In the June 2012 Greek national election, the right-wing extremist party known as Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi) gained 6.92% of the vote, thus entering the Hellenic Parliament for the first time with 18 seats. Given that its share of the vote was as low as 0.29% in the 2009 parliamentary elections, this was a remarkable success for the party.
This paper uses a demand and supply framework to explain the electoral breakthrough of what is one of the most racist and extreme right institutionalised parties in Europe. While Golden Dawn has been exceptionally violent and activist in comparison to its Western European counterparts, this paper contends that at their core they are in fact very similar. It argues that four factors in particular are crucial to an understanding of the party's breakthrough. These include unemployment and economic discontent; immigration and asylum; Greek conceptions of citizenship and nationhood; and the conduciveness of the political space. While there is no doubt that demand-side factors such as the economic crisis and the subsequent bailout have had massive social consequences that have been favourable to Golden Dawn, it is the latter two supply-side factors – the model of citizenship and the political space – that have allowed the party to truly capitalise on social discontent.


In vitro selection and evolution is a powerful method for discovering RNA molecules based on their binding and catalysis properties. It has important applications to the study of genetic variation and molecular evolution. However, the resulting RNA sequences form a large, high-dimensional space and biologists lack adequate tools to explore and interpret these sequences. We present invis, the first visual analysis tool to facilitate exploration of in vitro selection sequence spaces. invis introduces a novel configuration of coordinated views that enables simultaneous inspection of global projections of sequence data alongside local regions of selected dimensions and sequence clusters. It allows scientists to isolate related sequences for further data analysis, compare sequence populations over varying conditions, filter sequences based on their similarities, and visualize likely pathways of genetic evolution. User feedback indicates that invis enables effective exploration of in vitro RNA selection sequences.


The HSN was initiated during the period 1987–1989 when an interdisciplinary and interuniversity group of Dutch scholars started discussing the foundation of one large database with data on individuals. Building one general prospective database with multiple research possibilities was considered as the only way to realize a cost-effective and properly documented tool for historical research from economic, social, demographic, epidemiological and geographic perspective. The birth registration was considered the most adequate sample framework. The new database should be 'open' in the sense that extension should be possible in all kinds of ways: more sources or variables, more persons and larger time periods. The HSN was deliberately created as a nationwide sample covering the whole 19th and 20th century. Since 1991 about 12 million Euro has been invested in the database and related projects. Besides the basic sample about 25 additional projects have been realized that created all kind of extensions to the database. A special project is LINKS by which the indices of names from the Dutch civil registration are used to reconstruct pedigrees (for the period 1780–1940) and complete families (1811–1900) for the whole of the Netherlands or parts of it. In this article we will present an overview of the research that was done with the original themes and the new fields that were introduced over the years. We will also go into methodological issues that were picked up by the 'HSN community' and we will point out the present and future challenges for the HSN.


This article seeks to set forth the grounds for an approach integrating political governance, economic competitiveness and social integration as interdependent variables. To this end, it looks at the possibilities for Latin American society to simultaneously increase its capacity for democratic self-government, improve its economic competitiveness and tackle the main problems of social exclusion and poverty, since if this is not done the region will find it more difficult to take its place in the concert of modern democratic nations. In order to analyse the evolution of those variables from a systemic standpoint, each of them is first of all reviewed separately and then an attempt is made to construct an interactive scheme for their mutual relations, bearing in mind the economic and cultural conditions for productivity growth and the need for a social and political matrix which will give a sense of direction to the overall set of variables. This analysis reveals the emergence of a new logic of conflict, which is no longer between the State and the various social and political actors but concerns the cultural direction of governance, competitiveness and social integration; the question is no longer the need for the simultaneous presence of the factors of development but their possible political and cultural directions and leanings. It is concluded that guiding this new type of conflict in the right direction calls both for a prior consensus on some meta-values which will allow the parties to negotiate and deal with arguments using a common language, and for political reforms which include a clear and effective system of sanctions for those parties who do not respect the agreed terms.


Most introductory and intermediate textbooks for Polish, currently in use, are written in Poland and intended for intensive language study in-country where the "little-c" cultural component is inherent and immediate in an intensive language program. One of the most widely used textbooks in North America is the series, Hurra!!! po polsku I , II , III . This textbook is based on a communicative approach to language pedagogy and consists of thematic chapters according to aspects of life and culture in everyday society. The intent of the Hurra!!! po polsku series is that students will experience Poland while learning the language. This presents a problem to educators of Polish in the United States. Numerous communicative exercises presuppose acquaintance with the target culture while providing little in the way of input. We have found that students have difficulty relating to many exercises that carry specific cultural information. Our project is based on two specific goals: first, to decrease the amount of time spent in class to explain culture-specific aspects of the textbook; and second, to spare our students at least some amount of the usual culture shock one experiences when traveling to Poland. In this report, we describe a website, exercises, and activities we developed to accompany the textbook.


Jari Tiihonen Influence of Stationary Phase and Eluent Properties on Chromatographic Separation of Carbohydrates Lappeenranta, 2002 31 p. Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis 139 Diss. Lappeenranta University of Technology ISBN 951-764-712-3 ISSN 1456-4491 In this thesis, the sorption and elastic properties of the cation-exchange resins were studied to explain the liquid chromatographic separation of carbohydrates. Na, Ca and La form strong poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) (SCE) as well as Na and Ca form weak acrylic (WCE) cation-exchange resins at different cross-link densities were treated within this work. The focus was on the effects of water–alcohol mixtures, mostly aqueous ethanol, and that of the carbohydrates. The carbohydrates examined were rhamnose, xylose, glucose, fructose, arabinose, sucrose, xylitol and sorbitol. In addition to linear chromatographic conditions, non-linear conditions more typical for industrial applications were studied. Both experimental and modeling aspects were covered. The aqueous alcohol sorption on the cation-exchangers were experimentally determined and theoretically calculated. The sorption model includes elastic parameters, which were obtained from sorption data combined with elasticity measurements. As hydrophilic materials cation-exchangers are water selective and shrink when an organic solvent is added. At a certain deswelling degree the elastic resins go through glass transition and become as glass-like material. The increasing cross-link level and the valence of the counterion decrease the sorption of solvent components in the water-rich solutions. The cross-linkage or the counterions have less effect on the water selectivity than the resin type or the used alcohol. The amount of water sorbed is higher in the WCE resin and, moreover, the WCE resin is more water selective than the corresponding SCE resin. The increased aliphatic part of lower alcohols tend to increase the water selectivity, i.e. the resins are more water selective in 2-propanol than in ethanol solutions. Both the sorption behavior of carbohydrates and the sorption differences between carbohydrates are considerably affected by the eluent composition and the resin characteristics. The carbohydrate sorption was experimentally examined and modeled. In all cases, sorption and moreover the separation of carbohydrates are dominated by three phenomena: partition, ligand exchange and size exclusion. The sorption of hydrophilic carbohydrates increases when alcohol is added into the eluent or when carbohydrate is able to form coordination complexes with the counterions, especially with multivalent counterions. Decreasing polarity of the eluent enhances the complex stability. Size exclusion effect is more prominent when the resin becomes tighter or carbohydrate size increases. On the other hand, the elution volumes between different sized carbohydrates decreases with the decreasing polarity of the eluent. The chromatographic separation of carbohydrates was modeled, using rhamnose and xylose as target molecules. The thermodynamic sorption model was successfully implemented in the rate-based column model. The experimental chromatographic data were fitted by using only one adjustable parameter. In addition to the fitted data also simulated data were generated and utilized in explaining the effect of the eluent composition and of the resin characteristics on the carbohydrate separation.


This paper analyzes the effectiveness of existing financial incentives for mangrove conservation in Vietnam. Current conservation programs and projects have created financial incentives for mangrove protection, but the effectiveness of these incentives in addressing mangrove loss in northern Vietnam has been mixed. While financial incentives have contributed to a larger area of planted mangroves, their effectiveness is hampered by contradictory national policies, which encourage mangrove conservation on the one hand, and aquaculture expansion in mangrove areas on the other, thus making it difficult to address mangrove deforestation and degradation effectively. Mangrove conservation in Vietnam is challenged further by inequitable distribution of power and benefits, difficulties accessing information, weak law enforcement, lack of compliance, low payments for protecting mangroves, lack of full recognition of local rights, discontinued funding after policies and projects end, and lack of participation by local people in policy and project design and implementation. Conservation policies and projects should aim to protect existing mangrove forests, restore degraded mangroves and plant new ones to enhance mangrove area, quality and biodiversity. Sustainable mangrove conservation not only requires effective and sustainable financial incentives, but other enabling conditions such as addressing the conflict between mangrove conservation and aquaculture expansion, and grounding mangrove conservation projects by building on local knowledge and leadership. As these drivers are often motivated by national development goals and other sectoral development needs with ministries competing for budgets and influence, holistic land-use planning needs to be coupled with effective coordination and clarification of responsibilities between government agencies, and coordinated and consistent policies concerning these natural resources. Addressing these underlying governance issues is far more important for mangrove conservation and restoration than merely offering financial incentives as various national and international projects have attempted.


