccer on the hamstrings eccentric torque-angle profile and angle of peak torque (APTeccH), and on the hamstrings:quadriceps torque ratio at specific joint angles (ASHecc:Qcon).

METHODS
The authors assessed dominant-limb isokinetic concentric and eccentric knee flexion and concentric knee extension at 120°/s in 9 semiprofessional male soccer players immediately before and after they completed the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST).

RESULTS
The LIST resulted in significant decreases in eccentric hamstrings torque at 60°, 50°, and 10° and a significant (21.8%) decrease in ASHecc:Qcon at 10° (P < .05). APTeccH increased from 7.1° ± 1.0° to 18.8° ± 4.2° (P < .05). Eccentric hamstrings peak torque significantly declined from 185.1 ± 70.4 N·m pre-LIST to 150.9 ± 58.5 N·m post-LIST (P = .002), but there were no significant changes in hamstrings or quadriceps concentric peak torque (P = .312, .169, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Simulated soccer results in a selective loss of eccentric hamstrings torque and hamstrings-to-quadriceps muscle balance at an extended joint position and a shift in the eccentric hamstrings APT to a shorter length, changes that could increase vulnerability to hamstrings injury. These findings suggest that injury-risk screening could be improved by evaluating the eccentric hamstrings torque-angle profile and hamstrings strength-endurance and that the development of hamstrings fatigue resistance and long-length eccentric strength may reduce injury incidence.


CPT theorem has been known to imply the equality of mass and lifetime between particle and antiparticle even if C(charge conjugation) symmetry is violated. However, its mathematical verification is insufficient and limited as it considers only one type of C violation. Here C, not CPT, symmetry will be shown to imply the equality of mass and coupling constants and the lifetime could be the same regardless of C and CPT violation. And we conclude that the equality of mass and lifetime is prerequisite for the CPT theorem to be valid and it is not implied by CPT symmetry.


While whole body interaction can enrich user experience on public displays, it remains unclear how common visualizations of user representations impact users' ability to perceive content on the display. In this work we use a head-mounted eye tracker to record visual behavior of 25 users interacting with a public display game that uses a silhouette user representation, mirroring the users' movements. Results from visual attention analysis as well as post-hoc recall and recognition tasks on display contents reveal that visual attention is mostly on users' silhouette while peripheral screen elements remain largely unattended. In our experiment, content attached to the user representation attracted significantly more attention than other screen contents, while content placed at the top and bottom of the screen attracted significantly less. Screen contents attached to the user representation were also significantly better remembered than those at the top and bottom of the screen.


There remains a great deal of uncertainty about uncertainty estimation in hydrological modeling. Given that hydrology is still a subject limited by the available measurement techniques, it does not appear that the issue of epistemic error in hydrological data will go away for the foreseeable future, and it may be necessary to find a way to allow for robust model conditioning and more subjective treatments of potential epistemic errors in prediction. In this paper an attempt is made to analyze how this is the result of the epistemic uncertainties inherent in the hydrological modeling process and their impact on model conditioning and hypothesis testing. Some ideas are proposed about how to deal with assessing the information in hydrological data and how it might influence model conditioning based on hydrological reasoning, with an application to rainfall-runoff modeling of a catchment in northern England, where inconsistent data for some events can introduce disinformation into the model conditioning process. A methodology is presented to make an assessment of the relative information content of calibration data before running a model that can then inform the evaluation of model runs and resulting prediction uncertainties.


A model for optimal consumption and investment is posed whose solution is provided by the classical Merton analysis when there is zero transaction cost. A probabilistic argument is developed to identify the loss in value when a proportional transaction cost is introduced. There are two sources of this loss. The first is a loss due to "displacement" that arises because one cannot maintain the optimal portfolio of the zero-transactioncost problem. The second loss is due to "transaction," a loss in capital that occurs when one adjusts the portfolio. The first of these increases with increasing tolerance for departure from the optimal portfolio in the zero-transaction-cost problem, while the second decreases with increases in this tolerance. This paper balances the marginal costs of these two effects. The probabilistic analysis provided here complements earlier work on a related model that proceeded from a viscosity solution analysis of the associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation.


