Inspired by, but also in reaction to the flattened topologies of Latourian relationality, Clark puts forward the notion of radical asymmetry. 'This is the bottom line of human being: we are utterly dependent on an earth and a cosmos that is, to a large degree, indifferent to us' (p. 50). With their disciplinary connection to the physical and natural sciences, geographers arguably need this lesson less than other social scientists. We should have learned it well from geologists who, spending their working lives in deepest time, tend to have a less anthropocentric perspective than others (perhaps accounting for their disproportionate representation among scientists sceptical of anthropogenic climate change). Further, if we accept the tenets of evolutionary ecology, it is a total accident that we are here anyway, and we won't be for long, either as individuals or as a species. Just as the quietly joyful practice of everyday life flies in the face of certain death, all politics is optimism in the face of extinction.


Greedy algorithms are widely used for problems in machine learning such as feature selection and set function optimization. Unfortunately, for large datasets, the running time of even greedy algorithms can be quite high. This is because for each greedy step we need to refit a model or calculate a function using the previously selected choices and the new candidate.
Two algorithms that are faster approximations to the greedy forward selection were introduced recently ([Mirzasoleiman et al. 2013, 2015]). They achieve better performance by exploiting distributed computation and stochastic evaluation respectively. Both algorithms have provable performance guarantees for submodular functions.
In this paper we show that divergent from previously held opinion, submodularity is not required to obtain approximation guarantees for these two algorithms. Specifically, we show that a generalized concept of weak submodularity suffices to give multiplicative approximation guarantees. Our result extends the applicability of these algorithms to a larger class of functions. Furthermore, we show that a bounded submodularity ratio can be used to provide data dependent bounds that can sometimes be tighter also for submodular functions. We empirically validate our work by showing superior performance of fast greedy approximations versus several established baselines on artificial and real datasets.


This project is part of the Distributed and Intelligent Disassembly of Products with Mobile Robots project launched by the research program of the Sparkling Science of the "Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF)" with the collaboration of the Institute of Automation and Control, University of Vienna. It contributes to develop software and research on how to provide knowledge to a robotic to disassembly of objects. The fact of providing a robot with a certain ability to develop this task, requires a prior study of the current image processing techniques, with the aim of obtaining the right solution to solve the problem. This thesis shows a study of different image processing algorithms available nowadays. It also studies the possibility of adapting the software to be developed in an embedded platform, in order to avoid the robot to depend from a high performance PC. As a starting point for the development of the idea, it poses a simple problem: the disassembly of Duplo bricks structures. To address the difficult task of image processing, the well known OpenCV libraries created by Intel, currently in Open source, will be used. These libraries contain more than 500 functions. The problem of disassembling the Duplo bricks has been divided into 3 steps: object recognition, verification and feature extraction and calculation of its coordinates in the real world. For the object recognition, the system has been trained with pictures from different angles, backgrounds and lighting of the piece to be recognized. The complexity of this first stage lies on the fact that the Duplo bricks have a uniform color. Due to the difficulty involved in generating models that recognize the full bricks, it has been chosen to recognize the small hollow cylinders that serve as anchorage between bricks, getting an extra edge: Making possible in a future to recognize bricks with different number of cylinders. The verification and feature extraction has been done manually, as the functions provided by OpenCV were not quite optimal. This verification consists in checking if the founded cylinders are lined up in groups of 8 (in our particular case) forming a rectangle. The last step has been solved using a specific function that compares the obtained points in the picture with the points that define the object. After this last stage, and with the previous calibration of the camera, the translation and rotation matrices of the object in the real world are obtained. With these data, the robot is able to find with good precision the brick to take. The result of this Project is a completely functional code able to give the coordinates of the Duplo bricks got through a camera.


Parametric scalings of the intrinsic (spontaneous, with no external momentum input) toroidal rotation observed on a large number of tokamaks have been combined with an eye towards revealing the underlying mechanism(s) and extrapolation to future devices. The intrinsic rotation velocity has been found to increase with plasma stored energy or pressure in JET, Alcator C-Mod, Tore Supra, DIII-D, JT-60U and TCV, and to decrease with increasing plasma current in some of these cases. Use of dimensionless parameters has led to a roughly unified scaling with MA ∝ βN, although a variety of Mach numbers works fairly well; scalings of the intrinsic rotation velocity with normalized gyro-radius or collisionality show no correlation. Whether this suggests the predominant role of MHD phenomena such as ballooning transport over turbulent processes in driving the rotation remains an open question. For an ITER discharge with βN = 2.6, an intrinsic rotation Alfven Mach number of MA ≃ 0.02 may be expected from the above deduced scaling, possibly high enough to stabilize resistive wall modes without external momentum input.


Corporate identity, which has been in the middle of interest of practice for almost 40 years, is still a very important instrument in the field of Marketing and Management despite the currently unfavourable economic situation. Although consumers are checking prices the further the more, brand image is still an important factor in their decision making. What is more, every economist knows that periods of recession are usually followed by a period of expansion. Right now is a period when companies with a good image will survive. Corporate identity in particular is a tool to help building and retaining one's image.


Published reconstructions of radiocarbon in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean indicate that there is a mid-depth maximum in radiocarbon age during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This is in contrast to the modern ocean where intense mixing between water masses results in a relatively homogenous radiocarbon profile. Ferrari et al. (2014) suggested that the extended Antarctic sea ice cover during the LGM necessitated a shallower boundary between the upper and lower branches of the meridional overturning circulation. This shoaled boundary lay above major topographic features associated with strong diapycnal mixing, isolating dense southern sourced water in the lower branch of the overturning circulation. This isolation would have allowed radiocarbon to decay and thus provides a possible explanation for the mid-depth radiocarbon age bulge. We test this hypothesis using an idealized, 2-D, residual-mean dynamical model of the global overturning circulation. Concentration distributions of a decaying tracer that is advected by the simulated overturning are compared to published radiocarbon data. We find that a 600 km (~5° of latitude) increase in sea ice extent shoals the boundary between the upper and lower branches of the overturning circulation at 45°S by 600 m and shoals the depth of North Atlantic Deep Water convection at 50°N by 2500 m. This change in circulation configuration alone decreases the radiocarbon content in the mid-depth South Atlantic at 45°S by 40‰, even without an increase in surface radiocarbon age in the source region of deep waters during the LGM.


Sublethal effects of predators on the growth of their prey have been little studied in marine systems and consequently their importance relative to other factors is poorly known. Using a set of field experiments conducted on small artificial patch reefs, we measured the relative impor- tance of the effects of predators and conspecific competitors on the growth of a temperate reef fish, the blackeye goby Coryphopterus nicholsii, and we measured how the importance of the 2 processes varied over time. We found that predators and competitors reduced the growth of the gobies at some times, but not others, and that the relative importance of the 2 processes varied among time periods. Moreover, the importance of the 2 processes varied as a function of body size, with large, fast-grow- ing individuals suffering relatively more from the effects of predators than small, slow-growing indi- viduals, which felt the effects of competition more keenly. Competition increased the variation (CV) in growth rates within populations, but exposure to predators had no effect on growth variability. The strength of both the competitive and predatory effects on growth rates declined from summer to win- ter, but the effect of competition on growth variability did not change appreciably over time. The decline in the effects of competitors and predators on growth rates corresponded to predictable seasonal declines in water temperature and predator abundance. The relative importance of the sublethal effects of predators was greatest during the summer, when predators were most abundant. This study highlights the potential importance of sublethal effects of predators in marine systems and it suggests that the relative importance of predatory and competitive effects may vary in predictable seasonal and ontogenetic ways.


The methylation of cytosinc residues in DNA is thought to play an important role in the regulation of gene expression, with active genes generally being hypomethylated. With this in mind peptides were synthcsised to mimic the cytosine-5 methylation activity carried out by DNA mcthylase, which however, showed no ability to carry out this function. The imidazotetrazinoncs are a novel group of antitumour agents which have demonstrated good activity against a range of murinc tumours and human tumour xenografts, and hypomethylation of DNA has been implicated in the mechanism of action. Studies have been conducted on the mechanism by which such agents cause hypomethylation, using DNA methylase partially purified from murine L1210 leukaemia cells. Unmodified calf thymus DNA does not inhibit the transfer of methyl groups from SAM to M.lysodeikticus DNA by partially purified DNA methylase. However, if the calf thymus DNA is modified by alkylating agents such as imida-zotetrazinones or nitrosoureas, the treated DNA becomes an inhibitor of the methylation reaction. This has been correlated with the induction of DNA damage, such as single strand breaks, since X-ray treated DNA and deoxyribonuclease treatment produces a similar effect. The mechanism of inhibition by the drug treated or damaged DNA is thought to occur by binding of the enzyme to an increased concentration of non-substrate DNA, presumably by the occurrence of single strand breaks, since neither sonication nor treatment with the restriction enzyme Mspl caused an inhibition. Attempts were made to elucidate the strict structure activity relationship for antitumour activity observed amongst the imidazotctrazinones. The transfection of a murine colon adcnocarcinoma cell line (MAC 13) with DNA extracted from GM892 or Raji cells previously treated with either the methyl (temozolomide) or ethyl (ethazolastone) imidazotetrazinone was performed. X-irradiated DNA did not cause any suppression of cell growth, suggesting that it was not due to physical damage. Transfection of MAC 13 cells with DNA extracted from GM892 cells, was more effective at inhibiting growth than DNA from Raji cells. Temozolomide treated cellular DNA was a more potent growth inhibitor than that from ethazolastone treated cells. For both agents the growth inhibitory effect was most marked with DNA extracted 6h after drug addition, and after 24h no growth suppression was observed. This suggested that the growth inhibitory effect is due to a repairable lesion. .The methylation of M.lysodeikticus DNA by DNA methylase is inhibited potently and specifically by both hereto and homoribo and dcoxyri-bopolynucleotides containing guanine residues. The inhibitory effect is unaffected by chain length or sugar residue, but is abolished when the O-6 residue of guanine is substituted as in poly d(OGG)2o. Potent inhibition is also shown by polyinosinic and polyxanthylic acids but not by polyadenylic acid or by heteropolymers containing adcnine and thymine. These results suggest that the 6 position of the purine nucleus is important in binding of the DNA methylase to particular regions of the DNA and that the hydrogen bonding properties of this group are important in enzyme recognition. This was confirmed using synthetic oligonucleotides as substrates for DNA methylase. Enzymatic methylation of cytosine is completely suppressed, when O6 methylguanine replaces guanine in CG sites.