Summary The proposal of this paper presents a measurement-based routing algorithm to load balance intra domain traffic along multiple paths for multiple multicast sources. Multiple paths are established using application-layer overlaying. The proposed algorithm is able to converge under different network models, where each model reflects a different set of assumptions about the multicasting capabilities of the network. The algorithm is derived from simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation and relies only on noisy estimates from measurements. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the additional benefits obtained by incrementally increasing the multicasting capabilities. The main application of mobile ad hoc network is in emergency rescue operations and battlefields. This paper addresses the problem of power awareness routing to increase lifetime of overall network. Since nodes in mobile ad hoc network can move randomly, the topology may change arbitrarily and frequently at unpredictable times. Transmission and reception parameters may also impact the topology. Therefore it is very difficult to find and maintain an optimal power aware route. In this work a scheme has been proposed to maximize the network lifetime and minimizes the power consumption during the source to destination route establishment. The proposed work is aimed to provide efficient power aware routing considering real and non real time data transfer.


Caffeine is one of the most widely consumed behavioral substances. We have previously shown that caffeine- and theophylline-induced inhibition of renal reabsorption causes diuresis and natriuresis, an effect that requires functional adenosine A1 receptors. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that blocking the Gi protein-coupled adenosine A1 receptor via the nonselective adenosine receptor antagonist caffeine changes Na(+)/H(+) exchanger isoform 3 (NHE3) localization and phosphorylation, resulting in diuresis and natriuresis. We generated tubulus-specific NHE3 knockout mice (Pax8-Cre), where NHE3 abundance in the S1, S2, and S3 segments of the proximal tubule was completely absent or severely reduced (>85%) in the thick ascending limb. Consumption of fluid and food, as well as glomerular filtration rate, were comparable in control or tubulus-specific NHE3 knockout mice under basal conditions, while urinary pH was significantly more alkaline without evidence for metabolic acidosis. Caffeine self-administration increased total fluid and food intake comparably between genotypes, without significant differences in consumption of caffeinated solution. Acute caffeine application via oral gavage elicited a diuresis and natriuresis that was comparable between control and tubulus-specific NHE3 knockout mice. The diuretic and natriuretic response was independent of changes in total NHE3 expression, phosphorylation of serine-552 and serine-605, or apical plasma membrane NHE3 localization. Although caffeine had no clear effect on localization of the basolateral Na(+)/bicarbonate cotransporter NBCe1, pretreatment with DIDS inhibited caffeine-induced diuresis and natriuresis. In summary, NHE3 is not required for caffeine-induced diuresis and natriuresis.


This paper will examine tutor and student perspectives on teaching issues of 'race', diversity and inclusion on initial teacher education courses at one university in England. It will analyse tutor and student perspectives from questionnaires distributed to those on PGCE secondary and primary courses. The data will be based on questionnaires distributed to tutors and students and follow up interviews. The data will be analysed to examine how tutors and students feel about the teaching of these specific issues on their courses. The main aim of the study is to examine student and tutor understandings of the teaching of 'race', diversity and inclusion on ITE courses (PGCE primary/secondary). The study objectives included: 1. What are the views of tutors and students on ITE courses regarding the teaching of 'race', diversity and inclusion? 2. How can the views of tutors and students be used to develop materials on such courses (e.g. workshop sessions, reading materials)? Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The data will be based on questionnaires and follow up interviews. An interpretive approach to the study will be adopted to explore the issues that teacher trainers and trainees encounter when working on issues of race, diversity and inclusion. The quantitative data will be analysed using SPSS and the qualitative data using grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The intention is to use open and focused coding (Charmaz, 2006) to identify key themes in the data and to give voice to the concerns of teacher educators. The data will be subject to continuous modification and verification. This will include generating themes and concepts from which to build codes and generate a theoretical understanding regarding the key issues of teaching diversity and inclusion in the classroom. When preparing the interview schedule and analysing the data consideration will be given to exploring tutors' understanding and awareness of these issues, as well as their own levels of confidence and the extent to which trainee teachers are able to engage with these . Research has shown that the way teachers conceptualise the curriculum and its content (e.g. Grosvenor and Myers, 2001, Husbands, Pendry and Kitson, 2003) and how they understand the constraints and obstacles pupils from diverse backgrounds face (e.g. Ladson-Billings, 2004, Nieto, 2004) is often limited. Other studies, such as Bhatti's (2004) highlights the unintentional racism that some teachers exhibit. Rhamie (2007) identified that most African Caribbean pupils have negative experiences at school respondents reported a lack of support and encouragement from some teachers, a sense of being treated differently from their White peers, being subject to racism or having difficulties with teachers and other pupils. There have been attempts to address these concerns by a focus on teacher training courses, and developing programmes to help beginning teachers understand issues relating to 'race', diversity and inclusion (see for example, Causey, Thomas, Armento, 2000, Taylor and Sobel, 2001). For example, one response has been to focus on understanding the ideas and attitudes of trainee teachers towards diversity as a means of identifying mis/preconceptions and prejudices (e.g. Garcia and Lopez, 2005). As Korthagen et al (2001) argues, it is only possible to work with trainees' ideas and realistically move them forward, once they are known. Yet as Sleeter (2001 and Hollins and Guzman (2005) show, in most cases the impact of specific interventions is limited. The reasons for this are complex, but part of the problem is the extent to which teacher educators themselves are knowledgeable about issues relating to race, diversity and inclusion and are therefore able to support their beginning teachers effectively. This study focuses on the extent to which tutors feel able to support their trainees and to identify ways that tutors themselves need support as well as the ways in which student's views can be used to inform curriculum development. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings We are currently in the process of conducting the research. However themes to be explored include: 1. Tutors and students direct experience and knowledge of race, diversity and inclusion. 2. Tutors and students views on the content and structure of such sessions and the amount of dedicated time assigned to teaching these matters. 3. The levels of confidence in addressing issues related to these topics and concerns about teaching these topics. 4. Tutors and students understanding and definitions of race, diversity and inclusion and associated terminology.


Already in ancient Greece, the pre-Socratic philosophers thought that natural phenomena, although different, were homogeneous, of the same fundamental nature. In their theories can be found the search for a common reference point (arche) that puts order in the chaotic multiplicity of phenomena. After Albert Einstein's theory of gravitation (General Relativity -GR-) was published in 1915, the search for a unified field theory that combines gravity with electromagnetism began to become serious. It seemed plausible that there were no other fundamental forces. The main contributors were Gunnar Nordstrom, Hermann Weyl, Arthur Eddington, Theodor Kaluza, Oskar Klein (See Theory of Kaluza-Klein, 1921) and most notably the many attempts by Einstein
and his collaborators. No attempt went through. In the first half of the twentieth century quantum mechanics was consolidated, an instrument capable of overcoming the inadequacy of classical mechanics to explain phenomena and properties such as blackbody radiation, the photoelectric effect, the specific heat of solids, the atomic spectra, the stability of atoms, the Compton effect, .... When in the thirties Fermi and Yukawa 's studies led to the discovery of nuclear forces, the quantum formalism proved to be appropriate for the description of the new phenomena and, in 1967-68, Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam showed how the weak nuclear
force and the electromagnetism were simply different manifestations of the same force (electroweak). Since then, proposals have been done to include in a single grand unification theory also the strong nuclear force, and some of them (GTU SU(5) and SO(10)) have provided testable predictions as the quantization of electric charge. At classical level there is an extension of the Kaluza-Klein theory on a 11-dimensional space M4 × S1 × S2 × CP2. It corresponds to Einstein's General Relativity with 7 extra dimensions, and considers all four forces as different expressions of a "mega" gravitational field. The forces are unified at the classical level but, once quantized,
the theory turns out to be inconsistent and therefore unusable. This is because the nuclear forces have range of 10−15 m for strong force and of 10−18 m for weak force, distances at which classical physics loses its meaning. Ultimately, it seems that quantum mechanics is compatible with electroweak and strong interactions only if we limit ourselves to spaces of dimensionality less than or equal to 4. In addition, it is inconsistent with General Relativity for spaces with more of 3 dimensions. For these reasons, the theory of Kaluza-Klein fails doubly. Really, the incompatibility is not between general relativity and quantum mechanics in its entirety, but rather between General
Relativity and the method of calculation used in quantum mechanics: perturbative expansion whose terms, in the cases indicted above, become . To get around this problem two different approaches have been taken: String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity. The first has completely changed the wording of quantum theory, from considering local interactions, where the phenomena occur at specific points (of Feynman graphs), to interactions "extended", where the phenomena are distributed along one limited dimension (string), open or closed. This system has eliminated the divergences in the terms of perturbative expansion, but has developed other anomalies, eliminated only by building up the theory on a space of 11 dimensions. Unfortunately, the extra dimensions introduce a huge number of arbitrariness, such as the theory can predict
everything and nothing. The scientific community hopes to identify some potential whose minimum make a selection between these arbitrariness, but we are still far from such a result. The alternative discussed in this thesis is the Loop Quantum Gravity.
This is simply the union of GR and quantum mechanics, without modifying the basic axioms of both. It can be made only in spaces of dimensionality equal to 4 and it surrenders completely the perturbative expansion. This produces fascinating predictions, such as the inflation of early universe, and the lack of singularities in the black holes and in the big bang. It also provides the picture of a "combinatorial" universe, described by nodes connected by paths, whose only necessary variables are integer numbers associated with nodes and paths. This last point in particular escapes the string theory which, whilst losing the locality, is however concentrated within the "very small". The Loop Quantum Gravity, by contrast, is able to describe the universe as a whole, and to deal with transitions between universes of different topology. The downside is that the calculations are so complex that they are impracticable. Strategies have been developed
to introduce a different perturbative expansion that makes the calculations feasible, but this introduces important changes to the initial structure of the theory, in a way that eliminate the beautiful cosmological predictions. Nevertheless, we tried to calculate the graviton propagator in this new "modified framework", and the result is compatible with linearized quantum GR . For this reason, this framework has not been abandoned. It also seems that this formalism can easily be extended to include extra-dimensions and adapted to the unified theory of Kaluza Klein.
This thesis has been developed in an attempt to contribute to the desire for simplification and connection to the essence that has always been in the natural sciences. In particular, it was given a demonstration of how the "modified framework" of Loop Quantum Gravity is derivable from a classical formulation of the GR of Palatini type.
Finally, we give suggestions for extending the model to 11 dimensions, because 11 is the number suggested by String theory, by the classical theory of Kaluza Klein, and by the GTU SO(10). Probably the truth lies somewhere in between, maybe an action of a 4-dimensional brane immersed in a 11-dimensional universe would be the right compromise between String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity. A 4-dimensional brane represents our universe, and any contact with other branes of a much smaller scale put small pieces of it in vibration. Depending on the number of dimensions in which contact is, the part could be a vibrating string or a two- or three-brane (with probability decreasing rapidly moving from string to the three-brane). So, we even lose the distinction between the notions of particles and universes, making the first totally unnecessary. The action of a 4-brane is equivalent to the action of Loop Quantum Gravity, with the coordinate-fields which assume the role of gauge fields, and the indexes in the 11-dimensional space that would become similar to the indexes of internal gauge. This thesis focuses on two specific problems: the calculation of the graviton propagator in Loop Quantum Gravity and the derivation of the "modified framework" from the Palatini formulation of GR (Chapter 8). While the first it was
simply supported with a minimum contribution, the second is a problem undertaken by the student in a completely independent way that, while waiting for more in-depth audits, has not yet shown any inconsistency and for now can be hailed a success. A small space is reserved for some inedited consideration undertaken by the student on the "physical" projector. This operator is intended to project the Hilbert space of kinematic states in the subspace of physical states. The conclusion of the argument is simple and somewhat disturbing: the Loop Quantum Gravity is not an unitary theory!


