Background and Hypothesis: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a malignant brain tumor characterized by high tumor heterogeneity and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Immunomodulation approaches have been investigated, but outcomes remain poor. Several studies describe the functional deregulation of immune cells including, T cells, dendritic cells (DC), and macrophages. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC), which accumulate in the GBM TME, are shown to have an immunosuppressive phenotype characterized by a lack of IFN-[Symbol] secretion and upregulation of MHC II. MHC II presentation is transcriptionally regulated by several factors produced by tumor cells including, TGFβ, TNFα, and IL10 through the modulation of CIITA, the catalytic component of the enhanceosome. GBM tumor cells secrete several chemokines/cytokines, which may regulate MHC II expression in pDCs. We hypothesize that chemokine CCL21 transcriptionally upregulates MHC II through the activation of CIITA in pDC.
Experimental Design/Project methods: We performed experiments using two GBM tumor cells models GL261 and CT2A and used western blot, PCR, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry to determine the levels of CCL21 and its ligands ACKR3/4 in tumor cells and pDC.
Results:  We observed overexpression of CCL21 in GBM and upregulation of MHCII in tumor associated pDC. We predict that inhibition of CCL21 will lead to downregulation of MHC II in tumor associated pDC which could potentially lead to reversal of the immunosuppressive TME by presenting the antigens to T cells.
Conclusions/Potential Impact: The results of this study can elucidate novel mechanisms of MHCII regulation and identify CCL21 as a potential therapeutic target for immunotherapy development in GBM.


In recent years, the multiclass and mutlilabel classification problems we encounter in many applications have very large (10 − 10) number of classes. However, each instance belongs to only one or few classes, i.e., the label vectors are sparse. In this work, we propose a novel approach based on group testing to solve such large multilabel classification problems with sparse label vectors. We describe various group testing constructions, and advocate the use of concatenated Reed Solomon codes and unbalanced bipartite expander graphs for extreme classification problems. The proposed approach has several advantages theoretically and practically over existing popular methods. Our method operates on the binary alphabet and can utilize the well-established binary classifiers for learning. The error correction capabilities of the codes are leveraged for the first time in the learning problem to correct prediction errors. Even if a linearly growing number of classifiers mis-classify, these errors are fully corrected. We establish Hamming loss error bounds for the approach. More importantly, our method utilizes a simple prediction algorithm and does not require matrix inversion or solving optimization problems making the algorithm very inexpensive. Numerical experiments with various datasets illustrate the superior performance of our method.


Software based system have become ubiquitous in modern day activities. Software system based system are being increasing attacked, leading to the need for software system administrators, and managers to have some metrics at predicting the social engineering attackability of a such system. Researchers have identified seven human traits/attributes that make human susceptible to social engineering attacks. Yet they did not model nor come up metrics. The author has published a conceptual a holistic predictive attackability metric model and corresponding metrics to assist the system designers. The model considers the technical metrics based on cohesion, coupling and complexity as used to predict attackability. It also consider the social metrics based on human traits that make the human operators become susceptible to social engineering attacks. The identified human traits are dishonesty, social compliance, Kindness,Time pressure, Herd mentality, greed/need and distraction. This paper considers only the social metrics part of the model.To measure human traits the authors relies on the HEXACO model and Big Five personality trait models. In these model the personality trait are measured using a ranking scale based on Lickert scale. Hence each trait is measured as a percentile. However, for purpose of this paper, to postulate the metric the author considered the discrete case. Why the value of trait take either a value of " 1 " or " 0 ". To determine the relationship between traits between and attackability experts were asked to assess the trait versus attackability from which after aggregating for all traits a social attackability metrics was determined. To determine the predictive social attackability metrics each trait was considered to be equally likely to occur and hence a probability of 1/7 and this acts as factor to transform the social attackability metric into predictive attackability metrics.


Elevated CO2 and warming may alter terrestrial ecosystems by promoting invasive plants with strong community and ecosystem impacts. Invasive plant responses to elevated CO2 and warming are difficult to predict, however, because of the many mechanisms involved, including modification of phenology, physiology, and cycling of nitrogen and water. Understanding the relative and interactive importance of these processes requires multifactor experiments under realistic field conditions. Here, we test how free‐air CO2 enrichment (to 600 ppmv) and infrared warming (+1.5 °C day/3 °C night) influence a functionally and phenologically distinct invasive plant in semi‐arid mixed‐grass prairie. Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass), a fast‐growing Eurasian winter annual grass, increases fire frequency and reduces biological diversity across millions of hectares in western North America. Across 2 years, we found that warming more than tripled B. tectorum biomass and seed production, due to a combination of increased recruitment and increased growth. These results were observed with and without competition from native species, under wet and dry conditions (corresponding with tenfold differences in B. tectorum biomass), and despite the fact that warming reduced soil water. In contrast, elevated CO2 had little effect on B. tectorum invasion or soil water, while reducing soil and plant nitrogen (N). We conclude that (1) warming may expand B. tectorum's phenological niche, allowing it to more successfully colonize the extensive, invasion‐resistant northern mixed‐grass prairie, and (2) in ecosystems where elevated CO2 decreases N availability, CO2 may have limited effects on B. tectorum and other nitrophilic invasive species.


Argumentation concepts have been applied to numerous knowledge engineering endeavours in recent years. For example, a variety of logics have been developed to represent argumentation in the context of a dialectical situation such as a dialogue. In contrast to the dialectical approach, argumentation has also been used to structure knowledge. This can be seen as a non-dialectical approach. The Toulmin argument structure has often been used to structure knowledge non-dialectically yet most studies that apply the Toulmin structure do not use the original structure but vary one or more components. Variations to the Toulmin structure can be understood as different ways to integrate a dialectical perspective with a non-dialectical one. Drawing the dialectical/non-dialectical distinction enables the specification of a framework called the generic actual argument model that is expressly non-dialectical. The framework enables the development of knowledge-based systems that integrate a variety of inference procedures, combine information retrieval with reasoning and facilitate automated document drafting. Furthermore, the non-dialectical framework provides the foundation for simple dialectical models. Systems based on our approach have been developed in family law, refugee law, determining eligibility for government legal aid, copyright law and e-tourism.


Extracted from text ... SA Pharmaceutical Journal - August 2006 18
CLINICAL
Reprinted with permission from CME Sept 2004 Vol. 22 No. 9
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does not always play along, and enormous
emotional distress can result from inadequate
treatment. A tendency to anxiety or depressive
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New work is typically brought to the IETF by a group of interested
individuals. IETF meetings are a convenient place for such groups to
hold informal get-togethers to discuss and develop their ideas. Such
side meetings, which are not reflected in the IETF meeting agenda and
have no official status, are often half-jokingly referred to as "bar
BOF" sessions to acknowledge that some of them may eventually lead to
a proposal for an official IETF BOF ("birds of a feather" session) on
a given topic. During recent IETF meetings, many such "bar BOF" get-
togethers have been organized and moderated in ways that made them
increasingly indistinguishable from official IETF BOFs or sometimes
even IETF working group meetings. This document argues that this
recent trend is not helpful in reaching the ultimate goal of many of
these get-togethers, i.e., to efficiently discuss and develop ideas
for new IETF work. It encourages the organizers to consider the
benefits of holding them in much less formal settings and to also
consider alternative means to develop their ideas. This document also
recommends that the community abandon the term "bar BOF" and instead
use other terms such as "side meeting", in order to stress the
unofficial nature of these get-togethers. This document is not an
Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for
informational purposes.


Objective Epidemiological associations suggest that vitamin D status may play a role in inflammation and progression of atherosclerosis. Using frozen serum, carotid intima medial thickness (CIMT) measurements and other existing data from the Atherosclerosis Prevention in Pediatric Lupus Erythematosus (APPLE) trial, we assessed interactions between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), atorvastatin randomisation and CIMT progression rate. Methods Participants in the 3-year APPLE trial were randomised to placebo or atorvastatin and CIMT progression rate was measured. Baseline frozen serum was used to measure 25(OH)D concentrations. Mixed effect longitudinal models for CIMT progression at 3 years were used to evaluate interaction between vitamin D deficiency (serum 25(OH)D <20 ng/mL) at baseline and atorvastatin or placebo treatment, adjusting for key systemic lupus erythematosus disease variables and cardiovascular risk factors. Results 201/221 APPLE participants had available samples and were included in this analysis; 61/201 (30%) had vitamin D deficiency at baseline. In adjusted longitudinal modelling, there was significant interaction between baseline vitamin D deficiency and atorvastatin randomisation in 3-year progression of mean-max CIMT. In four out of six carotid segments, there was a greater decrease in mean-max CIMT progression rate in subjects who were treated with atorvastatin compared with placebo if they had baseline serum 25(OH)D levels ≥20 ng/mL. Conclusions Subjects with serum 25(OH)D ≥20 ng/mL had less mean-max CIMT progression following 3 years of atorvastatin treatment. Results from secondary analyses must be interpreted cautiously, but findings suggest that underlying vitamin D deficiency may be involved in response to atorvastatin in atherosclerosis prevention. Trial registration number NCT00065806.