We demonstrate a microfiltration chip that separates blood plasma by using water-head-driven pulsatile pressures rather than any external equipment and use it for on-chip amplification of nucleic acids. The chip generates pulsatile pressures to significantly reduce filter clogging without hemolysis, and consists of an oscillator, a plasma-extraction pump, and filter units. The oscillator autonomously converts constant water-head pressure to pulsatile pressure, and the pump uses the pulsatile pressure to extract plasma through the filter. Because the pulsatile pressure can periodically clear blood cells from the filter surface, filter clogging can be effectively reduced. In this way, we achieve plasma extraction with 100% purity and 90% plasma recovery at 15% hematocrit. During a 10 min period, the volume of plasma extracted was 43 μL out of a 243 μL extraction volume at 15% hematocrit. We also studied the influence of the pore size and diameter of the filter, blood loading volume, oscillation period, and hematocrit level on the filtration performance. To demonstrate the utility of our chip for point-of-care testing (POCT) applications, we successfully implemented on-chip amplification of a nucleic acid (miDNA21) in plasma filtered from blood. We expect our chip to be useful not only for POCT applications but also for other bench-top analysis tools using blood plasma.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


Considerable progress in treatment of diabetes has been made in the nearly 100 years following the discovery of insulin, and advances in insulin therapy have improved convenience, quality of life, overall glycemic control (A1C), and risk of hypoglycemia. An unmet need remains for a mealtime insulin that can faithfully reproduce the metabolic profile that ensues following meal ingestion in healthy persons. A number of "ultra-fast" insulin programs have been initiated, and Afrezza® (insulin human; Inhalation Powder, MannKind Corporation, Danbury, CT) stands as the first such product to be approved by the US FDA. Afrezza is unique as an "ultra-ultra" fast insulin, faster than any other entrant except IV insulin. The benefits and limitations of the Afrezza profile are discussed in this analysis.


Windbreaks often form networks of forest habitats that improve connectivity and thus conserve biodiversity, but little is known of such effects in the tropics. We determined bird species richness and community composition in windbreaks composed of remnant native vegetation amongst tea plantations (natural windbreaks), and compared it with the surrounding primary forests. Fifty-one, ten-minute point counts were conducted in each habitat type over three days. Despite the limited sampling period, our bird inventories in both natural windbreaks and primary forests were nearly complete, as indicated by bootstrap true richness estimator. Bird species richness and abundance between primary forests and windbreaks were similar, however a difference in bird community composition was observed. Abundances of important functional groups such as frugivores and insectivores did not vary between habitat types but nectarivores were more abundant in windbreaks, potentially as a result of the use of windbreaks as traveling routes, foraging and nesting sites. This preliminary study suggests that natural windbreaks may be important habitats for the persistence of bird species in a production landscape. However, a better understanding of the required physical and compositional characteristics for windbreaks to sustain bird communities is needed for effective conservation management.


Understanding the brain connectome and the anatomical organization of neural circuits in the mouse brain using histological sections is a prominent area of research in the neuroscience field. Accurate quantitative and comparative analysis of anatomical data requires precise mapping of brain sections to a common reference atlas. The existing methods rely either on using 2D coronal atlases or 3D reconstruction prior to registration. The problem with the former is that atlases are not always a good match, since they do not account for the slicing angle. The drawback of the latter is that 3D to 3D registration methods are not only computationally expensive but also require a full set of consecutive sections which are not always available due to technical limitations. In this study, we propose a deep learning-based approach, to automatically detect the position and angle of individual mouse brain sections in the 3D reference atlas. The novel method is implemented as a pipeline consisting of 3 blocks of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) regression models that detect the slicing angle and the position of the section in the anterior-posterior (AP) axis of the brain. The proposed method not only generates matching 2D atlases by taking the slicing angle into account but is also considerably faster and more robust to histological artifacts, compared to 3D registration approaches. We have shown that predictions of our method are comparable to a neuroscientist expert.


In daily life, deliberation is a common behavior for human to improve or refine their work (e.g., writing, reading and drawing). To date, encoder-decoder framework with attention mechanisms has achieved great progress for image captioning. However, such framework is in essential an one-pass forward process while encoding to hidden states and attending to visual features, but lacks of the deliberation action. The learned hidden states and visual attention are directly used to predict the final captions without further polishing. In this paper, we present a novel Deliberate Residual Attention Network, namely DA, for image captioning. The first-pass residual-based attention layer prepares the hidden states and visual attention for generating a preliminary version of the captions, while the second-pass deliberate residual-based attention layer refines them. Since the second-pass is based on the rough global features captured by the hidden layer and visual attention in the first-pass, our DA has the potential to generate better sentences. We further equip our DA with discriminative loss and reinforcement learning to disambiguate image/caption pairs and reduce exposure bias. Our model improves the state-of-the-arts on the MSCOCO dataset and reaches 37.5% BELU-4, 28.5% METEOR and 125.6% CIDEr. It also outperforms the-state-ofthe-arts from 25.1% BLEU-4, 20.4% METEOR and 53.1% CIDEr to 29.4% BLEU-4, 23.0% METEOR and 66.6% on the Flickr30K dataset.


The purpose of this study was to examine how Thai EFL high-school teachers view and use mobile devices (such as smart phones) in educational settings, and if the age-based digital native/digital immigrant divide would highlight any differences in responses. The participants were 55 Thai EFL teachers in 8 schools of different sizes in Southern Thailand, who were split into digital-native and digital-immigrant subgroups during data analysis. Participants completed a 35-item Likert-type scale covering a range of topics related to mobile devices in the EFL setting including their ability, experience, school/personal policy, instructional utilization, and whether they supported mobile devices as a learning aid. The results showed that while digital native teachers consistently responded more positively towards the benefits/uses of mobile devices in EFL teaching/learning than the older digital immigrant teachers often at a significant level, all teachers -regardless of age- agreed on the benefits and promotion of mobile devices as EFL learning aids. Results of this study expand the knowledge base of EFL teachers' mobile device experiences and practice while raising awareness of significant differences between digital natives and digital immigrants, and recommendations are made for policymakers, schools, and teachers.


The Winooski Hydroelectric Company of Montpelier, Vermont is conducting the reconstruction of Dam #8 on the Winooski River in East Montpelier, Vermont. Unprecedented eminent domain proceedings were subsequently initiated against the utility for the taking of the project while detail site investigations of the condition of the concrete intake works and spillway were conducted by an engineering firm on behalf of the utility. As a result of these activities, two major economic and developmental adjustments occurred: The Court found in favor of the Winooski Hydroelectric Company and set payment at substantially less than the original asking price. Detailed site investigation showed that the condition of the existing intake works was worse than expected. It was then determined that a different project development scheme which would eliminate the downstream penstock and powerhouse in favor of an elongated excavated tailrace and integral powerhouse would be more cost effective.


Quantification of global land evapotranspiration (ET) has long been associated with large uncertainties due to the lack of reference observations. Several recently developed products now provide the capacity to estimate ET at global scales. These products, partly based on observational data, include satellite‐based products, land surface model (LSM) simulations, atmospheric reanalysis output, estimates based on empirical upscaling of eddy‐covariance flux measurements, and atmospheric water balance datasets. The LandFlux‐EVAL project aims to evaluate and compare these newly developed datasets. Additionally, an evaluation of IPCC AR4 global climate model (GCM) simulations is presented, providing an assessment of their capacity to reproduce flux behavior relative to the observations‐based products. Though differently constrained with observations, the analyzed reference datasets display similar large‐scale ET patterns. ET from the IPCC AR4 simulations was significantly smaller than that from the other products for India (up to 1 mm/d) and parts of eastern South America, and larger in the western USA, Australia and China. The inter‐product variance is lower across the IPCC AR4 simulations than across the reference datasets in several regions, which indicates that uncertainties may be underestimated in the IPCC AR4 models due to shared biases of these simulations.