Seminar.net enters it's fourth year, and has reached a state of maturity in a number of meanings: it receives manuscripts from all continents, the articles are read from 134 countries, of which India represents the highest number of readers, a number of articles have been read by more than 10 000 interested persons, and the frequency of issues is now three per year, and will reach four by next year. Interested parties now approach us in order to learn about our policies and practices.It takes time to become established and influential in the sense that articles are cited and referred to in prestigious publications. Still, the most prestigious publications are on paper. Many countries now embark on a policy that rewards researchers that publish in international journals, preferably in English. National languages are rendered less significant. In the UK, the research assessment exercise (RAE), and several other countries with a publication or citation based reward system in research, tend to favour quantitative dimensions at the expense of the quality of the publication. International publishing houses are huge profit-making companies that over years have increased their profit rates, charging increasingly economically pressured higher education institution with high subscription rates. With the advent of electronic publishing their position is severely challenged. It has been noted that the most significant publication of the last couple of decades was an electronic publication: Tim Berners Lee published the protocol for the World Wide Web in 1990. It was never refereed, nor was controlled by appointed gatekeepers of the "establishment". The number of Open Access publications is rising every day, and the number of e-journals for academic publishing is reaching higher and higher numbers. In a recent case The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University decided, that Harvard employees must publish all their material simultaneously on the electronic archive in their home institution. This means they should avoid publishing in articles that refuse parallel publishing. This is one of many encouraging events that might pave the way for more Open Access journals. In this issue of Seminar.net, we present four articles and a book review.


Multimodal research has picked up significantly in the space of question answering with the task being extended to visual question answering, charts question answering as well as multimodal input question answering. However, all these explorations produce a unimodal textual output as the answer. In this paper, we propose a novel task - MIMOQA - Multimodal Input Multimodal Output Question Answering in which the output is also multimodal. Through human experiments, we empirically show that such multimodal outputs provide better cognitive understanding of the answers. We also propose a novel multimodal question-answering framework, MExBERT, that incorporates a joint textual and visual attention towards producing such a multimodal output. Our method relies on a novel multimodal dataset curated for this problem from publicly available unimodal datasets. We show the superior performance of MExBERT against strong baselines on both the automatic as well as human metrics.


CONTEXT
Treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients is a growing concern. Most data on the virologic efficacy and safety of the combination of peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin in coinfected patients come from uncontrolled studies.

OBJECTIVE
To study the safety and efficacy of peginterferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin vs standard interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin in HIV-HCV coinfected patients.

DESIGN AND SETTINGS
A multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, open-label trial. Patients were enrolled from February 2000 to February 2002 and followed up for 72 weeks.

PATIENTS
Four hundred twelve HIV-HCV coinfected patients with detectable serum HCV-RNA, abnormal liver histology, a CD4 cell count of at least 200 x 10(6)/L, and stable plasma HIV-RNA.

INTERVENTION
Treatment with ribavirin 400 mg twice a day, orally, plus either peginterferon alfa-2b (1.5 microg/kg subcutaneous injection once a week) or standard interferon alfa-2b (3 million units of subcutaneous injection 3 times a week) for 48 weeks.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Sustained virologic response, defined by undetectable serum HCV-RNA at week 72.

RESULTS
More patients had sustained virologic responses in the peginterferon group than in the standard interferon group (27% vs 20%, P = .047). This difference between the treatments was found in patients with HCV genotype 1 or 4 infection (17% for peginterferon vs 6% for standard interferon, P = .006) but was not found in patients with HCV genotype 2, 3, or 5 (44% for peginterferon vs 43% for standard interferon, P = .88). Together, a decline in HCV-RNA of less than 2 log10 from baseline and detectable serum HCV-RNA at week 12 predicted 99% of treatment failures. Histologic activity diminished and fibrosis stabilized in virologic responders. The 2 regimens showed similar tolerability although dose modifications for clinical and biological events were more frequent with peginterferon. Eleven cases of pancreatitis or symptomatic hyperlactatemia were observed, all in patients receiving didanosine-containing antiretroviral regimens.

CONCLUSION
In combination with ribavirin, treatment with peginterferon alfa-2b is more effective than standard interferon alfa-2b for HCV infection in HIV-infected patients.


BACKGROUND
Observational studies have demonstrated similarities between the underpinning of frailty and biological features of centenarians, suggesting that adaptability to age-related multiple physiological decline may be a core component of successful aging. The aim of this study is to determine whether hormonal pathways potentially involved in energy homeostasis contribute to survival beyond 100 years of age.

METHODS
We assessed a total of 252 centenarians (mean [standard deviation (SD)] age, 101.5 (1.8) years, range 100-108 years) using a complete set of biomarkers of adipose endocrine function and the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) axis. Conventional risk factors at baseline were also assessed. The participants were followed up for all-cause mortality every 12 months by telephone contact.

RESULTS
During 2253 days of follow-up, 208 centenarians (82.5%) died. The lowest tertile of leptin and the highest tertile of tumor necrosis factor-alpha were associated with higher mortality risk among centenarians after adjusting for age (per 6-month increase), sex, education, smoking, activities of daily living (ADL), cognitive function, and comorbidities (hazard ratio [HR] 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14-2.35; and HR 1.45; 95% CI, 1.00-2.08, respectively). The lowest tertiles of both IGF-1 and IGF binding protein 3 (IGFBP3) were also associated with increased mortality. The adipose risk score, indicating cumulative effects of adipokine dysregulation, was strongly associated with increased mortality risk; ADL; cognitive function; and levels of albumin, cholinesterase, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, and IGF-1 at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS
The results suggested that preservation of adipose endocrine function and the IGF-1 axis may be potentially important for maintaining health and function and promoting survival at an extremely old age.


In high HIV-prevalence contexts, marriage can lead to significant risks through spousal behaviours. Yet, individuals cannot rely on their spouse to reveal their HIV status. Couples' HIV testing and counselling can provide spouses with credible information about each other's HIV status. Using random variation in participation in couples' testing, this study documents that uncertainty about spouses' HIV status contributes to marital dissolutions. Innovations, such as HIV couples' testing and counselling—and, in the future, possibly rapid self-testing—that reduce this uncertainty can thus have profound impacts on marital behaviours and stability.


