The USDA has used bidding to enroll land into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and may use similar mechanisms to implement other policy instruments in which some or all agricultural land cropping rights are acquired to protect or increase environmental amenities. Experience with the CRP suggests that current enrollees are being compensated in excess of the lowest payment they would be willing to accept in exchange for loss of cropping rights. While it may be prohibitively expensive to estimate such reservation prices on all potential CRP parcels, it is likewise difficult to design a bidding mechanism that induces landowners to reveal these values. While the competitive bidding and contingent valuation literatures provide some guidance, the problem of designing a cost effective bidding mechanism for land retirement does not conform precisely to situations in which theoretical, experimental or case study results have been reported. Despite this, realistic incremental changes in the CRP's current bidding mechanism that induce competitive behavior among bidders appear to portend significant savings in government outlays.


Individuals are more frequently having recourse to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) to realize their desire for offspring. Where they do so, they may choose to fertilize their gametes and implant the resultant embryos immediately, or they may choose to freeze their embryos for later use. The latter option brings with it greater potential for legal disputes as relationships terminate, parties change their minds, and disagreements arise regarding the fate of frozen embryos. This article, therefore, examines the South African legal framework for addressing disputes involving frozen embryos. The aim is to assess whether the current legal framework is adequate, and whether lessons can be learnt from other jurisdictions faced with similar legal disputes.


Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) often have accompanying hypertension, diabetes, and aberrant levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. This diverse group of risk factors is collectively known as "metabolic syndrome," but the underlying molecular mechanisms that link these disorders are still poorly understood. Mani et al. have identified the causative mutation in a family afflicted with a rare, inherited form of early-onset CAD that cosegregates with many features of metabolic syndrome. The culprit gene encodes low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6), a co-receptor in the Wnt cellular signaling pathway. A. Mani, J. Radhakrishnan, H. Wang, A. Mani, M.-A. Mani, C. Nelson-Williams, K. S. Carew, S. Mane, H. Najmabadi, D. Wu, R. P. Lifton, LRP6 mutation in a family with early coronary disease and metabolic risk factors. Science 315, 1278-1282 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In this study, we assessed the effect of exercise-induced muscle damage on knee extensor muscle strength during isometric, concentric and eccentric actions at 1.57 rad · s -1 and vertical jump performance under conditions of squat jump, countermovement jump and drop jump. The eight participants (5 males, 3 females) were aged 29.5 - 7.1 years (mean - s ). These variables, together with plasma creatine kinase (CK), were measured before, 1 h after and 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 days after a bout of muscle damaging exercise: 100 barbell squats (10 sets 2 10 repetitions at 70% body mass load). Strength was reduced for 4 days ( P ≪ 0.05) but no significant differences ( P > 0.05) were apparent in the magnitude or rate of recovery of strength between isometric, concentric and eccentric muscle actions. The overall decline in vertical jump performance was dependent on jump method: squat jump performance was affected to a greater extent than countermovement (91.6 - 1.1% vs 95.2 - 1.3% of pre-exercise values, P ≪ 0.05) and drop jump (95.2 - 1.4%, P ≪ 0.05) performance. Creatine kinase was elevated ( P ≪ 0.05) above baseline 1 h after exercise, peaked on day 1 and remained significantly elevated on days 2 and 3. Strength loss after exercise-induced muscle damage was independent of the muscle action being performed. However, the impairment of muscle function was attenuated when the stretch-shortening cycle was used in vertical jumping performance.


The coefficient of consolidation (cv) is traditionally determined by fitting observed settlement–time data to the theoretical average degree of consolidation versus time factor relationship developed by Terzaghi. Although it is widely accepted that different curve-fitting methods can produce different values of cv, very few comparisons have been conducted to assess the validity of these methods. In this study, the settlement–time data gathered from conventional oedometer tests conducted on three different clays were analysed using three common curve-fitting techniques: the Casagrande log-time method, Taylor's root-time method, and the Cour inflection point method. A new method proposed by the authors for calculating cv, which abandons the traditional curve-fitting approach in favour of a computational-based approach, was also used to compare these results. To assess the validity of each cv value, the experimental results were compared with the theoretical average degree of consolidation curve and quantified using the root-mean-square (rms) error. The efficacy of the designated curve-fitting method was found to significantly depend upon the "shape" of the settlement–time curve generated during testing. For example, in this study, clay containing a significant fraction of fine sand often resulted in settlement–time curves that exhibited no clear inflection point, which made analysis using the Cour method very difficult. In general, the Taylor method predicted larger values of cv than the Casagrande method, and correspondingly smaller rms errors. The variance method proposed by the authors resulted in values of cv that more closely matched those generated using the Casagrande method. However, smaller rms errors were achieved using the variance method, which suggests that this technique may produce a more realistic estimate of cv than the Casagrande method.


This paper examines the relationship between competition, innovation and productivity for the Netherlands. We use industry level data aggregated from micro data as well as moments from firm level data for the period 1996-2006. We match innovation data from Community Innovation Survey with accounting data to link innovative activities with performance at the industry level. We find strong evidence for a positive impact of competition on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) at the industry level. Competition directly increases TFP by reducing X-ineficiencies and removing inefficient forms from markets, but also through more innovation. Nonetheless, there exists an inverted U- curve between competition and innovation for the Netherlands, at least for manufacturing industries. Yet, our results indicate that a negative effect of competition on productivity through lower innovation expenditures arises only at very high levels of competition.


The results of an analytical review of the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) in agricultural production are presented. Results of remote sensing of agricultural land in the form of color images can be obtained using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). UAV can be used as aerial robots that perform aerial photography functions, transport technological components such as plant protection products, and perform other similar functions. Other functional equipment can be installed on the aircraft: thermal imagers, multispectral and IR cameras, etc., using the data obtained from the UAV, you can create an orthophotoplane or a 3D model of the area, make a map of heights, determine the state of fields, crops and determine their vegetation indices NDVI. A classification of UAV application areas in agricultural production is proposed, which involves ordering the UAV application areas in agriculture. To obtain and process remote sensing data from UAVs in different parts of the spectrum, a conceptual model of the software package has been developed. The software package is intended for receiving and processing the results of monitoring and subsequent analysis of the set of calculated vegetation indices. The main research tasks solved by the software developer and determining its structure are formulated. To predict productivity, a method of applying the results of aerial photography in combination with experimental data on the biological development of agricultural crops has been developed. For practical use of the developed methodology, a database for each culture is formed. The results obtained from UAV are used to construct regression and matrix mathematical models of the relationship between optical-spectral characteristics and crop yields.


One of the most important consequences of future climate change may be an alteration of the surface hydrological balance, including changes in flow regimes, i.e . seasonal distribution of flow and especially the time of occurrence of high/low flow, which is of vital importance for environmental and economic policies. Classification of flow regimes still has an important role for the analyses of hydrological response to climate change as well as for validating climate models on present climatic and hydrologic data, however, with some modifications in the methodology. In this paper an approach for flow regime classification is developed in this context. Different ways of flow regime classification are discussed. The stability of flow regimes is studied in relation to changes in mean annual temperature and precipitation. The analyses have shown that even rather small changes in these variables can cause changes in river flow regimes. Different patterns of response have been traced for different regions of the Nordic countries.


A method for the recovery of the temporal structure and phases in natural gesture is presented. The work is motivated by recent developments in the theory of natural gesture which have identified several key aspects of gesture important to communication. In particular, gesticulation during conversation can be coarsely characterized as periods of bi-phasic or tri-phasic gesture separated by a rest state. We first present an automatic procedure for hypothesizing plausible rest state configurations of a speaker; the method uses the repetition of subsequences to indicate potential rest states. Second, we develop a state-based parsing algorithm used to both select among candidate rest stares and to parse an incoming video stream into bi-phasic and multi-phasic gestures. We present results from examples of story-telling speakers.