Considering the vital role of electricity in the energy consumption and electricity transportation being a bottleneck of high proportion renewable energy development in China, this paper assessed the current and future flow from a provincial perspective. According to the electricity flow in 2015, we found that most provinces mainly relied on local electricity power supply, while there was massive curtailment of the utilization of wind and solar power in some provinces due to the lack of electricity transportation capacity. From the perspective of provincial China-TIMES model in reference scenario, the southern and eastern provinces with large population or GDP will need to import electricity from northern and western provinces with high proportion integration of renewable energy. In the case study of Inner Mongolia and Henan in low carbon scenarios, the demand for electricity output capacity of Inner Mongolia is increasing and further optimization of the national electricity transportation capacity is needed as the increase in electricity flow.


Many image acquisition techniques used in biomedical imaging, material analysis, and structural geology are capable of acquiring 3D solid images. Computational analysis of these images is complex but necessary, since it is difficult for humans to visualize and quantify their detailed 3D content. One of the most common methods to analyze 3D data is to characterize the volumetric texture patterns. Texture analysis generally consists of encoding the local organization of image scales and directions, which can be extremely diverse in 3D. Current state-of-the-art techniques face many challenges when working with 3D solid texture, where most approaches are not able to consistently characterize both scale and directional information. 3D Riesz–wavelets can deal with both properties. One key property of Riesz filterbanks is steerability, which can be used to locally align the filters and compare textures with arbitrary (local) orientations. This paper proposes and compares three novel local alignment criteria for higher-order 3D Riesz–wavelet transforms. The estimations of local texture orientations are based on higher-order extensions of regularized structure tensors. An experimental evaluation of the proposed methods for the classification of synthetic 3D solid textures with alterations (such as rotations and noise) demonstrated the importance of local directional information for robust and accurate solid texture recognition. These alignment methods achieved an accuracy of 0.95 in the rotated data, three times more than the unaligned Riesz descriptor that achieved 0.32. The accuracy obtained is better than all other techniques that are published and tested on the same database.


The Holy Quran and Hadith mentioned more than 50 plants, include wild plants, cultivated plants, annual plants, perennial plants, shrubs and trees. Qatari plant genetic resources facing with many challenges and risks, human activity, desertification, overgrazing, Climate change and global warming. Conservation of plant genetic resources has become the biggest challenge today, this paper focuses initially on ex-situ conservation of the Qur'anic plants is the method of conservation of all stages of biodiversity outside their natural habitats using different methods. The genetic resources department collection missions 2012, 2013 and 2014 in Qatar Peninsula, following the principals and guidelines of Plant genetic resources collections set by Biodiversity International, in this case we selected Zizyphus spina-christi, Acacia tortilis, Salvadora persica, and Citrullus colocynthis to conduct some ecophysiological studies. According the standard gene banks management and the international conservation rules, the staff of genetic resources department make a survey, collect plant genetic resources materials, characterization, documentation and preservation process, cleaning, drying, seed germination, viability test, packaging and storing were applied for seeds of some Qatari wild plants mentioned in the Holy Quran and Hadith they conserved in genetic resources department, ministry of environment for environmental sustainability for genetic resources. The final results reported the need to preserve these important Qur'anic plants species in the gene bank and it has been conserved the seeds of those species in storage units short-term, medium-term and long-term conservation. The herbarium specimens were conserving in the appropriate herbarium units, under international standards, and we have been sent a copy of the herbarium specimens to Kew Herbarium - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK to be Gift and confirm the scientific classification and DNA was extracted and stored in units equipped for this purpose.


