The effects of environmental regulations on the international competitiveness of domestic industries have become an increasing concern in the trade liberalisation process in the 1990s. This paper examines the significance of environmental policy for trade. A generalised GNP function, which incorporates both technology changes and increasing returns to scale is set up and a flexible translog function form is used to approximate this generalised GNP function. Seemingly unrelated regression is employed to estimate a system of sectoral share equations derived from the generalised GNP function. The basic hypothesis is that while the environmental factor is not a significant determinant of the international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive industries, technology is. The result supports this hypothesis and suggests that socalled eco-dumping is not an effective strategy in this context.


This paper examines some parallelisms between two theoretical debates that began in the first decades of the 20th century and that have as a starting point the belief that the world, in its present form, lacks sense – the philosophical and theological reflections following the death of God, on the one hand, and the contemporary discussion on the messianic notion of history, on the other. Both consider god as absent from this world, both maintain that this world is therefore meaningless, and both look for ways to overcome the lack of sense of the present world. The former explore the paths opened up by the death of god, and rises within Christianity – although the holocaust unleashed a similar discussion within Judaism. The second revolves around how history and the mythic stage will be lead to a conclusion by a messiah that will bring with him redemption, and acquires a significant dimension among some libertarian authors within contemporary Jewish philosophy. among the various reactions to the death of god there are several proposals that do not consist in overcoming such nihilism, but rather regard it as a fertile ground and therefore propose embracing it and accommodating it – the proposals of the authors belonging to the so-called radical theology, which can be traced back to Bonhoeffer and Jüngel but is also nurtured by postmodern continental philosophy. The aim of this paper is to point out that within contemporary messianism there is also at least a proposal that reads the absence of god in such a fertile way – Derrida's messianicity without messianism –, and to analyze its logic and compare it to the one underlying the celebrative reactions of radical theology.


FlexRay, developed by a consortium of over hundred automotive companies, is a real-time communication protocol for automotive networks. A communication cycle in FlexRay consists of an event-triggered component known as the dynamic (DYN) segment, apart from a time-triggered segment. Predicting the worst-case response time of messages transmitted on the DYN segment is a difficult problem. This is because a set of complex rules, apart from the priorities of the messages, govern the DYN segment protocol. In this paper, we survey techniques for the timing analysis of the DYN segment. We discuss the challenges associated with the timing analysis of the FlexRay protocol, the proposed techniques and their limitations.


Recently there has been some attention on the issue of industrial clusters and industrial policy claiming that there are arguments in favour of subsidising special industries in order to stimulate industrial agglomeration. An important objection against such a selective industrial policy is that the government needs full information about the industries to be able to pick the winners. But often the government does not know whether the industry is a cluster or not. If the policy towards a cluster is more favourable than the policy towards other industries, all industries will have incentives to allege to be clusters. The problem for the government is to identify the true clusters from the ordinary industries. This paper attempts to shed some light on the problem of industrial policy and industrial clusters when there is asymmetric information between the government and the industry. We show that a subsidy contingent of a certain activity level will create a separating equilibrium.


Legal research and writing courses are unlike most substantive first year law school classes in that they teach using the problem method. The success of a legal writing course depends on the quality of the problems. The purpose of this article is to provide some guidance for legal writing professors in designing legal writing problems. The article addresses (1) general considerations in problem design, (2) designing expository problems, (3) designing persuasive problems, and (4) sources of problems. In the first section, we discuss problem design as it relates to the overall goals for teaching the basic forms of legal analysis, legal writing, and research. In the section on designing expository problems, we discuss how to achieve these goals in the predictive section of the course, the section where students will master basic legal research and analysis. The persuasive writing section discusses the options in level of court, choice of jurisdiction, problem structure, and the materials necessary for a successful persuasive problem. Finally, we present a variety of sources for problem issues. The article presumes that the first half of the course is devoted to expository writing and the second half to persuasive writing skills.