It is obvious that the patient is dying. She is 92 years old with multiple medical problemsso many that my tired intern mind can barely list them on morning rounds. History of metastatic colon cancer, diabetes, advanced dementia, congestive heart failure But the family wants everything doneso we do our job efficiently and thoroughly. The attending physician recommends an MRI to clarify the diagnosis of the patient's sudden limb weakness, and I write the order down, then initial it. It feels routine now, this mundane ordering of expensive tests with no questions asked about cost. No more do I feel the sense of wonder and amazement that suffused me when I first started working as a physician in the United States. Like Medical Disneylandas many diagnostic and therapeutic rides as you want. And no lines in this amusement park, Sir! So I ordered them all, the MRIs, the CTs, the PET scansthis was larger-than-life medicine. But for some reason today, as I order the scan and look into the hazy eyes of this 92-year-old lady with a dying body that all these thousands of dollars will not save, I think back to the boy. While a medical student in India, I was on call one night in the ER (or casualty, as it is known in India), asleep soundly in a room that I was sharing with the intern, when we were awakened by loud knocking on the door. The government hospital could not afford pagers, so the system of choice was Ramappa, the orderly, who was sent to wake up physicians whenever there was an admission. The method was a bit alarming, especially at two in the morning, but it was foolproofthere was no but my pager didn't go off. I woke up with my face and scalp itching. A few mosquitoes had made their way through little rents in the mosquito net and now in the dim light I could see them hovering around, replete and sluggish. What is it? the intern asks sleepily. One boy has come to casualty, Doctor. He feels sick and wants medicine. Ramappa had a talent for giving us no information at all yet managing to sound like he was imparting details that were clinically crucial. We go to the casualty where a boy sits in the corner wearing a ragged cotton shirt a few sizes too big and blue shorts, the color beaten out of them. His bony legs are dry and scarred and his bare feet do not reach the ground as he sits on the stone bench. His hair is wispy brown, his eyes sad, and his belly protrudes below prominent ribs. This small front room is used as a waiting room but also, when things are busy, as an examination room or sometimes even for minor surgical procedures. There is no doorit was never designed for one with its wide archways and open windowsand the smell of disinfectant is not as strong here in the cool night air. Moths fuss around the bright lamp on the roof and there is the soft clatter of a bandicoot scurrying along the rafters. In the adjoining room, separated from this one only by a small corridor, coarse jute rope restrains a man to one of ten beds. He is screaming loudly in a psychotic rage induced by the atropine administered as an antidote to the insecticides he swallowed earlier today. Love problem, Doctor, Ramappa had told me earlier. On another bed sits Shivarama, the other orderly, who has been assigned to watch over the restrained man. The boy just sits there looking at the moths. Now Shivarama lights a leisurely beedian Indian hand-rolled cigaretteand watches us as we try to talk to the boy over the screams. He tells us he is from a nearby village and has run away from home to the city after his stepmother beat him again for the fourth time this week. I see bruises on his arms, his chest, and his backblack and red, they look like he has been playing Holithe festival where people throw colored powders on each other to celebrate the first day of harvest season. I have sugar problem, Doctor, he says. The intern tells me to take care of this and goes to the next cubicleanother man has just been carried in after being hit by a speeding truck. I was taking injections for high sugar in my blood, he continues in fluent Hindi, and then my mother died 2 months ago and my father married again. She has two children, so there is no money for injections now. He looks vacantly at the red-oxide floor. I have been vomiting the whole day, Doctor, and now I feel like I will faint. I examine him gently, afraid to push and prod too hard, his bones seem fragile and brittle with malnutrition. I feel his pulseit is rapid and thready. His mouth is parched and he has the sick sweet breath of diabetic ketoacidosis. Do you get enough food to eat? I ask. She says it is better to keep the food for healthy children, Sir. So my stepbrother and stepsister get most of the food. Anyway, it will be all wasted if I eat because very soon I will die from sugar disease. As I examine him, I ask him how old he is. Eighteen, he says. The fountain of youth for this boy is disease and malnutritionhis growth stunted and his development arrested, he looks about twelve. I check his blood sugar. It is 664. I cannot check his electrolytes because the lab has run out of supplies tonight. My sugar is high, no? He looks at me. If I did not have the disease I could drink sweet, sweet juice every day isn't it, Doctor? My mother used to give me the juice of fresh oranges sometimes, before she died. I nod absently, worried about his condition. He is obviously in urgent need of fluids and insulin. I am going to take him to the ward to get him admitted, I call out to the intern. There is no one to help us with a stretcher so we walk to the adult ward, the boy shuffling next to me in exhaustion and thirst. When we get to the ward, the clerk tells me the ward is full. I can see, over his shoulder, people crammed into every available bed, some accommodated on mattresses in the narrow corridors. I decide to take the boy to the pediatrics ward. Say you are sixteen, I tell the boy. I know admission criteria are strictly enforced and only patients under eighteen years of age are admitted. How old are you? the admissions clerk asks the boy. He is sixteen, I tell the clerk. No, I want the boy to tell. The clerk glares at me, then turns to the boy again. How old are you, I say? Uh His big black eyes are wide with nervousness and fear of this big-city clerk and big strange hospital building. Answer my question, I say! the clerk points a pen at the boy, irritated by this delay in the proceedings. I am eighteen, Sir, the boy says softly. Then no admission. Sorry Doctor, you are bringing adult person here, we can't admit him. He is adult, the clerk says pointing the pen at the boy again. I know that here, in these aging government hospitals that take care of India's poor, bureaucracy reigns supreme. But I am angry with the clerk for enforcing petty rules when someone's life is at stake. Listen here, this boy needs treatment soon, otherwise he will definitely die. There is no place in the adult ward and that's why I brought him here. But the clerk shakes his head again. No, no admission here, he is adult. I don't care if he is an adult! I say, feeling frustrated and powerless. If you don't admit him I will speak to the medical superintendent and tell him that you denied admission to a critically ill patient. You can speak to medical superintendent, he will say the same thing, the clerk shrugs. Either the boy will die, Sir, or if I admit him then the next child will die because we won't have any place in wards. He looks at the boy a little more sympathetically. What can I say, Doctor, there are always more people than beds here. Sorry. We walk back in silence toward the casualty, which is near the main gate of the hospital. The long, paved road is quiet, the darkness punctuated by soft lamps on the side. There are occasional sounds of crowsthey are waking up and soon it will be morning. The boy walks slowly, not talking, now and then wiping snot from his nose with a sleeve of his long ragged cotton shirt. When we get to the gate, I hand him all the money I have in my pocket50 rupeesabout $1. He knows this will be enough only for a day's supply of insulin, but his eyes light up and he takes the money with a soft thank you. There is nothing else I can do. I watch him make his way through the big iron gates, past the waiting rickshaws outside. He waits for a bus to lumber past and then carefully, painfully, crosses the road. I watch him until he disappears into the shadows. I feel sad and dejected and this surprises me. I see disease and suffering all the timeevery day people die for lack of money for medicines and tests. So this unaccustomed sorrow feels strange, but, like a long forgotten blanket, it begins to comfort me. Any feeling, even sorrow, is a respite from the numbness I wasn't even aware of until today. Then I realize that the soothing warmth of my sadness comes from this boy's despair. The selfishness of this confuses and disconcerts me, so I put it out of my mind and head back to the room to get some sleep before Ramappa knocks on the door again. Later that day a body is brought to the morgue by a police constable. We found him outside lying in the gully, Sir. It seems he drank many glasses of juice in that shop outside. Where he got the money from, I don't know, poor beggar. I look at the boy. His legs are still scarred and his body is still bruised, but with his eyes closed and the smell of oranges clinging to him, he seems, finally, at peace. Now, I sit in this air-conditioned ward next to shiny computers and smooth new tables. I try not to think of the boy as I order this test for a 92-year-old lady with a dying mind and a dying body, a $2000 test that would buy lots and lots of insulin.


This paper is composed of two parts. The first one gives a review of the design iterations for the Ubiquitous Interactor prototype. The second part makes a primary evaluation the concepts and the implementation, describes a small pilot study and gives some pointers on how the future evaluation will be conducted.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To develop a theory-based instrument for assessing barriers and motivators to strength- or weight-training exercise (SWTE) in postmenopausal breast cancer survivors with measurable bone loss after treatment.

DESIGN
Exploratory, descriptive, and methodologic.

SETTING
Academic oncology clinics in the midwestern United States, homes, and a fitness center.

SAMPLE
85 women, predominantly Caucasian (99%), breast cancer survivors, aged 35-75 years, six months after treatment, who were enrolled in a larger study were randomized to receive SWTE; 65 completed the instrument.

METHODS
Development of a 47-item Likert-type instrument using interviews, contributions from experts, published research, and Self-Efficacy Theory.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Barriers and motivators of adherence to SWTE.

FINDINGS
Four subscales emerged that accounted for 26%-59% of the variance. Factor subscales for barriers were "not prioritizing time for self" and "overcoming other barriers to adherence." Subscales for motivators included "education and feedback" and "social support."

CONCLUSIONS
The final instrument contained 47 items dispersed across four subscales. Additional psychometric testing of the instrument with a larger population is indicated.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Nurses and healthcare professionals may use the instrument to readily identify barriers and motivators to SWTE adherence to improve program design and implementation efforts aimed at facilitating enhanced exercise adherence in breast cancer survivors with measurable bone loss after treatment.


Customer relationships have been commonly recognized as a critical factor for enterprises to succeed their business. Effective customer relationships could help enterprises deliver services to customers based on their needs, preferences, or past transactions. This model however emphasizes on the use of customer information for benefiting enterprises; customers in contrast receive less information from enterprises. To address this issue, the paradigm Consumer Support Systems (CSS) is proposed to support the provision of service information for customers to help on their decision making. In addition, since Cloud Computing has been popularity for its rich set of features and their practical applications on business can be expected, it is thus an envisioned trend for CSS to be deployed on clouds to enhance further its effectiveness on customer relationships. For this need, we present in this paper a cloud deployment approach for such a cloud-based CSS. The approach starts from the consideration of CSS and cloud characteristics, through the recognition of the architectural components in CSS and clouds, and finally ends with the deployment of the architectural components in CSS on clouds. The approach is illustrated by a cloud-based CSS for travel arrangement where decision support for travels is provided for satisfying the arrangement needs from travelers.


We demonstrate direct amplitude shaping of high harmonics (HHs) using a reflective micromirror array based on micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS) technology. We show independent control over the intensity of each HH in the observed range (14 - 36 eV). These results are used to calculate the control achieved over the temporal structure of the attosecond pulses in the train.