This essay deals with rules and attitudes towards the Spanish succession crisis from 1580 to the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty in 1700. It argues that apart from succession laws, which were set down in the legal texts of the many different realms under Habsburg authority, attitudes and expectations created implicit rules for the succession. These attitudes and expectations have been distilled by analyzing testaments, representation of decased relatives in the Escorial, and the behaviors toward royal children. This analysis shows that Spanish royal attitudes to the succession differed considerably from codified law, and the kings of Spain were primarily guided by the former. This essay demostrated, therefore, that in order to understand the development of the Spanish succession crisis, the traditional focus on biology, politics, and laws should be expanded to include the dynasty's implicit rules of succession.


This paper discusses the development of a culture of 'Universal Empathy' within Product Design programmes at the Institute of Technology Carlow. The concept draws from the inclusive, holistic nature of Universal Design and its principles together with a deeply human centric and empathic approach to design learning. Focusing on the undergraduate programmes of Industrial Design and Product Design Innovation, it will offer frameworks, case studies and examples of how this culture and ethos is developing. Universal empathy transcends four years of the undergraduate programmes and it compliments traditional design skills such as sketching, prototyping and technical detailing. It relies on studio and contextual based learning and ultimately trusting in the design processes. From first year this culture is initiated when the seven principles of Universal Design are introduced. These principles are blended with studio based learning using methodologies to understanding human behaviours and projects using basic empathic tools. This embedded understanding of the importance of the user creates a foundation for the development of the culture. By fourth year, humanistic understanding and empathy are deeply embedded within the design process. The honours degree major projects are a demonstration of an accumulation of empathic learning. A series of frameworks allow learners research chosen areas and explore human centred problems within the area. While engaging with this process the learners start to research plan, conduct field research activity and explore and understand findings. These findings are then synthesised into five potential directions for conceptual development. This project identification process involves a unique framework of identifying real world problems and understanding the narrative around them. Due to the embedded culture of universal empathy these research findings generally embody many of the seven principles of Universal design.


Objective To determine if preseason measures of cervical, vestibulo-ocular function, balance and divided attention change over one year in 10-12 year old ice hockey players. Design Prospective cohort study Setting Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, Alberta, Canada Participants Youth Ice Hockey players (10-12 years old) who completed cervical, vestibular and divided attention tasks at a preseason assessment during two seasons of play. Outcome measures Numeric pain rating scores (neck pain, headache, dizziness), cervical flexor endurance test (CFE), cervical flexion rotation test (CFRT), anterolateral cervical spine strength, head perturbation test, functional gait assessment (FGA), walking while talking test, head thrust test and dynamic visual acuity (DVA). Main results A total of 193 uninjured youth ice hockey players [95% males; median age 11 (range 10-12) in the first season] completed preseason testing measures in two consecutive seasons (2013-2015). After Bonferroni corrections (α=0.0042), using Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, anterolateral neck strength increased (right: z=−5.96, p<0.0001; left: z=−6.52, p<0.0001), head perturbation test improved (z=4.40, p<0.0001), walking while dividing attention improved (z=6.41, p<0.0001) and there were more positive head thrust tests (chi2=13.64, p=0.0034) in the second year. There was no evidence of a difference in symptom reports, CFE, CFRT, DVA and FGA between the two testing sessions. Conclusions Symptom reports did not differ between two years of play. However, tests of clinical function were different between two seasons of play in youth ice hockey players. These data suggest that developmental and/or maturational changes should be taking into consideration when interpreting these tests in youth. Competing interests None.


This research aims to propose a new model for warehouse performance measurement by overcoming the limitations of the traditional technique called productivity ratio. The proposed model is built up from 215 warehouses with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. This research focuses on exploring the relationships among four warehouse performance indicators. The indicators are classified and grouped according to the dimensions of time, cost, productivity and quality. In order to maintain consistency among metrics from different warehouse areas, a standard warehouse is defined according to layout, activities and indicators measurement units. Finally, the proposed model can help manufacturing firms to know the firm warehouse performance. This research also analyzes the effects of external factors on warehouse performance. Political, economic, social, and technological factors, called PEST, are used as an analytical framework. After that the PEST analysis is applied with the proposed model the results found that the technological factor has the highest impact on warehouse performance. The economic factors are the next level of impact assessment. The last two factors are social and political issue, could be the least significant.


This paper studies dimensionality reduction in a weakly supervised setting, in which the preference relationship between examples is indicated by weak cues. A novel framework is proposed that integrates two aspects of the large margin principle (angle and distance), which simultaneously encourage angle consistency between preference pairs and maximize the distance between examples in preference pairs. Two specific algorithms are developed: an alternating direction method to learn a linear transformation matrix and a gradient boosting technique to optimize a non-linear transformation directly in the function space. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that the proposed large margin optimization criteria can strengthen and improve the robustness and generalization performance of preference learning algorithms on the obtained low-dimensional subspace. Experimental results on real-world datasets demonstrate the significance of studying dimensionality reduction in the weakly supervised setting and the effectiveness of the proposed framework.


The population literature in theoretical economics has long focused on attempts to avoid the repugnant conclusion. We advance the literature by proving that no social ordering in population economics can escape the repugnant conclusion in all instances. As we show, prior results depend on a formal definition of the repugnant conclusion that artificially excludes some repugnant cases. In particular, the literature traditionally formalizes the repugnant conclusion to exclude cases that include an unaffected subpopulation. We relax this normatively irrelevant exclusion, and others. We prove that any candidate social ordering that satisfies either a basic axiom of Aggregation or Non-Aggregation implies some instance of the repugnant conclusion. Therefore, the repugnant conclusion provides no methodological guidance for theory or policymaking, because it cannot discriminate among candidate social orderings. This result is of practical importance because evaluation of important climate or development policies depends on comparing social welfare across populations of differing sizes.


Author(s): Camacho, Kathryn Militar | Advisor(s): Mitragotri, Samir | Abstract: Chemotherapy combinations for cancer treatments harbor immense therapeutic potentials which have largely been untapped. Of all diseases, clinical studies of drug combinations are the most prevalent in oncology, yet their effectiveness is disputable, as complete tumor regressions are rare. Our research has been devoted towards developing delivery vehicles for combinations of chemotherapy drugs which elicit significant tumor reduction yet limit toxicity in healthy tissue. Current administration methods assume that chemotherapy combinations at maximum tolerable doses will provide the greatest therapeutic effect – a presumption which often leads to unprecedented side effects. Contrary to traditional administration, we have found that drug ratios rather than total cumulative doses govern combination therapeutic efficacy. In this thesis, we have developed nanoparticles to incorporate synergistic ratios of chemotherapy combinations which significantly inhibit cancer cell growth at lower doses than would be required for their single drug counterparts. The advantages of multi-drug incorporation in nano-vehicles are many: improved accumulation in tumor tissue via the enhanced permeation and retention effect, limited uptake in healthy tissue, and controlled exposure of tumor tissue to optimal synergistic drug ratios. To exploit these advantages for polychemotherapy delivery, two prominent nanoparticles were investigated: liposomes and polymer-drug conjugates. Liposomes represent the oldest class of nanoparticles, with high drug loading capacities and excellent biocompatibility. Polymer-drug conjugates offer controlled drug incorporations through reaction stoichiometry, and potentially allow for delivery of precise ratios. Here, we show that both vehicles, when armed with synergistic ratios of chemotherapy drugs, significantly inhibit tumor growth in an aggressive mouse breast carcinoma model. Furthermore, versatile drug incorporation methods investigated here can be broadly applied to various agents. Findings from our research can potentially widen the therapeutic window of chemotherapy combinations by emphasizing investigations of optimal drug ratios rather than maximum drug doses and by identifying appropriate nanoparticles for their delivery. Application of these concepts can ultimately help capture the full therapeutic potential of combination regimens.


Abstract Drawing on the theoretical framework of the Economics of Convention this paper analyses the employment of people with disabilities as a valuation process. Based on case studies and interviews in business companies and disability insurance offices, it explores how employers and disability insurance determine the value of disabled workers. Inasmuch as employers are not willing to adapt performance standards, job design and work organisation, disability insurance attains individual exceptions for its clients at best, while disabling standards remain intact.


One of the key objectives of the IEA Annex 68 research programme entitled "Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings" is to provide a generic guideline for the design and operation of ventilation in residential buildings. They need to have minimal energy consumption, and at the same time maintain a high level of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). The paper reports on preliminary results of an interview survey conducted among different stakeholders involved in design, installation and operation of residential ventilation in countries involved in the Annex. There were two main objectives, firstly to describe and analyse a transition between actual requirements (national building codes, standards) and current practice. For the second to investigate current barriers and challenges regarding installation of mechanical ventilation in residences. In total, 37 interviews from six European countries and China have been analysed, certainly not enough for a representative sample. However, the results provide a valuable snapshot of current practices and insights into potential barriers. Results show that mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is becoming the dominating ventilation system installed in new residences in Europe. However, there are countries, where, due to tradition, national legislation and/or cost reasons, other types of ventilation like mechanical exhaust or manual window ventilation are applied. Demand Controlled Ventilation is often allowed or even recommended in standards, but rarely implemented in practice, except for humidity controlled trickle vents in France. The main barriers against mechanical ventilation with heat recovery seem to be high capital cost, space requirements and duct routing as well as problems resulting from poor construction, lack of commissioning and/or maintenance.