Current techniques used by cardiologists to assess ECGs are highly subjective. Even doctors who graduated from the same department and university have different approaches when assessing ECG of the patients. The problem is even worse for the patients with different heart diseases and abnormalities. All this leads to high variation of diagnosis and consequent high number of false prescription of certain therapies. The goal of the project was to objectify the procedure of ECG assessment for patients with problems in heart conduction system.
To address the issue a team of the department of cardiology of UZ Gent was formed by Prof. Ronald Stroobandt, MD, PhD, Milad El Haddad,MSc, and Jan De Pooter, MD. Their goal was to introduce an objective method of ECG assessment with its further development into an algorithm for Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators. They initially acquired a set of 12-lead ECG from 52 patients with different problems of heart conduction system. I performed evaluation of all 52 ECGs in order to identify patterns and specific objective features, which would allow for development of rules for objective assessment of ECGs. After first set of rules was developed it was tested against results of ECG assessment by 5 different cardiologists. The mean and standard deviation of the results of the cardiologists was taken as a reference for evaluation of performance of the rules. Accuracy of applying the rules was evaluated and determined for each of 12 ECG used for rules testing. Approximately 75% of ECGs were inaccurately assessed, i.e. the values acquired by applying the rules were outside the confidence interval (i.e. reference standard deviation). Next, after several consultations with the team and external cardiologists rules were adjusted and tested again. That time, the rules performed significantly better – all ECGs were assessed with at least 75% accuracy relative to the reference (0% accuracy is when the rules' value deviates by the value of standard deviation from the mean taken as a reference value). At the end of the project a presentation was made showing the process and the results of the project: a final set of 12 rules was developed and its performance assessed by cardiologists.
Outcomes of this project were:
• Development of objective rules for ECG assessement with further development of a possible gold standard for ECG assessemtn
• Development of an algorithm for ICD devices for patients with complex ECGs


The crystallisation age and thermochronology of late- to post-orogenic, rare-lithophile element (Li, Cs, Ta) pegmatites that are chemically associated with peraluminous granites have been determined from U-Pb TIMS and LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses of columbite-tantalite, and UV -laser 40Ar/39Ar analyses of mica.

 In the northwest Superior Province, U-Pb ages reveal that the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite crystallised at 2673 ±8Ma. Rare-element pegmatites in the western Superior Province yield crystallisation ages of 2649 ±4Ma and 2644 ±8Ma for the Separation Rapids group, and 2665 ±lOMa for the Mavis Lake group, showing that they are temporally associated with adjacent peraluminous granites. Replacement zones of columbite-tantalite grains from the pegmatites show disturbance to the U-Pb system, probably caused by interaction with residual fluids and sub solidus metasomatic processes that lasted for -30Ma after crystallisation.

 Mica from rare-element pegmatites is characterised by distinct compositional zoning with muscovite cores and F-, Li- and Rb-rich zinnwalditellepidolite rims. The zinnwalditellepidolite rims that replace the original muscovite were most likely precipitated from a residual melt or fluid phase during the late-magmatic to hydrothermal period of pegmatite formation.

 Within these micas, 40Ar/39Ar apparent ages young towards the grain boundary and also towards the core - rim boundary, which suggests that the compositional zones form separate argon diffusion domains. However, similar 40Ar/39Ar apparent ages are found within F-rich zinnwaldite/lepidolite and coexisting muscovite indicating that diffusion rates may be comparable.
 Mica from rare-element pegmatites of the Superior Province yield intra-grain 40Ar/39Ar apparent age variations of up to 800Ma within single crystals. Theoretical slow cooling models do not match the measured 40Ar/39Ar profiles and cannot account for the large apparent age variations. Thermal history models that produce the best fit to apparent age profiles include two re-heating events; a minimum 350°C re-heating at -2450Ma and circa 300°C re-heating at 1850Ma, both for a period of at least 10Ma. These apparent ages are concordant with two major Proterozoic events affecting the Superior Province; intrusion of the Matachewan - Hearst dyke swarms and the Trans Hudson Orogeny, respectively.


In abdominal surgery, laparoscopic ultrasound is widely used for minimally invasive procedures. Because of the missing visual feedback, it is often difficult for the surgeons to relate the flexible ultrasound transducer to patient anatomy and images. Utilizing instrument tracking techniques for navigation and augmented visualization can therefore provide great benefits for minimally invasive procedures. Electromagnetic systems are the only currently available means to determine the pose of the transducer tip inside the patient, its position and orientation. However, the electromagnetic field can be distorted in various ways, leading to erroneous measurements. Different error correction techniques have been developed, but their application to laparoscopic ultrasound is either difficult or they require an additional calibration procedure before each intervention. Additionally, no techniques have yet been proposed for the compensation of dynamic sources of error. In this thesis two new methods for online error detection and correction for the tracking of flexible laparoscopic ultrasound probes are presented. The first method utilizes magneto-optic tracking of the ultrasound transducer shaft combined with electromagnetic tracking of the transducer tip. Deviations between optical and electromagnetic tracking of the transducer shaft are used to estimate the distortion of the electromagnetic field at the transducer tip. The second and more sophisticated method involves a mathematical model of the movements of the flexible transducer tip. All necessary parameters are computed offline in a distortion-free environment and remain valid until the sensors are repositioned. During an intervention the model is fitted to the measurements of the electromagnetic sensor at the transducer tip. Both methods were rigorously tested in experiments and comprehensively evaluated in comparison to related work. Our results are very promising and especially the model based approach improves the current state of art for both error detection and correction.


Parts of the Central Plateau have been used for
pastoral purposes for over 100 years, but little attention
has been given to introduced pasture species because of
the rigours of the environment, the lack of suitable species
and of experience relevant to the area, and the absence of
any incentive to change the traditional system of openrange
summer grazing of the natural vegetation. (Some background
on the use of the Central Plateau by pastoralists
is contained in a paper by Rayner and Smith (1970), as well
as in the contribution by Shepherd (1973) in the present
volume). With increasing awareness of the problems on the
Plateau, however, and controversy over its future use,
coupled with the improved technical background of landholders,
more interest is now being shown in the possible
role of introduced herbaceous species as well as in various
aspects of general management.


This research project is a visual investigation of 'the sacredness of nature' utilising the tree as a metaphor for the mystery of life, death and regeneration. The project developed into a journey through history, exploring ecological and spiritual concerns as well as personal issues of migration and adoption of a new country.

The project aims to create a contemplative experience through the use of a symbolic visual language. Combining an installation approach with drawing, I look at ways of expressing my relationship with my adopted country without losing my rich European cultural background. Drawing represents one of the earliest forms of image making and connects us in an unbroken line with the first human who drew in the dirt or on a wall in a cave.

In the work, I explore a variety of visual languages: figurative/narrative, referring to a traditional European perception of nature and the spiritual, combined with an abstract as well as a process-orientated language where the material is the signifier.

Within this context, the research examines the long tradition of artists using nature, the tree and the forest to express connection with the sacred. For many of these artists drawing has been of great importance to their practice. Precursors include, amongst many others, Caspar David Friedrich, John Glover, Anselm Kiefer, Wolfgang Laib, John Wolseley, Peter Booth and Kiki Smith. Contemporary theories relating to the subject underpin the project. Foremost have been: David Suzuki, Simon Schama, Robert Harrison-Pogue, David Tacey and Mircea Eliade.

The visual outcome of the project is a series of symbolic works which have been produced using materials from the trees: charcoal for drawings and installation work; dyes distilled from leaves; flowers and bark from trees to create works on paper and to dye wool. These works are installed in rooms and form connections with each other and with the space, evoking an atmosphere of contemplation. They reflect the diversity of life and its celebration as well as meditations upon death and regeneration


This paper has a twofold result: 1) It develops an analytical solution (closed-form solution) for the minimization of tracking error. 2) It shows that, notwithstanding that minimization is relatively easy to achieve with numerical algorithms, the analytical solution considerably reduces CPU time. Minimization is done over the whole population of stocks issuances or over an arbitrary sample of them; therefore, the solution is applicable within a heuristic context for selecting a definite number of stocks issuances with which to minimize the tracking error.


Analogies as tools for meaning making have been of interest to scientists, educators and philosophers ever since Aristotle with their use for reasoning being suggested as a key process in human cognition from early childhood to late adulthood. Extensive research in the area of students' learning has also consistently found that analogies as instructional tools can play a significant role in facilitating students' attainment of a conceptual understanding in science. Studies in this area, however, have mostly focused on whether and how analogies provided to the students by teachers and/or researchers can be used effectively in instructional settings. Very few studies have been carried out on the self-generation of analogies by students and how these can be used by the latter in order to understand new information and reason in novel situations. This paper reports on a cross age study in which Greek students from five different age groups (primary and secondary education) were asked to make predictions in situations they had not considered before and describe the reasons that led them to these predictions. According to the findings, students made use of analogies rather than scientific thinking in order to reach a conclusion and make a prediction. In many cases, this analogical reasoning was a non-scientific one as it was based on students' experiential knowledge. This non-scientific reasoning led most of them to make a prediction incompatible with the scientific account but there were also cases in which analogical reasoning was effective in assisting students to understand the novel situations and reach a conclusion/prediction compatible with the scientific account. A cross age comparison of the predictions and the reasons underpinning them showed that students across the five age groups were making the same incorrect predictions as they were reasoning on the same or similar analogies. The discussion of the results point to the need for a better consideration of the analogies students use, and how/why their reasoning on the basis of such analogies could make them misunderstand novel situations.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are linked to a range of degenerative conditions in humans, and may cause damage to an array of cellular components. However, it is unclear which cellular target(s) of ROS may primarily account for toxicity during oxidative stress. The sensitivity of iron-sulphur (Fe-S) clusters to ROS makes these candidate determinants of ROS mediated cell killing. Ribonuclease L inhibitor (Rli1p) is a highly conserved protein that is essential in all tested eukaryotes and archaea, but requires Fe-S clusters for its crucial functions in protein synthesis. Herein, the novel hypothesis that ROS toxicity is caused by loss of Rli1p function was tested. Rli1p activity (in nuclear export of ribosomal subunits) was impaired during mild oxidative stress in yeast. In addition, resistance to pro-oxidants was decreased by RLI1 repression and increased by RLI1 overexpression. This Rli1p-dependency was abolished during anaerobicity and accentuated in cells expressing the Fe-S cluster defective Rli1p construct, rli1C58A. The effects appeared specific to Rli1p as overexpression of other essential Fe-S proteins did not increase stress resistance. Methionine sulphoxide reductases (MSRs) and the Mn-superoxide dismutase (Sod2p) are known to help preserve the integrity of Fe-S clusters in cells. Here, these proteins' antioxidant actions were shown to be at least partly mediated through Rli1p. Resistance to both chronic and acute oxidative stress was Rli1p-dependent. Further experiments indicated that Rli1p-dependent protein synthesis could be a critical target of ROS and, specifically, that Rli1p function may help to protect against ROS-induced mRNA mistranslation. The study indicated that Rli1p function is a primary biological target of ROS action, owing to its essential nature but dependency on ROS-labile Fe-S clusters. Such insights could offer new approaches for combating oxidative stress-related disease.


