Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy, has been called a template for Muslim political reform and has the potential to serve as a bridge between the United States and the Islamic world. Indonesian journalists play a vital role. Since the collapse of the Suharto regime in the late 1990s, the Indonesian media sector has experienced its own revolution. A nationwide survey of 600 Indonesian journalists finds that while the influence of Islam in the newsroom is increasing, journalists support the separation of mosque and state and reject militant Islam. Their attitude toward the United States has improved under Obama and, while skeptical of American motives, they support continued American aid. Although most reject Suharto-era government-mouthpiece media functions, they have not yet fully embraced the role of watchdog. They say that the industry as a whole, and they as individuals, are still not free, but cite their own lack of professionalism and poor ethics as the greatest threat to their industry. The echo of the development journalism model that prevailed in the Suharto years can be seen in the top priorities of Indonesian journalists.


Norms have never been absent from the study of international politics, but the sweeping "ideational turn" in the 1980s and 1990s brought them back as a central theoretical concern in the field. Much theorizing about norms has focused on how they create social structure, standards of appropriateness, and stability in international politics. Recent empirical research on norms, in contrast, has examined their role in creating political change, but change processes have been less well-theorized. We induce from this research a variety of theoretical arguments and testable hypotheses about the role of norms in political change. We argue that norms evolve in a three-stage "life cycle" of emergence, "norm cascades," and internalization, and that each stage is governed by different motives, mechanisms, and behavioral logics. We also highlight the rational and strategic nature of many social construction processes and argue that theoretical progress will only be made by placing attention on the connections between norms and rationality rather than by opposing the two.


Each spacecraft of the recently launched magnetospheric multiscale MMS mission is equipped with Active Spacecraft Potential Control (ASPOC) instruments, which control the spacecraft potential in order to reduce spacecraft charging effects. ASPOC typically reduces the spacecraft potential to a few volts. On several occasions during the commissioning phase of the mission, the ASPOC instruments were operating only on one spacecraft at a time. Taking advantage of such intervals, we derive photoelectron curves and also perform reconstructions of the uncontrolled spacecraft potential for the spacecraft with active control and estimate the electron plasma density during those periods. We also establish the criteria under which our methods can be applied.


We present a design of a polarization converter between linear, circular, and elliptic accomplished with an on-chip high-Q dielectric microring resonator. Nonlinear polarization switching can be accomplished at modest input intensities because of the high-intensity compression in the ring. We predict an optical bistability effect making the polarization of the transmitted light dependent on its spectral or intensity history.


Sandford et al. (Reports, 15 December 2006, p. 1720) reported on organic compounds captured from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft. We emphasize the difficulty in assigning the origin of compounds detected diffusely along particle impact tracks and show that rapid heating of aerogel that has never been exposed to cometary particle capture can generate complex aromatic molecules from low-mass carbon impurities present in the aerogel.


This thesis aims to elucidate the mechanisms and response characteristics of neural circuits in the vertebrate brain capable of responding selectively to stimulus duration. The research within focused on, but is not limited to, auditory neurons; however, most of the results extend to other sensory modalities. These neurons are known, appropriately, as duration-tuned neurons (DTNs). Duration-tuned neurons tend to prefer stimulus durations similar to the duration of species-specific vocalizations and have preferred durations ranging from 1 ms up to over 100 ms across species. To study the mechanisms underlying DTNs, biologically inspired computational models were produced to explore previously hypothesized mechanisms of duration tuning. These models support the mechanisms by reproducing the responses of in vivo DTNs and predicting additional in vivo response characteristics. The models demonstrate an inherent flexibility in the mechanisms to extend across a wide range of durations and also reveal subtleties in response profiles that arise from particular model parameters. To quantify the encoding efficiency of in vivo DTNs, information theoretic measures were applied to the responses of 97 DTNs recorded from the auditory midbrain (inferior colliculus) of the big brown bat. Stimulus duration encoding robustness, as measured by stimulus-specific information, tended to align with the stimulus durations that produce the largest responses. In contrast, stimulus durations with the most sensitivity to changes in stimulus duration, as measured with an approximation of the observed Fisher information, tended to be stimulus durations shorter or longer than the duration evoking the largest response. Remarkably, both optimal and non-optional Bayesian decoding methods were able to accurately recover stimulus duration from population responses, including durations that lacked neurons dedicated to best representing that duration. These results suggest that DTNs are excellent at encoding stimulus duration, a feature that has been generally assumed but not previously quantified.


In this book, Susan Schuppli introduces a new operative concept: material witness, an exploration of the evidential role of matter as both registering external events and exposing the practices and procedures that enable matter to bear witness. Organized in the format of a trial, Material Witness moves through a series of cases that provide insight into the ways in which materials become contested agents of dispute around which stake holders gather.

These cases include an extraordinary videotape documenting the massacre at Izbica, Kosovo, used as war crimes evidence against Slobodan Milosevic; the telephonic transmission of an iconic photograph of a South Vietnamese girl fleeing an accidental napalm attack; radioactive contamination discovered in Canada's coastal waters five years after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi; and the ecological media or "disaster film" produced by the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Each highlights the degree to which a rearrangement of matter exposes the contingency of witnessing, raising questions about what can be known in relationship to that which is seen or sensed, about who or what is able to bestow meaning onto things, and about whose stories will be heeded or dismissed.

An artist-researcher, Schuppli offers an analysis that merges her creative sensibility with a forensic imagination rich in technical detail. Her goal is to relink the material world and its affordances with the aesthetic, the juridical, and the political.


Mobile is a powerful new tool for supporting organizational performance, including a wide-variety of learning opportunities including innovation, collaboration, research, and design. Mobile generates new products, services, and helps solve problems. Whether providing needed tools, augmenting learning, or connecting individuals, mobile devices are empowering individuals and organizations.Designing mLearning is a hands-on resource that presents step-by-step guidance for designing, delivering, and deploying mobile solutions, covering both the background model and pragmatic considerations for successfully navigating mobile projects. The book takes an integrated approach to mobile learning regardless of the device used. Written by Dr. Clark Quinn, a noted leader in the mLearning revolution, Designing mLearning debunks commonly held myths about mLearning, defines the myriad opportunities for mobile, contains real-world, illustrative examples, includes implementation concerns, and places mobile learning in an overall strategic plan.Designing mLearning is written for instructional designers, developers, media experts, managers, and anyone with responsibility for supporting performance in organizations. While the focus is on the design of solutions, the book addresses the critical organizational issues to assist the larger agenda of mobilizing the organization.The information outlined in this groundbreaking guide can be applied across the mobile device spectrum and provides a systematic and integrated suite of conceptual frameworks to guide designers to pragmatic and effective solutions."Quinn takes you by the hand and leads you carefully and comprehensively through the m-learning maze of devices, models, examples, and designs, at the same time demonstrating that mobile learning is more than being about learning, but is also about performance."--Jane Hart, founder & CEO, Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies"Stop thinking mLearning is miniaturized eLearning. Just as digital video has enabled entirely new forms of entertainment and communication, mLearning enables powerful new (and old) performance solutions at very low costs. Clark omits the deafening hyperbole and delivers today's best source of clear, complete, and useful mLearning guidance for us all."--Michael Allen, CEO, Allen Interactions"The future is mobile. It will rock you more than the web did. And Clark Quinn has written the missing manual."--Jay Cross, CEO, Internet Time, and author, Informal Learning"Those of us in learning and development know we spend a disproportionate amount of time on formal training, missing opportunities to support workers where real learning occurs: in work, every day. With a wealth of examples, Clark Quinn provides a clear, useful guidebook for using 21st-century tools to support our performers as they enact their work and apply new learning."--Jane Bozarth, Ed.D., author, Social Media for Trainers and Better Than Bullet Points"Yes, this is a handy book about mobile learning and support. But it's also a thoughtful nudge towards rethinking what we mean when we say we are educators."--Allison Rossett, San Diego State University"Clark Quinn sets the pace for a swift race toward mobile everything. His thought-leadership and focus on solutions that work make him the one to watch, to read, and to learn from now!"--Marcia Conner, advisor in business culture and collaboration, co-author of The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organization Through Social Media


The social and ecological impacts of camping were examined in Warren National Park, Western Australia. The main objective was to apply an integrated approach to assessing campsite degradation and feed this information into a management and monitoring strategy for campsites in the park. Biophysical data were used to establish a campsite profile, providing baseline information that enabled comparison of heavy-use formal campsites with low-use informal campsites. High-use formal campsites were more severely impacted than the low-use, informal campsites. Formal sites were also larger, had experienced more tree damage and erosion, had greater soil compaction, less vegetation cover and tree seedlings, less coarse woody debris, higher riverbank degradation and more walk trails radiating from the campsite. Additionally, the low-use, informal sites had also been degraded by recreation use. Potential indicators were identified, using a social survey that enabled identification of the standards of social and resource conditions in the Warren National Park. Desired conditions were then compared to existing conditions at the campsites and relevant managerial preferences acceptable to visitors were identified in the social survey. Most of the management preferences were considered very or extremely important influences on the quality of the visitor experience.


Using data from the 1992–95 Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, an employer survey, the authors document a new empirical finding that workers are less likely to receive promotions in nonprofit organizations than in for-profit firms. The study also uncovers evidence that wage increases associated with promotion were of comparable magnitudes in the two sectors, as was the potential for within-job wage growth; nonprofits were less likely than for-profits to base promotions on job performance or merit; nonprofits were less likely to use output-contingent incentive contracts to motivate workers; and the observed difference in promotion rates between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors was more pronounced for high-skilled than for low-skilled workers. The authors also propose a theory that potentially explains the broad pattern of evidence they uncover, based on the idea that nonprofit workers are more intrinsically motivated (attracted to their work for reasons transcending material compensation) than are for-profit workers.