Agricultural biotechnology is the subject of extensive public debates in many countries. This article presents a summary of the results of the International Conference on Biotechnology in the Global Economy held in September 1999 at Harvard University. The article argues that many of the debates are a result of a governance crisis involving the failure to bring social institutions in line with advances in biotechnology. It proposes a set of measures for doing so. These include: promoting consultative processes; undertaking scientific and technical assessments; conducting research and training; reforming national and regional policies and institutions; harmonizing standards and sharing experiences; and facilitating technological cooperation with developing countries.


As a teenager Jane Bell had dreamt of playing in the casinos of Monte Carlo in the company of James Bond, but in her punk phase she'd got herself pregnant and by the time she reaches forty-six she's a grandmother, her dreams as dry as the dust her Dyson sucks up from her hall carpet every day. Then her son Ross, a researcher working for an arms manufacturer in Switzerland, is forced to disappear before some characters cut from the same cloth as Blofeld persuade him to part with the secrets of his research. But they are not the only ones desperate to locate him. A team of security experts is hired by Ross's firm: headed by the enigmatic Bett, his staff have little in common apart from total professionalism and a thorough disregard for the law. Bett believes the key to Ross's whereabouts is his mother, and in one respect he is right, but even he is taken aback by the verve underlying her determination to secure her son's safety as she learns the black arts of quiet subterfuge and violent attack. The teenage dreams of fast cars, high-tech firepower and extreme action had always promised to be fun and games, but in real life it's likely someone is going to lose an eye...Visit the author's website at www brookmyre. co.uk


In many parts of the world, including Thailand, marriage is being delayed and increasing proportions of women and men will never marry. The results reported in this article are based on microdata samples of the 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 Thai censuses, supplemented by focus group data. The increases in proportions never-married that had been observed between 1970 and 1990 continued through the decade of the 1990s. However, unlike earlier decades, changes in the 1990s were much greater for men than for women. Much of the difference in proportions never-married among women can probably be explained by changing socioeconomic composition of the population, but this may be less true for men. There is some evidence of a marriage squeeze for highly educated women and for men with the least formal schooling. Qualitative data suggest that while marriage may no longer be necessary, there remain abundant social pressures, particularly for women to formalize unions. Most young people still expect to get married at some point, if a suitable partner can be found, since the positive aspects of marriage still seem to outweigh the negative ones. Financial circumstances remain very important, however, in ascertaining whether one is ready or able to marry.


Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma. It is second to malaria in importance and at present the most effective control method is chemotherapy with use of praziquantel as the drug of choice. With the rising cases of drug resistance and re-infection, the focus is on development of a vaccine that can significantly reduce the incidence of the disease. The ability of genes encoding S. mansoni CulZn superoxide dismutase (CT-SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) to confer significant levels of protective immunity in a murine model of S. mansoni have been demonstrated. In addition to anti-oxidant enzymes, a gene encoding Smfilamin has also been shown to consistently induce a significant level of protection against schistosomiasis in mice. In this study, therefore the aim was to determine whether the protection observed in murine models can be replicated in the olive baboons as no such work has been done in higher mammals. In the study, animals in three groups were inoculated with 500J!g each of DNA vaccines containing genes encoding S. mansoni CT-SOD, GPX and Smfilamin respectively. The baboons in the fourth group received 500J!g each of a vaccine containing a gene encoding GPX cloned in the reverse orientation (XPG) and the animals in the fifth group were injected with normal saline (0.85% NaCI). The animals were boosted at week 4, 8 and 12, and then rested for 4 weeks. Thereafter, the animals were challenged with 800 S. mansoni cercariae per animal percutaneously. The DNA vaccines did not alter the blood parameters, indicating that they are safe for use in animal models. Genes encoding S. mansoni anti-oxidant enzymes (CT-SOD and GPX) and Smfilamin induced production of specific IgG against SEA, and the response to SWAP was low, but this immune response was un-protective to baboons against S. mansoni infection. The egg out-put was low in SOD, GPX and XPG vaccinated baboons and highest in Sm-filamin vaccinated and normal saline injected baboons. Worm burdens, gross and histo-hepato-intestinal pathology including the mean hepatic egg-granuloma sizes in vaccinated and nonvaccinated controls were statistically insignificant. Although the baboons inoculated with Sm-pcGPX and Sm-pcXPG had a worm reduction of 7.47% and 2.63% respectively, this was insignificant and below the WHO requirement for vaccine. Those vaccinated with pcCT-SOD and Sm-filamin had also insignificant worm reductions as compared to the controls. However, all animals gained weight before inoculation, but lost weight after challenge infection, with those vaccinated with SOD and GPX loosing less weight than other groups and those vaccinated with XPG loosing more weight. Although, these vaccines were able to induce immune responses to some worm antigens, some of them (SOD and GPX) were able to cause less weight loss pi and also low egg out put, but worm reduction and pathology in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated were insignificant to indicate any protection. This study recommends several things; these vaccines should be used with suitable adjuvant in future studies, vaccines should also be combined into one polyvalent vaccine, less weight loss and anti-fecundity effects of SOD and GPX should also be further investigated. Genes encoding other schistosome antigens that have shown protection in murine models should also be tested in non-human primates as a prelude to human clinical trials.


Kinnow (Citrus reticulata Blanco) mandarin is a superior fruit crop in Pakistan; however, it is characterized by high number of seeds which is disliked by consumers and the processing industry. The objective of this work was to document the morphological and genetic differences in selected seeded and seedless Kinnow strains from two different locations i.e., Citrus Research Institute Sargodha and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The morphological characters suggested variations in external and internal characters of seeded and seedless fruits such as growth habit, fruit shape and texture. Likewise chemical composition of seedless fruit was different than seeded including TSS and Ascorbic acid. Whereas PCA analysis suggested fruit weight, peel weight, non-reducing sugars and fruit diameter were largely contributing for the variations among the seeded and seedless strains of Faisalabad and Sargodha regions. The genetic characterization was carried out using Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. Two unique fragments of sizes 1000 bp each were detected by RAPD primers GL A-2 and GL C-19 in seedless strains which can be used as a fingerprint for the identification of seedless plants. The results obtained from SSR analysis showed 81.62% of overall polymorphism in seeded and seedless strains of two locations. This variation will help to develop molecular markers for seedless Kinnow strains.


During autumn 2008, the Silicon Strip Tracker was operated with the full CMS experiment in a comprehensive test, in the presence of the 3.8 T magnetic field produced by the CMS superconducting solenoid. Cosmic ray muons were detected in the muon chambers and used to trigger the readout of all CMS sub-detectors. About 15 million events with a muon in the tracker were collected. The efficiency of hit and track reconstruction were measured to be higher than 99% and consistent with expectations from Monte Carlo simulation. This article details the commissioning and performance of the Silicon Strip Tracker with cosmic ray muons. ∗See Appendix A for the list of collaboration members ar X iv :0 91 1. 49 96 v2 [ ph ys ic s. in sde t] 5 J an 2 01 0 FERMILAB-PUB-10-147-CMS


This study sought to find evidence for a beneficial learning theory to teach computer software programs. Additionally, software was analyzed for each learning theory's applicability to resolve whether certain software requires a specific method of education. The results are meant to give educators more effective teaching tools, so students ultimately get the most out of any particular software program. The study's value comes from additional significant information added to the established constructivist and instructivist debate, which is important to psychologists and educators.
The design of the study was a randomized quantitative experiment with an analysis of covariance design employing four groups, gathered using convenience sampling, in a pretest, posttest model to analyze multiple independent variables. Further design parameters included a 2 X 2 Factorial Design, .05 significance, large post hoc Cohen f effect size for learning theory, and 89% power. The sample was 167 students enrolled in Digital Image Manipulation, Digital Layout, Digital Illustration, or Digital Typography classes during two quarters of 2012. The participants were analyzed in their normal classroom environment using an online test/lesson/test exercise. The instrument was Photoshop CS5 and InDesign CS5 uCertify Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) exam preparation guides.
Research Question 1 stated: Is constructivist or behavioral learning theory more beneficial when teaching multimedia software? A significant finding for Research Question 1 indicates a difference between the learning theories behaviorism and constructivism. The behaviorist group scored higher than the constructivist group. Research Question 2 stated: Is there a difference in the effectiveness of learning between Photoshop and InDesign when teaching multimedia software? There was no significant finding for Research Question 2; therefore, no difference was found between Photoshop and InDesign.
Research Question 3 stated: Are there interactions between learning theory and software with regards to teaching multimedia software? No interaction was found between learning theory and software. According to the current study, teachers who instruct their courses through a problem-based constructivist method should consider a behaviorist approach. A behavioral learning curriculum is especially important if the class is instructing Adobe software.