The controversy about the importance of eco-theology or creation spirituality seems to be in a deadlock. Those who support it and those who oppose it do not even seem to be able to communicate with one another. On the one hand, Celia Deane-Drummond, for example, writes in her Eco-theology (2008:x): 'I find it astonishing that courses on eco-theology do not exist in many university departments of theology and religious studies.' Matthew Fox desperately asks in his Creation spirituality (1991:xii): 'Need I list the [ environmental ] issues of our day that go virtually unattended to in our culture?' On the other hand, evangelical Christians are known for their ecological 'blind spot' (Davis 2000), until recently at least. Pentecostal proponents of the prosperity gospel preach a consumer-lifestyle for all Christians, which is not very eco-friendly (cf. Kroesbergen 2013). Even in more mainline Christianity we find, for example, the well-known theologian Robert Jenson who writes in his Systematic theology: Volume 2 (1999:113, n. 2): 'Recent waves of "creation spirituality" are simply apostasy to paganism. And it is such unguarded, even unargued judgement that is required of the church.' We find eco-theologians, who do not understand that not everyone agrees with them on the one hand, and opposing theologians, who do not even feel the need to argue against them on the other hand. What would be needed to re-open communication between those in favour of eco-theology or creation spirituality, and those opposed to it?


The University of the Philippines National Engineering Center (UP-NEC) has been mandated through P.D. 1295 to fortify the country's continuing efforts at national development. In order to achieve this, the UP-NEC aims to provide technical training to ensure a steady and expanding supply of technical manpower with expertise in the various fields of technology and engineering; as well as, to develop technologies for the sustainable utilization of indigenous resources that address the needs of the local industry. In pursuit of this mandate, UP-NEC applied for and was awarder the Philippine Quality Challenge (PQC) Level 1 in 2012 and the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) Level 1 in 2016. PQA is not only a national recognition for exemplary performance, it also stimulates local companies and organizations to improve quality and productivity in fulfilling its mandate and its vision to be the HUB of Engineering Innovations and Technology. The findings and recommendations from the PQA Team of Assessors identified UP-NEC's strengths as well as opportunities for improvement. With the assessment, it was deemed that a more strategic performance assessment is needed to ensure that UP-NEC is able to fulfill its mandate and its vision. The Balance Scorecard was chosen as the performance measurement and strategy management system to align its strategic objectives of Service, Reach and Self-sufficiency with the attainment of goals for the employees and partners, effective internal processes, service to its clients and stakeholders as well as financial sustainability. The study discusses the National Engineering Center's (UP-NEC) proposed Balanced Scorecard strategies and initiatives to attain its strategic objectives and move towards being a true hub of engineering innovations and technology in support of the country's continuing efforts at national development. Keywords— National Engineering Center, Balanced Scorecard, Phil. Quality Award


This set of experiments is the first of a series designed to explore facets of cell proliferation of hepatocytes during the carcinogenic process induced in liver by chemical carcinogens. A rat model for hepatocarcinogenesis, the resistant hepatocyte model, was used. A major advantage of this model is the unusual degree of synchrony in the early steps. Carcinogenesis was initiated by the administration of a necrogenic dose of diethylnitrosamine. Resistant hepatocytes so induced were stimulated rapidly to proliferate by partial hepatectomy in the presence of a brief exposure to dietary 2-acetylaminofluorene sufficient to inhibit the proliferation of the majority of hepatocytes, the nonresistant population. Cell cycle parameters were measured in the early carcinogen-altered resistant hepatocyte populations and in regenerating hepatocytes. Growth fraction and doubling time were experimentally determined in the altered hepatocytes. The mean cell cycle length of the resistant cells was 38.6 hr, somewhat longer than that of regenerating hepatocytes, which was 33.6 hr. Most of the increase was due to a prolonged S phase which was 13.6 hr in the altered cell population as compared to 7.0 hr in hepatocytes in regenerating control liver. The hepatocytes in normal regenerating liver had a mean duration of 21.6 hr for G1 as compared to 20.4 hr for the altered hepatocytes and a G2 of 3.4 hr as compared to 3.0 hr for carcinogen-altered hepatocyte. M was assumed to be 1.6 hr in both populations. The growth fraction in the altered cell population was determined to be a minimum of 0.83, and the doubling time was about 45 hr. Thus, the resistant hepatocytes which represent an early putative preneoplastic population show, in general, a prolongation of the cell cycle, mostly due to a prolonged S phase.


Many organizations face complex questions of how to implement affordable and sustainable digital preservation practices. One strategic priority at the University Libraries at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, United States, is increased focus toward preservation of unique digital assets, whether digitized from physical originals or born digital. A team comprised of experts from multiple functional library departments (including the special collections/archives area and the technology area) was established to help address this priority, and efforts are beginning to translate into operational practice. This work outlines a three-step approach: Partnership, Policy, Pilot taken by one academic research library to strategically build experience utilizing a collaborative team approach. Our experience included the formation of a team, education of all members, and a foundational attitude that decisions would be undertaken as partners rather than competing departments or units. The team's work included the development of an initial digital preservation policy, helping to distill the organizational priority and values associated with digital preservation. Several pilot projects were initiated and completed, which provided realistic, first-person experience with digital preservation activities, surfaced questions, and set the stage for developing and refining sustainable workflows. This work will highlight key activities in our journey to date, with the hope that experience gained through this effort could be applicable, in whole or part, to other organizations regardless of their size or capacity.


Training classifiers under fairness constraints such as group fairness, regularizes the disparities of predictions between the groups. Nevertheless, even though the constraints are satisfied during training, they might not generalize at evaluation time. To improve the generalizability of fair classifiers, we propose fair mixup, a new data augmentation strategy for imposing the fairness constraint. In particular, we show that fairness can be achieved by regularizing the models on paths of interpolated samples between the groups. We use mixup, a powerful data augmentation strategy to generate these interpolates. We analyze fair mixup and empirically show that it ensures a better generalization for both accuracy and fairness measurement in tabular, vision, and language benchmarks.


In 2017 the CERN Low Energy Ion Ring demonstrated once more the feasibility of injecting, accumulating, cooling and accelerating a new nuclei, 129Xe39+. The operation of this new ion species started at the beginning of March with the start up of the xenon ion source and the Linac3. Ten weeks later the beam arrived to the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR) triggering the start of several weeks of beam commissioning in view of providing the injector complex with xenon beams for different experiments and a series of machine development experiments in LEIR. Two types of beams were setup, the so called EARLY beam, with a single injection into LEIR from Linac3, and the NOMINAL beam with up to seven injections. 2017 was as well an interesting year for LEIR because several improvements in the control system of the accelerator and in the beam instrumentation were done in view of increasing the machine reliability. This paper summarises the beam commissioning phase and all the improvements carried out during 2017.


This thesis provides an outline for how we should think of the ethics of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) by giving sense to what it means to treat an NGO as a moral agent. That is, it aims to answer the following question: Which special moral obligations do NGOs have in virtue of the distinctive type of organisation that they are? In brief, the answer provided by this thesis is that NGO agency is defined by the multiple relationships that threaten to undermine its unity. Obligations are identified as what an NGO must do in order to maintain such a unified organisational self.
In Chapter 1, I define an NGO as an autonomous, norm-enacting organisation not motivated by profit and reliant on voluntary interaction. The idea of NGOs as unique agents is then developed indirectly in the middle four chapters. Each chapter engages with a central topic pertaining to NGO ethics, arguing for a particular position with respect to the topics of accountability (Chapter 2), resource allocation (Chapter 3), contributions to domestic and global justice (Chapter 4), and NGOs' impact on the viability of universal welfare rights (Chapter 5). The second task performed by each chapter is the identification of a particular ability, or power, possessed by NGOs as agents.
These four abilities characterise the moral agency of an NGO and form the basis for identifying four types of NGO obligation: 1) accountability, 2) acting consistently with organisational norms, 3) demonstration of positive social change, and 4) epistemic procedural virtue. In Chapter 6 I produce a basic framework for NGOs to use as a way of assessing themselves with respect to these four obligations. This framework is then connected to the findings from a 10-month qualitative research project, conducted from 2007-2008, on the ethical perspectives of NGO workers in Mongolia.