Since the implementation of Ghana's national Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), policies associated with the programme have been criticized for perpetuating poverty within the country's subsistence economy. This article brings new evidence to bear on the contention that the SAP has both fuelled the uncontrolled growth of informal, poverty-driven artisanal gold mining and further marginalized its impoverished participants. Throughout the adjustment period, it has been a central goal of the government to promote the expansion of large-scale gold mining through foreign investment. Confronted with the challenge of resuscitating a deteriorating gold mining industry, the government introduced a number of tax breaks and policies in an effort to create an attractive investment climate for foreign multinational mining companies. The rapid rise in exploration and excavation activities that has since taken place has displaced thousands of previously-undisturbed subsistence artisanal gold miners. This, along with a laissez faire land concession allocation procedure, has exacerbated conflicts between mining parties. Despite legalizing small-scale mining in 1989, the Ghanaian government continues to implement procedurally complex and bureaucratically unwieldy regulations and policies for artisanal operators which have the effect of favouring the interests of established large-scale miners.


Touchtone test piece is an exploratory art project based around climbing with a blind person. Several artworks under the headings Echo Valley and A Guiding Dilemma were made through this activity. "I have no sight at all - so I didn't have any fear climbing – it probably helps not to have any idea of what 20metres looks like from above. As long as it feels safe I enjoy the climbing and I don't have any fear - it doesn't come into my mind. The only time I'm scared of heights is in my dreams." Over the last fifteen years Dan Shipsides has developed an art practice which uses climbing to think creatively about the spaces around us - in particular landscape spaces and ideas about what landscape is or could be. Over the last few years he's been taking John, a blind man from Derry , climbing regularly. This activity has been aimed at thinking how to capture or describe something of this landscape experience. One approach to achieve this was by attaching tiny micro cameras to John's fingers, backpack and feet in order to record "finger tip" footage of his climbing. The cameras used were a mixture of low to mid grade monochromatic and colour lenses depending on encumbrance in terms of where they are placed. This produced an interesting grade range of video footage - some clear and wide framed and some close-up and abstracted by varying light levels. The approach is based on the idea that, whilst sight is crucial to making it easier, climbing isn't primarily about sight. It's as much about movement and physicality. Landscape as a cultural idea is very visually based. This project set out to conceive of a visual landscape which avoids some of the organizing principals of sight and to seek to visualize a tactile relationship between the body and its environment. Echo Valley is a multi screen video installation which presents John climbing Little Bootie (Grade S / 4). It screens in real time (32mins long) and contains close-up otherworldly footage from John's fingers and feet - seeking out holds as well as wider footage from cameras on his backpack giving a sense of the body's vertical height, balance and movement. A Guiding Dilemma consists of video works, text and photography which include the wider aspects of the activity; conversations and the fun, human stuff


The ExTrA facility, located at La Silla observatory, will consist of a near-infrared multi-object spectrograph fed by three 60-cm telescopes. ExTrA will add the spectroscopic resolution to the traditional differential photometry method. This shall enable the fine correction of color-dependent systematics that would otherwise hinder ground-based observations. With both this novel method and an infrared-enabled efficiency, ExTrA aims to find transiting telluric planets orbiting in the habitable zone of bright nearby M dwarfs. It shall have the versatility to do so by running its own independent survey and also by concurrently following-up on the space candidates unveiled by K2 and TESS. The exoplanets detected by ExTrA will be amenable to atmospheric characterisation with VLTs, JWST, and ELTs and could give our first peek into an exo-life laboratory.


Abstract. The Mediterranean region is expected to experience substantial climatic change in the next 50 years. But, possible effects of climate change on biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions as well as on the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) produced from these VOC are yet unexplored. To address such issues, the effects of temperature on the VOC emissions of Mediterranean Holm Oak and small Mediterranean stand of Wild Pistacio, Aleppo Pine, and Palestine Oak have been studied in the Julich plant aerosol atmosphere chamber. For Holm Oak the optical and microphysical properties of the resulting SOA were investigated. Monoterpenes dominated the VOC emissions from Holm Oak (97.5%) and Mediterranean stand (97%). Higher temperatures enhanced the overall VOC emission but with different ratios of the emitted species. The amount of SOA increased linearly with the emission strength with a fractional mass yield of 6.0±0.6%, independent of the detailed emission pattern. The investigated particles were highly scattering with no absorption abilities. Their average hygroscopic growth factor of 1.13±0.03 at 90% RH with a critical diameter of droplet activation was 100±4 nm at a supersaturation of 0.4%. All microphysical properties did not depend on the detailed emission pattern, in accordance with an invariant O/C ratio (0.57(+0.03/−0.1)) of the SOA observed by high resolution aerosol mass spectrometry. The increase of Holm oak emissions with temperature (≈20% per degree) was stronger than e.g. for Boreal tree species (≈10% per degree). The SOA yield for Mediterranean trees determined here is similar as for Boreal trees. Increasing mean temperature in Mediterranean areas could thus have a stronger impact on BVOC emissions and SOA formation than in areas with Boreal forests.


GUDEV D., S. POPOVA-RALCHEVA, I. YANCHEV and P. MONEVA, 2007. Adrenal response to stress and plasma levels of cholesterol, urea and indol in acetylsalicylic acid treated lambs. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 13: 575-581 In this study we investigated the effects of acetylsalicylic acid on adrenal response and plasma levels of cholesterol, urea and indol in 3 months old lambs exposed to various stress stimuli: separation of the lambs from their mothers, transport (24 km) and accommodation to a new environment. The animals (n=10) were allocated into 2 groups – control and experimental. The experimental lambs were given orally one tablet aspirin (325 mg) immediately before the transport and another tablet 3 days after the transport. Acetylsalicylic acid pretreatment decreased plasma cortisol level at 1st (P>0.05) and 3rd d (P<0.05) as compared to control lambs but had no aftereffect as judged by cortisol levels measured at 6 d and 9 d. Plasma cholesterol levels tended to be lower in experimental lambs. Plasma urea and indol levels in experimental lambs were higher throughout the studied period but the urea levels of significance were achieved at 3 d and 9 d (P<0.05) and those of indol levels at 1 d and 6 d (P<0.01). It is suggested that the observed effect of acetylsalicylic acid on the investigated blood constituents was mediated by hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal axis and digestive tract microflora.


Background:Propofol in the early postnatal period has been shown to cause brain cell death. One proposed mechanism for cognitive dysfunction after anesthesia is alteration of neural stem cell function and neurogenesis. We examined the effect of propofol on neural precursor or stem cells (NPCs) grown in vitro. Methods:Hippocampal-derived NPCs from postnatal day 2 rats were exposed to propofol or Diprivan. NPCs were then analyzed for bromodeoxyuridine incorporation to measure proliferation. Cell death was measured by lactate dehydrogenase release. Immunocytochemistry was used to evaluate the expression of neuronal and glial markers in differentiating NPCs exposed to propofol. Results:Propofol dose dependently increases the release of lactate dehydrogenase from NPCs under both proliferating and differentiating conditions at supraclinical concentrations (more than 7.1 µM). Both Diprivan and propofol had the same effect on NPCs. Propofol-mediated release of lactate dehydrogenase is not inhibited by blocking the &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptor or extracellular calcium influx and is not mediated by caspase-3/7. Direct &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptor activation did not have the same effect. In differentiating NPCs, 6 h of propofol at 2.1 µM increased the number neurons but not glial cells 4 days later. Increased neuronal differentiation was not blocked by bicuculline. Conclusions:Only supraclinical concentrations of propofol or Diprivan kill NPCs in culture by a non-&ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A, noncaspase-3 mechanism. Clinically relevant doses of propofol increase neuronal fate choice by a non-&ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A mechanism.


Replacing the lscr2 data fidelity term of the standard total variation (TV) functional with an lscr1 data fidelity term has been found to offer a number of theoretical and practical benefits. Efficient algorithms for minimizing this lscr1-TV functional have only recently begun to be developed, the fastest of which exploit graph representations, and are restricted to the denoising problem. We describe an alternative approach that minimizes a generalized TV functional, including both lscr2-TV and lscr1-TV as special cases, and is capable of solving more general inverse problems than denoising (e.g., deconvolution). This algorithm is competitive with the graph-based methods in the denoising case, and is the fastest algorithm of which we are aware for general inverse problems involving a nontrivial forward linear operator.


Soil bacteria play a key role in regulating terrestrial biogeochemical cycling and greenhouse gas fluxes across the soil-atmosphere continuum. Despite their importance to ecosystem functioning, we lack a general understanding of how bacterial communities respond to climate change, especially in relatively understudied ecosystems like tropical montane wet forests. We used a well-studied and highly constrained 5.2°C mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient in tropical montane wet forests on the Island of Hawaii to test the hypothesis that long-term, whole-ecosystem warming and the accompanying increase in belowground carbon flux increase the diversity and alter the composition of soil bacterial communities. Across this MAT gradient, dominant vegetation, substrate type and age, soil moisture, and disturbance history are constant, allowing us to effectively isolate the influence of rising MAT on soil bacterial community structure. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that the richness, evenness, and phylogenetic diversity of the soil bacterial community remained remarkably stable with MAT and that MAT did not predict variation in bacterial community composition despite a substantial increase in belowground soil carbon fluxes across the gradient. Our results suggest that other factors that are constant across this gradient—such as soil pH, water availability and plant species composition—may be more important than warming in influencing soil bacterial community composition and diversity, at least within the temperature range studied here (~13–18°C MAT). Ours is the first study to demonstrate stability of soil bacterial community structure with rising MAT and increased belowground carbon flux in a tropical wet forest ecosystem. Moreover, our results add to growing evidence that the diversity and composition of soil bacterial communities dominated by Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria in low-pH forest soils may be insensitive to the direct effect of climate warming.


Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) is the only noninvasive method for quantifying microstructure and reconstructing white-matter pathways in the living human brain. Fluctuations from multiple sources create significant additive noise in DWI data which must be suppressed before subsequent microstructure analysis. We introduce a self-supervised learning method for denoising DWI data, Patch2Self, which uses the entire volume to learn a full-rank locally linear denoiser for that volume. By taking advantage of the oversampled q-space of DWI data, Patch2Self can separate structure from noise without requiring an explicit model for either. We demonstrate the effectiveness of Patch2Self via quantitative and qualitative improvements in microstructure modeling, tracking (via fiber bundle coherency) and model estimation relative to other unsupervised methods on real and simulated data.


This article is a comment on: Tubridge et al., 2012. Decennial reflections on a 'geography of heritage' (2000). International Journal of Heritage Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2012.695038


Modern communication relies on electronic messages organized in the form of discussion threads. Emails, IMs, SMS, website comments, and forums are all composed of threads, which consist of individual user messages connected by metadata and discourse coherence to messages from other users. Threads are used to display user messages effectively in a GUI such as an email client, providing a background context for understanding a single message. Many messages are meaningless without the context provided by their thread. However, a number of factors may result in missing thread structure, ranging from user mistake (replying to the wrong message), to missing metadata (some email clients do not produce/save headers that fully encapsulate thread structure; and, conversion of archived threads from over repository to another may also result in lost metadata), to covert use (users may avoid metadata to render discussions difficult for third parties to understand). In the field of security, law enforcement agencies may obtain vast collections of discussion turns that require automatic thread reconstruction to understand. For example, the Enron Email Corpus, obtained by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during its investigation of the Enron Corporation, has no inherent thread structure.

In this thesis, we will use natural language processing approaches to reconstruct threads from message content. Reconstruction based on message content sidesteps the problem of missing metadata, permitting post hoc reorganization and discussion understanding. We will investigate corpora of email threads and Wikipedia discussions. However, there is a scarcity of annotated corpora for this task. For example, the Enron Emails Corpus contains no inherent thread structure. Therefore, we also investigate issues faced when creating crowdsourced datasets and learning statistical models of them. Several of our findings are applicable for other natural language machine classification tasks, beyond thread reconstruction.

We will divide our investigation of discussion thread reconstruction into two parts.

First, we explore techniques needed to create a corpus for our thread reconstruction research.
Like other NLP pairwise classification tasks such as Wikipedia discussion turn/edit alignment and sentence pair text similarity rating, email thread disentanglement is a heavily class-imbalanced problem, and although the advent of crowdsourcing has reduced annotation costs, the common practice of crowdsourcing redundancy is too expensive for class-imbalanced tasks. As the first contribution of this thesis, we evaluate alternative strategies for reducing crowdsourcing annotation redundancy for class-imbalanced NLP tasks.
We also examine techniques to learn the best machine classifier from our crowdsourced labels. In order to reduce noise in training data, most natural language crowdsourcing annotation tasks gather redundant labels and aggregate them into an integrated label, which is provided to the classifier. However, aggregation discards potentially useful information from linguistically ambiguous instances. For the second contribution of this thesis, we show that, for four of five natural language tasks, filtering of the training dataset based on crowdsource annotation item agreement improves task performance, while soft labeling based on crowdsource annotations does not improve task performance.

Second, we investigate thread reconstruction as divided into the tasks of thread disentanglement and adjacency recognition. We present the Enron Threads Corpus, a newly-extracted corpus of 70,178 multi-email threads with emails from the Enron Email Corpus.
In the original Enron Emails Corpus, emails are not sorted by thread. To disentangle these threads, and as the third contribution of this thesis, we perform pairwise classification, using text similarity measures on non-quoted texts in emails. We show that i) content text similarity metrics outperform style and structure text similarity metrics in both a class-balanced and class-imbalanced setting, and ii) although feature performance is dependent on the semantic similarity of the corpus, content features are still effective even when controlling for semantic similarity.
To reconstruct threads, it is also necessary to identify adjacency relations among pairs. For the forum of Wikipedia discussions, metadata is not available, and dialogue act typologies, helpful for other domains, are inapplicable. As our fourth contribution, via our experiments, we show that adjacency pair recognition can be performed using lexical pair features, without a dialogue act typology or metadata, and that this is robust to controlling for topic bias of the discussions.
Yet, lexical pair features do not effectively model the lexical semantic relations between adjacency pairs. To model lexical semantic relations, and as our fifth contribution, we perform adjacency recognition using extracted keyphrases enhanced with semantically related terms. While this technique outperforms a most frequent class baseline, it fails to outperform lexical pair features or tf-idf weighted cosine similarity. Our investigation shows that this is the result of poor word sense disambiguation and poor keyphrase extraction causing spurious false positive semantic connections.

In concluding this thesis, we also reflect on open issues and unanswered questions remaining after our research contributions, discuss applications for thread reconstruction, and suggest some directions for future work.


Supplier quality management is one of the very many simple concepts that make a lot of sense to any well meaning organization. Unfortunately, implementing the concept is not very simple and over the years, companies have crumbled due to failure to master the best practices in supplier quality management. Practices such as measuring the performance of suppliers, engaging suppliers in quality management systems, supplier audits, supplier development, integration and competitive supplier selection are a great opportunity to improve organizational performance in terms of customer service delivery levels and operational costs reduction. However, it is worth noting that there are numerous challenges encountered in having such practices accepted by all the stakeholders. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of supplier quality management on organizational performance, covering all the supermarkets in Kakamega town. The study employed a descriptive survey design and the study population was the procurement managers of the supermarkets. Data was collected using structured questionnaires which were administered by the researchers through a drop and pick technique and it was descriptively analyzed. The study also explored the potential integration of supplier quality management practices into an organization's operations, focussing on the currently available applications. The study recommended that suppliers should maintain reliable records, errors to be identified early, supermarkets to decentralize their management structures, suppliers should conform to specifications and that senior level management should be fully committed especially in supplier development programmes so as to overcome the challenges faced in supplier quality


A 30-year-old African–American woman began to experience transient visual loss in the right eye 3 days before presentation on 15 February 1988. These episodes lasted from one to several minutes and consisted of flashing lights, grey-outs and episodes of no light perception (NLP) vision relegated solely to her right eye. She did not experience headache, diplopia or any other focal neurologic phenomena. A total of 8–10 of these episodes had been experienced in the previous 3 days. Concomitantly, she had experienced anorexia and abdominal tenderness without fever, chills or other constitutional symptoms. She had no significant past medical or ophthalmologic history. She did experience migraines with her menses in the preceding 5 years. These episodes usually occurred just preceding or during menses, and were throbbing and associated with nausea without vomiting. The episodes were usually unilateral and mainly on the right side. These episodes could last for several hours or up to several days during the menstrual cycle. She did not experience migrainous aura. Her only medication was Ortho-Novum. She had presented to the retina clinic for evaluation while asymptomatic, and suddenly experienced painless vision loss to the NLP level in the right eye. Being immediately whisked to the neurophthalmology clinic, a 4+afferent pupillary defect was detected in the affected eye and the NLP vision corroborated. Examination of the fundus revealed obvious venous boxcarring indicative of a lack of arterial perfusion. The optic disc appeared pale in comparison with the disc on the left side. No definitive change in the calibre of the blood vessels could be ascertained (figure 1). With firm digital pressure, no arterial or venous pulsations could be induced indicating severe lack of arterial flow. A fluorescein angiogram revealed an almost immediate blush of the choroid, while the central retinal arterial circulation was grossly delayed (figure 2). Her visual acuity …


In 1994 for the first time massive incrustations in the centrifuges treating the digested sludge were detected in some wastewater treatment plants (WWTP's) of the Berliner Wasserbetriebe, which were, as was found out later, mainly due to the precipitation of white MAP (magnesium ammonium phosphate = struvite) deposits with small portions of different calcium phosphate compounds. The reason for this was the over saturation of the digested sludge and the process water (from the separated centrate of the digested sludge) with carbon dioxide, the spontaneous release of or degassing of carbon dioxide, causing the pH to increase, thus altering the solubility equilibrium, and facilitating crystallisation, resulting in deposits (incrustations) on the walls. Obviously, the wastewater purification process used, with enhanced biological phosphorus removal and concentrated streams of digesting sludge, favours the formation of incrustations during sludge treatment. These incrustations were the cause of a lot of operational problems. To prevent incrustations, modifications in the process engineering technology have been applied after several studies and trials. Deliberate extraction of the CO2, e.g. by air injection through a fine-bubble surface aeration system at the bottom of the digested sludge storage tank just before the centrifuges, causes the pH to rise to approx. 8 and thus to cause induced struvite precipitation. This technology enables a precipitation product suitable for recycling to be generated and separated from the anaerobic sludge using a hydro-cyclone. A subsequent second hydro-cyclone stage allowed a further increase in the P-concentration to approx. 40 kg/m3, giving a yield of phosphorus of 20 %. This corresponds with P-load of approx. 316 kg/day and amounts to 18 % of the P inlet load in the WWTP Wasmannsdorf. It was shown that this experimental process is in principle suitable for the separation of the MAP precipitation product in the anaerobic sludge. A complete washing process for the raw MAP is not yet installed, and furthermore, to find the best sizes of nozzles in the hydro-cyclones and most effective pressures tests will have to be carried out soon at pilot level. A comparison with the minimum nutrients content for different kinds of fertiliser (super-phosphate, dicalcium-phosphate with magnesium, NP-fertiliser) defined by the German Fertiliser Regulations, shows that the precipitated MAP is within the range of other legally certified fertilisers. The MAP showed contaminant levels 5 times or more below the limit values of the German Sewage Sludge Ordinance. The MAP precipitation product is very soluble in different solvents (from ammonium chloride to hydrochloric acid). This implies that the precipitation product can be used as a long term fertilizer. In two test soils having a pH value of 6.6 and 7.1, the MAP precipitation solid was tested using standard ryegrass and showed good phosphorus availability from this material leading to a good grass growth.