Several problems in science and engineering admit algorithmic solutions that demand a large amount of computing time. Among these applications are genotype sequencing, gene sequence comparison, protein folding, quantum chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, and Earth simulation. In most of these cases, a single computer does not provide enough computing power to satisfy these needs, and therefore, the design of parallel methods is of crucial importance. It has been observe in practice that many of these algorithmic solutions acquire the form of a master-worker algorithm. Due to their availability and low cost, heterogeneous networks of computers are becoming a popular alternative for these implementations. One problem, frequently faced by implementers is how to divide and distribute the parallel segments of computing tasks among the computers. This is the essence of the so-called task scheduling problem. Efficiently managing the computations is a difficult and challenging problem. This efficiency depends on the number of rounds of computation, the sizes of the data chunks sent in a round, and the number and the activation sequence of the participating workers.
In this dissertation variants and extensions of ideas related to the scheduling of master-worker tasks on heterogeneous star networks are introduced. Some of these ideas were previously discussed in the form of theoretical frameworks for steady-state scheduling or as a divisible load theory. This dissertation combines some elements of these previous works to construct a new framework, and from it, an efficient algorithm (SCOW) for identifying a deterministic scheduler for clusters of workers. SCOW produces the parameters of a periodic user-level scheduler for a single-program multiple-data implementation of a master-worker parallel solution. SCOW minimizes the job make-span under either maximal production per period, or perfect worker utilization. The efficiency of the scheduler identified by SCOW is demonstrated through comparison with other schedulers, including those derived from the above mentioned theoretical frameworks. As shown in the simulation an actual computer runs, the scheduler identified by SCOW outperform in most cases those produced by the previous frameworks.


This guidance updates and replaces the previous guideline on the investigation and management of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) published in 2000 (Greaves et al, 2000), though where there have not been changes we refer back to them when appropriate. The guidance is updated with reference to relevant publications since 2000. Publications known to the writing group were supplemented with additional papers identified by searching PubMed for publications in the last 11 years using the key words: lupus anticoagulant, anticardiolipin, antiphospholipid, b2–glycoprotein I, antiprothrombin and limits (clinical trial, randomized control trial, meta-analysis, humans, core clinical journals, English language). The writing group produced the draft guideline, which was subsequently revised by consensus by members of the Haemostasis and Thrombosis Task Force of the British Committee for Standards in Haematology. The guideline was then reviewed by a sounding board of approximately 50 UK haematologists, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), and the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) Committee and comments incorporated where appropriate. The 'GRADE' system was used to quote levels and grades of evidence, details of which can be found at http://www.bcshguidelines.com/BCSH_PROCESS/EVIDENCE_LEVELS_AND_GRADES_OF_RECOMMEN DATION/43_GRADE.html. The objective of this guideline is to provide healthcare professionals with clear guidance on the diagnosis and management of patients with antiphospholipid syndrome though individual patient circumstances may dictate an alternative approach.


The NHS in England has made a positive start towards meeting the government's target of £20bn (€25bn; $32bn) in efficiency savings by 2014-15, but progress may stall unless attention is urgently shifted to transformation of services, auditors have warned.

The National Audit Office said that the NHS had delivered efficiency savings of £5.8bn in 2011-12, against a target of £5.9bn, by concentrating on the "easiest savings" borne from reducing national tariff prices by 1.5% and freezing staff pay for two years.

But its new report said that the NHS would struggle to repeat these savings for the remainder of the government's quality, innovation, productivity, and prevention (QIPP) drive unless it turned its attention to service reconfiguration.1

The efficiency drive, dubbed the "Nicholson challenge" after its architect, David Nicholson, the NHS's chief executive,2 requires the health service …


Chemoattractants that help guide growing pollen tubes in Torenia fournieri have been identified. In flowering plants, germinated pollen grains form tubes that must directionally grow through the flower to deliver sperm cells to the egg cell. In the final phase of this journey, pollen tubes must enter the ovule through an opening known as the micropyle and grow toward and into one of the synergid cells located next to the egg cell. Synergid cells are thought to secrete a diffusible signal through a specialized cell wall structure called the filiform apparatus to guide pollen tubes, but the identity of these chemoattractants in several plant species has been elusive. Okuda et al. prepared a complementary DNA library from synergid cells in Torenia fournieri (bluewings or wishbone flower) and identified 16 transcripts that encoded a group of proteins that they named T. fournieri cysteine-rich polypeptides (TfCRPs). Immunofluorescence for TfCRP1 and TfCRP3 was detected only in synergid cells, at the surface of the filiform apparatus closest to the micropyle. T. fournieri pollen tubes grew toward beads that released TfCRP1 or TfCRP3 but not TfCRP2. Pollen tubes from a related species, Lindernia micrantha, did not grow toward the TfCRP1- and TfCRP3-releasing beads, which suggests that these chemoattractants are species specific. The authors renamed TfCRP1 and TfCRP3 LURE1 and LURE2, respectively. T. fournieri ovules that had been injected with antisense morpholino oligonucleotides against LURE1 or LURE2 attracted fewer pollen tubes compared with those injected with control morpholino oligonucleotides. Thus, the LUREs are one set of chemoattractants that guide growing pollen tubes in T. fournieri to their final destination. S. Okuda, H. Tsutsui, K. Shiina, S. Sprunck, H. Takeuchi, R. Yui, R. D. Kasahara, Y. Hamamura, A. Mizukami, D. Susaki, N. Kawano, T. Sakakibara, S. Namiki, K. Itoh, K. Otsuka, M. Matsuzaki, H. Nozaki, T. Kuroiwa, A. Nakano, M. M. Kanaoka, T. Dresselhaus, N. Sasaki, T. Higashiyama, Defensin-like polypeptide LUREs are pollen tube attractants secreted from synergid cells. Nature 458, 357–361 (2009). [PubMed]


Abstract Objective To identify major meal and snack eating patterns, and examine their relationships with sleep duration. Design The analyses included 27 983 participants in a prospective cohort study of women aged 35 to 74 years in the USA or Puerto Rico. Results The principal component analysis of eight meal and snack frequency items at different times across the day yielded two major eating patterns: (i) eating during conventional eating hours (defined as times from breakfast to dinner); and (ii) dominance of snacks over meals. Comparing the identified eating patterns among women with varying sleep duration (<5, 5–5·9, 6–6·9, 7–7·9, 8–8·9, 9–9·9 and ≥10 h daily), the tendency for eating during conventional eating hours decreased with decreasing sleep duration: adjusted mean score of −0·54 (95 % CI –0·68, –0·41) in women sleeping for <5 h daily v. 0·08 (95 % CI 0·06, 0·11) among those with 7–7·9 h of sleep daily. The extent of snack dominance over meals increased in women with shorter sleep. Women with long (≥10 h) sleep duration had eating patterns similar to those with short (<6 h) sleep duration. Lower tendency for eating during conventional eating hours and greater snack dominance over meals were also related to higher intakes of fat and sweets for energy and lower intakes of fruits and vegetables. Conclusions Disrupted eating patterns and diet of poor nutritional quality may exacerbate the development of obesity and metabolic diseases in habitual short and very long sleepers.


Resource management in active network nodes is challenging because more types and amount of resources are needed compared with traditional networks, and the consumption of different types of resources is not equally balanced. Hence, it is possible and important to consider the relationship between different types of resources, needed by an application. Adaptation of applications resource usages in network nodes enables the applications to react promptly to the resource status in the network nodes and therefore offers a better performance guarantee and more flexibility to the applications. This paper studies the resource management in active network nodes considering the relationship among different types of resources. The resource vectors (RVs) are introduced to describe the resource requirements of applications and their adaptation capabilities. And an adaptive resource management mechanism based on RV is proposed and the implementation of it in an active node is given.


Despite all the critical attention jazz has received in recent years from scholars in other fields---literature, history, political science, cultural studies---very little headway has been made in understanding what jazz aesthetics are and how they might inform other forms of cultural and artistic expression. Part of the difficulty lies in the time-bound, performative nature of the artform and the fact that it is primarily a non-discursive means of expression; that is to say, jazz does not translate well. This dissertation attempts to evoke and inhabit jazz aesthetics rather than trying to define, categorize or delineate them. Alternating between close reading, formal musical analysis, musicology and narrative improvisation, this performance sounds much in the manner of a jazz set in which the musicians work through a series of styles, forms and settings. The texts and approaches taken here are a mixture of the familiar and the unexpected. Thelonious Monk is discussed as a formalist of the highest order; Langston Hughes is not read as a "jazz poet"; James Baldwin is argued to be more concerned with jazz brothers than literary fathers; Frank Zappa becomes one of the keepers of the jazz flame. Between these ostensibly conventional chapters lives a counter-melody, an "autobiography" at times parodic, satirical, self-reflexive and allusive that mimics, mocks, pays tribute to, improvises and signifies upon other less scholarly forms of "jazz writing". Although any number of elements suggestive of a jazz aesthetic are located in various texts---defamiliarization, reciprocity, incremental repetition, collective contextualization---no attempt is made to codify or delimit an understanding of jazz aesthetics. Rather, the performance is meant to organically give rise to and embody the aesthetic process itself. Jazz is all about telling your version of the story in close aural proximity to others who are simultaneously telling theirs. Each individual narrative is both tempered and enlarged in a process of collective contextualization. I think that is about as (dangerously) close as one would want to come to capturing jazz aesthetics in a declarative sentence.


Light-driven rotary molecular motors based on overcrowded alkenes can be substituted with electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents (R = OMe, Cl and CN) in direct conjugation with the central double bond (the axis of rotation) without having a significant influence on the rate-limiting, thermal isomerisation step of their rotary cycle. This indicates that in this system, it is predominantly steric factors that determine the barrier to the thermal helix inversion. In contrast, the quantum yield and photoequilibria in the photochemical step were found to be quite sensitive to the combination of substituent and solvent employed.