Fuelwood is one of the major fuels for rural households and cottage industries in developing countries. Most of the fuelwood consumed in rural areas come from nearby forests. The estimates on the availability of fuelwood are based on gross national estimates and may not reflect the local conditions. As a result, planning for wood energy supply and consumption becomes an ad hoc process. In this paper, we propose a spatial model, called the wood energy information system (WEIS), first to estimate the forest areas and their type in a particular area and then to calculate fuelwood availability and fuelwood demand. With the help of GIS, we show fuelwood surplus/deficit pockets in the study area. Such information is useful to energy planners at both local and national level. The development of a spatial model helps planners to devise area specific plans for fuelwood management. Further, the combination of such models can form a platform for regional wood energy planning inside a country. We have applied this model to a remote district in Nepal, where fuelwood is the dominant fuel. We show various features of wood energy data extraction from the model and develop a wood energy balance for the district. We hope that this type of analysis will help wood energy planners, particularly in developing countries, to develop decentralised wood energy plans.


This practice-based action research investigation seeks to make a valuable, original and academic contribution to knowledge in the computing, language, communication and educational fields. The aim was to establish the therapeutic (language and communication skills) and educational (literacy and numeracy skills) use of individual tailored computer games for practitioners supporting learners (end-users) with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This was achieved through a continuous collaboration of cohorts of computing undergraduate students and academics (the development team) carrying out an assignment for a module designed and successfully led by this PhD student (the researcher). The researcher continually collaborated with practitioners (users – teaching staff and speech and language therapists in schools) of learners with ASD over many years.

The researcher developed a Computerised Multimedia Therapeutic/Educational Intervention (CMT/EI) process, which used an iterative holistic Design-For-One approach for developing individual computer games. An action research methodology was adopted using methodological triangulation 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' data collection methods. This was to ascertain as to how tailor-made computerised multimedia games developed, could be evaluated by the users as being of therapeutic/educational use for their learners (end-users) with ASD. The researcher originated profiles to establish the diversity of each learner's spectrum of therapeutic/educational autistic needs, preferences, capabilities, likes, dislikes and interests. The researcher orchestrated, collaborated and supervised the whole process from individual profiles completed by the practitioners, through to the profiles used as a baseline, by the development team, and to the designing, developing and evaluating iterative customised personalised computer games. Four hundred and sixty-four learners with ASD (end-users) and forty-nine practitioners (users) from nine educational establishments across the UK participated in this investigation. Two stages were carried out in an initial application procedure (with one school) and prototype procedure (with a further six schools and 2 educational establishments).

Stage I - Planning, collection, organisation, Design-For-One approach and development. Stage II - Testing, Evaluation, Monitoring, Reflection and Maintenance. Optimistic 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' evidence emerged (using content analysis) from the implementation of games in the classroom and the practitioner's therapeutic and educational evaluation of storyboards and games. The documented positive findings led to a conclusion that personalised games which had been developed over a ten-year period, showed to be of therapeutic/educational use to practitioners and their learners with ASD.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the safety and feasibility of supra-pubic percutaneous sclero-embolization (SE) in the treatment of symptomatic female pelvic varicocele (FPV), performed under local anesthesia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The authors selected 28 patients screened by transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound, with venous Doppler signal. Clinicians performed SE by transfemoral catheterization, under local anesthesia, using of a mix of 2 ml of lauromacrogol 400 (Atossisclerol 3%, Chemische F. Kreussler, Wiesbaden, Germany) and 2 ml of air, in a mixed foam fashion.

RESULTS
The total operative time for SE was 7.6 +/- 2.1 min. Intra-surgical blood loss was 40 +/- 14 ml. No migration of sclerosant material occurred and postoperative analgesic request during a 48 hr period occurred in 6 patients. Technical success was 100%. The Authors embolized 8 women bilaterally (28.5%), 18 on the left ovarian vein (OV) (64.2%) and 2 only in the right OV (7.1%): 7 women complained of transitory flank pain (25%), which disappeared in few minutes. The major complications in 10 days after SE were: fever (> 38 degrees C for two days) in 2 patients (7.1%) and pelvic pain for 3 days in eight patients (28.5%). After 30 days only 6 women suffered of FPV lower symptoms which disappeared in 180 days. A substantial reduction in size of pelvic varicosities was noted in all patients.

CONCLUSIONS
SE is a safe and feasible procedure. It reduces significantly the mean time of scopies, the intensity of radiation emission, and it is performed under local anaesthesia. This minimally invasive procedure could be proposed to all women with supra-pubic FPV for its reproducibility and feasibility.


OBJECTIVE
Exogenous melatonin was found to protect target organs under conditions of diabetes mellitus, however, concentrations of the hormone in peripheral tissues have not been determined. Therefore the aim of the present study was to measure the daily profile of melatonin levels in the pineal gland, plasma, pancreas, kidney, spleen, duodenum and colon of control and diabetic rats.

MATERIAL & METHODS
Diabetes was induced by a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ, 65 mg/kg of body weight) and samples were collected over a 24 hr cycle on day 17 after STZ treatment. Melatonin and corticosterone levels were measured directly in plasma and after extraction in the pineal gland and peripheral organs (pancreas, kidney, spleen, duodenum and colon).

RESULTS
A significant daily rhythm of melatonin concentrations was found not only in the pineal gland and plasma but also in the pancreas, kidney, spleen and duodenum. The daily pattern of melatonin levels in the colon was arrhythmic without a characteristic night-time increase of hormone concentration. Experimentally induced diabetes resulted in lower melatonin levels in the pancreas, kidney and duodenum as compared to control. No differences between STZ-treated and control rats were found in the spleen and colon. Plasma corticosterone levels were enhanced in diabetic rats in comparison with controls and the daily profile was not rhythmic.

CONCLUSION
Our data suggest that the lower amplitude of melatonin rhythm in target organs induced by experimental diabetes can contribute to desynchronization of daily rhythms and can lower the antioxidative capacity of tissues.


A striking feature of the metabolite profile of Ancistrocladus likoko (Ancistrocladaceae) is the exclusive production of 5,8′-linked naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids varying in their OMe/OH substitution patterns and in the hydrogenation degree in their isoquinoline portions. Here we present nine new compounds of this coupling type isolated from the twigs of this remarkable Central African liana. Three of them, the ancistrolikokines E (9), E2 (10), and F (11), are the first 5,8′-linked naphthyldihydroisoquinolines found in nature with R-configuration at C-3. The fourth new metabolite, ancistrolikokine G (12), is so far the only representative of the 5,8′-coupling type that belongs to the very rare group of alkaloids with a fully dehydrogenated isoquinoline portion. Moreover, five new N-methylated naphthyltetrahydroisoquinolines, named ancistrolikokines A2 (13), A3 (14), C2 (5), H (15), and H2 (16) are presented, along with six known 5,8′-linked alkaloids, previously identified in related African Ancistrocladus species, now found for the first time in A. likoko. The structural elucidation was achieved by spectroscopic analysis (HRESIMS, 1D and 2D NMR) and by chemical (oxidative degradation) and chiroptical (electronic circular dichroism) methods. The new ancistrolikokines showed moderate to good preferential cytotoxic activities towards pancreatic PANC-1 cells in nutrient-deprived medium (NDM), without causing toxicity under normal, nutrient-rich conditions, with ancistrolikokine H2 (16) being the most potent compound.


The upsurge of interest in word order rules amongst generative scholars over the last ten years has led to approaches which combine syntax, pragmatics and phonology in a highly persuasive explanatory way (Zubizarreta (1998); Cinque (1993) to name but a few). This chapter examined the position of the subjects of unaccusative verbs and their pragmatic entailments in the speech of two Basque/Spanish children brought up bilingually. The longitudinal data were analyzed with respect to the position of the subject and its information status. The results showed that there were two clear patterns of acquisition depending on the language concerned and have been discussed in the light of old and new hypotheses. Our discussion will be centred around the issues of the left periphery (Rizzi 1997) and cross-linguistic influence (Muller & Hulk 2001) since the domain of preverbal subjects meets the criteria proposed by the latter.


Tribological behaviour of aluminium alloy (Al-Si10Mg) reinforced with alumina (9%) and graphite (3%) fabricated by stir casting process was investigated. The wear and frictional properties of the hybrid metal matrix composites was studied by performing dry sliding wear test using a pin-on-disc wear tester. Experiments were conducted based on the plan of experiments generated through Taguchi's technique. A L27 Orthogonal array was selected for analysis of the data. Investigation to find the influence of applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance on wear rate, as well as the coefficient of friction during wearing process was carried out using ANOVA and regression equations for each response were developed. Objective of the model was chosen as 'smaller the better' characteristics to analyse the dry sliding wear resistance. Results show that sliding distance has the highest influence followed by load and sliding speed. Finally, confirmation tests were carried out to verify the experimental results and Scanning Electron Microscopic studies were done on the wear surfaces.


We introduce a novel latent grouping model for predicting the relevance of a new document to a user. The model assumes a latent group structure for both users and documents. We compared the model against a state-of-the-art method, the User Rating Profile model, where only users have a latent group structure. We estimate both models by Gibbs sampling. The new method predicts relevance more accurately for new documents that have few known ratings. The reason is that generalization over documents then becomes necessary and hence the twoway grouping is profitable.


Abstract In contrast to traditional toy tracks, a patented system allows the creation of a large number of tracks with a minimal number of pieces, and whose loops always close properly. These circuits strongly resemble traditional self-avoiding polygons (whose explicit enumeration has not yet been resolved for an arbitrary number of squares) yet there are numerous differences, notably the fact that the geometric constraints are different than those of self-avoiding polygons. We present the methodology allowing the construction and enumeration of all of the possible tracks containing a given number of pieces. For small numbers of pieces, the exact enumeration will be treated. For greater numbers of pieces, only an estimation will be offered. In the latter case, a randomly construction of circuits is also given. We will give some routes for generalizations for similar problems.