Young adults are often in periods of transition, and lifestyle changes such as a decline in physical activity can occur during this period. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between demographic, biologic, lifestyle, social support index, environmental factors, and physical activity in young adults. The participants were 4,152 young adults from 18 to 30 years of age enrolled in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). A moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) score was calculated from responses to nine activities and up to four activities not previously listed. Multiple regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between MVPA and independent variables separately for men and women. Non- Hispanic Blacks were more active than non-Hispanic White or Mexican American men, whereas, among women, non-Hispanic Whites were more active. Education, social support index, and trying to lose weight were positively associated with MVPA, whereas being married was inversely related in both men and women. Among women, those who were unemployed, in better health, had smaller families, had lower body mass indexes (BMIs), and were not from the South had higher MVPA. Men who were in school during the past 12 months were more active than those who were not in school. The results from this study suggest that demographic and social factors are important determinants of physical activity in young adults and should be considered when planning interventions.


Over the past century, various value models have been proposed. To determine which value model best predicts prosocial behavior, mental health, and pro-environmental behavior, we subjected seven value models to a hierarchical regression analysis. A sample of University students (N = 271) completed the Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz et al., 2012), the Basic Value Survey (Gouveia et al., 2008), and the Social Value Orientation scale (Van Lange et al., 1997). Additionally, they completed the Values Survey Module (Hofstede and Minkov, 2013), Inglehart's (1977) materialism–postmaterialism items, the Study of Values, fourth edition (Allport et al., 1960; Kopelman et al., 2003), and the Rokeach (1973) Value Survey. However, because the reliability of the latter measures was low, only the PVQ-RR, the BVS, and the SVO where entered into our analysis. Our results provide empirical evidence that the PVQ-RR is the strongest predictor of all three outcome variables, explaining variance above and beyond the other two instruments in almost all cases. The BVS significantly predicted prosocial and pro-environmental behavior, while the SVO only explained variance in pro-environmental behavior.


We have studied discrepancies between rainfall infiltration and the effects of rainfall time on slope stability using two expressway embankments consisting of soil with different permeability as examples to monitor variations in water content and porewater pressure of the embankments during two typical rainfall events. The results were as follows. (1) Rainfall infiltration in the sandy clay embankment occurred in three phases: complete infiltration, rate-reducing infiltration and stable infiltration. Rainfall infiltration in the gravel embankment could be divided into two phases: complete infiltration and water table rise. The wetting front in the sandy clay embankment moved down slowly with time, and the volumetric moisture content between the infiltration surface and wetting front ranged from 20 to 42% and decreased with depth. In the gravel embankment, the wetting front dropped rapidly, and the soil volumetric moisture content between the infiltration surface and wetting front remained within a low range of 2.8 – 3.5% during the rainfall event. (2) During the rainfall event, the variation of porewater pressure in the sandy clay embankment lagged behind rainfall and was affected mostly by the wetting front moving down. In contrast, in the gravel embankment porewater pressure variation did not lag far behind rainfall. (3) The effect of infiltration on slope stability was greater for the gravel embankment than for the sandy clay embankment. The factor of safety for the former decreased rapidly during the rainfall events and recovered with almost no delay after the rainfall event ended, whereas the factor of safety for the latter decreased slowly and continued to decrease for 2 – 9 days after the rainfall event ended. (4) If the total rainfall was constant, for the sandy clay embankment the effect of rain intensity on the factor of safety of the slope was smaller than that for the gravel embankment, and the factor of safety for the sandy clay embankment was controlled by the rainfall intensity and duration.


Abstract:  Automatic data collection (ADC) systems are becoming increasingly common in transit systems throughout the world. Although these ADC systems are often designed to support specific fairly narrow functions, the resulting data can have wide‐ranging application, well beyond their design purpose. This article illustrates the potential that ADC systems can provide transit agencies with new rich data sources at low marginal cost, as well as the critical gap between what ADC systems directly offer and what is needed in practice in transit agencies. To close this gap requires data processing and analysis methods with support of technologies such as database management systems (DBMS) and geographic information systems (GIS). This research presents a case study of the automatic fare collection (AFC) system of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) rail system and develops a method for inferring rail passenger trip origin‐destination (OD) matrices from an origin‐only AFC system to replace expensive passenger OD surveys. A software tool is developed to facilitate the method implementation and the results of the application in CTA are reported.


This paper joins the discussion on participation in Participatory Design (PD) by proposing reflexivity as an orientation for engaging in design and for the plurality of participation. Based on our study in which a social media-supported collaboration model was designed with professionals working against workplace harassment, the paper recounts how the designer--researcher's reflexive orientation allowed participation to be uncovered as manifold and dynamic and how this affected the design process. We discuss the critical sensitivity and attentiveness enacted in design practice as reflexive engagement that encouraged negotiations of roles, goals, and technology. Regarding participation, we discuss reflexive engagement with multiple relationships, participatory assemblies and their intersections and overlaps---participation in plural---in our study. We conclude by proposing the conceptualization of reflexive engagement as an orientation for PD designers to engage in the particularities of situated design practices, while holding to the ethical (political), practical and creative commitments of PD.


Evidence suggests that spoken language production involves involuntary access to orthographic representations, both in languages with alphabetic and non-alphabetic scripts. An unexplored question is whether the role of orthography varies as a function of the language being native or non-native to the individual. Native (L1) and non-native (L2) languages differ in important aspects, that is, lexical representations in L2 might be less well established, but acquired at least partly via reading, and these unique features of non-native languages may contribute to a fundamental difference in how spelling and sound interact in production. We investigated an orthographic impact on spoken production with Tibetan Chinese bilinguals who named coloured line drawings of objects with Chinese adjective–noun phrases. Colour and object names were orthographically related or unrelated. Even though none of the participants were aware of the orthographic manipulation, orthographic overlap generated a facilitatory effect. In conjunction with earlier findings from native speakers on the identical task, we conclude that orthographic information is activated in spoken word production regardless of whether the response language is native or non-native.


"The Kingdom, O Christ, is a Kingdom of all ages, and Thy dominion from generation to generation" (i) The immediate and controlling aim in all Missionary work is the awakening of faith in individual souls, and the raising up of a community of Christian believers. In this sense education has from the beginning been an important department of missionary work. "I attach very great importance to our Schools as one of the best means of sowing the seed of the Word of God with the hearts of the rising generation of Moslems." (ii) The conditions of Missionary work are not the same in every case, and the initial stages may well prove of diverse lengths; but in every case the Missionary stage is comparatively brief, and we see at once that Missionary work among an unevangelised people, regarded as heathen, involves a certain amount of Christian education, in order that the object of faith and worship may be discerned, and also in order that the elements and activities of the intellectual life may be in harmony with the elements and operations of the religious life. (iii) It is obvious that in a sense the whole process of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) activity from first to last is in the nature of education. According to the missionaries "heathen", "savage" or "uncivilised" minds must be appealed to, thought must be awakened, and drawn out, in order to convey the simplest religious truths, or to awaken the most rudimentary religious emotions (iv). And in this sense, if not almost the only way to this missionary aim is by educational work among Egyptian young generation. The education of girls presents a quite different problem compared to that of boys, from missionary point of view, for, though the element of competition is far from being absent in Egypt also, it is certainly less keen; and moreover, the fact that the training of girls in Egypt is to fit them to become wives and mothers, and not, as is so apt to be the result in boys' schools, government officials, makes such work more important and more congruous with the missionary aim. This paper considers the educational policy of the CMS in Egypt in the abovementioned period in an attempt to understand the mission's social impact in the light of, and in spite of, its lack of converts (v). All sorts of documents and objects such as pictures of school, staff and students, missionary letters and annual reports were used in this study with the aid of historical method for interpretation of the past. At this point we have to note that the most limiting aspect of the study was the fact that geographical and chronological range of the CMS educational activities to Egyptian girls is too great for any one article. Therefore the interpretations and evaluations in this study were based on individual experiences of a single school. And generalizations were made with care because of the density of the content. The CMS archives in the University of Birmingham constitute main major source of this study. Diaries, reports, letters, memoirs, histories, pamphlets, and many more kinds of texts written by CMS missionaries filled with information about "imperatives to convert, subdue and possess the world through the cultural power and superiority of English Protestantism". (vi) The variety of subject and perspective is enormous, but recent work by scholars such as Brian Stanley and Andrew Porter has none the less gone some way to demonstrate the possibilities of making this overwhelming volume of material more manageable and less daunting (vii). Moreover general histories of the CMS include The History of the Church Missionary Society: Its Environment, Its Men and Its Work by Eugene Stock, The Problems of Success: A History of the Church Missionary Society 1910-1942 by Gordon Hewitt, The Church Missionary Society and World Christianity 1799-1999 by Kevin Ward-Brian Stanley, "The Role of Women in the Church Missionary Society, 1799-1917" by Jocelyn Murray have greatly deepened researchers understanding on humanitarian, educational, medical, philanthropic and social work of the CMS outside the continental Europe. …


A verb is a language element used by the community in communication. There are various verbs formation applied in Muara Bungo especially Rantau Pandan dialect, like adding affixes to the verb and the processes occurred to the verb itself. In this study, the authors focused on verbs formation derived from nouns and adjectives. The process of affixation includes derivative and inflective affixes. For the data collection, the author applied listening and interview methods. The process of verb formation occurred on nouns and adjectives in speech or lingual data obtained were then analyzed and determined by applying translational analysis method. The verb formation process would be clearer when classes of the words found had been classified. The researcher found the verbs formation was from the process that occurred at the time of the formation of the verb. The affixation process in this study includes derivative and inflective affixes. The affixes are functioned for forming nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numbers. The prefix ber- has form variations like ba- and be- . Prefix ma- has form variations like mang- and meny- . Prefix n- has form variations such as n- and ng- forms. The prefix te- has form variations such as ta-, tany- .