The aim of our study was to determine changes in some biochemical indices (alanine (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)) as well as lactate and pyruvate level in the blood of horses exercised in recreational horseback riding from Pomeranian regions during a training session. Measurement of values of liver biomarkers (AST, ALT) and muscle damage indicator (LDH), followed by a variety of training programs, can help to better understand the acute and chronic effects of resistance training. Thirteen healthy adult horses from central Pomeranian region in Poland (village Strzelinko, N54°30'48.0" E16°57'44.9"), aged 9.5±2.4 years old, were used in this study. All horses participated in recreational horseback riding. Training started at 10.00 AM, lasted 1 hour and consisted from a ride of cross country by walking (5 min), trotting (15 min), walking (10 min), trotting (10 min), walking (5 min), galloping (5 min), and walking (10 min). Blood was drawn from jugular veins of the animals in the morning, 90 minutes after feeding, while the horses were in the stables (between 8.30 and 10.00 AM), and immediately after exercise session (between 11.00 AM and 2.00 PM). Blood was stored in tubes with K3-EDTA and sodium citrate (3.8%) and held on ice until centrifugation at 3,000 rpm for 15 minutes. The plasma was removed. Plasma was used for the determination of aminotransferases and lactate dehydrogenase activity; whole blood was used for determination of lactate and pyruvate level. The regular training lead to adaptive processes which provoke changes in biochemical indices. In our research, non-significant alterations of AST and LDH activities in horses involved in recreational horseback riding were observed. This may indicate a normal course of aerobic-anaerobic glycolysis in horses involved in recreational horseback riding during a training session. Moreover, ALT activity was decreased by 20.6% (p = 0.000) during a training session. Increased blood lactate level in horses involved in recreational horseback riding during training session could be explained by increasing lactate formation via the reduction of pyruvate catalyzed by LDH as a result of anaerobic energy supply. Based on these results, it is concluded that the endurance exercises lead to specific metabolic changes accompanied by a redistribution of energy supply for improving resistance to exercises and athletic performance of horses. Therefore, the present data can be useful to assess the status of athletes and the degree of their training adaptability providing an opportunity to modify the training schedule to achieve the desired performance.


The chapter establishes links between elements of long-term global scenarios and the prerequisite conditions of sustainable forest management (SFM), as discussed in Parts I and III. It uses a component from a new global scenario exercise: the shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs), which are narratives that cover a spectrum of climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges. The chapter tests how different SSP narratives relate to the prerequisite conditions for SFM through two approaches: 1) by analysing how the prerequisite conditions are represented in the SSP narratives, and 2) by postulating prerequisite condition scenarios and linking those to the SSPs. Two SSPs that foresee high adaptation challenges foresee deteriorating social cohesion and reduced international cooperation in addressing shared global challenges linked to climate change. The narratives of these two SSPs both suggest several challenges for SFM. The SSP that foresees high mitigation challenges generally suggests positive trends for the prerequisite conditions but also progressive influence of market mechanisms with unpredictable outcomes for environmental management. A three-tier scenario for the prerequisite conditions and testing them against the SSP narratives suggests a fairly comprehensive alignment but also indicates a marked difference between the two SSPs that foresee adaptation challenges and prerequisite conditions of tenure rights and public administration.


Nanostructures possess interesting particle dimensions, high surface areas, improved solubility, biological adsorption and improved electrochemical behavior. Based on the properties of nanostructures compared to their bulk counterparts, a hybrid material has been developed using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles. CNTs were grown using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and then purified and functionalized using an acidic mixture. Silver nanoparticles were generated through the reduction of AgNO3 using NaBH4 and during the progression of reaction, Ag ions were trapped in the COOH linkage of an acid functionalized CNT, which resulted in decoration of Ag nanoparticles on the surface of the CNT. Three different concentrations of nano-hybrids were developed by varying the amount of Ag nanoparticles. The CNT@Ag nano-hybrids were successfully characterized using SEM, TEM, EDX, BET, XRD and FTIR. It was observed from SEM micrographs that the variation in concentrations of reactants resulted in modulation of the morphology of CNT@Ag nano-hybrid. Electrochemical and photo-physical behaviours were tested for the developed nano-hybrids. The synthesized CNT@Ag nano-hybrid was used to monitor and control toxic gases, where an attempt was made to detect CO2 in an aqueous medium using developed nano-hybrids via an electrochemical route. Results showed that the proposed sensor exhibited a significant response towards the detection of CO2 with a detection limit of 52 nM, and it also converted CO2 to oxalates.


Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) occur in the coastal northern waters of Australia from approximately the Queensland – New South Wales border (31°27primeS, 152°55primeE) to Ningaloo Reef (22°17primeS, 113°48primeE) in Western Australia. Due to their coastal, estuarine distribution, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins are particularly vulnerable to several human activities in and adjacent to coastal areas. At present, it is not possible to assess the population status of humpback dolphins in Australian waters because information on their biology and ecology is limited. The sparse data available for selected areas indicate that humpback dolphins occur in discrete, geographically localized populations and are susceptible to anthropogenic threats (e.g., incidental captures in gill nets). The conservation of humpback dolphins in Australia's northern coastline will depend on the maintenance of high-quality habitat in areas that are already under some protection, the identification of critical habitats, the inclusion of these habitats in the rezoning initiatives of protected areas, and the reduction of conservation threats. Precautionary measures should be adopted while further work on abundance estimates, population structure, and levels of human-caused mortality are carried out on a wider scale in Australian waters.