Novel ligand containing 8-hydroxyquinoline (HQ) moiety was prepared and characterized. For synthesis of ligands a hydroxyquinoline-5-carbaldehyde was treated with phenyl hydrazine to synthesis corresponding hydrazone. The hydrazone was condensed with diazonium salt of sulfanilamide to synthesis formazan. The formazan was converted to corresponding tetrazolium sals by using hydrogen peroxide, hydrobromic acid and ferrous sulphate. The isolated tetrazolium salt of 8-hydroxyquinoline derivative was designated as L1. The novel ligand L1 undergo the chelating reaction with Cu (II), Ni (II), Co (II), Mn (II), Zn (II) and Fe (III) salts to prepare transition metal chelates. These chelates were characterized by physicochemical methods such as elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility, IR and electronic spectral data. The stoichiometry of the complex has been found to be 1: 2 (Metal: ligand) for divalent and 1:3 for trivalent ions. An octahedral geometry around Co (II), Ni (II),Fe (III) and Mn (II), distorted octahedral geometry around Cu (II) and tetrahedral geometry around Zn (II) have been proposed. The antimicrobial activity of ligand and its metal chelates was conducted against various bacteria.


The recent achievements in the Human Genome Project have made possible a high-throughput "systems approach" for accelerating bioinformatics research. In addition, the NIH Whole Genome Association Studies will soon supply abundant clinical data annotated to clinical ontologies for mining. The elucidation of the molecular underpinnings of human diseases will require the use of genomic and ontology-anchored clinical databases. The objective of this chapter is to provide the background required to conduct biological discovery research with clinical ontologies. We first provide a description of the complexity of clinical information and the main characteristics of various clinical ontologies. The second section illustrates several methods used to integrate clinical ontologies and therefore databases annotated with heterogeneous standards. Finally the third section reviews a few genome-wide studies that leverage clinical ontologies. We conclude with the future opportunities and challenges offered by the Semantic Web and clinical ontologies for clinical data integration and mining. Discovery research faces the challenge of generating novel tools to help collect, access, integrate, organize and manage clinical information and enable genome wide analyses to associate phenotypic information with genomic data at different scales of biology. Collaborations between bioinformaticians and clinical informaticians are poised to leverage the Semantic Web.


A new concept of classification of petrophytic vegetation, i.
e. plant communities on rock outcrops and screes, is proposed
for the steppe and forest-steppe belts of the southern Siberian
mountains, using the Braun-Blanquet approach and original
releves from the Altai and Western Sayan Mts. In these areas
with arid continental climate, the species composition of
petrophytic vegetation seems to be less differentiated from the
other habitats than is usual in Europe or the Far East. The
main habitats of petrophytic vegetation include rock crevices,
shallow soils on weathered rock outcrops, disturbed screes with
herbaceous vegetation, and shrubberies in less disturbed
places. In the proposed classification petrophytic vegetation
is divided into three phytosociological classes. The vegetation
of moderately dry rock crevices is included in the Eurasian
class Asplenietea trichomanis (Br.-Bl. in Meier et Br.-Bl.
1934) Oberdorfer 1977 and the alliance Selaginellion
sanguinolentae Hilbig 2000. Vegetation of disturbed or strongly
drought-stressed rock outcrops and screes is included in the
class of central Asian steppes, Cleistogenetea squarrosae
Mirkin et al. ex Korotkov et al. 1991. Within this class,
vegetation with predominance of succulent plants is assigned to
the alliance Sedion hybridi all. nova and xeric rock-crevice
vegetation to the alliance Eritrichio pectinati- Selaginellion
sanguinolentae all. nova. A distinct type of central Asian
petrophytic vegetation is assigned to the class Artemisio
santolinifoliae-Berberidetea sibiricae cl. nova, which includes
xeric shrubberies on mobile screes and rock outcrops of
different lithology. Seven associations, three subassociations
and four communities without syntaxonomic rank are documented
in an ordered species-by-releve table and briefly described
with respect to their phytosociological affinities and ecology.
The DCA ordination of the releves was used to demonstrate
patterns of floristic differentiation of the higher vegetation
units in the Altai and Western Sayan.


The development of a two-dimensional viscous incompressible flow generated from a circular cylinder impulsively started into rectilinear motion is studied computationally. An adaptative numerical scheme, based on vortex methods, is used to integrate the vorticity/velocity formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations for a wide range of Reynolds numbers (Re = 40 to 9500). A novel technique is implemented to resolve diffusion effects and enforce the no-slip boundary condition. The Biot–Savart law is employed to compute the velocities, thus eliminating the need for imposing the far-field boundary conditions. An efficient fast summation algorithm was implemented that allows a large number of computational elements, thus producing unprecedented high-resolution simulations. Results are compared to those from other theoretical, experimental and computational works and the relation between the unsteady vorticity field and the forces experienced by the body is discussed.


■ CAIR-2 from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) placed first in the Office Delivery event at the 1995 Robot Competition and Exhibition, held in conjunction with the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-95). CAIR-2 is a totally self-contained and autonomous mobile robot, and its control architecture incorporates both behavior-based and planner-based approaches. In this article, we present a short description of CAIR2's hardware, system and control architecture, real-time vision, and speech recognizer.


Eight years after the Lawrence Inquiry, the question of police powers to stop and search people in public places remains at the forefront of debate about police community relations. Police are empowered to stop and search citizens under a wide range of legislative acts and the power is employed daily across Britain. Far from laying the debate to rest, the Lawrence Inquiry prompted new research studies and fresh theories to explain the official statistics. We argue that the statistics show that the use of the powers against black people is disproportionate and that this is an indication of unlawful racial discrimination. If stop and search powers cannot be effectively regulated - and it seems that they cannot - then their continued use is unjustified and should be curtailed.


A large proportion of disability around the world is preventable. Levels of disability in many poor countries can be reduced by achieving the international development targets for economic, social and human development. In this paper, the author studied the different contributory and causative factors of locomotor disability, disease states and the significance of poverty in relation to disability in Eastern part of India. Final data were collected from 200 people with locomotor disability by personally visiting each individual and their family at their home or institutes on the basis of personal interviews, discussions with them, their parents and teachers. Data were collected by situational sampling technique and tools used for the study were General information schedule (GIS) and Semi-structured interview schedule. The study revealed that various diseases which resulted in locomotor disability in some way were related to poverty. The nature and causative factors for various diseases which resulted in locomotor disability are malnutrition, unhygienic condition in the pre-natal and postnatal period of the mother as well as carelessness of the medical practitioners. Among the other associated significant indirect causes has been found to be illiteracy, ignorance of the parents, and various socio-cultural issues. However, general improvements in living conditions will not be enough but an integrated and specific steps are required for prevention of disability, ensuring that people with disabilities are able to fully participate in the developmental process and claim their rights as well as obtain a fair share of the benefits as full and equal members of society.


Bench scale tests were performed to evaluate two recycled wastes, water treatment residuals (WTR) and scrap tire rubber (STR), for adsorption of selected metals from urban stormwater, and assess their release from used sorbents. Aluminum‐WTR alone could rapidly and effectively remove Cu, Pb, and Zn, while STR alone continuously released Zn accompanied with Cu and Pb adsorption. Zn leaching from STR was significantly reduced in the presence of WTR. Very little metals released from used combined adsorbents in NaNO3 solution, and only part of them were extracted with EDTA (a strong chelating agent), suggesting that metal release is not a concern in a typical stormwater condition. A combination of WTR and STR is a new, effective method for mitigation of urban stormwater metals—WTR can inhibit the STR leaching, and STR improves the hydraulic permeability of WTR powders, a limiting factor for stormwater flow when WTR is used alone.


Use of local leguminous manure crops as forage has become important in southern Asia because regularly producing high-quality forage legumes is difficult with the high amount of precipitation. This study evaluated whether manure soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] could be used as forage and silage. Two cultivars of manure soybean were produced in two growing seasons and harvested at different growth stages. The highest forage yields were 9.3 Mg ha⁻¹ for soybean cultivar Tainan No. 4 (TN4) at stage R5 (beginning seed) and 13.0 Mg ha⁻¹ for cultivar Tainan No. 7 (TN7) at stage R7 (beginning maturity). Crude protein (CP) content was highest at R5 for TN4 and at R7 for TN7. The CP content of TN7 did not differ between spring and fall crops, but that of TN4 was 5 to 8% higher in the spring than fall. With advanced growth from R5 to R7, acid detergent fiber (ADF) content increased for TN7 but not TN4. The mean Flieg's point for silage was 26.5, 50.7, and 56.1 for ensiling treatments of soybean alone and soybean with Nilegrass (Acroceras macrum Stapf.) or corn (Zea mays L.) meal, respectively. The mean Flieg's point for silage made from soybean harvested at R3 (beginning bloom), R5 and R7 was 38.4, 47.5 and 47.3, respectively. Thus, manure soybean harvested at R5 can produce forage with high yield and good quality. The silage quality of manure soybean can be improved by ensiling with Nilegrass or corn meal.