Gene transcription is essential for the establishment and the maintenance of long-term memory (LTM) and for long-lasting forms of synaptic plasticity. The molecular mechanisms that control gene transcription in neuronal cells are complex and recruit multiple signaling pathways in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Protein kinases (PKs) and phosphatases (PPs) are important players in these mechanisms. Protein serine/threonine phosphatase 1 (PP1), in particular, was recently shown to be important for transcription-dependent memory by regulating chromatin remodeling. However, the impact of PP1 on gene transcription in adult neurons remains not fully delineated. Here, we demonstrate that the nuclear pool of PP1 is associated with transcriptional events involving molecular components of signaling cascades acting as positive and negative regulators of memory and brain plasticity. The data show that inhibiting this pool selectively in forebrain neurons improves memory performance, enhances long-term potentiation (LTP), and modulates gene transcription. These findings highlight an important role for PP1 in the regulation of gene transcription in LTM and synaptic plasticity in the adult brain.


1. Standard oxygen consumption has been measured during the six stages of metamorphosis in both the anadromous parasitic lamprey, Lampetra fluviatilis, and in its non-parasitic derivative, Lampetra planeri.

2. At 10 °C, the standard rates in larval L. planeri and L. fluviatilis of metamorphosing size were 20.3 and 29.3 μl g−1 h−1 respectively.

3. After a slow rise in oxygen consumption during the initial stages of metamorphosis, the rates reached 50.5 and 60.4 μl g−1 h−1 at stage of 6 of L. planeri and L. fluviatilis respectively.

4. Following the completion of metamorphosis in L. planeri and the development of secondary sexual characters, the mean rate in males rose to 73.3 μl g−1 h−1 compared with a decline in females to 44.1 μl g−1 h−1.

5. Although no circadian rhythm was detectable in the oxygen consumption of larvae, an elevation in the metabolic rate was present during darkness in L. fluviatilis at the end of metamorphosis.

6. Standard oxygen consumption and ventilatory frequency were influenced greatly by temperature, e.g. values for stage 6 of L. fluviatilis rose from 24.3 μl g−1 h−1 and 33.0 beats min−1 at 5 °C to 103.8 μl g−1 h−1 and 98.2 beats min−1 at 15 °C.

7. The results are discussed in the context of the radical changes taking place during metamorphosis and in terms of the differences between larvae and adult and between the life cycles of parasitic and non-parasitic lampreys.


The work is a very important aspect of life. For the community, working is a good fundamental demand in order to obtain compensation in the form of money or services, or in order to develop themselves. In fact, most of the work tends to have connotations of coercion, whether generated from within ourselves or inflicted from the outside. The work also often involves the use of time and effort beyond the individual desires of workers. Many workers who do routine work, which requires little or no initiative and responsibility, with little hope for progress or move kejenis another job. Many are also workers who perform tasks that are well below their intellectual ability or that they consider to be below the level of education they have acquired. In many industrial sectors, the work has been very 'rationalized', broken down into tasks that are simple, monotonous and boring that is only suitable for robots that can not be thinking. Technology and rapid industrialization also created a major change in the nature of threat and stress itself. For people living in the primitive era, the tension is a state that is still easy to determine causality and can be clearly identified, although directly life threatening but at least straightforward to deal with. Ancient humans may respond to tension with a concrete action in the form of physical behaviors that are relevant to physical threats it faces, so that the impact of these tensions can be avoided. Humans today are exposed to stress or tension, as mentioned above, but modern humans are often less intensive in the face of tension or stress due to tension is difficult dihayatinya personally faced the same based on the nature and difficult to determine the causes are obvious. The sources of tension (stress) for modern humans are not much more that a physical threat, but rather is psychological, such as disputes, competition, shame, saturated, guilt, feeling unfairly treated, or worried about a promotion or salary. As a result, the person remains tense and always ready for combat, but never faced a real enemy. The sources of stress according to Gibson (1994: 201) consists of the physical environment (sound, light, and air), individual (role conflict, dual role, workload), group (communication), organizational (leadership and organizational structure). Sources of stress also occurs because of the demands which sometimes can not be met by some employees, were deemed too heavy and causes the pressure of work for employees. So that employees working
on a company's need to balance work processes that can provide encouragement to employees to carry out their duties. All types of employment and positions held by that individual is a very big contribution to the company. Companies often implement policies unwittingly bring a result that is not expected by employees, resulting in employees feeling pressured to do the job. Work pressure felt by employees will significantly affect the company's activities, where this effect include a decline in employee productivity. Therefore, should the urge arise to overcome either by an individual as an employee or by the company itself. Job stress can be experienced by anyone with any type of work. In general, people argue that the higher the position a person has experienced increasing pressure because of the burden of responsibility is also large compared with the lower holder. However, such assumption is not quite right, because people who work as employees are also under pressure. Robbins (2007:793) suggested that stress is a dynamic condition in which individuals face the opportunities, constraints, or demand related to what is really wanted and the results are perceived as uncertain but important. Job stress will have an impact on the physiological, psychological, and behavioral. The sources of stress in a company that affect both the product of goods and services will affect the smooth operation of the company. Where employees are the main resource in a company should be given special attention to the creation of corporate objectives. As happened in the PR PERPETUAL COPYRIGHT address at Jl. Lawu No. 35 Kec. Kendal District. Ngawi, one of the problems that occurred at the company lies in the production employees. It is characterized by more demand for cigarettes GRENFIL which is one of the PR product PERPETUAL COPYRIGHT. COPYRIGHT PR ABADI set targets to be met. There are 2 kinds of targets set by the company that is the target individual and corporate targets. Target individual is the target set by the PR. COPYRIGHT ABADI against any employee, while the company's target is the total amount of production that must be met by all employees of the PR production PERPETUAL COPYRIGHT. The productivity level of PR. COPYRIGHT ABADI for 5 years from 2004 until 2008. The situation can be seen in the increase in productivity of public relations. COPYRIGHT ABADI Year 2004-2008. NO YEAR PRODUCTION (packs) Percentage 1. 2004 69.000 - 2. 2005 69.325 12:47% 3. 2006 69.500 0.25% 4. 2007 69.690 12:27% 5. 2008 70.000 0.44% Source: PR. COPYRIGHT ABADI, 2008 Based on Table 1.1 above can be concluded that during the last five years (2004-2008) PR. COPYRIGHT ABADI increased production. In
in 2005 there was an increase production by 0.47% which is the highest increase in production over the last five years. And in subsequent years has increased significantly. In the year 2008 saw large increases in the amount of 0.44%. Thus, over the past five years PR. COPYRIGHT ABADI increase. PR. COPYRIGHT ABADI have 2 kinds of properties of mass production and orders. Mass production is the production which is conducted continuously on target companies. The nature of production orders made where there is demand for large-scale outside of the customer or distributor. In September of 2008, PR COPY ABADI got a huge order of 100 bales or equal to 20 000 packs. 20,000 packets must be completed within 2 weeks. On the other hand the existence of interference in target fulfillment of orders, due to heavy workload. Because in addition to the fulfillment of the target made by the company, employees must also meet the target of the order. This causes the dual role performed by the warehouse and transportation to assist employees in production department finish their orders. The sources of stress are the physical environment. The physical environment of sound, light, and air can affect employee productivity. Company located on the edge everyday roads impassable variety of vehicles causing noise and noise will affect productivity. On the light side, a lack of lighting such as lighting the lamp in a room can hamper productivity. For the air side, the lack of ventilation in a room will affect productivity. Therefore, conditions unfavorable working environment will affect the incidence of job stress that affects all employees on employee productivity. Productivity consists of 2 dimensions, namely the effectiveness and efficiency, the first dimension relates to the achievement of maximum performance, in the sense pencapian targets relating to the quality, quantity and time. While the second dimension related to efforts to compare the input with the realization of its use or how work is carried out (Sedarmayanti, 2001:58). By looking at the problems mentioned above, the writer is interested in conducting research by taking the title "the sources EFFECT OF STRESS ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF EMPLOYEES IN PRODUCTION OF PR. COPYRIGHT ABADI NGAWI ".


Employer reputational costs - that is, the loss in value of the firm's reputational assets if the firm reneges on its promises to workers, both express and implied, - has played an important role in the economic literature of employment contracts, but this factor has itself generated little sustained analysis. Reputation is often offered as a late-appearing deus ex machina explaining why opportunistic behavior by employers even in internal labor markets is likely to be relatively unimportant. This standard explanation for the enforceability of implicit labor contracts in internal labor markets is problematic for at least three reasons. It assumes a well-functioning market in information about past and projected firm behavior, for a loss in employer reputation can only occur if job applicants from the external labor market are able readily to distinguish between "opportunistic" behavior (where, say, a termination of employment reflects an employer's reneging on implied promises of deferred compensation or late-career immunity from close monitoring of performance) and legitimate behavior (where a discharge reflects an appropriate response to shirking on the job or unforeseen business conditions). Second, the reputational-loss account is a static one; it assumes that employers in the first period (when they make the implied promise of deferred compensation or late-career job security) are in the same product market position in the later period (when they are expected to perform these implied promises). If the employer in the later period has disappeared, operates in a different product market, or has a need for workers with a different skill mix than in the first period, it will become even more difficult for job applicants in the external labor market to evaluate whether the firm's past behavior is a good predictor of their probable job experience with that firm. Finally, the explanation also makes certain problematic assumptions about how workers process information. The deficiencies of the standard explanation require either a reconsideration of implied labor market theory, or if implied labor market arrangements remain economically desirable an identification and possible strengthening of institutions that might enhance the firm's reputational costs in breaking promises to workers.