Objective: To study anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) in Parkinson's disease (PD) via a biomechanical analysis, including vertical torque (Tz). Methods: Ten patients with PD (in the "off-drug" condition) and 10 age matched controls were included. While standing on a force platform, the subject performed a right shoulder flexion in order to grasp a handle in front of him/her, under three conditions (all at maximal velocity): movement triggered by a sound signal and loaded/non-loaded, self-paced movement. The anteroposterior coordinates of the centre of pressure (COP) and Tz were calculated. Results: A group effect was observed for Tz and COP in patients with PD (compared with controls): the maximal velocity peak appeared later and the amplitude of the COP backward displacement and the area of the positive phase of Tz were lower, whereas the duration of the positive phase of Tz was greater. Interaction analysis showed that the area of Tz was especially affected in the triggered condition and the loaded, self-paced condition. The onset of the COP backward displacement was delayed in the triggered condition. Conclusion: Our biomechanical analysis revealed that patients with PD do indeed perform APAs prior to unilateral arm movement, although there were some abnormalities. The reduced APA magnitude appears to correspond to a strategy for not endangering postural balance.


The design of experimental systems usually employ some form of simulation. The inputs to the simulation are typically standard benchmarks. This paper presents a method for finding a cost-effective design for each benchmark. This method is called benchmark characterization. Benchmark characterization is possible in part due to the advent of high-performance architecture-independent compiler technology. To demonstrate the method, seven benchmarks are characterized. Five of the benchmarks are from the SPEC benchmark set (gcc, espresso, spice, li and matrix300) and two are popular synthetic benchmarks (dhrystone and whetstone). Benchmark characteristics are reported for the processor, memory system, and operating system.<<ETX>>


[1] We explore the potential for directly measured hyperspectral Earth-reflected solar radiances to provide sufficient information to study changes in Earth's climate based on the quantified variability of the data using principal component analysis (PCA) and singular spectrum analysis. To do this we used these two multivariate analysis techniques on Earth-reflected radiances between 300 and 1750 nm measured from space by the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument. The spatial and temporal variability of hyperspectral reflected radiances over global, hemispherical, and regional scales was quantified. As few as six components were needed to explain over 99.5% of the variance in all cases studied, with the exception of an Arctic Ocean case in which only four components were needed. Both of these values represent large reductions in dimensionality of the input radiances from 291 spectral bands. PCA facilitated attribution of the dominant spectral patterns extracted to atmospheric and surface variables, including water vapor, clouds, surface albedo, and sea ice. The second most dominant spectral variable, that is, the second principal component, in the Arctic closely resembled sea ice reflectance and followed the temporal behavior of sea ice extent determined from AMSR-E observations. The extraction of the spectral, spatial, and temporal variability in reflected shortwave hyperspectral radiance using multivariate analysis provides an alternate and complementary approach to inverse methods for applying space-based observations to climate studies.


Are a healthy diet and physical activity synergistically related to cognitive function in older adults?

Background. In an ageing society cognitive decline is expected to become an important health problem. Previous studies showed that a healthy lifestyle, i.e. sufficient physical activity and a healthy diet,can benefit cognitive function. In this study, we aimed to assess the (synergistic) association of physical activity and a healthy diet with cognitive functioning in 1,741 Dutch men and women aged 57-97 years.
Methods. In this cross-sectional study, data from the 2005-2006 examination wave of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used. Good cognitive functioning was defined as Mini-Mental State Examination score ≥27. Physical activity was assessed by the LASA Physical Activity Questionnaire and was considered sufficient if ≥ 20 min/d being moderate-intensity physically active. A healthy diet score was conducted adding up the intake of fruit, vegetables and fish. Each of the food groups were assigned a score ranging from 1 (well below guideline) to 4 (well above guideline), which were added up to determine a healthy diet (≥ 9 points). Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to examine the (synergistic) associations of physical activity and healthy diet with good cognitive functioning. All analyses were adjusted for potential genetic, chronic diseases and lifestyle confounders.
Results. Of all participants, 23% were diagnosed with cognitive impairment, 82% were physically active and 45% had a healthy diet. Physical activity (odds ratio (OR): 2.545; 95% CI: 1.289-2.162) or adherence to a healthy diet (1.831 (1.281-2.617)) were independently associated with good cognitive functioning. After adjustment for confounding, these associations remained significant. No interaction between physical activity and healthy diet was observed (p=0.17).
Conclusions. This study confirmed that physical activity and a healthy diet benefit cognitive function, although no synergistic association between the two lifestyle factors was observed. As these findings are based on a cross-sectional study, the research question should be addressed in prospective studies.


There are factors in an economy which tend to be inflationary at or near full employment. When the Employment Act of 1946 was enacted, there was concern that if the government would undertake to provide conditions conducive to high level employment, severe inflation would result. The purpose of this thesis has been to determine whether or not an increasing degree of inflation has accompanied the economic policies of the government aimed at maintaining high level employment. In order to provide a background for the problem, one chapter is devoted to the Employment Act of 1946-- the forerunners of the act; the history, goals, and provisions of the act; and the philosophies of the Presidents Councils. Another chapter which is devoted to the problems of inflation and full employment includes a consideration of why full employment tends to be inflationary, why inflationary trends are likely to continue, anti-inflationary forces in the economy, the problem of \cost-push\ inflation, how various groups are affected by inflation, and the case against continued inflation. Finally, although economics is not an exact science and the contributions of the Employment Act of 1946 toward stability of prices with high level employment goals cannot be measured exactly, there are indications that the Employment Act has made very real contributions to stability. The Employment Act is a stated policy of the responsibility of the government to promote economic stability and growth. As a result of this statement of policy, there has been increasing confidence among businessmen, who manage their business affairs in such a manner as to promote stability. The Employment Act of 1946 has provided the means for coordinated, effective government action in economic matters. While there has been an overall upward trend in prices since 1900, the record indicates that the rate of increase in the price level has been getting progressively smaller throughout the years, including the years following the enactment of the Employment Act of 1946.


Abstract. We present for the first time all 12 δ18O records obtained from ice cores drilled in the framework of the North Greenland Traverse (NGT) between 1993 and 1995 in northern Greenland. The cores cover an area of 680 km  ×  317 km, 10 % of the Greenland ice sheet. Depending on core length (100–175 m) and accumulation rate (90–200 kg m−2 a−1) the single records reflect an isotope–temperature history over the last 500–1100 years. Lowest δ18O mean values occur north of the summit and east of the main divide as a consequence of Greenland's topography. In general, ice cores drilled on the main ice divide show different results than those drilled east of the main ice divide that might be influenced by secondary regional moisture sources. A stack of all NGT records and the NGRIP record is presented with improved signal-to-noise ratio. Compared to single records, this stack represents the mean δ18O signal for northern Greenland that is interpreted as proxy for temperature. Our northern Greenland δ18O stack indicates distinctly enriched δ18O values during medieval times, about AD 1420 ± 20 and from AD 1870 onwards. The period between AD 1420 and AD 1850 has depleted δ18O values compared to the average for the entire millennium and represents the Little Ice Age. The δ18O values of the 20th century are comparable to the medieval period but are lower than that about AD 1420.


Variations in ambient temperatures cause safe moisture contents of stored grain to become unsafe due to migration or redistribution of moisture within storage. This study uses a previously developed generalized numerical model of the moisture migration process, which can be used to predict the temperature, moisture, and natural convection air-flow distribution in stored grain. For the weather conditions of St. Paul, Minnesota, this numerical model is used to evaluate the effect of various bin geometries and grain parameters on the moisture migration behavior of stored corn and wheat. These predictions indicate that cooling of grain to 0° C during the fall season can keep grain moistures under stable conditions for the entire year. It also shows that moisture migration occurs in all sizes of bins and it starts developing earlier in the smaller bins.


Potential speech abilities constitute a key component in the description of the Neandertals and their relations with modern Homo Sapiens. Since Lieberman & Crelin postulated in 1971 the theory that "Neanderthal man did not have the anatomical prerequisites for producing the full range of human speech" their speech capability has been a subject of hot debate for over 30 years, and remains a controversial question. In this study, we first question the methodology adopted by Lieberman and Crelin, and we point out articulatory and acoustic flaws in the data and the modeling. Then we propose a general articulatory-acoustic framework for testing the acoustic consequences of the trade-off between oral and pharyngeal cavities. Specifically, following Honda & Tiede (1998), we characterize this trade-off by a Laryngeal Height Index (LHI) corresponding to the length ratio of the pharyngeal cavity to the oral cavity. Using an anthropomorphic articulatory model controlled by lips, jaw, tongue and larynx parameters, we can generate the Maximal Vowel Space (MVS), which is a triangle in the F1 / F2 plane, the three point vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ being located at its three extremities. We sample the evolution of the position of the larynx from birth to adulthood with four different LHI values, and we show that the associated MVS are very similar. Therefore, the MVS of a given vocal tract does not depend on the LHI: gestures of the tongue body, lips and jaw allow compensations for differences in the ratio between the dimensions of the oral cavity and pharynx. We then infer that the vowel space of Neandertals (with high or low larynx) was potentially no smaller than that of a modern human and that Neandertals could produce all the vowels of the world's languages. Neandertals were no more vocally handicapped than children at birth are. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the lowering of the larynx and a concomitant increase in pharynx size are necessary evolutionary pre-adaptations for speech. However, since our study is strictly limited to the morphological and acoustic aspects of the vocal tract, we cannot offer any definitive answer to the question of whether Neandertals could produce human speech or not.