Risk-averse job seekers fearing the scarring effect of unemployment meet vacancies offering contractual employment protection (CEP) in form of guaranteed employment (GEC) or severance pay contracts (SPC). A GEC fully eliminates both the income risk and the scarring risk of unemployment. SPC diversify the income risk, but provide only limited protection against the scarring risk. (1) Workers strictly prefer contract market to spot market jobs. (2) A higher productivity, a lower probability of demand shocks or of finding a re-employment after a dismissal as well as lower public unemployment benefits increase the fraction of workers concluding a GEC. (3) Although firms are risk-neutral, first-best SPC are not incentive compatible under asymmetric information on the demand for the output of the job. In the second-best equilibrium, a positive fraction of over-insured workers will conclude a GEC, while workers signing a SPC incur income risk. (4) With asymmetric information on the reemployment status of a dismissed worker, employees who conclude a third-best SPC face both uninsurable income risk and the unemployment scar. Workers with a precautionary motive who expect a large or long lasting scar, conclude SPC with wage replacement rates strictly larger than one and low recession wages, which make their jobs more viable.


A tall, yellow-haired young European traveler calling himself 'Mogor dell'Amore', the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the real Grand Mughal, the Emperor Akbar, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the whole imperial capital. The stranger claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, the youngest sister of Akbar's grandfather Babar: Qara Koz, 'Lady Black Eyes', a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbek warlord, then by the Shah of Persia, and finally becomes the lover of a certain Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune, commander of the armies of the Ottoman Sultan.When Argalia returns home with his Mughal mistress the city is mesmerized by her presence, and much trouble ensues. The "Enchantress of Florence" is the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man's world. It brings together two cities that barely know each other - the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant emperor wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire and the treachery of sons, and the equally sensual Florentine world of powerful courtesans, humanist philosophy and inhuman torture, where Argalia's boyhood friend 'il Machia' - Niccolo Machiavelli - is learning, the hard way, about the true brutality of power. These two worlds, so far apart, turn out to be uncannily alike, and the enchantments of women hold sway over them both. But is Mogor's story true? And if so, then what happened to the lost princess? And if he's a liar, must he die?


Multi-layered social networks reflect complex relationships existing in modern interconnected IT systems. In such a network each pair of nodes may be linked by many edges that correspond to different communication or collaboration user activities. Multi-layered degree centrality for multi-layered social networks is presented in the paper. Experimental studies were carried out on data collected from the real Web 2.0 site. The multi-layered social network extracted from this data consists of ten distinct layers and the network analysis was performed for different degree centralities measures.


California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has fragile levees subject to several trends that make them increasingly prone to failure. To assess the likely extent of Delta island flooding, this study presents an economic decision analysis approach for evaluating Delta levee upgrade and repair decisions for 34 major subsided agricultural islands that make up most of the Delta's Primary Zone and include all subsided, non-urban islands. The decision analysis provides a quantitative framework to address several relevant questions about reasonable levee upgrade and repair investments. This initial analysis indicates that it is economically optimal not to upgrade levees on any of the 34 subsided Delta islands examined, mostly because levee upgrades are expensive and do not improve reliability much. If upgrades can improve reliability more, it becomes optimal to upgrade some levees. Our analysis also suggests that, accounting for land and asset values, it is not cost effective to repair between 18 and 23 of these islands when they fail. When property values for all islands were doubled, only four islands originally not repaired become cost effective to repair. The decision analysis provides a quantitative framework for addressing several relevant questions regarding reasonable levee upgrade and repair investments. These initial results may act as a springboard for discussion, and the decision analysis model as a working framework for islands of high priority. An inescapable conclusion of this analysis is that maintaining the current Delta landscape is unlikely to be economical from business and land use perspectives.