Summary Ectopic ACTH secretion from breast cancer is extremely rare. We report a case of a 30-year-old woman with a history of breast cancer, who presented with psychosis and paranoid behaviour. CT of the head showed white matter disease consistent with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). Despite using mifepristone with multiple antihypertensives including lisinopril, spironolactone and metoprolol, she was hypertensive. Transaminitis did not allow mifepristone dose escalation and ketoconazole utilization. Etomidate infusion at a non-sedating dose in the intensive care unit controlled her hypertension and cortisol levels. She was transitioned to metyrapone and spironolactone. She was discharged from the hospital on metyrapone with spironolactone and underwent chemotherapy. She died 9 months later after she rapidly redeveloped Cushing's syndrome and had progressive metastatic breast cancer involving multiple bones, liver and lungs causing respiratory failure. Learning points Cushing's syndrome from ectopic ACTH secreting breast cancer is extremely rare. Cushing's syndrome causing psychosis could be multifactorial including hypercortisolism and PRES. Etomidate at non-sedating doses in intensive care setting can be effective to reduce cortisol production followed by transition to oral metyrapone.


Italians were the largest group of immigrants to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, and hundreds of thousands led and participated in some of the period's most volatile labor strikes. Jennifer Guglielmo brings to life the Italian working-class women of New York and New Jersey who helped shape the vibrant radical political culture that expanded into the emerging industrial union movement. Tracing two generations of women who worked in the needle and textile trades, she explores the ways immigrant women and their American-born daughters drew on Italian traditions of protest to form new urban female networks of everyday resistance and political activism. She also shows how their commitment to revolutionary and transnational social movements diminished as they became white working-class Americans.


AIM
To determine the malocclusion complexity and orthodontic treatment need in urban Iranian schoolchildren using the Index of Complexity, Outcome, and Need (ICON) and the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) and to also assess the relationship between these indices.

METHODS
The study sample comprised 502 individuals (253 girls and 249 boys, 11 to 14 years of age), of whom one girl and five boys already had an orthodontic appliance at the time of the survey. In those individuals not wearing orthodontic appliances (n=496), the definitive treatment need (ICON>43) and compartments of the ICON were defined and compared between sexes. The Aesthetic Component and Dental Health Component (DHC) of the IOTN were also recorded. Scatter plots and Spearman rank correlation coefficients were used to explore the relationships between the ICON and DHC and the Aesthetic Component (AC) of the IOTN.

RESULTS
According to ICON, DHC (IOTN), and Aesthetic Component (IOTN), 46.6%, 36.1%, and 17.9%, respectively, of the studied children needed orthodontic treatment; however, only 1.1% wore an appliance. In terms of complexity, 26.4% of the studied individuals were considered to have a difficult or very difficult malocclusion. With regard to treatment needs, significant correlations existed between the ICON scores and DHC (IOTN) (r=0.93) and between the ICON scores and the esthetic component (IOTN) (r=0.96). The threshold for treatment need was lower in the ICON than in the IOTN. Of the children who were classified in the borderline category of the IOTN (DHC=3), 52.0% were in need of treatment according to their ICON score (ICON>43). No sex difference was found for treatment need (ICON>43, P>.05) and treatment complexity (P>.05).

CONCLUSION
According to the ICON, 46.6% of the Iranian schoolchildren need orthodontic treatment. ICON is a good substitute for the IOTN, yet it results in a lower treatment-need threshold.


In this thesis, semiconductor nanostructures are studied, both experimentally and theoretically, to help aid the development of two diverse and important technologies. Firstly, charge-carrier confinement in stacked sub-monolayer (SML) InAs in GaAs: SML deposition results in the formation of In-rich agglomerations within a lateral InGaAs quantum well (QW) with lower In content. Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) and magneto-PL reveals strong vertical and weak lateral confinement, indicative of a two-dimensional (2D) excitons. Paradoxically, high-temperature magneto-PL allows excited-state peaks to become resolved, which can be fitted by a Fock-Darwin spectrum, characteristic of a zero-dimensional (0D) system. To solve this contradiction, we postulate that stacked SML InAs in GaAs forms a heterodimensional system, in which electrons are 2D, and see only the lateral InGaAs QW, whilst the heavier holes are 0D, and are confined in the In-rich agglomerations. This description is fully supported by single-particle effective-mass and eight-band k · p calculations, which show heterodimensional confinement is probable for a large variation in In content. SML vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) — which prove to be one of the most promising candidates for datacoms applications — have been demonstrated at >20 Gb/s, and we postulate that heterodimensionality is fundamental to this high-speed operation. Efficient carrier injection is achieved by the lack of a wetting layer, along with the 2D electrons coupling to several In-rich agglomerations, making them quickly available to states that are lasing. Furthermore, the shallow confining potential of the In-rich agglomerations means that excess holes cannot build up in states that aren't lasing. Secondly, semiconductor photoelectrolysis for the solar-powered generation of renewable hydrogen by water splitting is researched. The novel use of nanostructures at the semiconductor-electrolyte interface (SEI) in a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) is proposed to help increase the maximum potential that can be photo-generated, thus increasing the likelihood of a given PEC being able to split water. By solving the Schrodinger, Poisson and drift-diffusion equations, we simulate the band alignment, confined carrier energy states and carrier densities for a variety of different material systems. ZnO quantum dots on InxGa1-xN show the most promising band alignment, with electron-donating and -accepting states straddling the hydrogen- and oxygen-production potentials (respectively) for small x (x < 0.3), indicating an ability to split water.


In this paper, we propose a fully distributed VPN system over peer-to-peer(P2P) network called Everywhere Local Area network (ELA). ELA enables to establish private overlay network for VPN among nodes of a group without any servers. As opposed to the existing VPN systems, nodes of a group can build VPN without setting up a VPN server, and there is no problem of a single-source bottleneck and a single point of failure. Though it is known that VPN system using TCP as tunneling protocol does not work well, there are some nodes which can use only TCP because of NAT or Firewall. Therefore each node uses both UDP and TCP appropriately depending on the situation in ELA. The topology of ELA-VPN mitigates performance deterioration. We implemented a prototype of ELA on Linux, and show result of experimental latency between two nodes.


PURPOSE: to check the prevalence of typical and atypical benign positional paroxistic vertigo and relate clinical history and results of vestibular evaluation for both types. METHODS: all patients that showed nystagmus and/or vertigo in positional tests, between January 2007 and March 2008, were described through clinical history and vectoelectronystagmography, Vecwin model, Neurograff. The patients were arranged in two groups: those with nystagmus in the positional tests and those with just vertigo. RESULTS: from 399 patients evaluated at Centro Clinico Mae de Deus, Porto Alegre, 86 (31.73%) referred clinical history of positional vertigo, 45 (49.45%) with typical form and 41 (45.05%) with atypical form, mean age 61 and 52 years, respectively. The female gender was prevalent for both groups, as well as the familiar history for the symptoms in 28 (30.76%) patients, both sides were affected, in both groups. 39.02% of the patients of typical form took 1 month to go to the clinic, 22.22% of the patients of the atypical form took more than 5 years. The spontaneous and per caloric nystagmus were found in both groups, with normorreflexy in 35 (40.6%), directional preponderance in 27 (31.03%), bilateral hiperreflexy in 9 (10.4%) and unilateral in 10 (11.6%) of the patients. Only 56 (65.11%) of the patients were submitted to audiological evaluation. CONCLUSION: the positional vertigo complaint was the same for both groups that agreed in several aspects. Time of the symptoms and associated pathologies were the aspects that patients of the typical and atypical forms differed.


Vaccines have been successfully used for prophylaxis of infectious diseases for a long time and in the last decades have inspired researchers to make products with similar immunological mechanisms for cancer immunotherapy, which has been developed rap- idly into clinical applications and has shown remarkable therapeutic efficacy, as exempli fied by chimeric Ag receptor T cell (CAR-T cell) and immune checkpoint inhibitor-based therapies which can efficiently strengthen the body's immune system to fight against cancer, but they are also expensive. Therefore, encouraged by recent success of cancer immunotherapy, scientists are actively developing the low-cost tumor Ag-based vac cines, which, however, usually exhibit weak immunostimulating effects and, therefore, are often formulated with nanoparticulate carriers to form a vaccine adjuvant-delivery system (VADS), which can not only enhance the efficacy but also mitigate the off-target toxicity associated with conventional anticancer vaccines. These nanoparticulate carrier-based VADSs have demonstrated multiple functions, such as targetedly triggering Ag-presenting cells, reeducating tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) to function as tumor suppressor agent, and eliciting robust cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to kill tumor cells. This chapter introduces multifunctional VADS that have been engineered with nanoparticulate carriers, including polymeric-, lipid-, metallic-, and cell-based nanoparticles, and used as an alternative to the existent tools for cancer immunotherapy.