Many practical studies rely on hypothesis testing procedures applied to data sets with missing information. An important part of the analysis is to determine the impact of the missing data on the performance of the test, and this can be done by properly quantifying the relative (to complete data) amount of available information. The problem is directly motivated by applications to studies, such as linkage analyses and haplotype-based association projects, designed to identify genetic contributions to complex diseases. In the genetic studies the relative information measures are needed for the experimental design, technology comparison, interpretation of the data, and for understanding the behavior of some of the inference tools. The central difficulties in constructing such information measures arise from the multiple, and sometimes conflicting, aims in practice. For large samples, we show that a satisfactory, likelihood-based general solution exists by using appropriate forms of the relative Kullback–Leibler information, and that the proposed measures are computationally inexpensive given the maximized likelihoods with the observed data. Two measures are introduced, under the null and alternative hypothesis respectively. We exemplify the measures on data coming from mapping studies on the inflammatory bowel disease and diabetes. For small-sample problems, which appear rather frequently in practice and sometimes in disguised forms (e.g., measuring individual contributions to a large study), the robust Bayesian approach holds great promise, though the choice of a general-purpose "default prior" is a very challenging problem. We also report several intriguing connections encountered in our investigation, such as the connection with the fundamental identity for the EM algorithm, the connection with the second CR (Chapman–Robbins) lower information bound, the connection with entropy, and connections between likelihood ratios and Bayes factors. We hope that these seemingly unrelated connections, as well as our specific proposals, will stimulate a general discussion and research in this theoretically fascinating and practically needed area.


This paper argues that developments in collaborative e-learning dialogue should be based on pedagogically sound principles of discourse, and therefore, by implication, there is a need to develop methodologies which transpose — typically informal — models of educational dialogue into cognitive tools that are suitable for students. A methodology of 'investigation by design' is described which has been used to design computer-based dialogue games supporting conceptual change and development in science — based on the findings of empirical studies. An evaluation of two dialogue games for collaborative interaction, a facilitating game and an elicit-inform game, has shown that they produce significant improvements in students conceptual understanding, and they are differentially successful — depending on the nature of the conceptual difficulties experienced by the learners. The implications this study has for the role of collaborative dialogue in learning and designing computer- based and computer-mediated collaborative interaction are discussed.


Abstract Lead (Pb2+) is ubiquitously distributed in the environment and shows significant health effects in humans, especially in the nervous system. In this review we illustrate how (Pb2+) neurotoxicity is associated with its ability to partially mimic the function of Ca2+ and modifies synaptic transmission pre- and post-synaptically. As Pb2+ binds to calcium-binding sites it alters their functionality, ranging from reduced currents through voltage and receptor gated channels, to modulation of ion-transporters and alterations of calcium-dependent signaling pathways. Overall Pb2+ exposure not only reduces pre-synaptically the transmitter release, but also post-synaptically the likelihood to generate a new action potential. This review will highlight the major-interactions with the different targets in schemes and short animated sequences to allow a general understanding of lead neurotoxicity to a wider audience; therefore, not all possible mechanisms will be mentioned or discussed.


We derive a local nonlinear thin-layer theory for electromagnetic fields that propagate in layered structures of isotropic, dispersive, and spatially local Kerr media. By use of an ansatz of plane waves together with a thin-layer approximation, the two-dimensional Kerr–Maxwell equation is rigorously solved within a very thin slab, and the characteristic matrix of the nonlinear medium is determined. The theory makes use of periodicity and allows a direct calculation of the nonlinear field throughout the structure on the basis of the transmitted field. The method is applied in the two polarizations, TE and TM, and is illustrated with a numerical example. The nonlinear thin-layer technique provides a simple and accurate analytical theory that includes multiple plane-wave incident fields and takes rigorously into account all nonlinear interactions of these waves.


Infection with Helicobacter pylori increases the risk for gastric non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (GNHL). Strains that express CagA protein are thought to be particularly virulent. It was determined whether CagA+ H. pylori infection increased the risk for GNHL more than CagA infection. Thirty-two cases and 130 controls previously tested for H. pylori antibodies were tested for CagA antibodies by ELISA. The risk for GNHL was compared among CagA+, CagA-, and uninfected persons by use of conditional logistic regression. CagA+ subjects had 8.2 times the risk for GNHL than uninfected persons (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.5-26.7). CagA- subjects had 4.4 times the risk for GNHL than uninfected persons (95% CI, 1.2-16.5). Among infected subjects only, CagA+ infection was not associated with significantly increased risk for GNHL when compared with CagA- infection (odds ratio, 2.1; 95% CI, 0.8-5.4). This study does not support a major role for CagA in lymphomagenesis.


This article examines the role local governments play in four states that have constitutional rights to a healthful environment – Illinois, Pennsylvania, Montana, and Hawaii. Scholars such as John R. Nolon and Patricia E. Salkin have long noted that local governments work as quiet yet integral third partners with state and federal government by addressing environmental issues through land use regulation. Because local government jurisdiction extends to areas not reached by federal and state laws, and because local government is most familiar with the resources in its jurisdiction, its role in assessing environmental impacts can be profound. But for local governments in environmental rights states, environmental protection is not just an aspiration, but a constitutional mandate. Thus, this article in Part I argues that environmental rights cannot be fully protected without the strong engagement of local government. Part II of this article then sets forth the constitutional provisions of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Montana, and Hawaii and summarizes how the environmental rights case law intersects with the land use law in each state. Here, the article updates much earlier comparative scholarship on environmental rights, using a land use lens. This comparative analysis reveals some remarkable differences among the four states, as well as important commonalities that help us predict future developments in environmental rights jurisprudence. This part also builds on the observations of Barton "Buzz" Thompson and other environment rights scholars who have noted a gap between the constitutional right to a healthful environment and its regulatory implementation. It is local government that can fill much of this gap. In Part III, this article combines the theoretical with the practical by presenting a checklist of topics that local governments can consider in designing regulations that protect environmental rights. Even in states lacking a constitutional right provision, local governments can benefit from the practical suggestions offered here. These suggestions are drawn from a comparative analysis of cases and statutes in the four environmental rights states. Although state variations require some differences in approach, the article concludes that when local governments proactively address environmental rights, they will create land use processes that better protect the environment, provide consistency and predictability for landowners, and are more likely to be upheld on appeal.


The burgeoning research into altruism and helping behaviour has examined the effect of many variables that enhance or inhibit helpfulness, but little attention has been given to the influence of culture. In the present research, data on various aspects of helping behaviour were collected in both the UK and the Sudan so that the importance of cultural influences could be investigated. In addition this research also tested the validity of current models of helping. In a repertory grid study, urgency and cost emerged as the main constructs people in the two countries use to distinguish between various helpful situations. A laboratory experiment designed to test existing models of intervention behaviour found significant main effects of country, group, size, cost and urgency; and a group size/urgency interaction. Subjects in the Sudan intervened faster than subjects in the UK; lone subjects intervened faster than subjects in small and large groups; subjects in low cost intervened faster than subjects in high cost conditions; and subjects in high urgency intervened faster than subjects in low urgency conditions. Group size effect was stronger in low than in high urgency conditions. Two field studies further investigated the effect of urgency and cost in urban-nonurban context. Significant main effects of urgency and cost were found in cities but not in towns; and people in cities were less helpful than people in towns. A questionnaire survey found that in both countries there were significant urban-nonurban differences in the incidence of reported social contacts and exchange of helpful acts between acquaintances, neighbours and strangers. However, there were no urban-nonurban differences between relatives and close friends. Finally, attitudes to altruism and helpfulness did not differ between the two countries or between urban and nonurban residents. The results highlight the need to incorporate urgency and cultural variables in theoretical models of helping behaviour.


Initially liberal in its response to refugees from Nazism in 1933, France soon closed its borders to them. Thereafter, refugees encountered a regime of exclusion and antipathy. Historians confront the problem of explaining the reasons for exclusion. Anti-Semitism is often alleged to be motive-force, but this misleadingly imposes on an earlier period our understanding of the Vichy regime and its anti-Jewish legislation. This article investigates the nature of the French responses to those in flight from persecution in Nazi Germany in 1933, and questions whether it is proper to study this period in the context of events after 1940. It argues instead that French refugee policy in the 1930s emerged from the context of anti-foreign measures implemented in response to the economic stress of the late 1920s. Its study of the crisis in 1933 identifies the pressures that shaped France's exclusionary policies and its antipathy to the plight of the refugees.


In recent years, several high-throughput low-delay scheduling algorithms have been designed for input-queued (IQ) switches, assuming admissible traffic. In this paper, we focus on queueing systems that violate admissibility criteria. We show that in a single-server system with multiple queues, the longest queue first (LQF) policy disallows a fair allocation of service rates. We also describe the duality shared by LQF's rate allocation and a fair rate allocation. In general, we demonstrate that the rate allocation performed by the maximum weight matching (MWM) scheduling algorithm in overloaded IQ switches is unfair. We attribute this to the lack of coordination between admission control and scheduling, and propose fair scheduling algorithms that minimize delay for nonoverloaded queues.