Optically activated, high gain GaAs switches are being tested for many different applications. Two such applications are ground penetrating radar (GPR) and firing set switches. The ability of high gain GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS) to deliver fast risetime pulses makes them suitable for their use in radars that rely on fast impulses. This type of direct time domain radar is uniquely suited for the detection of buried items because it can operate at low frequency, high average power, and close to the ground, greatly increasing power on target. We have demonstrated that a PCSS based system can be used to produce a bipolar waveform with a total duration of about 6 ns and with minimal ringing. Such a pulse is radiated and returns from a 55 gallon drum are presented. For firing sets, the switch requirements include small size, high current, DC charging, radiation hardness and modest longevity. We have switched 1 kA at 1 kV and 2.8 kA at 3 kV DC charge.


Public schools face raised performance expectations on group-administered achievement tests. In response, educators have implemented various preparation strategies to ready students. However, the research community largely ignores the impact of setting on test performance. This randomized field trial assesses whether or not there were significant performance differences between two group test-taking conditions (classroom vs. arena) on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exams. Participants included tenth-grade students from a medium-sized Wisconsin high school. Results showed no overall achievement advantage for classroom test takers. However, students in the top GPA quartile performed better in the classroom setting while students in the bottom GPA quartile performed better in the arena setting. Implications for school officials are presented. ********** Public schools face raised performance expectations on group-administered achievement tests due to the accountability requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). According to this federal legislation, public schools must demonstrate adequate yearly progress on statewide reading and math tests to avoid sanctions. In response, educators have implemented various strategies (e.g., curriculum and assessment alignment; practice tests, performance incentives, etc.) to ready students for testing. However, the research community has largely ignored the impact of group setting on student test performance, a potentially significant and controllable test score contaminant. This study helps bridge this gap. Optimal Learning Environments: Let's Get Small! Most educators and parents prefer small schools and class sizes for their children due to individualization of the teaching and learning environment (Finn, 2002; Graue, Hatch, Rao, and Oen, 2007; Kiger, 2002). Teachers have more time to know and connect with students, manage student behavior, and use a variety of instructional and assessment techniques resulting in positive student outcomes (Archibald, 2006; Howley and Howley, 2006; Nye, Hedges, and Konstantopoulos, 2004; Smith, Molnar, and Zahorik, 2003; Wasley, 2002). The down side of small-scale learning environments is high programming costs, limited space, and availability of qualified teachers (Brewer, Krop, Gill, and Reichardt, 1999; Hanushek, 1999; Hruz, 2000). Optimal Test Setting: Let's Get Small? The belief in "small learning" is evident in testing practices, too. For example, The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (2005) advises schools to administer its standardized achievement tests " ... in small groups of classroom size, rather than in a large group and auditorium-type hall." Presumably, smaller settings are familiar and authentic for students while affording proctors more control over testing procedures. The expected result: students feel more comfortable, and hence, less anxious, distracted and stressed during testing. Unfortunately, there is little research available to recommend a classroom-like test setting over other group configurations. Ingle and Deamico (1969) compared the scores of high school students taking the Stanford Achievement Test in a 1,000-seat auditorium under relatively poor physical conditions (e.g., inadequate lighting, portable writing surfaces, etc.) with students taking the test in classrooms under normal conditions. The researchers found no significant total test score differences between the groups (d = +0.03) and concluded that large-group testing may be a viable option for schools. Hembree (1987) conducted a meta-analysis of 120 studies to determine the effect of noncontent variables on math scores. Eight of the studies considered the impact of group size (large > 70 test takers vs. small


A general description of phase measurement by digital heterodyne techniques is presented in which the heterodyning is explained as a filtering process in the frequency domain. Examples of commonly used algorithms are given. Special emphasis is given to the analysis of systematic errors. Gaussian error propagation is used to derive equations for the random phase errors of common algorithms.


The globular head of the trimeric influenza hemagglutinin (HA) contains the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and is the target of potently neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with high in vivo activity. In general, these mAbs are induced easily by vaccination, but only infrequently display cross-neutralizing activity against antigenic drift variants or even against HA molecules from viruses of heterologous subtypes. Recently, the atomic resolution structures of several such antibodies in complex with HA have been determined by X-ray crystallography. Not surprisingly, cross-reactive globular head antibodies target, at least partially, the conserved RBD. The cross-reactive potential of such mAbs is limited by contacts of hypervariable HA residues outside the conserved RBD. The RBD of H2 HA seems especially immunogenic. Increasing the immunogenicity of the RBD of other HA subtypes may be a step toward a universal influenza vaccine. The germ line-encoded Phe54 residue of the CDR-H2 of the VH1-69 germ line sequence appears to be ideally suited not only to reach into a conserved, hydrophobic pocket on the HA stem, but also to reach into the conserved, hydrophobic pocket that is the RBD. We have cloned antibodies from different individuals that are encoded by the VH1-69 germ line gene segment that contact the universally conserved Trp153 on the bottom of the RBD. These antibodies serve as further evidence of antibody genetic sequence convergence across individuals.


This index covers all technical items papers, correspondence, reviews, etc. that appeared in this periodical during 1997, and items from previous years that were commented upon or corrected in 1997. The Author Index contains the primary entry for each item, listed under the first author's name, and cross-references from all coauthors. The Subject Index contains several entries for each item under appropriate subject headings, and subject cross-references. It is always necessary to refer to the primary entry in the Author Index for the exact title, coauthors, and comments/corrections.


Abstract.
 Stoneflies (Plecoptera) are a dominant group in running freshwaters. We report 104 stonefly species from Nevada. The fauna contains species with Sierra Nevada—Cascade range affinities, few of which penetrate far eastward, and Rocky Mountain species extending to western Nevada. Endemics, species associated with the large interior Humboldt River, and species with northern or southern boundaries in Nevada add zoogeographic complexity. From 3531 stonefly records in Nevada, we provide an annotated discussion and collection data for the species present. This material is a foundation for continuing research on Plecoptera and for monitoring vital stream ecosystems in this arid region of western North America. Collection records from this study are compiled in the Nevada Stonefly Database, which is archived and accessible at http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mwnan/vol10/iss1/1.


We present a model of the U.S. Congress in which social connections among Congress members are endogenous and matter for their legislative activity. We propose a novel equilibrium concept for the network formation game that allows for a sharp characterization of equilibrium behavior and that yields a unique prediction under testable conditions. While the equilibrium is characterized by a large number of nonlinear equations, we show that the model can be structurally estimated by an appropriately designed Approximate Bayesian Computation method. Estimating the model using data from the 109th to 113th U.S. Congresses, we show that social connections are important for legislators' productivities and we identify some of the key determinants of social centralities in Congress.


Background & Objective: Humans are widely exposed to di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate that it can rise obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics. The object of this study was to investigate the effects of oral di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) at minimum and maximum levels on glycemic response in mice. Material & Methods: An interventional study with 15 adult male mice was designed. Mice were randomly assigned to 3 equal groups: control, 1x phthalate (dose of 250 mg/kg/day), 2x phthalate (dose of 500 mg/kg/day) and treated for a period of 8 weeks. At the end of the seventh week study all mice were tested by oral glucose tolerance test and area under curve (AUC) was calculated for each sample. In the end, fasting blood samples were used to measure the variables (Glucose, Insulin, HOMA_IR, Quicki of serum and HbA1C of total blood). The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Duncan tests. The significant difference in the data was considered P >0.01. Results: Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate at low dose (250 mg/kg) showed significant increase in serum glucose and insulin resistance levels and also quicki levels decreased significantly compared to other groups (P <0.01). This study showed no significant changes in insulin serum, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of total blood and area under the curve in glucose tolerance test (P >0.01). Conclusion: In the present study, it showed di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate at low dose (250 mg/kg) impaired blood sugar control systems and this can lead in pre-diabetes.


Whitening the testing of service-oriented applications can provide service consumers confidence on how well an application has been tested. However, to protect business interests of service providers and to prevent information leakage, the implementation details of services are usually invisible to service consumers. This makes it challenging to determine the test coverage of a service composition as a whole and design test cases effectively. To address this problem, we propose an approach to whiten the testing of service compositions based on events exposed by services. By deriving event interfaces to explore only necessary test coverage information from service implementations, our approach allows service consumers to determine test coverage based on selected events exposed by services at runtime without releasing the service implementation details. We also develop an approach to design test cases effectively based on event interfaces concerning both effectiveness and information leakage. The experimental results show that our approach outperforms existing testing approaches for service compositions with up to 49 percent more test coverage and an up to 24 percent higher fault-detection rate. Moreover, our solution can trade off effectiveness, efficiency, and information leakage for test case generation.


Poster presented October 18, 2019 at the North Carolina Library Association conference in Winston-Salem, NC. This poster will describe a library outreach and instruction program centered around memes and visual literacy at UNC Greensboro. The program, called Uplifting Memes, will run during the 2019-2020 academic year and feature interactive workshops, guest lectures, and a student art contest to address issues such as understanding information ethics on social media (including fair use of copyrighted materials, Creative Commons, and the public domain); engaging in creativity, communication, and digital rhetoric with images and other visual media; and examining issues of virality, propaganda, and hate speech in internet communications. The poster will detail the planning process, provide examples of workshop curricula, and provide preliminary assessment data from the program.