The presence of heterogeneous erythroid progenitor cells, contaminant cells, or serum may alter erythroid colony development in vitro. To obtain highly purified colony-forming units-erythroid (CFU-E), we cultured partially purified human blood burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-E) in methylcellulose with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) for 7 d and generated cells that consisted of 30-60% CFU-E, but no BFU-E. A serum-free medium was used that allowed development of the same number of erythroid colonies as serum containing medium, but with a greater percentage of larger colonies. This medium consisted of delipidated crystalline bovine serum albumin, iron saturated transferrin, lipid suspension, fibrinogen, thrombin, Iscove's modified Dulbecco's medium/F-12[HAM], and insulin plus rHuEPO. When CFU-E were cultured in a limiting dilution assay and the percentage of nonresponder wells was plotted against cell concentration, both serum-free cultures and serum-containing cultures yielded overlapping straight lines through the origin indicating that CFU-E development did not depend on accessory cells and that insulin acted directly on the CFU-E. Human recombinant interleukin 3 (IL-3) and/or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor had no effect on CFU-E growth, while they markedly enhanced BFU-E growth. Physiological concentrations of recombinant human insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) enhanced CFU-E growth in the absence of insulin and, together with rHuEPO in serum-free medium, provided a plating efficiency equal to that of serum-containing medium. Limiting dilution analysis in serum-free medium with IGF-I showed a straight line through the origin indicating that IGF-I also acted directly on the CFU-E and not through an effect on accessory cells. These data demonstrate that CFU-E do not require accessory cells, but do require IGF-I and/or insulin which act directly on the CFU-E.


Recollectibles delight popular culture collectors and graphic designers with their interesting design and intriguing subjects. Each book has a unique and engaging cover that is sure to charm people everywhere.


Green infrastructure (GI) has emerged as an active term of reference in projectdevelopment planning. A gap exists in the GI research literature in the form of theabsence of an integrated framework to assist engineering organizations in planning thestart-up of new projects in the context of greening and sustainability. This study attemptsto identify the existing frameworks that propose the development of green projects.The first purpose of this study is to explore the use of fully integrated GI in theengineering design of a modern, new development. A clear sequence of tasks must definethe workflow, leading teamwork. This literature review identifies several differentapproaches and selects four to build a ready-to-use framework of sequenced tasks, whichincludes all the components of water management (rain and drainage, water supply andwastewater).This essay reviews GI literature with a focus on water resources and ecosystem services. Itincludes the methods, tools, and techniques available in different approaches, such as lowimpact development (LID), leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED), theBritish Columbia (BC) guidebook, and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)scorecard. It explores different frameworks to start or structure an urban developmentproject.


This article addresses the challenges involved in estimating the ages of clades using fossils and DNA sequences. We review the principles and problems of placing fossils in trees of extant taxa and using them to constrain the ages of nodes in molecular dating analyses. Endressinia and Futabanthus provide minimum ages of 112 Mya for the stem lineage and 89 Mya for the crown group of Annonaceae, and the diversity of endosperm ruminations in seeds from the London Clay indicates that the four main clades of Annonaceae had diverged by 50 Mya. Ages inferred using these minimum constraints and a plastid phylogenetic tree for Annonaceae, particularly crown ages of the two main clades (Malmeoideae and Annonoideae), depend on assumptions regarding the pattern of variation in rates of molecular evolution. Our results using methods that assume rate autocorrelation or log-normal distribution of rates suggest that neither assumption fits well the apparently abrupt changes in rates in Annonaceae. Instead of soft-bounded age constraints, we argue for the use of only well-substantiated fossil evidence by means of priors with hard bounds. Thus, we can infer ages that take into account both palaeontological and phylogenetic uncertainty, without confounding the different factors involved. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 169, 84–116.


Harm caused by preventive programs may be physical, psychological, social or, if informed consent has not been obtained, ethical. Adverse effects of preventive screening programs may occur at any of the three levels of the "screening cascade", the screening procedure itself, the investigation of abnormal results of screening tests or the treatment of detected abnormalities or diseases. The greatest harm occurs at the second and third levels. Examples of procedures that may cause physical harm are venipuncture, mammography, colonoscopy, breast biopsy, transrectal ultrasonography, prostate biopsy, weight-reducing and cholesterol-lowering diets and radical prostatectomy. The psychological and social harm of preventive programs involves anticipated discomfort or perception of adverse effects of preventive interventions; unpleasant interactions with health care workers, time required for preventive programs, excessive overall awareness of health, anxiety over the results of a screening test implications of a positive screening test, consequences of being labelled as "sick" or "at risk," psychopathologic effects induced directly by preventive programs and, in the case of a false-negative test result, false assurance of disease-free status. Since the positive predictive value of screening tests in the general population is always low, most abnormal test results are "false-positive," these engender a great deal of psychological discuss among patients.


Abstract Volatile contents of geologic glasses are used to model magma chamber and degassing processes, thus, there is considerable interest in small-scale analytical techniques for analyzing volatiles in glasses. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy has the advantage of determining volatile speciation in glasses (e.g., OH-, molecular H2O, molecular CO2, and CO3 2-). However, sample preparation for the most common IR method used, micro-transmission IR spectroscopy, is complicated because glasses must be prepared as thin, parallel-sided wafers. Raman analysis, while valuable for Fe-poor samples, can be difficult to use for Fe-rich glasses. We have calibrated a micro-reflectance infrared method for determining volatile species using calculated Kramers-Kronig absorbance (KK-Abs.) spectra that requires that only one side of a glass be polished. The method is easier to use than other reflectance methods where it is difficult to determine the baseline for the IR bands. Total H2O wt% = m·(3600 cm-1 KK-Abs.), where m, is the slope of the calibration line that is obtained from a fit to the data. The m value is related to the calculated refractive index, n, for a range of aluminosilicate glass compositions allowing the technique to be applied to samples with unknown calibration slopes. For calc-alkaline andesite glasses we determined calibration slopes for micro-reflectance IR measurements of molecular H2O, molecular CO2, and CO3 2-. The method has been calibrated for glasses with up to 6.76 wt% total H2O (but is useful for glasses with more than 20 wt% total H2O) and has been calibrated for glasses with up to 0.575 wt% total CO2. This technique provides a means to analyze volatile abundances in samples that are not possible to analyze or prepare for analysis with transmission micro-IR techniques. We have determined volatile contents in fragile samples such as cracked, vesicular, or crystal-bearing glasses formed by volcanic or impact processes or in high-pressure bubble nucleation experiments and H diffusion experiments. We have monitored H uptake during weathering of basaltic glasses that cannot be polished and determined volatiles in melt inclusions and pumice


Mobile IPv6 enables a Mobile Node to maintain its connectivity to the
Internet when moving from one Access Router to another, a process
referred to as handover. During handover, there is a period during
which the Mobile Node is unable to send or receive packets because of
link switching delay and IP protocol operations. This "handover
latency" resulting from standard Mobile IPv6 procedures, namely
movement detection, new Care of Address configuration, and Binding
Update, is often unacceptable to real-time traffic such as Voice over
IP. Reducing the handover latency could be beneficial to non-real-
time, throughput-sensitive applications as well. This document
specifies a protocol to improve handover latency due to Mobile IPv6
procedures. This document does not address improving the link
switching latency. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the
Internet community.


This paper has two interrelated goals. The first is resolution of a recent circuit split on the availability of attorney's fees awards in trademark cases where the prevailing party seeks an award of statutory, rather than actual damages. A detailed review and analysis of both the relevant statutory text and the legislative history of the remedial provisions of the Lanham Act reveals that neither the text nor the intent and purpose of Congress in providing remedies in trademark disputes precludes a prevailing party who elects to receive statutory damages from also recovering attorney's fees, "in exceptional cases".The second goal of this paper is resolution of the issue presented in trademark cases brought under the Anti Cyber-Squatting Consumer Protection Act, or ACPA: What (or who) is the "exceptional" cyber-squatter? The Lanham Act's "exceptional cases" provision is consistently interpreted by Federal Courts at both the trial and appellate levels to require malicious, fraudulent, deliberate, willful, or bad faith conduct on the part of the cyber-squatter. However, as defined in the ACPA, a cyber-squatter has already shown, "bad faith intent to profit", and too often courts confuse that showing with the finding of extraordinarily culpable conduct required to make a case "exceptional" – a prerequisite to any discretionary award of attorney's fees. This paper argues that a clear distinction between the mere act of cyber-squatting, (based in part on a finding of "bad faith intent to profit"), and the extraordinary conduct justifying an attorney's fees award, (including bad faith and willfulness), is necessary to a proper interpretation and application of the Lanham Act and the ACPA.Simply put, many courts seem to implicitly or explicitly assume that all cyber-squatters are "exceptional," and if all cyber-squatters are "exceptional", then none of them are. As neither proposition is supported by the text, purpose, or intent of either the Lanham Act or the ACPA, this paper attempts to distinguish cyber-squatters from "exceptional" cyber-squatters by defining the latter, and shedding much needed light on this frequently decided, but infrequently litigated question.