Positive psychological capital (PsyCap) is the name given to a set of psychological dimensions (hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism) that may support students in their effort to achieve better academic results and even improve the employability of graduates. These dimensions could help students to achieve better academic results and impact fresh graduates' ability to stand the labour market in times of crisis. A scale, called Academic PsyCap, was specifically developed to evaluate the four PsyCap dimensions among students and fresh graduates. To deeply investigate the structural validity of the scale, three alternative models (one-factor model, correlated four-factor model, bifactor model) were run on the responses provided by about 1,600 fresh graduates at the University of Padua. The results indicated that the bifactor model fit the data better than the other two models. In this model, all items significantly loaded on both their own domain specific factor and on the general factor. The values of Percentage of Uncontaminated Correlations (PUC), Explained Common Variance (ECV), and Hierarchical Omega suggested that multidimensionality in the scale was not severe enough to disqualify the use of a total PsyCap score. The scale was found to be invariant across gender and academic degree (bachelor's and master's degree). Internal consistency indices were satisfactory for the four dimensions and the total scale.


Introduction Universities have research as a mission and have strengthened this mission by establishing libraries and information centers. Academic libraries are organized to serve students and faculty as well as to increase the results of research and teaching. With the introduction of computers, libraries have provided significantly easier access to the information and use of materials for the students (Neshat). Information technology helps academic libraries to perform their responsibility faster and thus helps the academic progress carry on smoother. A great deal of research have been carried out on information technology through works of Davarpanah (2001), Azimi Khabazian (2007), Mohsenzadeh (2009), Imanikia (2008), Engstrom (2001), Rao and Ramana (2003), and Petrauskiene (2007), and it is evidence for its importance. Employment of the modern technology in current libraries comprises public services and technical services. Information technology has used computer system, scanners, modems, fax and Internet as far as technical services are concerned in libraries. However, public services employ computer programs that provide Internet services such as E-mail, selective dissemination of information (SDI), current awareness services (CAS), on line public access catalog (OPAC) along with electronic bulletin board. Tabriz is amongst one of the industrial cities in Iran with substantial role in developing economy and technology in Iran. Thus, the University of Tabriz has been of significant importance in the region. The university has founded in 1947 and it boasts up to 11,000 students and laboratories, museum, and research centers. Due to the importance of information technology and its effect on the libraries this study is aiming at finding out using rate of information technology in libraries of Tabriz University and what the problems are in using them. Objectives The main concern of our study is to quantify the use of information technology in libraries of Tabriz University as well as specifying the problems in this regard thus. The following questions are found to be of central importance in this paper: 1. How is hardware and software application in libraries of Tabriz University 2. How is the use of information networks in libraries of Tabriz University 3. How is the level of using information services in libraries of Tabriz University 4. How are the services provided through university electronic catalogues 5. What are the obstacles and problems in utilizing information technology in libraries of Tabriz University Research Background A great deal of study has been carried out of the use of information technology in libraries. In this arena Librarian and user's stance concerning the use of information technology, the efficiencies of such technologies, the means of conducting such technologies and the way to deal with information technology has been studied. A positive attitude by libraries has an influence on use of information technology. Farhadi (1999) assessed positive view of librarians in his research although he believes that information technology poses some troubles for librarians, however, most of the librarians have positive position towards that. Information technology is considered an inseparable part of any library throughout the world. Understanding the advantages help utilizing more information technology in libraries and institutions. Nakhoda believes that use of the information technology in libraries and institutions leads to enhanced effectiveness in libraries and as a result more practical benefits follows such institutions. Rao and Ramana (2003) believe that implementation of IT lead to quicker fulfillments within library and more effective services follows thus it greatly improve the potential of services, in his research he pointed out that the Indian libraries are actively involved in IT by which they offer information to their users. …


This paper examines early childhood development (ECD) outcomes and their association with family characteristics, investments, and environmental factors, with particular emphasis on the inter- generational transmission of cognitive abilities. The paper examines the causal relationship between parental cognitive abilities and ECD outcomes of their offspring using a rich data set from rural Guatemala that can account for such unobservable factors. A 10 percent increase in maternal Raven's scores increase children's Raven's scores by 7.8 percent. A 10 percent increase in maternal reading and vocabulary skills increases children's score on a standard vocabulary test by 5 percent. Effects are larger for older children, and the impact of maternal cognitive skills is larger than for paternal skills.


One of the great challenges of presenting and discussing my work over the last several years has been pulling the conversation back from technical, practical, logistical issues and regaining a focus on aesthetic, artistic, musical ones. I am aware, of course, that it is in many ways the notation – and the unusual performance techniques and approaches to instruments/voices that made the development of that notation necessary – that gives the works their identity, or at least, on the surface, gives them their uniqueness. But it's also clear to me that this focus on the practical, factual aspects of the work is far too easy (it reminds me in many ways of the analyses of early 20th century repertoire that I had to do as an undergraduate in which we were identifying pitch sets or serial row transformations without ever actually engaging with sound in any real way, much less wider cultural or social contexts), and it risks turning the notation and the performance techniques into a kind of gimmick, a shtick, or, as I am increasingly discovering, a 'brand'.


Abstract This report's main aim is to propose a methodology for assessing state-budget-funded projects based on a rigorous selection model, including clear and effective prioritization criteria. This report first argues that project prioritization and selection should be optimized against four dimensions: absorption, impact, legitimacy, and capacity. Second, it provides a diagnostic of the National Program for Local Development (PNDL), managed by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MRDPA), as the most significant source of state-budget funding for local infrastructure projects. The PNDL's current design and implementation leaves room for improvement, as reflected by the lack of strategic direction in allocating funds and the continued rise in the number of projects that get started without a feasible timeline for their completion. Further, this report makes recommendations for improvement of project evaluation and selection procedures for local infrastructure development projects, with a special focus on prioritization criteria and viable funding sources for each type of investment. The practical purpose is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of proposed investments, maximizing impact in the context of inherently limited available financial resources. A complementary focus is on opportunities for harmonizing and better coordinating investments across various sources of funding, in the context of nearly EUR 40 billion available to Romania from the EU for the 2014-2020 programming period.


In the last three decades our knowledge about the seismic structure and the seismicity of the world's oceans has increased tremendously through the common availability of ocean bottom seismometers for active and passive seismic studies ( e.g. , Orcutt et al. 1976; Toomey et al. 1985; Tolstoy et al. 2008). The safe recovery of the instruments is essential to access the acquired data. Comparable studies of the polar oceans do not exist, because the perennial sea-ice cover in polar regions prevents a safe recovery of ocean bottom instruments. Hence, the seismic structure and the earthquake activity of large parts of the Arctic Ocean, including the Gakkel Ridge, one of the most prominent members of ultraslow-spreading mid-ocean ridges (< 20 mm/y full rate; Dick et al. 2003), are largely unknown. Mounting conventional land seismometers on drifting sea ice is the only way to acquire seismic data in the Arctic Ocean. The difficult access to the survey area, which requires icebreaking vessels and helicopters, and the cold temperatures and a constantly moving seismometer platform, represent highly unsuitable survey conditions.

However, Kristoffersen et al. (1982) made first attempts at recording regional earthquakes in the Arctic by attaching a sonobuoy array to an ice floe. Jokat et al. (2003) demonstrated that the acquisition of refraction seismic data is possible with seismic stations mounted on drifting ice floes. Okal and MacAyeal (2006) report on a deployment of seismometers on icebergs in Antarctica recording a variety of ice-induced (cryogenic) signals (MacAyeal et al. 2009).