Supported by numerous studies, bilingualism has been linked to both cognitive advantages as well as disadvantages in children's cognitive development. Previous data mostly revealed negative outcomes but following an increased emphasis on methodological precision during experiments, tables have turned and results have appeared both negative and positive (Diaz, 1983). Research conducted by Bialystok (1999) has indicated increased concentration abilities among bilinguals, Hakuta and Diaz (1985) found a strong connection between the level of bilingual proficiency and cognitive flexibility, and Kovacs and Mehler (2009) discovered enhanced executive functioning amid bilinguals. However, studies have also implied the opposite where bilinguals have shown a delay in grammatical structure and vocabulary acquisition (Ben – Zeev, 1977). Attempting to explain this opposing evidence, Hamers and Blanc (2000) have contended for the importance of language valorisation and child's social network which appear to play a paramount role in language acquisition. Moreover, Cummins has introduced two hypotheses in order to reveal an answer to the different outcomes concerning bilingualism (Hamers & Blanc, 2000). Basing their model on Lambert's distinction between a subtractive and additive type of bilingualism, Hamers and Blanc (2000) argue for the importance of children's social environments which must be adequate in bilingual development. The goal here is to shed a light on bilingualism and its effect on children's cognitive development in accordance with the available data. Furthermore, a few theories concerning the reasons why bilingualism influences children the way it does will be introduced. Evidently, bilingualism as a subject is complex and determining clear distinctions and definitions has proven difficult. Therefore, reaching absolute and undeniable answers may be problematic. Even still, studies suggesting a positive relationship between bilingualism and cognitive development far outnumber the ones indicating the opposite, where social networks and language valorisation play paramount roles in determining level of bilingual proficiency.


The ability to observe changes in molecular behavior during cancer cell invasion in vivo remains a major challenge to our understanding of the metastatic process. Here, we demonstrate for the first time, an analysis of RhoA activity at a subcellular level using FLIM-FRET (fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy-fluorescence resonance energy transfer) imaging in a live animal model of pancreatic cancer. In invasive mouse pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells driven by mutant p53 (p53(R172H)), we observed a discrete fraction of high RhoA activity at both the leading edge and rear of cells in vivo which was absent in two-dimensional in vitro cultures. Notably, this pool of active RhoA was absent in noninvasive p53(fl) knockout PDAC cells, correlating with their poor invasive potential in vivo. We used dasatanib, a clinically approved anti-invasive agent that is active in this model, to illustrate the functional importance of spatially regulated RhoA. Dasatanib inhibited the activity of RhoA at the poles of p53(R172H) cells in vivo and this effect was independent of basal RhoA activity within the cell body. Taken together, quantitative in vivo fluorescence lifetime imaging illustrated that RhoA is not only necessary for invasion, but also that subcellular spatial regulation of RhoA activity, as opposed to its global activity, is likely to govern invasion efficiency in vivo. Our findings reveal the utility of FLIM-FRET in analyzing dynamic biomarkers during drug treatment in living animals, and they also show how discrete intracellular molecular pools might be differentially manipulated by future anti-invasive therapies.


How many people know how to pronounce humhumunukunukuapuaa*? How many even know what it is? Bill Casselman does. Dictionary in hand, he'll lead you along the highways and byways of English--the world's wackiest, most widespread language. And those who follow will find their vocabularies replete with sesquipedalian vocables and chock-a-block with euphuistic lexemes of logorrheic.From dobdob to dikdik to the outer reaches of ning-nong and prick-me-dainty, in wide-ranging essays explaining hundreds of words and expressions, both common and obscure, Casselman revels in the strange, the surreal, and the mind-bogglingly weird. You are invited to rootle in odd words and to explore amusing anecdotes about familiar phrases (Who knows the origin of the sports phrase "hat trick"?)You'll laugh along with Casselman as he celebrates the wonders, the complexities, and the absurdities of our amazing language.(*Incidentally, humhumunukunukuapuaa is a Hawaiian term that means "little trigger fish with a small nose like a pig.")


There are several types of innovation in tourist enterprise, including products, processes, technology and organization. Product and technology innovations have been widely covered in the literature; whilst information about innovations of both processes and organization is far more limited. One other type of innovation receives scant attention: that is in the area of environmental concern. The objectives of this article are: to determine the level of innovativeness within the hotel sector in terms of the implementation of environmental innovations, and to define the main types of innovations. In respect of these objectives, the following hypothesis is presented: innovativeness of the hotel sector in environmental terms depends somewhat on the extent of international co-operation. When calculating the level of innovatibility of hotel facilities one of the indicators recommended by the Oslo Manual (Bohdanowicz P., Turystyka a świadomość ekologiczna, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń, 2006) was used, namely: the intensity of innovation. The author selected a random sample without replacement of registered hotel properties operating in Poland using an at random without replacement method. The diagnostic poll method was based on the survey questionnaire which included key questions about innovations introduced in the field of environmental protection. Research questions were constructed in the form of a half-open cafeteria. Research utilizing the diagnostic poll method was carried out on 100 hotels in Poland in order to verify this hypothesis. The results obtained can be regarded as a basis for further detailed studies of innovativeness in tourism-based enterprises and so could well prove to be invaluable in running such businesses.