The mid-term re-intervention rate after ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm repair by endovascular or open repair appears to be twice as high as after elective repair. This suggests the need for bespoke surveillance protocols after rupture. Limb ischaemia is a frequent early reason and distal aneurysms a frequent later reason for re-intervention to indicate where quality improvement programmes might be directed. Limb amputation is uncommon but higher after open repair than after endovascular aneurysm repair. Objective/Background: The aim was to describe the re-interventions after endovascular and open repair of rupture, and investigate whether these were associated with aortic morphology. Methods: In total, 502 patients from the IMPROVE randomised trial (ISRCTN48334791) with repair of rupture were followed-up for re-interventions for at least 3 years. Pre-operative aortic morphology was assessed in a core laboratory. Re-interventions were described by time (0 e 90 days, 3 months e 3 years) as arterial or laparotomy related, respectively, and ranked for severity by surgeons and patients separately. Rare re-interventions to 1 year, were summarised across three ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm trials (IMPROVE, AJAX, and ECAR) and odds ratios (OR) describing differences were pooled via meta-analysis. Results: Re-interventions were most common in the fi rst 90 days. Overall rates were 186 and 226 per 100 person years for the endovascular strategy and open repair groups, respectively ( p ¼ .20) but between 3 months and 3 years (mid-term) the rates had slowed to 9.5 and 6.0 re-interventions per 100 person years, respectively ( p ¼ .090) and about one third of these were for a life threatening condition. In this latter, mid-term period, 42 of 313 remaining patients (13%) required at least one re-intervention, most commonly for endoleak or other endograft complication after treatment by endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) (21 of 38 re-interventions), whereas distal aneurysms were the commonest reason (four of 23) for re-interventions after treatment by open repair. Arterial re-interventions within 3 years were associated with increasing common iliac artery diameter (OR 1.48, 95% con fi dence interval [CI] 0.13 e 0.93; p ¼ .004). Amputation, rare but ranked as the worst re-intervention by patients, was less common in the fi rst year after treatment with EVAR (OR 0.2, 95% CI 0.05 e 0.88) from meta-analysis of three trials. Conclusion: The rate of mid-term re-interventions after rupture is high, more than double that after elective EVAR and open repair, suggesting the need for bespoke surveillance protocols. Amputations are much less common in patients treated by EVAR than in those treated by open repair. (cid:1) This is an open the (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).


This paper describes a framework for automatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma segmentation from CT images. The proposed technique is based on the Region Growing Method. It is automatic segmentation in which an initial seed is generated without human intervention. The seed is generated from a probabilistic map representing the chances of it being tumor. This map is created from three probabilistic functions based on location of the tumor, intensities, and non-tumor region respectively. The pixel in which the probability is the highest will be selected as potential seeds. Only one representative of these seeds will be selected as an initial seed. Then the seed will be used for region growing subsequently. The experimental results showed that the potential seeds and initial seed were correctly determined with a percentage accuracy of 81.60% and 95.10%. The seed was grown in preprocessed CT images for identifying the nasopharyngeal carcinoma region. The results showed that, perfect match and corresponding ratio were 71.31% and 53.00% respectively


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is defined as a systolic pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) above 30 mmHg and a mean PAP above 25 mmHg. Pulmonary hypertensive diseases (PHDs) encompass a myriad of conditions that cause pulmonary hypertension (PH), hence the Evian Classification was developed for the categorization of the various causes. Pulmonary hypertensive diseases are complex conditions that are difficult to treat and in the case of primary pulmonary hypertension, there is no known cure. Dyspnoea on exertion is the main symptom. This usually worsens as the disease progresses and can lead to syncope as a result of right ventricular failure. Prostacyclin has been the mainstay of treatment for decades, but several new drugs and alternate methods of treatment are currently available.


Abstract Background: In accordance with an ongoing activity for worldwide harmonization based on traceability in laboratory methods, the goal of this study was to validate the applicability of recommended "common" reference intervals for serum creatinine concentrations using a specific enzymatic method to the Croatian population. Methods: The reference group consisted of 240 healthy subjects (120 males and 120 females), between 18 and 74 years of age (median 57 years), who were selected in accordance with the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) recommendations. Creatinine in serum was measured using the creatinine enzymatic assay (Olympus OSR61204) that was standardized to the isotopic dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) method and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Material (SRM) 967. In addition, creatinine was measured using a kinetic Jaffe method (Olympus OSR6178) standardized to NIST SRM 909b level 2 standard. Results: Method comparison between enzymatic creatinine (x) and the Jaffe kinetic method (y) gave the following P/B equation for the entire group (n=240): y=1.00x+17.00; r=0.968. Reference intervals for serum creatinine (central 95th percentiles) obtained using the enzymatic creatinine method ranged from 54 to 107 μmol/L for males and from 50 to 93 μmol/L for females. The IFCC recommended common reference intervals for global applications are 64–104 μmol/L and 49–90 μmol/L for males and females, respectively. Conclusions: Comparability of obtained results confirmed the applicability of recently recommended "common" reference intervals to the Croatian population for all laboratories measuring serum creatinine concentrations using enzymatic methods traceable to the IDMS method and NIST SRM 967. Clin Chem Lab Med 2010;48:231–5.


Numerous volcanic ash beds (K-bentonite) are recognized globally in Ordovician to Early Devonian sedimentary successions, and are important for regional stratigraphic correlations. Relatively little, however, is understood of the origin and transport of these ash deposits. Here, we examine ash beds preserved in the Upper Ordovician and Silurian dark shales and mudstones of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, and discuss their origin in the context of contemporaneous tectonic configurations. The Ordovician ash beds occur in the upper Sandbian and Katian mudrock succession, whereas the Silurian K-bentonites form prominent beds in the upper Wenlock and lower Ludlow graptolite shales. Their various thickness and irregular distribution reflect fluctuation of volcanic activity and contribution of physical and biogenic factors in their preservation. Deposition under dysoxic or anoxic conditions and relatively rapid burial by muddy sediment seem to be dominant factors preventing physical and biological reworking and mixing of the volcanic ash. The Upper Ordovician ash beds in the Holy Cross Mountains, as well as the Baltoscandian K-bentonites, appear to be accumulated from pyroclastic material delivered by westerlies of the Southern Hemisphere from the Avalonian volcanoes. In the Silurian, the distribution of pyroclastic material was controlled by SE trade winds, and therefore the source area for the Wenlock and Ludlow K-bentonites in the Holy Cross Mountains appears to have been an active subduction zone developed close to the southeastern side of Baltica. However, the delivery of volcanic ash to the central part of Baltica might have been strongly affected by climatically driven latitudinal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone.


This Letter discusses how linear coupled plasmon particle arrays inspired by radio frequency Yagi-Uda antennas can be used to construct both efficient unidirectional single photon sources and efficient directional single plasmon sources. Calculations using an exact multipole expansion method are presented of the spontaneous emission directivity, efficiency, and spontaneous emission decay rates, taking into account material loss in real noble metals. An analysis of the emission properties in terms of the dispersion relation of infinite arrays reveals how one can use guided mode dispersion to achieve desirable figures of merit. The key ingredient is to couple the source to array eigenmodes that are just beyond the light line but still wave vector matched to propagating modes to within the momentum uncertainty set by the inverse antenna length. Finally, this Letter shows that the emission decay rates can be controlled independently of the directionality and without penalty in quantum efficiency.


Photosynthetic rates and nutn'ent content measurements of subsurface water samples at four predetermined
stations of Sungai Ibai in Trengganu indicated that the wet monsoon pen'od lowers the values
of the former while increasing the ammonium nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen and dissolved oxygen contents.
A seasonal variation in net photosynthetic values is observed, being high during the dry season and low
during the wet monsoon season. However the ammonium nitrogen content exceeds that of either nitrate
nitrogen or reactive phosphorus the whole year through. In relation, the nitrite nitrogen content is insignificant.
The occurrence of high nitrate nitrogen contents could be attributed to increased nitrification
processes while that ofammonium nitrogen to bacterial mineralization or decomposition.


Part of the strategy that Agrobacterium uses to attack its host plant cells includes transferring part of its genome into the plant cell's genome. This DNA transfer event has been effectively used as a tool for plant genetic transformation in the lab. In the natural interaction, Agrobacterium uses a complex of proteins, including both its own and the host's, to effect the transfer of its DNA into the plant cell nucleus. One of the plant's proteins, VIP1, was known to function for Agrobacterium DNA transfer, but its use to the host plant was unknown. Djamei et al. have now discovered that the plant's VIP1 is supposed to function in a pathogen defense cascade. Thus, Agrobacterium derails the plant's defense response by using one of the plant's own effectors to carry the bacterial DNA into the plant nucleus. A. Djamei, A. Pitzschke, H. Nakagami, I. Rajh, H. Hirt, Trojan horse strategy in Agrobacterium transformation: Abusing MAPK defense signaling. Science 318, 453-456 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Cell suspensions of Bacteroides fragilis were allowed to ferment glucose and lactate labeled with 14C in different positions. The fermentation products, propionate and acetate, were isolated, and the distribution of radioactivity was determined. An analysis of key enzymes of possible pathways was also made. The results of the labeling experiments showed that: (i) B. fragilis ferments glucose via the Embden-Meyerhof pathway; and (ii) there was a randomization of carbons 1, 2, and 6 of glucose during conversion to propionate, which is in accordance with propionate formation via fumarate and succinate. The enzymes 6-phosphofrucktokinase (pyrophosphate-dependent), fructose-1,6-diphosphate aldolase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, malate dehydrogenase, fumarate reductase, and methylmalonyl-coenzyme A mutase could be demonstrated in cell extracts. Their presence supported the labeling results and suggested that propionate is formed from succinate via succinyl-, methylmalonyl-, and propionyl-coenzyme A. From the results it also is clear that CO2 is necessary for growth because it is needed for the formation of C4 acids. There was also a randomization of carbons 1, 2, and 6 of glucose during conversion to acetate, which indicated that pyruvate kinase played a minor role in pyruvate formation from phosphoenolpyruvate. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, oxaloacetate decarboxylase, and malic enzyme (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent) were present in cell extracts of B. fragilis, and the results of the labeling experiments agreed with pyruvate synthesis via oxaloacetate and malate if these acids are in equilibrium with fumarate. The conversion of [2-14C]- and [3-14C]lactate to acetate was not associated with a randomization of radioactivity.