ABSTRACT: IMPACT DES REFORMES FISCALES SUR LE CHOIX DE NATURE JURIDIQUE DES PETITES ENTREPRISES La reforme fiscale de 1986 aura un impact profond sur toutes les entreprises. Les petites entreprises, en particulier, devraient penser serieusement a changer leur nature juridique afin de s'assurer un statut fiscal plus avantageux, Le "Subchapter S" du formulaire des corporations permettra a de nombreuses entreprises de conserver un impot sur les societes qu'elles trouvent avantageux, tout en evitant une augmentation impoortante des taux reguliers, et une double imposition. The Tax Reform Act (TRA) of 1986 provides for the most drastic restructuring of income taxes since that tax was first imposed in 1913..sup.1 "This new Act manifests the intention of Congress and the President that investment prospects stand on their own"; that is, in the future, investment should be directed to economically productive uses, rather than to take advantage of tax breaks..sup.2 Furthermore, the intent was to force business to pay a larger proportion of the total tax bill and to eliminate the public perception of inequality that arose as many large businesses paid little or no income tax..sup.3 By eliminating many investment incentives as well as capital gains, and by greatly changing the tax rate structure, the TRA has had a major impact on the choice of entity for conducting business. A recent survey of small business owners whose firms are organized as corporations indicates that 25 percent are contemplating switching to another form of ownership..sup.4 Provisions such as the imposition of a strengthened alternative minimum tax, repeal of the General Utilities doctrine, and the limitation on use of the cash method of accounting make the C Corporation a less attractive form of doing business. As a result, small business taxpayers should now reevaluate the appropriateness of corporations as their legal form. This article provides an updated view of the income tax consquences of TRA changes on the choice of a business form. In addition, tax planning opportunities are analyzed to illustrate how to maximize the potential of various forms. FORMS CONSIDERED The business forms to be considered are the "regular" or C corporation, the partnership (including the master limited partnership), and the Subchapter "S" corporation. Unless otherwise stated, general and limited partnerships are treated together, as their tax treatment is virtually identical. S corporations are corporate entities that elect to be taxed like partnerships, while retaining their corporate status for other purposes. Only certain corporations are eligible to elect this federal tax status. Generally, the requirements are: (1) 35 or fewer shareholders; (2) all shareholders are individuals who are either United States citizens or residents; (3) issuance of common stock only; and (4) unanimous election by the original shareholders.sup.5 Ten states do not have a counterpart to the federal "S" Status.sup.6 Corporations in these states must use two reporting systems if they elect federal Subchapter "S" status, and they are subject to double taxation for state tax purposes. ORIGINAL INVESTMENT The exchange of property for other property can generate taxable income to the transferor unless a deferral section is provided by the Internal Revenue Code..sup.7 For example, if an individual exchanges an automobile that costs $4,000 for stock that is worth $5,000, that person has a taxable gain of $1,000..sup.8 To alleviate this problem on the formation of a business, several mandatory Internal Revenue Code Sections require that any taxable gain be postponed if appreciated property.sup.9 is contributed to a corporation.sup.10 or a partnership.sup.11 in exchange for stock or ownership interest in a partnership. The application of these sections to the above example would be as follows: if an individual exchanges an automobile for stock in a corporation or interest in a partnership worth $5,000, there is no current tax liability. …


Variation of diabetes incidence over time in countries with different incidence levels and socio-economic conditions, and in an age span beyond the childhood years, may give clues for diabetes causes.Materials: Data from prospective type 1 diabetes registers in Sweden and Lithuania in children (0-14 years) and young adults (15-34 and 15-39 years, respectively). Number of infections recorded in health care booklets (117 cases; 270 controls); interview about the dietary intake one-year before the diagnosis and routinely recorded growth data (99 cases; 180 controls).Results: The incidence of type 1 diabetes in Sweden and Lithuania differed most in the younger age groups, 28.9 and 7.5/100,000/year in 0-14-year group, respectively. During 1983-2000 incidence increased in 0-14-year old children in both countries, but the pattern of change differed. During 1983-1998 the incidence increased in Swedish children, but tended to decrease in young adults, with no increase in the age group below 35 years, indicating that the increase of childhood diabetes may be due to a shift towards a younger age at diagnosis. Within a low-incidence country Lithuania there was an urban-rural gradient of incidence, especially in the younger age groups, that seemed to follow poverty distribution: incidence in the 0-39-year group was 7.1, 9.0 and 8.8/100,000/year in rural areas, towns and cities, respectively, p<0.001.Exposure to one or more non-specific infection during the first half-year of life reduced diabetes risk: odds ratios (95%-CI) in 0-14 and 5-14-year groups were (0.60; 0.37-0.98) and (0.47; 0.26-0.87), respectively. Higher energy intake and weight-for-age were independent diabetes risk factors: odds ratios for medium and high levels of energy were 1.33 (0.52-3.42) and 5.23 (1.67-16.38), and for weight-for-age 3.20 (1.30-7.88) and 3.09 (1.16-8.22), respectively. High intake of carbohydrates, disaccharides and sucrose in particular, increased diabetes risk independently of the high intake of energy.Conclusion: Environmental factors associated with socio-economic conditions in childhood may be important for the occurrence of type 1 diabetes. Lack of exposure to microbial antigens early in life, higher intake of energy and more rapid growth may contribute to the increase of childhood-onset diabetes observed in many countries.


Large-scale investments in fragile states - in Latin America, Africa, the former Soviet Union and Asia - become magnets for conflict, which undermines business, development and security. International policy responds with regulation, state-building and institutional reform, with poor and often perverse results. Caught up in old ways of thinking about conflict and fragility, and an age-old fight over whether multinational corporations are good or bad for peaceful development, it leaves business-related conflicts in fragile states to multiply and fester. Surveying a new strategic landscape of business and conflict, Brian Ganson and Achim Wennmann conclude that neither company shareholders nor advocates for peaceful development need, or should, accept the growing cost of business-related conflict in fragile states. Drawing on decades of experience from mainstream conflict prevention and violence reduction efforts, as well as promising company practice, they show that even acute conflict is manageable when dealt with pragmatically, locally and on its own terms. The analysis and conclusions of this Adelphi book will interest policymakers, business leaders and community advocates alike - all those hoping to mitigate today's conflicts while helping to reduce fragility and build a firmer foundation for inclusive development.


In agricultural economies of Africa, livestock sub-sector supports livelihoods of large proportion of households and has important role on value addition and on insuring national food security. However, its importance has often been ignored by policymakers as well as researchers. Researchers neglect livestock sector mainly for methodological reasons. This study tries to overcome this problem. We extend an existing DCGE model for Tanzania with a separately built herd dynamics module which enables us to specify stock–flow relationship, distinguishing between the capital role of livestock and the flow of livestock products. The results from realistic TFP shocks on different agricultural sub-sectors clearly show that livestock sub-sector has better growth elasticity greater than the cereal and cash crop sub-sectors in contrast to previous literature. Factors reallocation among activities is observed which leads us to emphasize on livestock – cereal sub-sectors joint growth plan rather than cereal sub-sector growth alone.


Regulation and functions of the p53 tumor suppressor gene have been studied extensively with respect to its critical role in maintaining the stability of genomic DNA following genotoxic insults. However, p53 is also induced by physiologic stimuli resulting in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. In other situations, the activity of p53 must be repressed to prevent inappropriate removal of cells. The mammary gland provides a valuable system in which to study the mechanisms by which the expression and biological responses to p53 can be regulated under a variety of physiological circumstances. The pro-apoptotic role of p53 in the secretory mammary epithelium may be especially relevant to lactation in livestock. We have utilized p53-deficient mice to establish the molecular targets of p53 in the mammary gland and biological consequences when it is absent. The p21/WAF1 gene (Cdkn1a) is a transcriptional target gene of the p53 protein that responds to elevated levels of p53 during milk stasis providing an endogenous reporter of p53 activity. Abrogation of p53 resulted in delayed involution of the mammary epithelium, demonstrating the physiological role of p53 in regulating involution. Though delayed, stromal proteases were induced in the mammary gland by 5 d postweaning, providing a p53-independent mechanism that resulted in removal of the residual secretory epithelium. These processes can be interrupted by treatment with hydrocortisone. These data establish p53 as a physiological regulator of involution that acts to rapidly initiate apoptosis in the secretory epithelium in response to stress signals, but also indicate the presence of compensatory pathways to effect involution. Additional mechanisms involving intracellular stress signaling pathways (e.g., Stat3) and stromal-mediated pathways have been identified and, together with p53 pathways, may be used to identify animals with greater persistency of lactation.