We deployed seismic arrays on drifting sea ice during four expeditions in 2001, 2007, 2008, and 2009, recording local and regional earthquakes along Gakkel Ridge. In addition, the records contained many sorts of cryogenic signals ("icequakes") stemming possibly from collisions between ice floes, crack formation, or disintegration of ice floes …


Tatera brantsii was numerically dominant in the small mammal community on the plateaux
of the rehabilitated ash disposal sites of ESKOM's Hendrina Power Station in 1998 and 1999
(Vermaak 2000). The species seemed well adapted to exploit this environment and, through
biopedturbation, had altered the topsoil structure and chemistry. The consequences of this and
other activities also affected the rehabilitated plant community of the PFA-dam habitat.
Burrowing appeared limited to just under the topsoil layer, and seemed more extensive than
burrows of this species in natural ecosystems. The burrow system architecture was mapped
and quantified, and localised increases in nitrates, phosphorous and organic carbon in
immediately associated substrate were noted. However, this substrate enrichment was
transient, and disappeared following the abandonment, and subsequent collapse of burrow
systems, when gerbil colonies migrated away from the area. The mixing of soil horizons also
resulted in a more homogeneous substrate, which was more friable, and thus drier. The high
pH and salinity of the topsoil layer in areas undisturbed by gerbil burrowing, and
concentrations of particular elements associated with either the topsoil covering or the ash,
were reduced as a consequence of substrate mixing in disturbed areas. Gerbil impacts on the
substrate of this habitat seemed to promote pedogenesis, eliminating the sharp distinction
between the topsoil covering and the ash below, but the re-exposed ash of the burrow mounds
would become subject to erosion, and reduce the effectiveness of the rehabilitation effort.
Gerbil activities increased the number of plant species, especially ruderal forbs, comprising
the plant community of the PFA-dam habitat, but plant community diversity was not
significantly increased. However, numerical dominance by few tussock grass species was
diminished , possibly reflecting burial under mounds of excavated substrate. The biomass and
cover of some grass species were reduced in areas of gerbil impacts, and plant lifecycles
appeared to be completed sooner in areas affected by gerbil activities. These effects may be as
a result of the drier substrate produced following the collapse of the extensive network of
abandoned burrows. The succession of this plant community towards an underutilised
grassland state, the expected outcome of the rehabilitation effort, was minimally affected by
gerbil activities. The effects of T.brantsii activities in this PFA-dam habitat were not as
distinct as the effects noted by other authors studying fossorial rodent impacts in less
disturbed habitats. This could be because further disturbances in this habitat would merely
add to the currently disturbed state, whereas disturbance in more natural habitats, would show
more of a change from the initial state.


Motif detection allows software engineers to detect antipatterns in software. By decreasing the number of antipattern instances in a piece of software, the overall quality of the software is improved. Current methods to find these antipatterns are slow and return results only when all antipatterns have been found. The GUERY framework is able to perform motif detection using multiple cores and deliver results as they are generated. By scaling GUERY to run on multiple machines, it was hoped that research requiring many queries on a graph could be performed significantly faster than is currently possible. The objective of this thesis was to research and prototype mechanisms whereby GUERY could be run using a cluster of computers and results delivered as a stream to interested systems. A system capable of running on a cluster of machines and delivering a stream of results as they are computed was developed.


Mangroves, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes, collectively termed "Blue Forests," are counted among the most valuable and productive coastal ecosystems on the planet. A recent literature review of the Blue Forest valuation research identified mangroves as the most frequently analyzed of these ecosystems, yet the literature demonstrates several deficits in terms of geographic location of studies, methods used to value the services, and most notably, a lack of valuation for cultural services. To better understand this, we analyzed the studies dealing specifically with mangroves from the original literature review to quantify what has been valued, where, by which methods, and the variation in the published values. We then use this information to synthesize our current level of knowledge on the type and value of services provided by mangroves, discuss data gaps, and address specifically the collection of data relevant to cultural ecosystem services (CES). Our results shed light on two principle issues affecting the mangrove valuation literature: overuse of benefit transfer in valuing mangrove ecosystem services and a lack of attention paid to the CES that mangroves provide. The mangrove valuation literature is not yet robust, lacking estimates of many ecosystem services, including CES, such as spiritual and aesthetic value. Most published studies focus on a small selection of ecosystem services based on the availability of benefit transfer values and the ability to easily measure values with market prices. Thus, many ecosystem services that cannot be valued monetarily, but that are often equally important to local communities, are ignored. Given the wide range of ecosystem services mangroves provide and the variety of valuation methods that need to be collectively employed, we argue that doing valuation studies well requires a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together anthropologists, social scientists, ecologists and economists. Thoughtfully and thoroughly including the local stakeholders in valuation studies and the resultant policy discussions leads to a more holistic understanding of the services mangroves provide, and viable solutions with an increase in local willingness to act in accordance with those solutions.


Accurate ranging and positioning systems encounter several practical limitations. Crystal oscillator (XO) tolerance is a major challenge that impairs the accuracy of these systems. Two-way ranging with frequency modulated continues wave (FMCW) radars in particular are more influenced by XO tolerance as compared to primary FMCW radars. So this work focuses on the measurement and compensation of the relative frequency offsets between the different XOs in FMCW radar systems in order to improve their ranging accuracy. With a two-way ranging synchronization protocol, a ±1 part per million (ppm) relative XO frequency offset may translate to ranging errors in the range of ±1.2 m. In this work, a three-way ranging synchronization protocol is proposed to compensate for the relative XO offset. The approach was tested in a practical ranging setup. Compared to the conventional two-way ranging synchronization protocol, the precision was enhanced by a factor of around 2.


The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has powers under the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cwlth) to accept undertakings from industry participants interested in taking actions, such as mergers, that may potentially be anticompetitive. This paper analyses the role of undertakings, focusing on horizontal mergers. We demonstrate that undertakings can provide an imperfectly in-formed regulator with a credible signal of the positive social benefits of a proposed merger. In particular, if the merged parties undertake not to reduce their output following the merger, then the merger will only be proposed if it results in net social benefits. We discuss the practical issues of implementing a behavioural undertaking such as a minimum quantity commitment, and argue that these are no less difficult than other regulatory activities currently pursued by the ACCC.


A laser-speckle method and a white-light image-correlation method are used for strain mapping. A schematic model of the correlation function of two speckle patterns is proposed for investigation of strain influence on displacement-measurement accuracy. A specific software has been developed to calculate by direct correlation the displacement values between two pictures with a grainy pattern at any point on an object's surface. Its efficiency is demonstrated in several tests. Moreover, theoretical results are checked through experimental measurements. The limitations and performances of both optical techniques are discussed.


Since 1968, counties in South Carolina have exercised their individual option to adopt and enforce building codes. Prior to Hurricane Hugo on September 21, 1989, 17 of the 46 counties in the state chose to adopt building codes. In the mid 1980's, civil engineers and state building officials became concerned that the health, welfare, and safety of the state's population were in danger because no uniform building regulations were mandatory in the state. Proponents of a state-wide building code formed Citizens and Organizations for Minimum Building Standards (COMBS) and then drafted model legislation, which was modified and introduced by Senator Glenn McConnell in the 1989 legislative session. This study documents the progress of that bill in the State Legislature before and after Hurricane Hugo. Typically, controversial bills, if successful, take years to get enacted. Although the losses caused by Hurricane Hugo would have appeared to have aided this bill's prospects of being enacted, the bill did not reach the floor of either the House or the Senate because legislative rules were used to kill the bill. Four of the five identifiable opponents opposed the bill because it mandated county action, and they believed it violated the intent of the state's Home Rule Act. Sponsors of the bill expect to reintroduce the bill in the 1991 legislative session. Its outcome will depend on whether supporters can negotiate an acceptable version of the bill with its opponents.


PHENICX ("Performances as Highly Enriched aNd Interactive Concert eXperiences") is an EU FP7 project that lasts from February 2013 to January 2016. It focuses on creating novel digital concert experiences, improving the accessibility of classical music concert performances by enhancing and enriching them in novel multimodal ways. This requires a usercentered approach throughout the project. After introducing the project, we discuss its goals, the technological challenges it offers, and current scientific and technological outcomes. Subsequently, we discuss how integrated prototypes combine several technological advances in the project into coherent user-ready interfaces, offering novel ways to experience the timeline of a concert, and rediscover and re-experience it afterwards. Finally, we discuss how PHENICX outcomes have been demonstrated live in concert halls.


As the sub-prime crisis celebrates its first birthday, what lessons have been learnt? The crisis was rooted in a misperception problem among end-investors, facilitated by financial engineers selling "tail risk†products. Contrary to the precrisis rhetoric, this tail risk was often transferred to those least able to manage and price it. Once crisis struck, bank balance sheets needed to be repaired. The article argues that the authorities have a key coordinating role to play in ensuring individual bank balance sheet adjustments strengthen, rather than weaken, the financial system as a whole. A credit crunch-an uncoordinated credit contraction—is an example of what policy should be seeking to avoid. Finally, the article considers two medium-term prophylactic policy measures-countercyclical regulatory policy and central trading, clearing and settlement of systemically-important financial instruments. On both theoretical and practical grounds, there are good reasons for believing their time may have come.


Biomedical science and engineering is an interdisciplinary research field, which combines the advanced technologies and problem solving skills with medical and biological science. Since the biomedical solutions generally have large variations and complexity, it is difficult to use a simple way or a classical approach to find the solutions. Computation intelligence techniques such as neural networks and evolutionary algorithms are nature-inspired computational approaches to address complex problems of the real world. Recently, computational intelligence is playing an important role in biomedical research fields, such as computer-aided diagnostics (CAD), computer-aided surgery (CAS), computational anatomy, and bioinformatics. Approaches based on computational intelligence have been shown to be advantageous compared to classical approaches.

This special issue focuses on major trend and new techniques in computational intelligence and their use in biomedical science and engineering. We received 15 submissions. Each paper was reviewed by two external referees. We finally accepted 8 papers for our special issue. The area of interest of the accepted papers covers a broad spectrum of computational intelligence techniques with application to biomedical science and engineering.

H. Jiang at al. proposed an optimized medical image compression algorithm based on wavelet transform and improved vector quantization, which can maintain the diagnostic-related information of the medical image at a high compression ratio.

P. Zhang et al. proposed a composite match index (CMI) method for the integration of different feature-point matching approaches in order to improve the robustness of the matching result. The proposed method has also been applied to interior deformation field measurement of complex human tissues from three-dimensional magnetic resonance (MR) volumetric images.