Brazilian health authorities have recommended that pregnant women take meticulous precaution to avoid mosquito bites, and use contraceptive methods to postpone/delay pregnancies. In this article, we present new estimates on the Zika virus prevalence, its correlates and preventive behaviors in the Northeast of Brazil, where the outbreak initiated, using survey data collected between March 30th and June 3rd of 2016. The target population are women aged 15-49 in the capital cities of the nine states of the Northeast region of Brazil. We find that more educated women are less likely to report suffering from Zika (or its symptoms), and more likely to avoid pregnancy in the last 12 months and being informed about the association between Zika and microcephaly. In addition, more educated women are more likely to follow preventive measures against the Zika virus: having used long and light-colored clothes, having used mosquito repellent or insecticides, having used mosquito protective screens or kept windows closed, and having dumped standing water where mosquitoes can breed.


This paper addresses the relationship of intellectual property rights and competition policies and rules addressing the conduct of private enterprise. Intellectual property rights are considered to be essential, but not sufficient, conditions for competition. Potentially excessive scope and use need to be balanced by way of competition rules. Such balance is partly inherent to the scope of IPRs and thus within the TRIPs Agreement. Partly, it will be achieved by applying competition rules. The proper balance, it is argued, does not necessarily require the establishment of comprehensive global disciplines on private party conduct and competition in the WTO. A number of reasons and conflicting interests are discussed. The paper argues that the balance can be adequately achieved by way of national or regional anti-trust rules, and efforts to bring about adequate legal regimes in particular in developing and transitional countries should be supported by national and international fora, including the WTO. There is no need at this stage, nor would the World be ready, for global anti-trust regimes and authorities. The paper, however, argues in favour of harmonisation of rules in two major areas: International legal assistance in the prosecution of restrictive business practices and restrictions in WTO law on export cartels. Both areas would considerably enhance the prospects for a balance between IPRs and competition rules, and thus for market access in world trade law.


A two-dimensional photonic crystal patterned into a thin dielectric slab waveguide is shown to alter drastically the lifetime of spontaneous emission as well as the radiation pattern. This means that although the light extraction efficiency can be greatly enhanced, inhibited spontaneous emission within the photonic bandgap can result in low power output from such a structure. Strongly inhibited emission is found within the photonic bandgap as well as enhanced emission into the conduction band modes for certain geometries. Coupled with enhanced extraction efficiency in the photonic conduction band, this results in the possibility of a structure with increased total power efficiency.


Abstract Cameroon like other developing countries is developing approaches to respond to national and global climate change adaptation and mitigation commitments. Sufficient information on the interplay between sector policies and the causes, impacts and response to climate change is relevant for developing sustainable climate change response plans. Using the agriculture sector as a case, this paper examines this interplay in the context of the humid forest zone (HFZ) of Cameroon. Drawing on secondary information from agriculture sector strategies, forest cover change, climate vulnerability and agriculture systems in the HFZ, we found that: (i) the objectives of agriculture expansion and avoided deforestation and forest degradation are at cross-roads; (ii) agriculture as a livelihood strategy is vulnerable to climate variability and change; (iii) strengthening agriculture production systems technically, materially and financially are main suggestions for climate resilient and low carbon emission agriculture practices. We highlight barriers that need to be addressed for the agriculture intensification mechanism, i.e. the agriculture research and extension services in Cameroon to respond to the needs of adaptation and carbon emission reductions from avoided deforestation. These barriers and others would be addressed if their financial, technology and capacity building needs are carefully evaluated as Cameroon mobilizes resources for the implementation of its National Determined Contributions.