In discussing Shakespeare's verbal accounts of pictorial representations, scholars have tended to presuppose a conflict between the two modes, where Shakespeare describes pictures in order to affirm the triumph of words. If, on the other hand, we look in his writing for cooperation between the sister arts, it becomes apparent that each in a different way seeks to make present to consciousness the matter it portrays. Early modern writers value the illusions images can create; Shakespeare's invocation of visual representation generally praises the skill of the artist and seeks to co-opt for his own work the ability to show a simulated reality. Sadly, his writing also recognizes the impossibility of the project: the substance, reality itself, remains beyond the reach of representation, whether in words or pictures. Shakespeare's ekphrasis tests the powers of the signifier to their limits, to reveal that presence is not an option. At the same time, it shows what the signifier can do when it acknowledges those limits. In fiction to name is to evoke possibilities that exceed the reality we already seem to know.


Closed-loop neurostimulation has shown great promise as an alternate therapy for over 30% of the epileptic patient population that remain non-responsive to other forms of treatment. We present an event-based seizure detection algorithm that can be implemented in real-time using low power digital CMOS circuits to form an implantable epilepsy prosthesis. Seizures are detected by classifying and marking out 'events' in the recorded local field potential data and measuring the inter-event-intervals (IEI). The circuit implementation can be programmed post-implantation to custom fit the thresholds for detection. Hippocampal depth electrode recordings are used to validate the efficacy of a designed hardware prototype and thresholds are tuned to produce less than 5% false positives from recorded data.


While the activation of the proto-oncogenes has been implicated in the development and progression of cancer of many tissues, the role of oncogenes in the development of oesophageal adenocarcinoma has not been defined. Fifteen patients who had undergone resection for oesophageal adenocarcinoma and 15 who had undergone oesophagectomy or biopsy for Barrett's oesophagus were studied. The latter patients also had adjacent normal gastric mucosa biopsied for comparison with the metaplastic oesophageal mucosa. The mucosal samples were snap frozen and subsequently stained with monoclonal antibodies to the following oncogene associated proteins; c-erbB2 (neu and CE-1) (external domain), c-erbB2 (NCL-CB11) (internal domain), c-src, c-ras, c-myc, c-fos, c-jun, and the onco-suppressor gene--p53. All tumours were well or moderately differentiated adenocarcinomas arising from the lower third of the oesophagus. Eleven specimens showed strong membraneous staining with both c-erbB2 (neu) and c-erbB2 (CBL-CB11). Seven specimens showed strong nuclear staining with p53 onco-suppressor gene. Three specimens were positive for c-ras and c-src, and two were positive for c-jun. In Barrett's epithelium, nine specimens were positive for c-erbB2 (neu and CB11), three were positive for c-src, two were positive for c-ras and c-jun, and one was positive for c-fos. Two of the gastric mucosal biopsy specimens expressed c-erbB2 weakly but no other oncogenes were found. The frequency of positive staining for c-erbB2 is very high, compared with the expression of these genes in other tumours. It is also concluded that errors in the onco-suppressor gene p53, and especially in the external and internal domains of c-erbB2, which is also often expressed in Barrett's mucosa, may be implicated in the development of adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus.


Current cardiovascular imaging techniques allow anatomical relationships and pathological conditions to be captured in three dimensions. Three-dimensional (3D) printing, or rapid prototyping, has also become readily available and made it possible to transform virtual reconstructions into physical 3D models. This technology has been utilised to demonstrate cardiovascular anatomy and disease in clinical, research and educational settings. In particular, 3D models have been generated from cardiovascular computed tomography (CT) imaging data for purposes such as surgical planning and teaching. This review summarises applications, limitations and practical steps required to create a 3D printed model from cardiovascular CT.


This paper examines the evidence on the forms of politics likely to promote inclusive social provisioning and enable, as opposed to constrain, improvements in service outcomes. It focuses on eight relatively successful cases of delivery in a range of country contexts and sectors (roads, agriculture, health, education) where independent evaluations demonstrate improved outcomes. The paper traces the main characteristics of the political environment for these cases, from the national political context, to the politics of sector policymaking, to the micro politics of implementation. The findings indicate that it is possible to identify connections between good performance and better outcomes at the point of delivery and the main forms of politics operating at local, sector and national levels.

A number of common factors underpinning successful delivery emerge strongly but need to be tested through further research. In particular, the paper highlights the relationship between inclusive delivery and periods of crisis and transition;the nature of the political settlement;the types of calculations of political returns being made by political actors at all levels, and; the extent to which the state derives or seeks to enhance its legitimacy through the provision of a particular service.


This topical volume deals with the adoption of biblical language and narrative and the presentation of 'biblical' images and themes in popular literature, art and mass media. The chapters, all written by experts in cultural studies of the Bible, explore how ideologies are produced, in various ways, when biblical texts are brought into play with each other, with other texts, and with the inevitable and continual demands for cultural and historical translation-or recycling-of the scriptures. The volume contains some theoretical reflections, but focuses on specific examples of cultural translation, and is directed primarily at advanced (graduate) students and scholars in biblical studies, popular studies, media studies, literature, and the arts, although some articles will also be of value and interest to introductory students and the general public. The contributors to this volume are Fiona Black, Susan Lochrie Graham, Chris Heard, Helen Leneman, Phyllis Silverman Kramer, Tina Pippin, Caroline Vader Stichele, Lori Rowlett, Erin Runions, Jan William Tarlin and Richard Walsh.


Abstract. In the recent years, point cloud technologies, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS), Aerial Laser Scanners (ALS), let alone Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS), have come into the focus of attention and have been a subject of considerable public concern in mapping. Thanks to these new techniques, experts can survey large areas with sufficient and homogenous accuracy with high resolution. It comes from this that there are several areas where the point clouds can be used. One of the possible applications of point clouds is updating land registry maps. Many countries worldwide face the issue that a significant part of their large-scale land registry maps are outdated and inaccurate. One of these countries is Hungary, where more than eighty percent of digital cadastre maps were digitised using analogous maps in a scale range of 1:1000 – 1:4000. In this paper, a novel processing queue is presented to find the footprints of the building. Our solution is based on primarily well-known algorithms (RANSAC, DBSCAN) implemented in open-source Python packages. An automated flow was developed, composed of simple processing steps, to cut the point cloud into wall and roof segments and vectorise the wall points under roofs into building footprints. The algorithms and Python programs were tested in villages where detached houses are typical. Tests were made on three study areas in Hungary and we achieved well-promising results.


Abstract Following the completion of the pesticides peer review process in the context of the renewal of the approval of indoxacarb in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 844/2012, EFSA identified critical areas of concern in the area of ecotoxicology, however no expert discussion on that section was held during the renewal process. Following further considerations during the decision‐making process, the European Commission asked EFSA to discuss the risk assessment for herbivorous mammals and the risk to bees in an expert meeting and provide a Statement on the outcome of the updated peer review. The critical areas of concern identified in the renewal process as regards the long‐term risk for mammals, earthworm‐eating mammals and for honeybees are retained.


The serum concentrations of zinc and copper were measured in 50 patients with multiple sclerosis. Lower serum zinc levels were found compared to age- and sex-matched controls. In younger patients low serum copper concentrations were noted. Zinc concentrations in CSF were unchanged. The possibility that malabsorption of the metals causes the low serum concentrations is discussed.


The aim of this thesis was to design, synthesize and characterize dye-doped silica nanoparticles (DDSNPs) to be used as chemosensors or labels in bioanalytical applications. DDSNPs represent one of the most versatile and useful components in nanomedicine displaying important features such as high colloid stability in water, low toxicity, one-pot inexpensive synthesis and tunable fluorescence emission. Starting from the one-pot and highly reproducible synthesis of "silica-core/PEG shell" DDSNPs based on the use of micelles of Pluronic F127, in which take place both hydrolysis and condensation of the silica precursor and of the dyes functionalized with a triethoxysilane group, we developed DDSNPs suitable for optical and optoacustic imaging, drug loading and chemical sensing obtaining very interesting results for the further development of nanomedicine.


Knowledge of the probability of occurrence of major tropical cyclone events forms an integral part of developing hazard mitigation strategies in regions prone to their impact. Queensland landfalling tropical cyclones are analysed in this study in order to provide a climatology of event frequency and magnitude. The adopted modelling approach differs from previous studies in the region in that it focuses specifically on the incorporation of historical and prehistorical information. The availability of such records offers a means to test whether the satellite-based instrumental record, which encompasses only the last few decades, provides a representative sample with which to characterise extremes of the process.

A methodology based on Bayesian statistical techniques is presented and applied to facilitate the incorporation of historical information. Through this approach, historical observations are specified as prior information for models of seasonal activity and intensity. When combined with reliable information from the instrumental record, subsequent inferences on the landfall climatology can be made with greater precision and confidence. Among the statistical models considered is a Poisson distribution for seasonal counts, a Generalised Linear Model that incorporates an index of ENSO as a predictor for seasonal activity, and a Generalised Pareto Distribution for tropical cyclone minimum central pressures.