C.-L. Lin et al. proposed a hybrid particle swarm optimization (HPSO) for robust medical image registration, which includes two concepts of genetic algorithms—subpopulation and crossover.

H. Ikeno et al. developed a scheme and tools to construct a standard moth brain for neural network simulations. Morphological models of neurons are reconstructed from confocal image data of neurons.

Y. Nishitani et al. detected a significantly greater number of Rev. M3 patterns from the time series stimulated spike response than from the random series (interval shuffle) data in neuronal networks formed on MEAs. These results show the possibility of assembling LFSR circuits or its equivalent ones in a neuronal network.

S. M. Rabiee and H. Baseri developed three different adaptive neurofuzzy inference systems (ANFISs) for estimation of the setting properties of calcium phosphate bone cement. Despite the relatively small amount of data (25 conditions), the proposed method gave satisfying results.

S. Tamura et al. proposed automutual information-(AM-I) based randomizing method of bin width and location instead of conventional fixed bin setting for analyzing neuron spike trains. In his second paper, they also proposed a model of human society where roles are divided to each person to obtain high performance as a whole, and as a result people play to train their hidden abilities.

Although the above papers do not make a complete coverage of the computational intelligence in biomedical science and engineering, it provides a flavor of what are the important issues and the benefits of applying computational intelligence to biomedical science and engineering. We would like to thank the authors for submitting their papers to the special issue as well as the reviewers for providing their expertise and making valuable comments.


The aim of the case study was to critically compare the descriptions of employees and managers of how the work environment is prioritised in a medium-sized Swedish retailer belonging to an international group. The study is based upon a questionnaire study of employees (n=55), and on interviews with people in leading positions with partial responsibility for the work environment at the company (n=6) as well as with the local safety delegate (n=1). The results show that the driving forces behind the work environment are, according to respondents, finances, legislation, trademarks and the attitudes of the upper management. The on-going work environment management is described differently in terms of its form and content by employees and persons in leading positions.


The three races of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (FOL) are important tomato pathogens throughout the world, causing severe economic losses (1). In Brazil, races 1 and 2 are widespread, but the current geographic distribution of race 3 is restricted to the mild climate areas of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro States in the southeast region (2,3). Here we report the spread of FOL race 3 to the warm northeast region of Brazil. Plants in commercial fields of the hybrid 'Alambra' (resistant to FOL races 1 and 2) were found displaying chlorosis, vascular browning, and wilt symptoms in Jaguaquara County, Bahia State, Brazil. Disease incidence ranged from 10 to 50%. The virulence profile of six isolates obtained from three distinct tomato-producing fields was investigated by root-dipping inoculation (106 conidia/ml) of 21-day-old seedlings from a set of FOL race differential accessions: 'Ponderosa' (susceptible to all races), 'IPA-5' (FOL race 1 resistance; I-1 locus); 'Alambra' and 'Floradade' (FOL races 1 and 2 resistance; I-2 gene), and Solanum pennellii 'LA 716' (resistant to all three races; I-3 locus). All six isolates were able to induce severe wilt symptoms in 100% of the plants from all lines but S. pennellii 'LA 716'. FOL race 3 identity was confirmed via PCR assays employing a specific set of primers that are able to discriminate all the three FOL races as well as F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici isolates (1). Total DNA was extracted from pure fungal colonies growing in agar medium. The typical FOL race 3 amplicon profiles (i.e. positive for the primers uni, sp13, and sp23 and negative for the primer sprl) were observed only in the six FOL 3 isolates from Bahia as well as in five reference isolates of race 3 (previously obtained from tomato in Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro States), thus confirming their race identities. This recent, fast, and wide geographic expansion of the FOL race 3 in Brazil suggests that the pathogen has been introduced into new tomato producing areas via either contaminated seeds or seedlings. Because of the complexity of establishing effective chemical and cultural control strategies, these epidemics caused by FOL race 3 in distinct areas of Brazil might cause the replacement of the currently grown susceptible hybrids by resistant ones. References: (1) Y. Hirano and T. Arie. J. Gen. Plant Pathol. 72:273, 2006; (2) A. Reis et al. Fitopatol. Bras. 30:426, 2005; (3) A. Reis and L. S. Boiteux. Hort. Bras. 25:451, 2007.


We have collected transit times for the TRAPPIST-1 system with the Spitzer Space Telescope over four years. We add to these ground-based, HST, and K2 transit-time measurements, and revisit an N-body dynamical analysis of the seven-planet system using our complete set of times from which we refine the mass ratios of the planets to the star. We next carry out a photodynamical analysis of the Spitzer light curves to derive the density of the host star and the planet densities. We find that all seven planets' densities may be described with a single rocky mass–radius relation which is depleted in iron relative to Earth, with Fe 21 wt% versus 32 wt% for Earth, and otherwise Earth-like in composition. Alternatively, the planets may have an Earth-like composition but enhanced in light elements, such as a surface water layer or a core-free structure with oxidized iron in the mantle. We measure planet masses to a precision of 3%–5%, equivalent to a radial-velocity (RV) precision of 2.5 cm s−1, or two orders of magnitude more precise than current RV capabilities. We find the eccentricities of the planets are very small, the orbits are extremely coplanar, and the system is stable on 10 Myr timescales. We find evidence of infrequent timing outliers, which we cannot explain with an eighth planet; we instead account for the outliers using a robust likelihood function. We forecast JWST timing observations and speculate on possible implications of the planet densities for the formation, migration, and evolution of the planet system.


The main objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of electricity regulation on economic growth. Although the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth has been extensively analysed in the empirical literature, this framework has not been used to estimate the effect of electricity regulation on economic growth. Understanding this effect is essential for the assessment of regulatory policy. Specifically, we assess the effects of two major regulations, renewable energy promotion costs and network cost, on electricity consumption and growth. A dataset for the period 2007-2013 and 22 European countries was compiled based on CEER reports and EUROSTAT databases. The results of the empirical analysis show that the two regulation instruments have a negative effect on electricity consumption and economic growth and provide estimates of their effects on growth in quantitative terms.


Friction stir welding (FSW) allows to join Al and Mg alloys, which could hardly be welded by other techniques. Within the project a modified FSW process was developed, which uses additionally submitted power ultrasound during the joining of the Al‐cast and Mg‐cast alloys with the aim to improve the stirring in the welded area and to eliminate the formation of brittle intermetallic phases as coherent layers which reduce the attainable strength of the joints. To understand the development of the microstructure in the bonding zone a detailed analysis has been carried out. The resulting microstructure may influence the corrosion properties, which have been investigated by different methods. Voltapotential differences between the base alloys and the welded area were measured with the Scanning Kelvin Probe. Electrochemical measurements (open circuit potential, impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization) were carried out at different positions on the hybrid joints by using an electrochemical minicell (∅ 3 mm). This allows to observe the passivation behavior and corrosion activity of the base alloys and the nugget phase separately. As expected the Mg alloy exhibits a much stronger corrosion in sodium chloride solution than the Al alloy. In the transitional area between the Mg alloy and the nugget phase the overall corrosion rate strongly increases while the corrosion of the nugget is reduced at the expense of the Mg alloy. Differences between hybrid joints processed with and without ultrasound support are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Over the last few years, the pressure for decreasing environmental and social footprints has motivated supply chain organizations to significantly progress sustainability initiatives. Since supply chains have implemented sustainability strategies, the volume of economic, environmental and social data has rapidly increased. Dealing with this data, business analytics has already shown its capability for improving supply chain monetary performance. However, there is limited knowledge about how business analytics can be best leveraged to grow social, environmental and financial performance simultaneously. Therefore, in reviewing the literature around sustainable supply chain, this research seeks to further illuminate the role business analytics plays in addressing this issue. A literature survey methodology is outlined, scrutinizing key papers published between 2012 and 2016 in the research fields of Information/Computing Science, Business and Supply Chain Management. From examination of 311 journal papers, 39 were selected as meeting defined criteria for further categorization into three distinct research groups including: (a) sustainable supply chain configuration; (b) sustainable supply chain implementation; (c) sustainable supply chain evaluation. The issues involved within each grouping are identified and the business analytics processes (i.e. prescriptive, predictive, prescriptive analytics) to specifically address them are discussed. This wide-ranging review of sustainable supply chain analytics can assist both scholars and practitioners to better appreciate the current grand challenges and future research opportunities posed by this area.


Summary

1
Hen harriers Circus cyaneus prey on red grouse Lagopus l. scoticus and high breeding densities of harriers can limit the number of grouse available for shooting in the autumn. Ultimately, grouse hunting contributes to the maintenance of heather moorland, an ecologically important habitat for biodiversity in general and hen harriers in particular. Predation rates vary widely among harrier individuals. Understanding which factors influence this variation would be useful to target management to mitigate the effect of harriers on grouse, such as diversionary feeding.

2
We used a simple habitat-based approach to test whether we could identify harrier nests to which most grouse were delivered. Using remote sensing habitat data, we tested whether delivery rates of dead grouse to the nest by hen harriers were higher for those pairs nesting in sites with more heather Calluna vulgaris. A relationship between heather cover and grouse delivery rates might have been expected as grouse densities were correlated with heather cover.

3
After adjusting for annual variation in grouse abundance, the rate at which grouse were delivered to harrier nests was positively associated with the proportion of heather cover within 2 km of harrier nests. This was primarily due to the positive effect of heather cover on female delivery rates.