Small and medium-sized enterprises public service platform(SMEPSP for short in the following paper) is a comprehensive service platform to provide services such as technology innovation, financing guarantee, business supporting and management consulting to small and medium-sized enterprise(SME for short in the following paper). This article is based on questionnaire surveys and interviews to those service departments who have participated the construction and operation of SMEPSP. After the statistics and analysis, we have firstly summarized the main features of SMEPSP of our country; Then we have analyzed the main existing problems of SMEPSP in construction and operation, such as repeated construction of hardware and software, weak coordination and integration of resources, and so on; At last, we have come up with a countermeasure that by establishing a national level total SMEPSP, adopt unified planning and top-level designing, to perfect the system construction of SMEPSP of our country.


The role of educational technologies, in the current processes of teaching and learning is becoming more prevalent and accepted in terms of being a mainstream pedagogical tool. During the past three decades, the use of information and communication technologies have found its way into English language classrooms. A quantitative design was utilized to examine university students' attitudes towards the use of iPads. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to obtain data from participants. The sample of this research comprised of 109 English language learners at Majmmah University. Gender, age, and students' academic year were selected as student's demographic variables for this research. The data were analyzed by calculating frequencies, percentages and via conducting t-test and One-Way ANOVA. The analysis revealed that most of the participants had positive attitudes toward the use of iPads in language learning. It was found that there are no any statistically meaningful differences in the participants' attitude toward the use of iPads in respect to gender, age and academic level. Some useful implications are discussed based on the research findings.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Despite the potential impact of missed visits on the outcomes of neuromodulation treatments, it is not clear how this issue has been addressed in clinical trials. Given this gap in the literature, we reviewed articles on non-invasive brain stimulation in participants with depression or chronic pain, and investigated how missed visits were handled. Areas covered: We performed a search on PUBMED/MEDLINE using the keywords: 'tDCS', 'transcranial direct current stimulation', 'transcranial magnetic stimulation', 'depression', and 'pain'. We included studies with a minimum of five participants who were diagnosed with depression or chronic pain, who underwent a minimum of five tDCS or TMS sessions. A total of 181 studies matched our inclusion criteria, 112 on depression and 69 on chronic pain. Of these, only fifteen (8%) articles reported or had a protocol addressing missed visits. This review demonstrates that, in most of the trials, there is no reported plan to handle missed visits. Expert commentary: Based on our findings and previous studies, we developed suggestions on how to handle missed visits in neuromodulation protocols. A maximum of 20% of missing sessions should be allowed before excluding a patient and these sessions should be replaced at the end of the stimulation period.


Lessons from other viruses: HLA molecules bind preferentially to evolutionarily conserved and functionally important peptide sequences. DNA viruses such as EBV have evolved in a symbiotic host-viral relationship with an extensive use of "host mimicry" in which viral peptides maintain close similarity to self peptides. This allows DNA viruses to exploit "holes" in the T-cell repertoire created through thymic deletion of auto reactive T-cells. Of the class I genes, HLA-A appears to target the self peptides and DNA viruses while most HLA-B alleles target RNA viruses most efficiently. RNA viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C can evade HLA-restricted responses by "classic" escape mutations. However more recently it has also been recognised that in some cases these viruses may also adapt to induce HLA-restricted immune responses which favour viral replication. The mechanisms for this are not as yet understood. EBV infection is also known to be associated with vigorous HLA-restricted immune responses that may be ineffective in limiting the virus. Such examples illustrate the importance of determining any viral sequence variation in parallel with measurement of specific HLA-restricted immune responses to both the non-adapted and adapted virus. This information is needed to dissect the relative contribution of host and viral genetics and to determine the likelihood that the immune response is: 1) beneficial to the host, 2) Ineffective/neutral or 3) actively beneficial to viral replication or survival.

A contemporary model for the pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis to account for some of the known interacting genetic and environmental risk factors will be described and the implications of recent observations from HIV and Hepatitis viruses considered. The development of Multiple Sclerosis may require a three step process involving 1) permissive genetics followed by 2) relative vitamin D deficiency around the birth and 3) appropriately timed EBV infection later in life. As with HIV infection allelic variation within the MHC has been shown to be the primary host genetic determinant of the risk and outcomes of MS in the era of whole genome screening. Genetics The risk of disease conferred by HLA-DRB1*1501/DQB1*-0602 can be normalised by the presence of "protective" DR14, DR10 and DR01 alleles. The combination of DRB1*1501 and DR8 in particular confers the greatly increased risk. On the other hand HLA-A*02 alleles are associated with protection against MS while HLA-A*03 and HLA-B*07 increase disease risk. Low levels of sun exposure and vitamin D around the time of birth may be associated with increased risk. The HLA-DRB1*1501 promoter specifically lacks sensitivity to the effects of vitamin D via a highly conserved VDRE. It has been proposed that low levels of vitamin D in early life could therefore reduce HLA-DRB1*1501 expression and allow HLA-DRB1*15 restricted auto-reactive T-cells to escape thymic deletion. EBV Infection: EVB appears to be necessary but not sufficient for the development of MS and cases of MS appear to be more specifically predicted by a serological response to EBNA-1. EBV infected B cells and plasma cells have been found to accumulate in the meninges, ectopic lymphoid follicles and perivascular cuffs of acute and chronic demyelinated lesions. Furthermore EBV specific IgG antibodies in the CSF result in the oligoclonal bands observed. EBNA-1 is critical to establish and maintain latent B cell EBV infection and can elicit both class I-dependent CD8 and class II-dependant memory CD4 T-cell responses. The CD8 responses involved involve interferon gamma secretion but not vigorous cytotoxicity and the CD4 responses have greater cytotoxic potential but both limit EBV driven B cell proliferation. CD8+ T-Cell cytotoxic responses directed against EBNA-1 expressing B cells or plasma cells are believed to occur in MS affected brains. As the disease progress a more prominent memory CD4 T-cell response to EBNA-1 appears involving the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Controversy exists as to whether damage to white and grey matter occurs directly or as a result of bystander effects. There is currently little evidence to support a model in which MS initiation and/or progression depends on "reactivated" EBV infection.

Potential implications for the study of host-pathogen interactions in MS
Whether or not EBV or another pathogen is implicated in MS, it is likely it will be necessary to examine pathogen sequence variation within known or potential HLA- restricted epitopes and the relevant specific Class I and II restricted immune responses to these variants in order to understand both the normal responses and the potential ways an aberrant host-pathogen interaction might be implicated in the pathogenesis of MS. Studies of patients enrolled in the Perth Demyelinating Diseases Cohort are underway to examine these hypotheses.


In Tasmania, a small island state of Australia, wildlife is under increasing pressure from anthropogenic activities. Multiple species of native herbivores compete directly for resources with humans, such that wildlife populations are regularly managed to reduce their impact on agricultural and forestry landscapes. There is an increasing need to quantify the impacts of such wildlife management strategies on localised populations of Tasmania's iconic fauna. Gathering this information often requires capture and restraint of animals, but
due to a paucity of published information on responses of wildlife to such techniques, regulatory bodies overseeing research do not always have complete information upon which to base decisions. In our study, the regulatory body designated manual restraint over chemical immobilisation as the preferred method, but current prescribed techniques can result in capture-related injuries including myopathy. To encourage dialogue on this welfare issue we present observations on capture and restraint of the endemic Tasmanian pademelon (Thylogale billardierii). Three of 19 animals that were trapped as part of a research study exhibited symptoms consistent with capture myopathy. Results suggest that techniques involved with capture and manual restraint can be problematic for pademelons, and we present recommendations for preventative measures, including chemical immobilisation, to limit myopathy-related deaths.


Spell checker is a system that is used to detect and correct misspelled word. Misspelled word is a word that exists in the existing lexicon that is not correctly spelled or in shortened form. These misspelled words often result in ineffective results of the Information Retrieval (IR) application such as document retrieval. This is because IR application should be able to recognize all words in a particular language in order to be more robust. The current spell checker for the Malay language uses a dictionary that contains pair of commonly misspelled word and its correctly spelled word in detecting and correcting misspelled word. However, this type of spell checker can only correct misspelled words that exist in the existing dictionary; otherwise it requires user interaction to correct it manually. This approach works well if the spell checker is a standalone system but it is not really an effective system when the spell checker is part of another IR application such as document retrieval for weblog. This is because there will be always new misspelled words created along with the increasing number of weblog pages. Thus, the number of misspelled words will also grow extremely. In this paper, we propose a new spell checker that detects and automatically corrects misspelled words in Malay without any interaction from the user. The proposed approach automatically replaces the misspelled word if it exists in the reSpellWord dictionary. Otherwise, it will go through the process of Selangor Slang Identification or Repetitive word Identification or Opposite Word Identification whichever is suitable. If the word cannot be identified as a misspelled word, a few alternative words will be suggested and they are ranked using the Levenshtein Distance in order to choose the most likelihood word for the misspelled word. The correctly-spelled word that has the highest ranking will be chosen as a replacement for the misspelled word. This misspelled word and its correctly-spelled word are then added automatically into the dictionary in order to update the dictionary. The proposed approach is evaluated by using texts that are selected randomly from the popular Malay blog. Based on the experimental results obtained, the proposed approach is found to be effective in detecting and correcting the Malay misspelled word automatically.


This paper presents work that uses Transductive Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) for text classification. In addition to relying on labeled training data, we improve classification accuracy by incorporating the set of test examples in the classification process. Rather than performing LSI's singular value decomposition (SVD) process solely on the training data, we instead use an expanded term-by-document matrix that includes both the labeled data as well as any available test examples. We report the performance of LSI on data sets both with and without the inclusion of the test examples, and we show that tailoring the SVD process to the test examples can be even more useful than adding additional training data. The test set can be a useful tool to combat the possible inclusion of unrelated data in the original corpus.