It has been shown recently that a specific class of path-dependent stochastic processes, which reduce their sample space as they unfold, lead to exact scaling laws in frequency and rank distributions. Such sample space reducing processes offer an alternative new mechanism to understand the emergence of scaling in countless processes. The corresponding power law exponents were shown to be related to noise levels in the process. Here we show that the emergence of scaling is not limited to the simplest SSRPs, but holds for a huge domain of stochastic processes that are characterised by non-uniform prior distributions. We demonstrate mathematically that in the absence of noise the scaling exponents converge to −1 (Zipf's law) for almost all prior distributions. As a consequence it becomes possible to fully understand targeted diffusion on weighted directed networks and its associated scaling laws in node visit distributions. The presence of cycles can be properly interpreted as playing the same role as noise in SSRPs and, accordingly, determine the scaling exponents. The result that Zipf's law emerges as a generic feature of diffusion on networks, regardless of its details, and that the exponent of visiting times is related to the amount of cycles in a network could be relevant for a series of applications in traffic-, transport- and supply chain management.


We developed a system to detect positive expectation, disappointment, and satisfaction in tweets that refer to events automatically discovered in the Twitter stream. The emotional content shared on Twitter when referring to public events can provide insights into the presumed and experienced quality of the event. We expected to find a connection between positive expectation and disappointment, a succession that is referred to as anticipointment. The application of computational approaches makes it possible to detect the presence and strength of this hypothetical relation for a large number of events. We extracted events from a longitudinal dataset of Dutch Twitter posts, and modeled classifiers to detect emotion in the tweets related to those events by means of hashtag-labeled training data. After classifying all tweets before and after the events in our dataset, we summarized the collective emotions for over 3000 events as the percentage of tweets classified as positive expectation (in anticipation), disappointment and satisfaction (in hindsight). Only a weak correlation of around 0.2 was found between positive expectation and disappointment, while a higher correlation of 0.6 was found between positive expectation and satisfaction. The most anticipointing events were events with a clear loss, such as a canceled event or when the favored sports team had lost. We conclude that senders of Twitter posts might be more inclined to share satisfaction than disappointment after a much anticipated event.


This article discusses comparative consumer bankruptcy in the context of the international spread of consumer credit capitalism and its accompanying social cost, overindebtedness. The article outlines the contours of regulation of credit markets and overindebtedness within Europe, the influence of the U.S. idea of the "fresh start" on recent changes in European debt-adjustment laws and continuing contrasts with the U.S. approach to bankruptcy. As consumer debt increases in Europe and elsewhere, these differences between continental European and North American approaches to bankruptcy might be explained by the path-dependence of legal institutions, cultural differences, or the political influence of interest groups. The article is skeptical about cultural explanations of difference and suggests the value of an analysis that is sensitive to political economy and history. It also argues that future comparative research should focus on overindebtedness rather than bankruptcy.


Abstract Background Increased monocyte activation and intestinal damage have been shown to be predictive for the increased morbidity and mortality observed in treated people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV). Methods A cross-sectional analysis of cellular and soluble markers of monocyte activation, coagulation, intestinal damage, and inflammation in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of PLHIV with suppressed plasma viremia on combination antiretroviral therapy and age and demographically comparable HIV-negative individuals participating in the Comorbidity in Relation to AIDS (COBRA) cohort and, where appropriate, age-matched blood bank donors (BBD). Results People living with HIV, HIV-negative individuals, and BBD had comparable percentages of classical, intermediate, and nonclassical monocytes. Expression of CD163, CD32, CD64, HLA-DR, CD38, CD40, CD86, CD91, CD11c, and CX3CR1 on monocytes did not differ between PLHIV and HIV-negative individuals, but it differed significantly from BBD. Principal component analysis revealed that 57.5% of PLHIV and 62.5% of HIV-negative individuals had a high monocyte activation profile compared with 2.9% of BBD. Cellular monocyte activation in the COBRA cohort was strongly associated with soluble markers of monocyte activation and inflammation in the CSF. Conclusions People living with HIV and HIV-negative COBRA participants had high levels of cellular monocyte activation compared with age-matched BBD. High monocyte activation was predictive for inflammation in the CSF.


Festivals and the French Revolution--the subject conjures up visions of goddesses of Liberty, strange celebrations of Reason, and the oddly pretentious cult of the Supreme Being. Every history of the period includes some mention of festivals, although most historians have been content either to ridicule them as ineffectual or to bemoan them as repugnant examples of a sterile, official culture. Mona Ozouf shows us that they were much more than bizarre marginalia to the revolutionary process. Festivals offer critical insights into the meaning of the French Revolution; they show a society in the process of creating itself anew. Historians have recognized the importance of the revolutionary festival as a symbol of the Revolution. But they have differed widely in their interpretations of what that symbol meant and have considered the festivals as diverse as the rival political groups that conceived and organized them. Against this older vision, Ozouf argues for the fundamental coherence and profound unity of the festival as both event and register of reference and attitude. By comparing the most ideologically opposed festivals (those of Reason and the Supreme Being, for instance), she shows that they clearly share a common aim, which finds expression in a mutual ceremonial and symbolic vocabulary. Through a brilliant discussion of the construction, ordering, and conduct of the festival Ozouf demonstrates how the continuity of the images, allegories, ceremonials, and explicit functions can be seen as the Revolution's own commentary on itself. A second and important aim of this book is to show that this system of festivals, often seen as destructive, was an immensely creativeforce. The festival was the mirror in which the Revolution chose to see itself and the pedagogical tool by which it hoped to educate future generations, Far from being a failure, it embodied, socialized, and made sacred a new set of values based on the family, the nation, and mankind--the values of a modern, secular, liberal world.


Polymer/metal oxide composites are promising candidates for the treatment of water pollution. Adsorption selectivity as well as a large adsorption capacity are two key factors for treating wastewater containing multiple ions. Herein, a PPy+/TiO2(O-) composite with a heterojunction structure was first discovered to have novel selectivity toward heavy metal ions. An interesting self-doping nature of TiO2(O-) together with SO42- for PPy+ was reported. This interesting structure contributed to an impressive selective adsorption capability with an ascending order of Zn2+ > Pb2+ ≫ Cu2+ in a ternary ion system, where the adsorption for Cu2+ could be almost suppressed. Through the designed adsorption experiments and characterization techniques including Fourier transform infrared, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, a universal synergistic mechanism for PPy+/TiO2(O-) composite was first proposed and confirmed. The doping and dedoping of metal oxide (dopant) from the polymer dictates the adsorption selectivity, where the selectivity is determined by the interaction between TiO2 and heavy metal ions. This work may provide some useful guidelines for designing adsorbents with selectivity toward specific heavy metal ions.


Gingival recession has anatomical, physiologic, or pathological causative factors apart from a 17% lack of etiology. Although surgical techniques are available in plenty for the root coverage procedures, choice of technique often influences successful outcome. Buccal pad of fat for root coverage (a specialized adipose and well-vascularized tissue) is a nuovo not yet popular technique for regenerative procedures as root coverage in severe recession defects, especially in the maxillary posterior region of the oral cavity. In this case report root coverage procedure using pedicled buccal pad of fat in Miller's Class III recession on the maxillary posterior teeth is performed.


Feature singleton search tasks have been characterized as being independent of the number of non-target elements in the display (Treisman and Gelade, 1980; Wolfe, 1994). Previous work from our lab has shown that reaction times on feature singleton search tasks in fact increase logarithmically with the number of non-target (lure) elements in the display and that the steepness of the logarithmic function is modulated by lure-target similarity (Madison, Buetti & Lleras, 2014). Duncan and Humphreys (1989) proposed an effect of distractor heterogeneity on search performance such that distractor-distractor similarity modulates search efficiency, and that distractor rejection is facilitated by the repetition of identical distractors (a mechanism called spreading suppression). Here we challenge those claims and demonstrate that in parallel search, we find no evidence for distractor-distractor effects, nor for spreading suppression (grouping of distractors). We tested search performance in displays containing multiple types of lures simultaneously (e.g., a red target amongst yellow, blue and orange lures). To evaluate performance on these mixed displays, we first computed estimates of logarithmic processing costs for each type of lure (obtained from a different set of subjects) when the target was presented amongst uniform fields of each type of lure (e.g., a red target amongst only orange distractors). We then used those estimates to predict what reaction times in mixed displays ought to be if (a) each item in the display was processed independently from one another and (b) the processing of all items was performed in unlimited capacity parallel fashion. In two separate experiments, with different combinations of lures, this model (a simple linear addition of logarithmic processing costs), was able to account for 95.67% and 94.41% of the variance of reaction times in mixed displays. These results argue strongly against both distractor-distractor interactions as well as spreading suppression effects in parallel search. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Labour market analysis in the South African context provides a relatively robust understanding of the individual characteristics that influence wage differentials across workers (i.e. supply-side characteristics), but provides relatively little insight into the firm-level characteristics influencing these differentials (i.e. demand-side characteristics). This is largely due to the relative paucity of firm-level data in South Africa. Therefore, the availability of micro firm-level data derived from anonymous corporate and individual tax data, presents an opportunity to explore this relatively uncharted and important territory in the South Africa labour market. Therefore, this paper examines the firm-level (demand-side) characteristics that explain wage differentials across formal private sector workers in South Africa. Using the FEiLSDVj method, we measure the relative contribution of firm (demand-side) and individual (supply-side) characteristics in explaining wage formulation in the South African formal sector labour market, which advances the existing literature by including a developing country case. Consistent with results for the French and Austrian labour markets, approximately 61 per cent of wage variance is due to individual effects, while at least 13 per cent is due to firm-level effects. Overall, our results suggest that firms that are profitable, older, more capital-intensive, more productive, and involved in international trade pay higher wages, on average. Interestingly, and contrary to the literature, our results indicate a negative relationship between firm size and wages.