Federal administrative agencies at times claim to be bound to follow only Supreme Court decision, not decisions of the intermediate courts as precedent beyond the judgment of the individual case. They typically justify this position on the need for uniformity in the administration of their programs. In this article, I provide a taxonomy of different types of nonacquiscence, distinguishing formal (explicitly announced by the agency) and informal nonacquiscence, as well as intracircuit (refusal to follow circuit court precedent in later cases arising within the same circuit) from intercircuit (refusal to apply court of appeals precedents outside the circuit of the court issuing the opinion) nonacquiescence. I identify different reasons why agencies engage in nonacquiescence – including political disputes, budget pressures, bureaucratic inertia, and factors relating to the institutional structure of the agency, including the effects of combining functions within the agency, volume of precedents, and complex venue provisions for judicial review. In addition, I note that differences in agency function, structure, and private parties affected by agency action make the practice less justifiable in some contexts, such as those where the agency deals with a high volume of unrepresented parties, than in others.My thesis is that a permanent judicial resolution of the problem of nonacquiescence is unlikely, because our society and our legal culture struggles with fundamental and unresolved value conflicts between judicial and agency perspectives. I review four potential foundations for a doctrinal approach to nonacquiescence – the constellation of doctrines known as stare decisis, controlling case doctrine and law of the circuit; issue preclusion/collateral estoppels; due process; and concerns based on separation of powers, institutional competence, and congressional attention. Ultimately, however, I suggest that none of these approaches is likely to provide a stable resolution for the value conflicts underlying the problem.


We present an image-based method for separating diffuse and specular reflections using environmental structured illumination. Two types of structured illumination are discussed: phase-shifted sine wave patterns, and phase-shifted binary stripe patterns. In both cases the low-pass filtering nature of diffuse reflections is utilized to separate the reflection components. We illustrate our method on a wide range of example scenes and applications.


Objective To investigate what impact individuals' position in a labour market core–periphery structure may have on their risk of disability pension (DP) in general and specifically on their risk of DP based on mental or musculoskeletal diagnoses. Methods The study comprised 45 567 individuals who had been interviewed for the annual Swedish Surveys of Living Conditions (1992–2007). The medical DP diagnoses were obtained from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (1993–2011). The assumed predictors were studied in relation to DP by Cox's proportional hazards regression. The analyses were stratified on sex and age, controlling for social background and self-reported long-standing illness at baseline. Results All three indicators underlying the categorisation of the core–periphery structure: employment income, work hours and unemployment, increased the risk of DP in all strata. The risk of DP tended to increase gradually the more peripheral the labour market position was. The risk estimates for DP in general and for DP based on mental diagnoses were particularly high among men aged 20–39 years. Conclusions The core–periphery position of individuals, representing their labour market attachment, was found to be a predictor of future DP. The association was most evident among individuals below 40 years of age with regard to DP based on mental diagnoses. This highlights the need for preventative measures that increase the participation of young people in working life.


In a recent paper Johnson and Kuosmanen (2011) propose a new, semi-parametric, general cost-frontier model, the stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED). The model is semi-parametric in the sense that the cost function is estimated nonparametrically, while the functional form of the distribution for the error term is parametrically specified. A common assumption for this distribution is that it is a convolution of a truncated normal distribution, representing inefficiency, and a normal distribution, representing noise. This parametric form has the drawback that a negative skewness implies a negative expected inefficiency. It can thus never capture a negatively skewed distribution with a positive expectation. In this paper we investigate this assumption and its consequences for an analysis of inefficiency. Furthermore, we propose a solution to the problem and investigate its performance by means of a Monte Carlo simulation.


Proteins are the multifunctional food components affecting the living organisms. One of the proteins function is the impact on the body due to the presence of motifs that show specific physiological and biological activities. Due to the worldwide growth of demand for the food containing bioactive components, increasing attention has been paid recently to the use of bioactive peptides as physiologically active food ingredients. They are important elements of the prevention and treatment of various lifestyle diseases. In addition to its primary function and according to current knowledge, each protein may be a reserve source of peptides controlling the life processes of organisms. For this reason, in this work, application of a new, additional criterion for evaluating proteins as a potential source of biologically active peptides, contributes to a more comprehensive and objective definition of their biological value. A complementary part of such research is the strategy for evaluation of the food proteins as precursors of biologically active peptides which involves the database of proteins and bioactive peptides – BIOPEP (available online at: http://www.uwm.edu.pl/biochemia). The database contains information on 2123 peptides representing 48 types of bioactivities, their EC50 values and source of origin. Proteins (706 sequences) are considered as bioactive peptide precursors based on newly introduced criteria: the profile of potential biological activity, the frequency of bioactive fragments occurrence and potential biological protein activity. This original and unprecedented so far approach, started to be successfully and more widely applied by other authors. BIOPEP can be interfaced with global databases such as e.g. TrEMBL, SWISS-PROT, EROP and PepBank. Recently the BIOPEP database was enlarged with the data about allergenic proteins, including information about structure of their epitopes and molecular markers.