4
This result allowed us to use habitat data to predict the harrier nests to which most grouse chicks would be delivered. Comparison of predictions of the model with observations of food delivery to nests indicated that, in terms of grouse chick delivery, the model correctly predicted the top 50% of harrier nests in five of six years.

5
We undertook an experiment where carrion was provided to certain harriers at nest sites, in order to decrease their predation on grouse. Data from this experiment showed that when harriers were given diversionary food, the relationship between grouse predation rate and habitat was removed, with grouse predation reduced to negligible levels in most cases. This demonstrated the increased benefit of feeding birds with the highest proportion of heather cover within 2 km of their nest sites, rather than feeding birds at random within the conflict population.

6
Synthesis and applications. The amount of heather cover around hen harrier nests can be used to predict which pairs will predate most grouse within a population. This information should facilitate targeted management practices, which may accrue greater benefit for grouse stocks and potentially reduce the conflict between grouse shooting and conservation of biodiversity.


OBJECTIVE
To dispel prevalent myths surrounding diagnosis of dermonecrotic and associated conditions supposedly resulting from bites of brown recluse, hobo, or other spiders in Canada.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Worldwide, spider bites are regularly misdiagnosed as the etiologic agents in human dermonecrosis mainly as a result of inaccurate, erroneous, or hyperbolic popular and professional literature based on inference, circumstantial evidence, inferior clinical trials, and misunderstanding of the facts regarding spider-bite envenomation.

MAIN MESSAGE
A working diagnosis of "spider bite" or publishing a case history should be considered only when a spider is caught in the act of biting or otherwise reliably associated with a lesion. Accurate identification of the spider could be critical for correct diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

CONCLUSION
Brown recluse spiders are not found in Canada. Hobo spiders have not been reliably implicated in dermonecrosis. Worldwide, spider-bite envenomation is an unlikely cause of dermonecrosis. Canadian physicians should give priority consideration to other, more likely, causes.


As a major aspect of marine pollution, oil release into the sea has serious biological and environmental impacts. Among remote sensing systems (which is a tool that offers a non-destructive investigation method), synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can provide valuable synoptic information about the position and size of the oil spill due to its wide area coverage and day/night, and all-weather capabilities. In this paper we present a new automated method for oil-spill monitoring. A new approach is based on the combination of Weibull Multiplicative Model and machine learning techniques to differentiate between dark spots and the background. First, the filter created based on Weibull Multiplicative Model is applied to each sub-image. Second, the sub-image is segmented by two different neural networks techniques (Pulsed Coupled Neural Networks and Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks). As the last step, a very simple filtering process is used to eliminate the false targets. The proposed approaches were tested on 20 ENVISAT and ERS2 images which contained dark spots. The same parameters were used in all tests. For the overall dataset, the average accuracies of 94.05 % and 95.20 % were obtained for PCNN and MLP methods, respectively. The average computational time for dark-spot detection with a 256 × 256 image in about 4 s for PCNN segmentation using IDL software which is the fastest one in this field at present. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is very fast, robust and effective. The proposed approach can be applied to the future spaceborne SAR images.


Military and intelligence leaders agree that the next major war is not likely to be fought on the battleground but in cyber space. Richard Stiennon argues the era of cyber warfare has already begun. Recent cyber attacks on United States government departments and the Pentagon corroborate this claim. China has compromised email servers at the German Chancellery, Whitehall, and the Pentagon. In August 2008, Russia launched a cyber attack against Georgia that was commensurate with their invasion of South Ossetia. This was the first time that modern cyber attacks were used in conjunction with a physical attack. Every day, thousands of attempts are made to hack into America's critical infrastructure. These attacks, if successful, could have devastating consequences. In Surviving Cyberwar, Stiennon introduces cyberwar, outlines an effective defense against cyber threats, and explains how to prepare for future attacks. The book: -


We examine the impact of multiple primary transmitters and receivers (PU-TxRx) on the outage performance of cognitive decode-and-forward relay networks. In such a joint relaying/spectrum-sharing arrangement, we address fundamental questions concerning three key power constraints: 1) maximum transmit power at the secondary transmitter (SU-Tx), 2) peak interference power at the primary receivers (PU-Rx), and 3) interference power at SU-Rx caused by the primary transmitter (PU-Tx). Our answers to these are given in new analytical expressions for the exact and asymptotic outage probability of the secondary relay network. Based on our asymptotic expressions, important design insights into the impact of primary transceivers on the performance of cognitive relay networks is reached. We have shown that zero diversity order is attained when the peak interference power at the PU-Rx is independent of the maximum transmit power at the SU-Tx.


This Article examines the decisions of corporate special litigation committees using an original data set gathered from company filings with the SEC. It demonstrates that the prevailing view in corporate law - that special litigation committees uniformly decide to dismiss derivative litigation against manager colleagues - is not accurate. This Article shows that approximately forty percent of the time special litigation committees decide to settle claims or pursue them against one or more defendants. Furthermore, approximately seventy percent of the time cases subject to control by a special litigation end in settlement; only approximately twenty percent of the time is the end result dismissal. What has long been viewed as an engine for having derivative litigation dismissed actually leads to settlements most of the time. The view that special litigation committees behave too predictably has underwritten doubts about the ability of independent and disinterested directors to police conflict of interest transactions generally. The findings presented here show that the prevailing view about special litigation committee behavior is an unsound basis for generalizing about how independent and disinterested directors behave.


Abstract The feasibility of using DNA amplification by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for specific detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in human blood specimens was investigated. One hundred blood samples were collected in an endemic area of Minas Gerais, Brazil. They were submitted to DNA extraction and PCR amplification with kinetoplast DNA-specific primers using a simplified boiling procedure that linearized most minicircle molecules without the aid of chemical reagents. Samples that gave negative results were checked for possible inhibition of amplification using primers derived from a human-specific sequence, and those showing some level of inhibition were retested after a new DNA extraction. Of 86 patients previously diagnosed as chagasic by serologic techniques, 83 were positive in our PCR test (sensitivity = 96.5%), including all the xenodiagnosis-positive patients and 21 (87.5%) of 24 xenodiagnosis-negative individuals. In addition, four of six patients with doubtful serologic results were confirmed as positive by PCR. Our results suggest that the PCR may be a useful complement to serology in the diagnosis of Chagas' disease, and that it is the most powerful technique available for parasite detection in patients with chronic disease.


Using a 'transitional' perspective on migration, which combines three theoretical approaches on dynamic development-migration linkages, this paper interprets the evolution of migration within, from, and to Morocco over the twentieth century. Colonization and the incorporation of rural areas, along with a certain level of socio-economic development, have spurred internal and international wage labour migration both within Morocco and from Morocco to Europe. Migration seems to be the result of development rather than the lack of development. Populations from highly marginalized regions were less likely to participate in migration than populations from the three, moderately enclosed "migration belts" which had established traditions of pre-modern, largely circular migration. At the onset of large-scale emigration in the 1960s, the spatial patterns of labour migration were significantly infuenced by colonial bonds with Spain and France, selective labour recruitment, and Moroccan selective passport issuance policies.

However, the influence of such policies rapidly decreased due to the effects of migration-facilitating networks. Increasingly restrictive policies coincided with a growing reliance on family migration, permanent settlement, undocumented migration, and the exploration of new migration itineraries, and had no success in reducing migration levels.Alongside patterns of decentralizing internal migration, a spatial diffusion of international out-migration has expanded beyond the historical migration belts in response to new labour opportunities in southern Europe. Persistent demand for migrant labour, along with demographic factors and increasing aspirations, suggest that migration over formally closed borders is likely to remain high in the near future. However, in the longer term, out-migration might decrease and Morocco could increasingly develop into a migration destination for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, a transition process which may already have een set in motion.


ERCC1 (excision repair cross complementing‐group 1) is a mammalian endonuclease that incises the damaged strand of DNA during nucleotide excision repair and interstrand cross‐link repair. Ercc1−/Δ mice, carrying one null and one hypomorphic Ercc1 allele, have been widely used to study aging due to accelerated aging phenotypes in numerous organs and their shortened lifespan. Ercc1−/Δ mice display combined features of human progeroid and cancer‐prone syndromes. Although several studies report cellular senescence and apoptosis associated with the premature aging of Ercc1−/Δ mice, the link between these two processes and their physiological relevance in the phenotypes of Ercc1−/Δ mice are incompletely understood. Here, we show that ERCC1 depletion, both in cultured human fibroblasts and the skin of Ercc1−/Δ mice, initially induces cellular senescence and, importantly, increased expression of several SASP (senescence‐associated secretory phenotype) factors. Cellular senescence induced by ERCC1 deficiency was dependent on activity of the p53 tumor‐suppressor protein. In turn, TNFα secreted by senescent cells induced apoptosis, not only in neighboring ERCC1‐deficient nonsenescent cells, but also cell autonomously in the senescent cells themselves. In addition, expression of the stem cell markers p63 and Lgr6 was significantly decreased in Ercc1−/Δ mouse skin, where the apoptotic cells are localized, compared to age‐matched wild‐type skin, possibly due to the apoptosis of stem cells. These data suggest that ERCC1‐depleted cells become susceptible to apoptosis via TNFα secreted from neighboring senescent cells. We speculate that parts of the premature aging phenotypes and shortened health‐ or lifespan may be due to stem cell depletion through apoptosis promoted by senescent cells.