The inclusion of historical information is shown to lead to increased certainty in parameter estimates for these models. Furthermore, the incorporation of historical information on storm intensities leads to predictions of the frequency of major landfall events that are higher than what would be expected from an analysis using only the instrumental record. A further outcome of implementing a Bayesian strategy is the development of predictive distributions showing the probability of specific levels being reached in future periods.

A trend analysis identified the presence of decadal to multi-decadal variability in seasonal storm numbers and in the strength of the relationship between ENSO and tropical cyclone activity. A statistically significant downward trend in landfalling storm intensities over the 20th century was also detected. For Coral Sea region tropical cyclones, there is also evidence of decadal variability in storm numbers. Interestingly, a marginally significant upward trend in peak intensities is found for the Coral Sea region over the period 1960/61-2004/05, which is in contrast to the general downward trend in landfall intensities. No evidence is found to suggest that ENSO has a direct effect on either regional or landfall storm intensities.

A simulation model was then derived from the Coral Sea region satellite record and subsequently applied to generate a series of landfall events. Comparison of the observed landfall record with this simulated series showed close agreement. A further comparison of observed and simulated records with prehistoric data, previously reconstructed from storm ridge sequences found throughout the Great Barrier Reef region, showed some discrepancy. In particular, estimates based on observed and simulated data were tending to underestimate the frequency of major events. Uncertainties inherent in reconstructing storm intensities from the geological record complicate the utility of this comparison, however, suggesting further work is needed to address the use of prehistoric records as an independent data source.


Competitive hybridization was used to detect the deletion of chromosomal DNA accompanying the loss of resistance to methicillin (and concomitantly, to cadmium, mercury and tetracycline) from a clinical strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The method was also used to screen a partial plasmid library of chromosomal HindIII fragments from the MRSA strain. Eight recombinant plasmid clones were identified as containing DNA included in the deletion. These clones were used as probes to screen a phage library of the total DNA of the same MRSA strain, resulting in the isolation of overlapping recombinant phage clones carrying 24 kb of the deleted DNA. Two of the cloned HindIII fragments were associated closely with methicillin resistance, as shown by probing DNA from an independent methicillin-sensitive/resistant transduced strain pair and from two MRSA strains following growth in the presence of high concentrations of methicillin. The endonuclease map of the cloned DNA indicates the presence of four copies of a direct repeat less than 1 kb in size. The map is also consistent with the presence in the chromosome of sequences for mercury resistance (mer A mer B) and for tetracycline-resistance plasmid pT181.


Maternal mortality (MM) is a matter of serious concern in low income developing countries (LDCs). A great reduction has been observed regarding the maternal deaths globally after huge efforts since 1990 todate. However, the situation continues to be either stagnant or worsening in developing countries, suggesting that the efforts to cope with this issue are either insufficient or not properly implemented. We need to first diagnose the problem areas that are a great hurdle in the road to success towards the reduction of MM. Postpartum hemorrhage and preeclampsia are one of the most common causes of MM. Malnutrition, neurological dysfunction and cancer are among the non-obstetric causes. Trained medical and paramedical staff can be of great help in this regard by increasing awareness among masses at grass root level. Target set by Millennium Development goal has minimized the MM by 44%. But it has not met the target set by Millenium Development Goals 5 and a lot of measures need to be taken in this regard. Majority of the MDs are preventable and can be avoided by adopting appropriate frameworks, linked data sets, surveillance, birth attendants training, preparation for births, etc. Delay in decision to get healthcare, access to healthcare center and receiving these facilities are the main factors in MM.


After you successfully defend your dissertation or doctoral project, what happens? This is a guide to submitting your dissertation or doctoral project for the formatting check and final copy.


Abstract Seed hardening, wetting and redrying of the seed before sowing, promotes germination under low soil-moisture conditions in wheat varieties bred and grown in semi-arid areas. It is unknown, however, whether this is also the case in wheat varieties cultivated in a temperate humid zone. We examined the effect of the seed hardening on germination and seedling emergence under low soil-moisture conditions in a wheat variety, Norin 61, which is cultivated over a wide area of the temperate humid zone in Japan. We first determined the optimum temperature for germination (23° C) and the critical range of soil-moisture (GR) for germination (water-holding capacity of 24%; – 0.30 MPa). Then, we imbibed the seeds of Norin 61 for various periods followed by air-drying, and compared the germination of these seeds and their seedling emergence with those in non-treated seeds at 23°C under GR condition. Imbibition of the seeds for 24 h, which increased the water content to 64%, followed by redrying significantly accelerated the germination and seedling emergence under such conditions. Even in the field, the seed hardening treatment significantly accelerated germination and seedling emergence under both irrigated and non-irrigated conditions. We concluded that seed hardening treatment is available to accelerate the germination of a wheat variety of the temperate humid zone in Japan, Norin 61.


5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) is a newly discovered DNA base modification in mammalian genomic DNA that is proposed to be a major epigenetic mark. We report here the syntheses of two new versions of phosphoramidites III and IV from 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine in 18% and 32% overall yields, respectively, with TBDMS as the 5-hydroxyl protecting group. Phosphoramidites III and IV allow efficient incorporation of 5-hmC into DNA and a "one-step" deprotection procedure to cleanly remove all the protecting groups. A "two-step" deprotection strategy is compatible with ultramild DNA synthesis, which enables the synthesis of 5hmC-containing DNA with additional modifications.


Background: Honey contains several substances with antimicrobial properties that appear more recalcitrant to generating bacterial-evolved resistance than traditional antibiotics. Objectives: This study seeks to characterize the evolution of bacteria grown for successive generations in honey as an antimutagenic medium versus ampicillin. Materials and Methods: A naive strain of Staphylococcus aureus was serially cultured for 17 days in Lysogeny broth (LB) containing sublethal concentrations of medical-grade Manuka honey, polyfloral honey, and ampicillin. Glucose as an osmotic control and pure LB were included for comparison. A portion of each culture was removed every 24 h to (a) determine the amount of growth that occurred during the previous 24 h and (b) use as a genetic stock in serially transferred tubes containing the same inhibitory compound as used previously. Results: As indicated by an increase in growth over sequential 24-h period, bacteria rapidly gained resistance to ampicillin in a step-wise pattern. However, bacteria grown in Manuka and polyfloral honey never exceeded their initial growth levels. Bacteria grown in relatively high concentrations of honey for a single 24-h period consistently lost viability after one transfer, a phenomenon that has not been reported in the literature before and which indicates the inability of bacteria to adapt to honey as an antimutagenic medium. While bacteria grown in honey did not evolve the ability to grow at higher concentrations, a single isolate grown in Manuka honey gained tolerance to Manuka by successfully surviving and proliferating beyond second transfers. Bacteria that developed antibiotic resistance were found to remain sensitive to honey. Moreover, bacteria lost their resistance to ampicillin upon a single exposure to Manuka honey.


The principle of Indonesian diplomacy is 'One Million Friends without Enemies' diplomacy. Agencies and organizations that carry out defense and development activities consistently avoid security issues (high politics) that are closely related to ideology and politics. Security focuses on defending the country against military threats that emanate from outside its territory. When the cold war ended, the concept of security was transformed. After the Cold War, there was a change in the balance of power and the opening of doors for international organizations other than the state to interact. The view of security shifted so that it demanded the democratization of the security sector and allowed changes to the security institutions to follow the principles of democracy. Traditional interpretations in terms of interaction between nations are no longer talking about security (security) related to military power (high politics) but security is also influenced by economic, social and cultural, technological progress (low politics). This study uses a qualitative method. Based on the results of research and discussion regarding the implementation of cultural diplomacy of West Papua and defense diplomacy policies at the Ministry of Defense of the Republic Indonesia, the following conclusions can be drawn: Researchers in analyzing used the concept of Edward III (1980). Important functions for a country, among others, are the diplomatic functions of representation, where in this function, delegates from one country negotiate with other countries with a purpose that is to explain some of these countries. Then the diplomacy function in the negotiation function, in this function a country has the right to negotiate related to the country in terms of negotiations related to trade or bilateral cooperation of a country. And lastly there is a diplomacy function in the reporting function, where in this function a diplomat conducts negotiations about the culture, military, and commercial issues in his country.


Mobile instant messaging (MIM) services have entirely changed the communication landscape from where it was a decade ago. They have taken communication among humans to the next level. However, despite their massive popularity among masses, we do not know of specific reasons that drive continuous use of MIM apps (e.g., LINE, WhatsApp, and Snapchat). The current study bridges this gap by investigating the continuation behavior in the context of a popular MIM app called LINE. The study developed a comprehensive framework using three popular consumer behavior theories, namely theory of planned behavior, flow experience theory, and consumption value theory. A total of 309 middle and late adolescent LINE users participated in an online survey. The analysis revealed that perceived ease of use (PEOU), functional value, and social value exert significant positive influences on users' continuation intentions. The PEOU was found to have the strongest influence among all. Additionally, social influence was found to have the significant but negative influence on users' continuation intentions. However, other factors (perceived enjoyment, concentration, telepresence, and perceived behavioral control) have no role in predicting continuation intentions. Furthermore, continuation intentions were found to have no impact on users' actual LINE use related behavior. The findings of the present research offer several theoretical and managerial implications.