Objective- To determine the role of the oncofetal protein TPBG (trophoblast glycoprotein) in normal vascular function and reparative vascularization. Approach and Results- Immunohistochemistry of human veins was used to show TPBG expression in vascular smooth muscle cells and adventitial pericyte-like cells (APCs). ELISA, Western blot, immunocytochemistry, and proximity ligation assays evidenced a hypoxia-dependent upregulation of TPBG in APCs not found in vascular smooth muscle cells or endothelial cells. This involves the transcriptional modulator CITED2 (Atypical chemokine receptor 3 CBP/p300-interacting transactivator with glutamic acid (E)/aspartic acid (D)-rich tail) and downstream activation of CXCL12 (chemokine [C-X-C motif] ligand-12) signaling through the CXCR7 (C-X-C chemokine receptor type 7) receptor and ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2). TPBG silencing by siRNA transfection downregulated CXCL12, CXCR7, and pERK (phospho Thr202/Tyr204 ERK1/2) and reduced the APC migratory and proangiogenic capacities. TPBG forced expression induced opposite effects, which were associated with the formation of CXCR7/CXCR4 (C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4) heterodimers and could be contrasted by CXCL12 and CXCR7 neutralization. In vivo Matrigel plug assays using APCs with or without TPBG silencing evidenced TPBG is essential for angiogenesis. Finally, in immunosuppressed mice with limb ischemia, intramuscular injection of TPBG-overexpressing APCs surpassed naïve APCs in enhancing perfusion recovery and reducing the rate of toe necrosis. Conclusions- TPBG orchestrates the migratory and angiogenic activities of pericytes through the activation of the CXCL12/CXCR7/pERK axis. This novel mechanism could be a relevant target for therapeutic improvement of reparative angiogenesis.


Because mental health conditions can negatively affect employment, people with these conditions make up a large share of federal disability program participants. Federal agencies have tested supported employment (SE) interventions designed to help those with mental health conditions keep or obtain employment and reduce their dependence on public programs. This brief describes the characteristics of adults with mental health conditions who participate in the federal disability programs and reports evidence from three recent studies of longer-term impacts of SE on the employment of people with mental health conditions. The findings indicate that, although a large share of disability program participants with mental health conditions report that they want to work, many face barriers, including being discouraged by failed past work attempts. Although there is evidence that SE interventions can lead to positive impacts on employment and earnings for this population, the SE interventions studied to date have not reduced long-term reliance on federal disability benefits among those with mental health conditions.


The planning and operation of electricity grids is carried out by solving various forms of constrained optimization problems. With the increasing variability of system conditions due to the integration of renewable and other distributed energy resources, such optimization problems are growing in complexity and need to be repeated daily, often limited to a 5 minute solve-time. To address this, we propose a meta-optimizer that is used to initialize interior-point solvers. This can significantly reduce the number of iterations to converge to optimality.


The efficient formulation of silicon based, high-loading electrode with good capacity retention and cycling stability remains challenging. To gain a better understanding of the ongoing processes and failure mechanisms occurring during battery performance, operando micro-Raman spectroscopy is helpful to map the active silicon sites. Herein, we present the investigation of the electrochemical performance of anodes composed of plasmonic metal (Ag and Au) decorated silicon, designed for enhancing Raman signal. Following the discovery that only a partial amount of the electroactive material undergoes lithiation in the first cycle, we show that the plasmonic metal tips can enhance the connectivity of the Si particles. The micro-Raman mapping of electroactive silicon material reveals how the plasmonic metals influence the distribution of silicon active sites during battery cycling. The ratio of electroactive Si is found to increase from Si to Si/Au and Si/Ag electrodes, and the results are explained in terms of ...


This dissertation consists of two parts for the topic of sample integrity in high dimensional data. The first part focuses on batch effect in gene expression data. Batch bias has been found in many microarray studies that involve multiple batches of samples. Currently available methods for batch effect removal are mainly based on gene-by-gene analysis. There has been relatively little development on multivariate approaches to batch adjustment, mainly because of the analytical difficulty that originates from the high dimensional nature of gene expression data. We propose a multivariate batch adjustment method that effectively eliminates inter-gene batch effects. The proposed method utilizes high dimensional sparse covariance estimation based on a factor model and a hard-thresholding technique. We study theoretical properties of the proposed estimator. Another important aspect of the proposed method is that if there exists an ideally obtained batch, other batches can be adjusted so that they resemble the target batch. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method with real data as well as simulation study. Our method is compared with other approaches in terms of both homogeneity of adjusted batches and cross-batch prediction performance. The second part deals with outlier identification for high dimension, low sample size (HDLSS) data. The outlier detection problem has been hardly addressed in spite of the enormous popularity of high dimensional data analysis. We introduce three types of distances in order to measure the "outlyingness" of each observation to the other data points: centroid distance, ridge Mahalanobis distance, and maximal data piling distance. Some asymptotic properties of the distances are studied related to the outlier detection problem. Based on these distance measures, we propose an outlier detection method utilizing the parametric bootstrap. The proposed method also can be regarded as an HDLSS version of quantilequantile plot. Furthermore, the masking phenomenon, which might be caused by multiple outliers, is discussed under HDLSS situation. Index words: Batch effect; Centroid distance; Factor model; Gene expression data; High dimensional covariance estimation; Masking effect; Maximal data piling distance; Outlier detection; Ridge Mahalanobis distance Sample Integrity in High Dimensional Data


Small Business Administration (SBA) loans have long been one of the most significant policy interventions in the U.S. affecting firm behavior, but little is known about their outcomes. This paper estimates the effects on employment using a list of all SBA loans linked to annual data on all U.S. employers from 1976 to 2010. Our methods combine firm fixed-effect regressions with matching on exact firm age, industry, year, and pre-loan size, and on propensity scores as a function of four years of employment history and other variables. The results imply positive average effects on loan recipient employment of about 25 percent, or 3 jobs at the mean. Including loan amount, we find little or no impact of loan receipt per se, but an increase of about 5.4 jobs for each million dollars of loans. Similar results for high-growth counties and industries suggest the estimates are not driven by differential demand conditions across firms. Exploiting variation in the distance of controls from recipient firms, we find only very small displacement effects. In all these cases, the results pass "placebo" and "pre-program" specification tests. Other specifications using only matching or only regression imply somewhat higher effects, but they fail these tests. The estimates facilitate calculations of total job creation by the SBA and of the cost per job created.


Plasma chemical decomposition of butane was investigated with a ferroelectric parked-bed plasma reactor to obtain the information on the fundamental chemical processes occurring in nonthermal plasma. It has been shown that butane decomposition efficiencies are higher in nitrogen rather than in air. This fact suggests that energy transfer from hot electrons to butane is mainly responsible for the initial decomposition of butane. Nitrogen incorporation was observed for acetonitrile only in dry nitrogen and for nitromethane in air. Barium titanate and water have been shown to act as monooxygen transfer agents in nitrogen. Lattice oxygen atoms in barium titanate can be consumed in the formation of N/sub 2/O and CO, depending on reaction conditions. Water is much more reactive than barium titanate as an oxidant in nonthermal plasma, and it can oxygenate butane to butanols, epoxidize 1- and 2-butenes, and oxidize CO to CO/sub 2/. Water, which has a dichotomic nature regarding oxygenation/hydrogenation in plasma, can act as a hydrogen source toward alkyl radicals formed in the initial decomposition of butane. In air, triplet oxygen molecules are the most reactive oxygen source in the presence or absence of water and carbon balance can be improved with suppression of byproducts due to promoted autoxidation processes.


Glucose uptake-enhancing activity of the ethyl acetate extract of Dennettia tripetala (EDT) was investigated using 3T3-L1 adipocytes. EDT yielded 4.43 percent w/w dry matter, showed the presence of alkaloids and flavonoids, contained calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, copper and manganese. Out of the five extracts of D. tripetala, EDT gave the highest activity (75 percent) in enhancing glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, which was not significantly (p > 0.05) different from insulin (340 nM), the standard drug. EDT caused concentration-dependent increase in glucose uptake with maximal effect at 5 µg/ml, but further increase beyond 10 µg/ml caused a shut down in glucose uptake. Optimal effect was achieved at 16 h post incubation. There was no synergistic effect with increasing doses (2.5, 5.0, 10 µg/ml) of sub maximal concentrations of insulin, rather there was significant (p < 0.05) decrease compared with insulin (340 nM) alone. Unlike other protein inhibitors used, brefeldin significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited EDT-induced glucose uptake by more than 40 percent. In conclusion, EDT enhanced glucose uptake partly by the mobilization of glucose uptake proteins from the interior of the cell to plasma membrane via the Golgi apparatus. Therefore, this mechanism may be responsible for the antihyperglycaemic effect of EDT reported in our previous study.


Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are not easily included in mainstream youth activities provided by the community and voluntary sector (CVS) such as scouts, sports organisations and youth clubs. Two studies were undertaken. First, a survey of over 200 personnel from CVS groups to ascertain their previous experience of these children and reactions to their enrolment. Second, in light of the findings, a short, two-hour introductory training course on ASD targeted at youth leaders was devised and evaluated with nearly 400 participants. Most participants reported changes in their attitudes and perceptions as well as citing a range of information they had gained from attending. Further research is needed into the reasons why CVS groups are disinclined to enrol children with ASD and in targeting awareness raising and training opportunities more specifically within this sector.