This paper develops a unique dataset of Supreme Court land dispute cases in the Philippines spanning 2002 to 2016. The sample includes 1,409 cases with complete information on the estimated land value (through zonal value estimation), land size, land location, litigation time, and win rate across the case lifecycle. This study is one of the first to leverage such a comprehensive Philippine dataset on these types of cases. Specifically, the objectives of this study are: 1) To estimate the total approximate size and value of the land assets that have been processed in the court system and the length of time they have been tied up in the court system; 2) To analyze the possible factors influencing the speed of resolution of these types of cases, as well as the patterns behind favorable decisions; and, 3) To identify the possible judicial reforms that could try to reduce the time these assets are tied up in courts, thus contributing to the release of land assets for productive investments and utilization in the Philippine economy. The data shows that the average size of the land asset tried in court is about 1.477 million square meters and valued at about P1,790,000,000. The land assets can be tied up in the court system from anywhere between 1-66 years, averaging about 12.574 years in litigation. About 99% of the 1,409 land assets in dispute are private land. In addition, this paper presents evidence that litigation of land disputes in Regions VI, Region XI, Region XII, and the ARMM is associated with a longer litigation time. In addition, higher estimated land asset value is also associated with longer litigation periods.


Along with the many benefits of IoT, its heterogeneity brings a new challenge to establish a trustworthy environment among the objects due to the absence of proper enforcement mechanisms. Further, it can be observed that often these encounters are addressed only concerning the security and privacy matters involved. However, such common network security measures are not adequate to preserve the integrity of information and services exchanged over the internet. Hence, they remain vulnerable to threats ranging from the risks of data management at the cyber-physical layers, to the potential discrimination at the social layer. Therefore, trust in IoT can be considered as a key property to enforce trust among objects to guarantee trustworthy services. Typically, trust revolves around assurance and confidence that people, data, entities, information, or processes will function or behave in expected ways. However, trust enforcement in an artificial society like IoT is far more difficult, as the things do not have an inherited judgmental ability to assess risks and other influencing factors to evaluate trust as humans do. Hence, it is important to quantify the perception of trust such that it can be understood by the artificial agents. In computer science, trust is considered as a computational value depicted by a relationship between trustor and trustee, described in a specific context, measured by trust metrics, and evaluated by a mechanism. Several mechanisms about trust evaluation can be found in the literature. Among them, most of the work has deviated towards security and privacy issues instead of considering the universal meaning of trust and its dynamic nature. Furthermore, they lack a proper trust evaluation model and management platform that addresses all aspects of trust establishment. Hence, it is almost impossible to bring all these solutions to one place and develop a common platform that resolves end-to-end trust issues in a digital environment. Therefore, this thesis takes an attempt to fill these spaces through the following research work. First, this work proposes concrete definitions to formally identify trust as a computational concept and its characteristics. Next, a well-defined trust evaluation model is proposed to identify, evaluate and create trust relationships among objects for calculating trust. Then a trust management platform is presented identifying the major tasks of trust enforcement process including trust data collection, trust data management, trust information analysis, dissemination of trust information and trust information lifecycle management. Next, the thesis proposes several approaches to assess trust attributes and thereby the trust metrics of the above model for trust evaluation. Further, to minimize dependencies with human interactions in evaluating trust, an adaptive trust evaluation model is presented based on the machine learning techniques. From a standardization point of view, the scope of the current standards on network security and cybersecurity needs to be expanded to take trust issues into consideration. Hence, this thesis has provided several inputs towards standardization on trust, including a computational definition of trust, a trust evaluation model targeting both object and data trust, and platform to manage the trust evaluation process.


Actionness was introduced to quantify the likelihood of containing a generic action instance at a specific location. Accurate and efficient estimation of actionness is important in video analysis and may benefit other relevant tasks such as action recognition and action detection. This paper presents a new deep architecture for actionness estimation, called hybrid fully convolutional network (HFCN), which is composed of appearance FCN (A-FCN) and motion FCN (M-FCN). These two FCNs leverage the strong capacity of deep models to estimate actionness maps from the perspectives of static appearance and dynamic motion, respectively. In addition, the fully convolutional nature of H-FCN allows it to efficiently process videos with arbitrary sizes. Experiments are conducted on the challenging datasets of Stanford40, UCF Sports, and JHMDB to verify the effectiveness of H-FCN on actionness estimation, which demonstrate that our method achieves superior performance to previous ones. Moreover, we apply the estimated actionness maps on action proposal generation and action detection. Our actionness maps advance the current state-of-the-art performance of these tasks substantially.


This paper proposes a power scheduling-based communication protocol for in-home appliances connected over home area network and receiving real-time electricity prices via a smart meter. Specifically, a joint media access and appliance scheduling approach is developed to allow appliances to coordinate power usage so that total demand for the home is kept below a target value. Two types of appliances are considered: 1) "real-time" which consume power as they desire; and 2) "schedulable" which can be turned on at a later time. Simulation results indicate that for an appropriate target total power consumption, our scheme leads to a reduced peak demand for the home and produces a demand that is more level over time.


An effective mode matching method (MMM) is developed for dealing with threedimensional (3D) dielectiic waveguide structures with arbitrary transverse index profiles and scattering interfaces along the longitudinal waveguide axis. With the introduction of a perfectly conducting box coated by a perfectly matched layer (PML) as the lateral boundary, the method circumvents the inherent difficulties associated with the continuous radiation modes of open waveguide structures. The semi and full-vectorial finite difference (FD) methods are employed for mode calculation. The guideline for choice of the PML parameters in the mode matching analysis is discussed via a two-dimensional (2D) waveguide structure with a single step discontinuity. We show results for the 3D waveguide air gap, facet and polarization converter. The effectiveness and efficiency of the method are validated.


Metastases are known to be responsible for approximately 90% of breast cancer-related deaths. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is involved not only in inflammatory processes, but also in the metastasis of cancer cells; it is expressed in 40% of human invasive breast cancers. To comprehensively analyze the effects of cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), a selective COX-2 inhibitor found in the fiber-type cannabis plant (Takeda et al., 2008), on COX-2 expression and the genes involved in metastasis, we performed a DNA microarray analysis of human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells, which are invasive breast cancer cells that express high levels of COX-2, treated with CBDA for 48 hr at 25 µM. The results obtained revealed that COX-2 and Id-1, a positive regulator of breast cancer metastasis, were down-regulated (0.19-fold and 0.52-fold, respectively), while SHARP1 (or BHLHE41), a suppressor of breast cancer metastasis, was up-regulated (1.72-fold) and CHIP (or STUB1) was unaffected (1.03-fold). These changes were confirmed by real-time RT-PCR analyses. Taken together, the results obtained here demonstrated that i) CBDA had dual inhibitory effects on COX-2 through down-regulation and enzyme inhibition, and ii) CBDA may possess the ability to suppress genes that are positively involved in the metastasis of cancer cells in vitro.


The Pliocene interchange of North Pacific and North Atlantic marine faunas via the Arctic Ocean was long thought to have been a single episode of faunal exchange between the northern oceans that took place as soon as the Bering Strait first opened. New evidence implies that there were two northern migration events instead of one, and that the second phase of migration was much later than the first. The migration of Atlantic-Arctic mollusks into the Bering Sea and North Pacific when the Bering Strait first opened at 4.8–5.5 Ma constituted the initial phase of this interchange, but the abrupt appearance of North Pacific mollusks in the North Atlantic at 3.6 Ma postdated the first opening of the Bering Strait by 1.2–1.9 m.y. This second phase of trans-Arctic migration was also coeval with shoaling of the Central American seaway between North and South America. This late Pliocene trans-Arctic migration of North Pacific mollusks is evidence for the reversal of marine flow to northward through the Bering Strait, which was one consequence of the reorganization of Northern Hemisphere ocean circulation caused by substantial closure of the Central American seaway. This inferred causal link between the histories of the Beringian and Panamanian ocean gateways is in agreement with ocean circulation models.


The method of fitting damage probability curves of laser-induced damage is introduced to investigate the laser-conditioning mechanism of ZrO2/SiO2 high re°ection (HR) films. The laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) of the sample are tested before and after the laser-conditioning scanning process. The parameters of the defects are obtained through the fitting process of the damage probability curve. It can be concluded that the roles of laser conditioning include two aspects: removing defects with lower threshold and producing new defects with higher threshold. The effect of laser conditioning is dependent on the competition of these two aspects.


We propose a general, prior-free approach for the uncalibrated non-rigid structure-from-motion problem for modelling and analysis of non-rigid objects such as human faces. We recover the non-rigid affine structure and motion from 2D point correspondences by assuming that (1) the non-rigid shapes are generated by a linear combination of rigid 3D basis shapes, (2) that the non-rigid shapes are affine in nature, i.e., they can be modelled as deviations from the mean, rigid shape, (3) and that the basis shapes are statistically independent. In contrast to the majority of existing works, no statistical prior is assumed for the structure and motion apart from the assumption that underlying basis shapes are statistically independent. The independent 3D shape bases are recovered by independent subspace analysis (ISA). Likewise, in contrast to the most previous approaches, no calibration information is assumed for affine cameras; the reconstruction is solved up to a global affine ambiguity that makes our approach simple and efficient. In the experiments, we evaluated the method with several standard data sets including a real face expression data set of 7200 faces with 2D point correspondences and unknown 3D structure and motion for which we obtained promising results.