Objectives: The goal of this study was to compare measurements of values such as the anterior chamber angle (ACA), thickness of the iris, thickness of the cornea, and the angle-opening distance (AOD) of eyes with primary open-angle glaucoma before and after undergoing phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT). Methods: The data of 49 eyes of 39 glaucoma patients who presented at the Cataract and Refractive Surgery Unit of the Ophthalmology Clinic of , University of Health Sciences, Istanbul Traning and Research Hospital between December 2014 and May 2016 were included in the study. All of the patients were examined with AS-OCT. All of the preoperative and postoperative data were evaluated statistically using a paired t-test and the Wilcoxon test. A statistical significance level of alpha was accepted as p<0.05. Results: The AS-OCT measurements of 39 patients (22 women and 17 men) with primary open-angle glaucoma were included in the study. The median age of the total population was 67±8years. No statistically significant difference was found between preoperative and postoperative measurements of the corneal thickness (p=0.480). However, there was a statistically significant difference between measurements of the ACA, AOD (500μm and 750μm), thickness of the iris curvature, anterior chamber depth, and trabecular-iris space area before and after the operation (p<0.001). Intraocular pressure (IOP) levels decreased significantly in the first and third months after surgery (p=0.019; p=0.003, respectively). Conclusion: This study with AS-OCT imaging has confirmed after phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation in patients with glaucoma, the angle of the anterior chamber grows wider. As a result, IOP decreases and becomes easier to control.


Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified in a range of plant genomes. Development of rapid, low-cost methods to enable their validation and implementation as molecular markers is now required for practical applications. We report the development of single and multi-nucleotide primer extension assays to genotype co-dominant SNPs from small quantities of barley leaf tissue. In the single nucleotide primer extension assay, a genotyping primer with its 3′ end directly flanking a SNP was annealed to a target sequence and extended by a single dideoxynucleotide triphosphate complementary to the polymorphic base. In the multi-nucleotide primer extension assay, designed to facilitate allele calling, the genotyping primer with its 3′ end flanking the SNP was extended by either 1 or 2 nucleotides, depending on the allele encountered. Extension products were analysed using MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry and, making use of the molecular weight difference between DNA bases, the incorporated nucleotides were identified by the increase in mass of the extended primers. Based on a SNP identified in the barley Mlo gene, primer extension assays were designed and used for co-dominant marker-assisted selection of barley seedlings segregating for mlo-mediated resistance to powdery mildew. This allowed accurate selection of progeny lines carrying alleles for resistance to powdery mildew, including heterozygotes. Doubled haploid barley progenies were screened for Mlo alleles and a complete correlation between mlo/mlo genotype and resistant phenotype was found The method has been used by barley breeders for routine selection of barley genotypes resistant to powdery mildew.


The aim of this study was to examine the associations between the combined effects of urinary 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanine (8-OHdG) level and polymorphisms of XRCC1 Arg194Trp and XRCC1 Arg399Gln on the risk of urothelial carcinoma (UC). We conducted a hospital-based case-control study that included 168 cases of UC and 336 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. We used polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses to examine the genotypes of XRCC1 Arg194Trp and XRCC1 Arg399Gln. We used a competitive in vitro enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to determine urinary 8-OHdG levels. The XRCC1 399 Gln/Gln genotype and the XRCC1 194 Arg/Arg genotype were positively correlated to UC (OR [95%CI] = 2.27 [1.20–4.27] and 1.59 [1.06–2.36], respectively). Urinary 8-OHdG levels were associated with UC in a dose-dependent manner. Participants with the XRCC1 (Arg399Gln) Gln/Gln genotype or the G-C/A-C haplotype of XRCC1 and a high urinary 8-OHdG level had a significantly higher risk of UC than those with the Arg/Arg + Arg/Gln genotype or the G-T haplotype and a low urinary 8-OHdG level. This is the first study to investigate the combined effect of urinary 8-OHdG level and XRCC1 polymorphisms on UC risk. The findings are especially meaningful for participants with XRCC1 399Gln or XRCC1 Arg194 genotypes and a high urinary 8-OHdG level, since these variables are associated with an increased risk of UC.


The City of Milan started the door to door collection of organic (food) waste in some city areas in 2012. After 1.5 years, the service has been extended to all households in the city. Food waste is collected in special biodegradable bags and transferred to an anaerobic digestion plant which generates biogas and compost. Thanks to the high involvement of citizens, the current recycling rate of food waste in Milan is already above the EU target of 50% by 2020. That is why Milan is currently considered the international leader in organic waste collection and recycling. Also, in 2014, the City of Milan has pledged to develop its overall Food Policy on a five year term.


This paper aims to present findings from a recent study examining current records management as fit for digital government in Australia.,This paper draws on findings from the first phase of research for a postdoctoral degree. This research was collected through an online quantitative survey of government records management professionals in Australia. The survey's purpose was to understand whether the profession has kept pace with advances in, and expectations of, digital government. Building on the findings of the survey, this paper explores the concepts of methodology and methods and applies them to current digital records management in the Australian Government. Methodology for Australian Government digital records management is contained in the 2015 Digital Continuity 2020 policy. However, measuring method proved more difficult. The researcher supplemented data published by the National Archives of Australia and the Department of Finance with data from her own research to measure the validity of methods by examining suitability of current requirements.,Australian Government records management professionals overwhelmingly feel requirements, organisational culture and behaviour form a barrier to implementing successful records management programs. This paper finds that the Australian Government is buying ten times more digital storage per year than the sum of all of the digital Australian Government records known. This suggests perhaps not all records are recognised. While there will always be more storage than records, the ratio should not be so inflated. Further problems are found with requirements for records management being seen as mostly paper-based and too resource intensive to be of use. This research, combined with a contemporary literature review, shows that there is an imbalance with the current methodology and methods and asks the question: Has a methodology (Digital Continuity 2020) been created without suitable and known methods being in place?,The method for collecting survey data was based on self-reporting, which can lead to limitations in that the population sample may exaggerate their response or demonstrate bias. However, responses to the survey were common enough to eliminate bias. The study is based on the Australian Government; however, findings may translate to other governments. This paper presents findings from the first phase of research of a postdoctoral degree. Not all findings are presented, only those relevant to the topic.,As the Australian Government moves to become a true digital government, records management is still required to ensure accountability of government actions and decisions. However, while the government transitions to digital, and information stores continue to grow, the question of whether records management has kept up with the rapid pace of digital information flow and expansion does not need to be asked. Instead, the time has come to ask, "What can we do to keep up?"


Making use of ideas and concepts from Barbara Cassin's philosophy of translations and of l'histoire croisée, this essay explores the shared cultures of religious reading between the Dutch and French languages in the late medieval period. While religious literature disseminated in both Dutch and German has received a fair amount of attention in recent scholarship, religious and devotional texts that were available to readers in both Dutch and French have remained understudied. By providing an overview of the most important religious literature that was translated from French into Dutch and the other way around, and of texts originally composed in Latin in the Low Countries and translated into both vernacular languages, we argue that textual mobility between the two languages was frequent and reciprocal. Casestudies of two texts – Pierre Michault's La Danse aux aveugles and Gerrit van der Goude's Boexken vander Missen – further indicate that changes – or the lack thereof – in texts that moved between the two languages point to shared cultures of religious reading on equal terms.


OF DISSERTATION DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASURE OF CRAVING SUPPRESSION While there is evidence to support the efficacy of mindfulness-based treatment for substance use, the mechanisms through which they lead to therapeutic outcomes have received less attention. A growing body of literature suggests that the ways in which people respond to cravings may be an important mediator of change. Individuals with substance use problems may use them to cope with or avoid negative experiences, which could include the experience of craving itself. Thought suppression in particular has been investigated as a specific form of experiential avoidance, and findings suggest that thought suppression strategies may interfere with attempts to quit using substances. While mindfulness training should be expected to reduce the tendency to suppress or avoid cravings, evidence to support this expectation is limited, largely because no measures yet exist that assess the suppression of craving. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to develop a self-report measure of the suppression of craving. Existing measures of other types of thought suppression and experiential avoidance were examined to identify items that could be adapted for use in the Craving Suppression Scale (CSS). To assist with the item development process, a focus group was also conducted at a local residential treatment facility. Participants were asked to discuss what they do when they are experiencing cravings and what thoughts go through their minds when cravings come up. Their responses were used to guide content development for the CSS items. Items were developed for two sub-scales: suppression of craving and beliefs about craving. Items were administered to a sample of inpatients in substance use treatment and an online sample of individuals reporting current or previous substance use problems (total N = 208). Factor analysis of the remaining items supported a two-factor structure for the CSS as hypothesized. Relationships were examined between the CSS and other measures of other forms of experiential avoidance/suppression, craving, and emotional distress. The CSS scales correlated well with other measures of suppression but had mixed relationships with other constructs of interest. Evidence for the validity and potential utility of the CSS are discussed along with theoretical and treatment implications.


In this paper, we propose an efficient low-complexity switch network design for reconfigurable low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoders. The proposed architecture leads to significant reductions in hardware complexity. Since the structured quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes for most modern wireless communication systems include multiple code rates, various block lengths, and different sizes of submatrices, a reconfigurable LDPC decoder is desirable and the barrel shifter needs to be programmable. The Benes network cannot be optimized as the barrel shifter for a reconfigurable LDPC decoder when the input size of barrel shifter is not a power of 2. Also, it is not trivial to generate all the control signals on-the-fly for numerous 2 × 2 switches in the switch network. In this paper, a novel low-complexity switch network design is proposed, which can be used efficiently when the input size of barrel shifters is not a power of 2. Furthermore, we propose a novel algorithm to generate all the control signals, which can be implemented with a small size of lookup table (LUT) or a simple combination logic on-the-fly, using the properties that both the full-size switch network can be broken into two half-size switch networks and the barrel shifters for the structured QC LDPC decoders require only cyclic shifts. Compared with conventional Benes networks using a dedicated LUT or a complicated signal generating algorithm, the proposed architectures achieve significant hardware reductions in implementing the barrel shifters for reconfigurable LDPC decoders. In synthesis result using the TSMC 0.18-¿m standard cell CMOS technology, the proposed switch network for a reconfigurable LDPC decoder of IEEE 802.16e and IEEE 802.11n can be implemented with an area of 0.772 mm2, which leads to a significant area reduction.