OBJECTIVE
To examine whether a distressing medical procedure leaves lasting impressions in young children's memories.

METHODS
Children 12- to 78-weeks old (N = 172) received inhalation treatment through a face mask or underwent other interventions at a pediatric emergency department. They were randomized to be presented with neutral cues and cues from the inhalation 1 week or 6 months after the target event. Children's reactions at cue presentation were scored from videotapes.

RESULTS
Across the age span tested, children treated with inhalation showed higher distress than controls when presented with cues from inhalation 1 week, but not 6 months after target treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Stress during medical procedures in preverbal children may develop as a result of prior experience of such procedures. These memories typically seem to fade within 6 months.


Background & Objectives: Numerous studies on improving physical fitness in bodybuilding athletes with resistance training have pointed the side effects of this type of training. Unfortunately, little research has been done on the effect of resistance training patterns on cardiovascular variations. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of flat and double pyramid loading patterns of resistance training on cardiovascular behavior of bodybuilders. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on nine healthy male bodybuilders, aged 20-25 years, without any specific medical conditions. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups (i.e., flat pyramid loading patterns, double pyramid loading patterns and control groups). The cardiovascular variable, i.e., heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial blood pressure (MBP) and rate-pressure product (RPP), were measured before, as well as immediately, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 minutes after the resistance training with two patterns. Results: The results showed that HR, SBP, DBP and MBP significantly decreased in the flat and double pyramid groups, as compared to the control group (P< 0/05). But, RPP significantly increased in the flat and double pyramid groups at all the mentioned times (P< 0/05). Conclusion: Regardless of the patterns, resistance training can have beneficial effects on some cardiovascular factors and might lead to reduced blood pressure. However, this post-exercise hypotension pattern may vary with different methods of resistance training.


Assessment of the abnormal growth of floating macrophytes in Winam Gulf (Kenya) by using MODIS imagery time series. Int. Keywords: MODIS Time series Water hyacinth Lake Victoria Water quality Aquatic Weed a b s t r a c t The objective of this research study is to assess the capability of time-series of MODIS imagery to provide information suitable for enhancing the understanding of the temporal cycles shown by the abnormal growth of the floating macrophytes in order to support monitoring and management action of Lake Victoria water resources. The proliferation of invasive plants and aquatic weeds is of growing concern. Starting from 1989, Lake Victoria has been interested by the high infestation of water hyacinth with significant socioeconomic impact on riparian populations. In this paper, we describe an approach based on the time-series of MODIS to derive the temporal behaviour, the abundance and distribution of the floating macrophytes in the Winam Gulf (Kenyan portion of the Lake Victoria) and its possible links to the concentrations of the main water constituencies. To this end, we consider the NDVI values computed from the MODIS imagery time-series from 2000 to 2009 to identify the floating macrophytes cover and an appropriate bio-optical model to retrieve, by means of an inverse procedure, the concentrations of chlorophyll a, coloured dissolved organic matter and total suspended solid. The maps of the floating vegetation based on the NDVI values allow us to assess the spatial and temporal dynamics of the weeds with high time resolution. A floating vegetation index (FVI) has been introduced for describing the weeds pollution level. The results of the analysis show a consistent temporal relation between the water constituent concentrations within the Winam Gulf and the FVI, especially in the proximity of the greatest proliferation of floating vegetation in the last 10 years that occurred between the second half of 2006 and the first half of 2007.The adopted approach will be useful to implement an automatic system for monitoring and predicting the floating macrophytes proliferation in Lake Victoria.