We have examined the fidelity of polymerization catalyzed by the human mitochondrial DNA polymerase using wild-type and exonuclease-deficient (E200A mutation) forms of recombinant, reconstituted holoenzyme. Each of the four nucleotides bind and incorporate with similar kinetics; the average dissociation constant for ground state binding is 0.8 microm, and the average rate of polymerization is 37 x s(-1), defining a specificity constant kcat/Km = 4.6 x 10(7) x m(-1) x s(-1). Mismatched nucleotides show weaker ground-state nucleotide binding affinities ranging from 57 to 364 microm and slower rates of polymerization ranging from 0.013 to 1.16 x s(-1). The kinetic parameters yield fidelity estimates of 1 error out of 260,000 nucleotides for a T:T mismatch, 3563 for G:T, and 570,000 for C:T. The accessory subunit increases fidelity 14-fold by facilitating both ground-state binding and the incorporation rate of the correct A:T base pair compared with a T:T mismatch. Correctly base-paired DNA dissociates from the polymerase at a rate of 0.02 x s(-1) promoting processive polymerization. Thus, the mitochondrial DNA polymerase catalyzed incorporation with an average processivity of 1850, defined by the ratio of polymerization rate to the dissociation rate (37/0.02) and with an average fidelity of one error in 280,000 base pairs.


Although T cells are known to play a crucial role in the induction of IgE synthesis, the class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) restriction of aeroallergen‐induced T cell responses in humans is incompletely defined. We have previously shown that, in allergic Caucasoid individuals, HLA‐DR2 and Dw2 (DR2.2) is strongly associated with specific IgE and IgG antibody responses to highly purified Ambrosia (ragweed) allergen, Amb a V, from the artemisiifolia (short) species. For example, 95% of IgE antibody responders to Amb a V were typed as DR2.2. In a novel study of the genetic control of T cell responses to the Amb a V allergen, we have investigated the MHC class II restriction specificity of three CD4, Amb a V‐specific T cell clones derived from a DR2.2+ atopic patient, and a polyclonal Amb a V‐reactive T cell line from another DR2.2+ patient. We observed proliferative responses of all three clones to Amb a V only when either HLA‐DR2.2 or DR2, Dw12 (DR2.12; found on Mongoloid populations) was present on the antigen‐presenting cells, regardless of the HLA‐DQ phenotype of the cells. Moreover, the responses of T cell line and clones were abolished by anti‐DR but not by anti‐DQ nor by anti‐DP monoclonal antibodies, and, significantly, anti‐DRα/β12 (anti‐α/β1w15/w16; anti‐"DR2b") monoclonal antibody blocked, in a dose‐dependent manner, the cloned T cell responses to Amb a V. These findings demonstrate that DRα/β12.2 (DRα/β11501) and DRα/β12.12 (DRα/β11502) are functional in the restriction of the T cell recognition of Amb a V. These findings also illustrate the power of the allergy model for definitive investigation of the molecular basis of the human immune response.


Experience shows that on today's high performance systems the utilization of different acceleration cards in conjunction with a high utilization of all other parts of the system is difficult. Future architectures, like exascale clusters, are expected to aggravate this issue as the number of cores are expected to increase and memory hierarchies are expected to become deeper. One big aspect for distributed applications is to guarantee high utilization of all available resources, including local or remote acceleration cards on a cluster while fully using all the available CPU resources and the integration of the GPU work into the overall programming model. For the integration of CUDA code we extended HPX, a general purpose C++ run time system for parallel and distributed applications of any scale, and enabled asynchronous data transfers from and to the GPU device and the asynchronous invocation of CUDA kernels on this data. Both operations are well integrated into the general programming model of HPX which allows to seamlessly overlap any GPU operation with work on the main cores. Any user defined CUDA kernel can be launched on any (local or remote) GPU device available to the distributed application. We present asynchronous implementations for the data transfers and kernel launches for CUDA code as part of a HPX asynchronous execution graph. Using this approach we can combine all remotely and locally available acceleration cards on a cluster to utilize its full performance capabilities. Overhead measurements show, that the integration of the asynchronous operations (data transfer + launches of the kernels) as part of the HPX execution graph imposes no additional computational overhead and significantly eases orchestrating coordinated and concurrent work on the main cores and the used GPU devices.


The present study employed multidimensional scaling and ADDTREE clustering analyses to derive the cognitive maps and clustering representations of normal elderly controls (NC), patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and patients with Hun-tington's disease (HD); the analyses were performed on subjects' responses in a category fluency task that involved generating animal names for 60 sec. A measure of the proximity of animal names was used as an index of associational strength; MDS and ADDTREE estimates were based on this measure. A comparison of the NC, AD, and HD subjects' cognitive maps suggests that the semantic network of AD patients is abnormal in two ways. First, the organization of the semantic network is disrupted. Second, new abnormal associations and clusterings are formed. These results support the notion that AD is characterized by a breakdown in the structure of semantic knowledge and not primarily by a deficiency in the accessibility of semantic information.


Temporal difference methods are theoretically grounded and empirically effective methods for addressing reinforcement learning problems. In most real-world reinforcement learning tasks, TD methods require a function approximator to represent the value function. However, using function approximators requires manually making crucial representational decisions. This paper investigates evolutionary function approximation, a novel approach to automatically selecting function approximator representations that enable efficient individual learning. This method evolves individuals that are better able to learn. We present a fully implemented instantiation of evolutionary function approximation which combines NEAT, a neuroevolutionary optimization technique, with Q-learning, a popular TD method. The resulting NEAT+Q algorithm automatically discovers effective representations for neural network function approximators. This paper also presents on-line evolutionary computation, which improves the on-line performance of evolutionary computation by borrowing selection mechanisms used in TD methods to choose individual actions and using them in evolutionary computation to select policies for evaluation. We evaluate these contributions with extended empirical studies in two domains: 1) the mountain car task, a standard reinforcement learning benchmark on which neural network function approximators have previously performed poorly and 2) server job scheduling, a large probabilistic domain drawn from the field of autonomic computing. The results demonstrate that evolutionary function approximation can significantly improve the performance of TD methods and on-line evolutionary computation can significantly improve evolutionary methods. This paper also presents additional tests that offer insight into what factors can make neural network function approximation difficult in practice.


LEGISLATING THE DANVILLE CONNECTION, 1847-1862: RAILROADS AND REGIONALISM VERSUS NATIONALISM IN THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA By Philip W. Stanley, M.A. A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014. Major Director: Dr. Kathryn Meier Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University Department of History This thesis examines the effect regionalism had upon North Carolina and Virginia during the 1847-1862 legislative battles over the Danville, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina, railroad connection. The first chapter examines the rivalry between eastern and western North Carolina for internal improvement legislation, namely westerners' wish to connect with Virginia and easterners' desire to remain economically relevant. The second chapter investigates the Tidewater region of Virginia and its battle against the Southside to create a rail connection with North Carolina. The third chapter examines the legislation for the Danville Connection during the American Civil War in the Virginia, North Carolina, and Confederate legislatures. Through an examination of voting patterns and public opinion, this thesis finds that, despite Confederate President Jefferson Davis's designation of the Danville connection as a military necessity, regionalism overcame Confederate nationalism during this instance.


Grant funding offers one way to foster innovation, and, for large-scale projects, it may be essential; however, there are limited opportunities to secure such funding and many small projects may not warrant it. When grant funding is sought, the library's proposal is strengthened if it can demonstrate prior effort and expertise in the proposal area. Every opportunity to secure grant funding should be seized; however, libraries should not limit themselves to this funding option. This paper provides some brief guidelines for encouraging technical innovation without depending on grant funding.


Essentisl oils have been assigned with special properties over the time. They are used much in herbal medicine, but also in apiculture, mainly due to their emollient, calming, carminative, antispasmodic, and mainly antiseptic properties. In order to determine the therapeutic dose to be used in treatment of nosemosis in bee colonies, it has been tested the product Suppressor 1, a mixture of medicinal herbs and etheric oils obtained from melliferous plants, dissolved in ethylic alcohol 96°. The studies were carried out in laboratory conditions with microclimate parameters being permanently monitored. Five experimental modules with natural infection with Nosema spp. were organized for testing the product, together with three control ones (one positive and two negative controls, respectively); each module consisted in two groups, with at least 100 bees/group (106 187 bees). The bee groups were kept in wooden cages equipped with glass, mesh ventilation and nutrition systems. The tested product was used in different concentrations, from 1 to 50 ml /litre in sugar syrup, administered ad libitum. In order to determine the therapeutic dose, the mortality rate, at various intervals (24, 48, 72, 96 hours, and then at 8, 16 and 26 days, p.t.), was registered. The best efficacy was obtained for the concentration of 5 ml of product/l syrup; this was considered the therapeutic dose. The tested product was not proved to affect the viability and vitality of bees. These results will be the base for further field studies of the product, in order to provide alternative solutions for control of honey bee's diseases using natural products and to avoid drug residues in apiculture products. Key-words: honeybees, Nosema spp., plant extract, etheric oils, therapeutic dose.


In this powerful little book, two leading intellectuals illuminate the truth about where our environmental crisis is taking us. Writing from an island on Canada's northwest coast, Robert Bringhurst and Jan Zwicky weigh in on the death of the planet versus the death of the individual. For Zwicky, awareness and humility are the foundation of the equanimity with which Socrates faced his death: he makes a good model when facing the death of the planet, as well as facing our own mortality. Bringhurst urges readers to tune their minds to the wild. The wild has healed the world before, and it is the only thing that stands any chance of healing the world now—though it is unlikely to save Homo sapiens in the process.