Significance Submicrometer sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles play a critical role in determining cloud properties in marine environments. Typically, it is assumed that submicrometer SSA particles mainly originate from bubble-cap films bursting at the sea surface. However, we show that in addition to this formation pathway, a substantial fraction of submicrometer SSA particles are also produced from jet drops. Using an experimental approach that relies on differences in the electrical mobility of jet and film drops, we show that jet drops contribute up to 43% of total submicrometer SSA number concentrations. As shown herein, these two different production pathways result in an externally mixed submicrometer SSA population with two distinct chemical compositions with significantly different ice nucleating activities. The oceans represent a significant global source of atmospheric aerosols. Sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles comprise sea salts and organic species in varying proportions. In addition to size, the overall composition of SSA particles determines how effectively they can form cloud droplets and ice crystals. Thus, understanding the factors controlling SSA composition is critical to predicting aerosol impacts on clouds and climate. It is often assumed that submicrometer SSAs are mainly formed by film drops produced from bursting bubble-cap films, which become enriched with hydrophobic organic species contained within the sea surface microlayer. In contrast, jet drops formed from the base of bursting bubbles are postulated to mainly produce larger supermicrometer particles from bulk seawater, which comprises largely salts and water-soluble organic species. However, here we demonstrate that jet drops produce up to 43% of total submicrometer SSA number concentrations, and that the fraction of SSA produced by jet drops can be modulated by marine biological activity. We show that the chemical composition, organic volume fraction, and ice nucleating ability of submicrometer particles from jet drops differ from those formed from film drops. Thus, the chemical composition of a substantial fraction of submicrometer particles will not be controlled by the composition of the sea surface microlayer, a major assumption in previous studies. This finding has significant ramifications for understanding the factors controlling the mixing state of submicrometer SSA particles and must be taken into consideration when predicting SSA impacts on clouds and climate.


Few studies have examined whether familiarity of partner affects social responses in children with autism. This study investigated heart rate regulation (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]: The myelinated vagus nerve's regulation of heart rate) and temporal-parietal electroencephalogram (EEG) activity while nineteen 8- to 12-year-old children with autism and 14 controls viewed videos of a familiar and an unfamiliar person reading a story. Children with autism had lower overall RSA levels and exhibited decreased RSA to the unfamiliar person, versus control children. Both groups decreased temporal-parietal EEG activity to the unfamiliar person. Higher RSA was related to higher social skill ratings and fewer problem behaviors. Thus, the social difficulties of children with autism may be characterized by specific mobilization to unfamiliar people.


Abstract. Quantifying true patterns of biodiversity change over the Cenozoic has major implications for all of biology and paleontology but is still a source of significant debate. The problem centers on the magnitude and nature of several well-known sampling effects and analytical biases in the fossil record, including the Pull of the Recent. We test the effect of the Pull of the Recent at both generic and species levels on the exemplary New Zealand Cenozoic marine mollusk fossil record. We examine several biological traits of species to determine whether particular attributes of taxa control their likely presence or absence in the youngest fossil record (<2.4 Ma). We demonstrate that, for a tectonically active region, the Pull of the Recent does not exert a strong effect on apparent diversity patterns of genera and species over the Cenozoic at temporal scales typically used in global and regional biodiversity analyses. This result agrees with previous studies quantifying the effect of the Pull of the Recent in the marine and terrestrial realms at the genus level. The effect of the Pull of the Recent, although small, is greatest for the youngest fossil record (<2.4 Ma), particularly for species. This increase cannot easily be explained by effects related to shell mineralogical composition, size, habitat, taxonomic class, or lithification. The small effect that the Pull of the Recent exerts on the New Zealand molluscan fossil record implies that the apparent rise in regional marine diversity during the Cenozoic represents a true biological signal and/or reflects other confounding effects not considered here.


. In this paper we consider how 'smartness' should be designed to enhance the communication in the home. We aim to evoke a rethinking of how smart technologies should be embedded in perspectives of user needs. Through a set of experimental studies, which employ a Wizard of Oz (WoZ) as design and evaluation methodology, we observe and analyse user interactions accordingly with the wizard's simulations. Based on experiment results, our argument is, designing smartness for communication in the home should not heavily rely on invisibly distributed sensors and networks due to interaction design misunderstandings that a large number of sensors and networks can make ambient intelligence with few user understandings. The results also argue that, smartness can be realised by first improving the integration of personal information into the environments, which is closely relevant to social routines.


Nanostructured materials have attracted considerable interest over the last few decades to enhance sensing capabilities thanks to their unique properties and large surface area. In particular, noble metal nanostructures offer several advantages including high stability, non-toxicity and excellent electrochemical behaviour. However, in recent years the great expansion of point-of-care (POC) and wearable systems and the attempt to perform measurements in tiny spaces have also risen the need of increasing sensors miniaturization. Fast constant potential electrodeposition techniques have been proven to be an efficient way to obtain conformal platinum and gold nanostructured layers on macro-electrodes. However, this technique is not effective on micro-electrodes. In this paper, we investigate an alternative one-step deposition technique of platinum nanoflowers on micro-electrodes by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The effective deposition of platinum nanoflowers with similar properties to the ones deposited on macro-electrodes is confirmed by morphological analysis and by the similar roughness factor (~200) and capacitance (~18 μF/mm2). The electrochemical behaviour of the nanostructured layer is then tested in an solid-contact (SC) Li+-selective micro-electrode and compared to the case of macro-electrodes. The sensor offers Nernstian calibration with same response time (~15 s) and a one-order of magnitude smaller limit of detection (LOD) (2.6×10−6) with respect to the macro-ion-selective sensors (ISE). Finally, sensor reversibility and stability in both wet and dry conditions is proven.


TH E STATE LABOR PARTY (1940-1944) is seldom remembered these days. It gets only a passing reference in James Jupp1, while Alistair Davidson in his recent history of the Communist Party of Australia seems to regard it as little more than a convenient legal party for under-cover Communists*. A t a time when the CPA is actively seeking closer cooperation and alliance with various Left elements it is worth examining this earlier alliance more carefully. The following pages represent a brief and somewhat personal account of this story. I write it this way because my own political biography is a part of the story and because to tell it as a participant is perhaps better than to write it as an academic exercise.


ABSTRACT Clavispora lusitaniae is an opportunistic human pathogen responsible for 0.6 to 2% of candidemia. This species is intrinsically susceptible to echinocandins. Nevertheless, in this study, development of echinocandin resistance in C. lusitaniae isolates was observed during caspofungin treatment. This resistance resulted from missense mutation in the echinocandin target Fks1 gene.


A gutter oil scandal was discovered in Shanghai in April 2012. The adulterated oil contained harmful chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and Aflatoxin, which could have potential risks to several health effects caused by carcinogenic PAH consumed by both customers and occupational workers through cooking oil fumes. This scandal not only adversely impacted public health but alerted government and society to food safety. However, cooking oil quality is not listed in the criteria of restaurant rate evaluations by Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). According to previous studies on characteristics of cooking oil PAH, elevated biomarkers of PAH exposure have been found among food professionals who use cooking oil to process food. More research is needed since we lack research into the exposure of cooks under current regulations. Also, the effectiveness of the current regulations are unknown. The public health significance of this study is to provide substantial data for improving the laws and regulations of the restaurant evaluation system and taking a more serious look at PAH exposure among food professionals. In this essay, my hypothesis is that cooks are exposed to different concentrations of airborne PAH between good-rated and excellent-rated restaurants due to the various qualities of cooking oil. The airborne [PAH] in oil and [PAH] in urine will be collected and measured by cartridge filters, Personal Environmental Monitors (PEM) and urine samples from non-smoking cooks. Follow-up sampling and exposure analyses will be carried out based on my hypothesis. The result of these analyses would be sent to both government bodies, such as SFDA and Health Supervision Bureau, and restaurant communities as well. The further goals include to alert food professionals the potential risks of PAH exposure and to urge SFDA to modify current restaurant evaluation system and set up standards for cooking oil quality.


Continuum percolation theory has recently been used to find the saturation, S, dependence of the hydraulic conductivity, K(S), of probabilistic fractal porous media. Analysis of K(S) in conjunction with solute diffusion revealed the presence of a critical volume fraction, θt, for percolation in natural porous media. For moisture contents within a few percent of θt, K(S) depends on the moisture content as a power of θ − θt At higher moisture contents, K(S) is determined through critical path analysis, which uses continuum percolation theory to find the dependence of a bottleneck (flow‐limiting) pore radius on S The physics near θt is thus dominated by connectivity and tortuosity issues, but far from θt by the variations in the radius of a bottleneck pore. Here it is demonstrated that the bottleneck pore radius for air permeability, ka, does not change as a function of saturation. Using the same scaling for the air permeability in the vicinity of the percolation of the air phase as proposed for the hydraulic conductivity in the vicinity of the percolation of the water phase yields results for ka in accordance with experimental data.