Marijuana has been used as a traditional medicine and a pleasure-inducing drug for thousands of years around the world, especially in Asia. Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol, major psychoactive component of marijuana, has been shown to interact with specific cannabinoid receptors, thereby eliciting a variety of pharmacological responses in experimental animals and human. In 1990, the gene encoding a cannabinoid receptor (CB1) was cloned. This prompted the search for endogenous ligands. In 1992, N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide) was isolated from pig brain as an endogenous ligand, and in 1995, 2-arachidonoylglycerol was isolated from rat brain and canine gut as another endogenous ligand. Both anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol exhibit various cannabimimetic activities. The results of structure-activity relationship experiments, however, revealed that 2-arachidonoylglycerol, but not anandamide, is the intrinsic natural ligand for the cannabinoid receptor. 2-arachidonoylglycerol is a degradation product of inositol phospholipids that links the function of the cannabinoid receptors with the enhanced inositol phospholipid turnover in stimulated tissues and cells. The possible physiological roles of cannabinoid receptors and 2-arachidonoylglycerol in various mammalian tissues such as those of the nervous and inflammatory cells are demonstrated. Furthermore, the future development of therapeutic drugs coming from this endocannabinoid system are discussed.


Background: The Indian spice fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) has been credited with numerous health benefits in cardiovascular disorders, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory conditions, glucose-insulin regulation, and sports performance. Previous studies from our laboratories demonstrated that fenugreek seed extract improved glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, augmented serum testosterone level and improved cardiovascular functions. Our investigation examined the efficacy of Furosap, a novel fenugreek seed extract enriched in 20% protodioscin, on exercise performance. Methods: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical study was conducted in forty healthy male athletes (n = 40) over a period of 12 consecutive weeks. Subjects were given either placebo or Furosap capsules (250 mg/day b.d.) and serum samples were used to assess serum total testosterone level and C-reactive proteins (CRP) at baseline and at the end of 12-weeks of treatment. Body fat mass, lean mass, fat mass, fat-free mass, grip strength, upper and lower body strength, maximal graded exercise stress using a digital hand dynamometer, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), force plate, and treadmill with open-circuit spirometry were assessed at the baseline and at the end of 12-weeks of treatment.Results: Furosap supplementation significantly increased mean lean body mass and fat-free mass compared to subjects receiving placebo. Additionally, Furosap-treated subjects elevated serum testosterone levels. Furosap supplemented subjects also exhibited a tendency towards lowering blood pressure during exhaustion. No adverse reports were reported.Conclusions: Given improvement of lean body mass and serum total testosterone following intervention with Furosap, Furosap likely has benefits for exercise endurance and sports medicine. Keywords: Fenugreek seed extract; safety; body mass; fat-free mass; blood pressure; muscle strength.


Irrigation farmers in the arid interior of South Africa are experiencing substantial yield reductions in certain crops and more profitable crops have been withdrawn from production, hypothesized, as a result of generally poor but especially fluctuating water quality. In this paper secondary data is used in a linear programming model to test this hypothesis by calculating the potential loss in farm level optimal returns. The model is static with a time frame of two production seasons. Linear crop-water quality production functions (Ayers and Westcot, 1983; adapted from Maas and Hoffmann, 1977) are used to calculate net returns for the eight most common crops grown. Results show optimal enterprise composition under various water quality situations. Leaching is justified financially and there is a strong motivation for a change in the current water pricing system. SALMOD (Salinity and Leaching Model for Optimal irrigation Development) is the model used to derive the preliminary results, but is currently being developed further in GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System). Useful results have already been obtained on which this paper is based. The ultimate aim for SALMOD is a mathematical model using dynamic optimization, simulation and risk modeling techniques to aid in whole farm and system level management decisions to ensure sustainable irrigation agriculture under stochastic river water quality conditions.