Energy expenditures for food processing, maintenance, and activity requirements were determined in the laboratory on the American badger, Taxidea taxus, both with ad lib. food and starved for 7, 20, and 30 days. Body weight decreased at about 76 g per day, resulting in a respiratory quotient (RQ) of 0.83 after 30 days of starvation. Energy requirements were calculated from V̇o2, values. A 24.2%, 19.7%, and 26.3% reduction in total metabolism was observed at 7, 20, and 30 days, respectively, without food because of reduced maintenance and activity requirements. As a result, badgers were able to conserve approximately 17 g of tissue per day after 30 days without food. Part of the lower maintenance metabolism was accounted for by a 1.7 C reduction in body temperature. Activity was most depressed the first week of starvation but progressively increased after 20 and 30 days without food.


come by than in Europe. For that reason, in the American aesthetic, the garden is an island in the wilderness, whereas in the European one, the wilderness is an island in a garden, a patch of the original earth left alone in the midst of ground that has been worked, cultivated, and micromanaged down to the last grain of grit. In either instance, the wild seeks to exclude us, while the natural includes humans. If we use both "wild" and "natural" as generally approving adjectives, the former always has a sense of the uncontrolled and potentially dangerous: On its face, wild honey sounds more adventurous than all-natural yogurt, a wild river more problematic than an orchard. It is in the grocery store and the food chain that we find the distinction between wild and natural most sharply drawn. A wild strawberry, if one can be found, will have a different flavor from a cultivated one, and an industrially cultivated one a different taste from an organically grown one. All are natural, but by degrees. Wild salmon has seen free-flowing water, natural salmon only the regulated current of a tank or pond. The wild one may have unnatural ingredients in it, thanks to all the pollutants with which we insist on clogging the world's waters. The "natural," farmed, hatchery-grown one surely will. And so on. But can something be truly wild when we have invaded every corner of wilderness, natural when every habitat is besieged and every part of nature threatened? That's a question for a philosopher—or a structuralist—and one for which there's not much time left to answer. A wilderness. The very word means "the place of wild animals." It's a place where, by definition, as my friend the grizzly bear expert Doug Peacock says, something in it can kill you and eat you. Absent that danger, it's something other than wild. Wilderness is the stuff of a structuralist's binary dreams, opposed to civilization, its antithesis and enemy. But, in truth, the wild is an invention of civilization: We recognize that the wild is wild only because we know what houses, fields, orchards, and gardens look like, the one part of our world behaving by its own rules, the other ordered by the hard work of human hands. The wild is a place that can do very well without us, while civilization requires our expelling the wild: As the Latin tag has it, you can drive Nature out with a pitchfork, but she will always return. Nature and civilization are not exactly binaries, though. Neither are nature and the wild. Think of it as a Renaissance Italian would: The garden, construct of both nature and nurture, of civilization and the raw ingredients of the world, emerged from wildness only through our labors. Just as a child owes loyalty to its parents, our carefully cultivated gardens owe honor to their wild forebears, for which reason a classical Italian garden includes an area called the bosco or monte, a "forest" or "mountain," an untended patch somewhere off in a corner where someone enjoying the garden's tended beauty might wander and find an overgrown tangle of vines, a swarm of bees. In North America, wilderness is easier to F I N E D I S T I N C T I O N S


The empirical studies of this book examine how objects feature in the momentto-moment conduct of social interaction and activity. The studies draw on naturally occurring data, video recordings of people interacting with one another as they engage with objects for a wide range of purposes, across many real-life settings, situations and occasions. Here in this introductory chapter we define 'object', and highlight how objects in the social world have been investigated across scholarly fields. We outline the dominant methodological and analytic influences for this collection, ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA), and emphasise the significance of embodiment and materiality. We describe the broad arrangement of the chapters around two overarching themes, 'Objects as situated resources' and 'Objects as practical accomplishments'. Lastly, looking across the chapters we identify a number of possible alternative points of convergence which emerge when objects in and for social interaction are themselves treated as the principal focus of analysis.


Challenging networks require transmission protocols able to deal with the specificities of the environment. These adverse conditions include very long delays (delays in hours are normal), episodic connectivity, asymmetric data rates, higher bit error rate (The raw BERs are in the order of 10-2), very high free space losses (around 250-300 dB) and power constraints that may severely compromise the effectiveness of standard transport protocols. Transmissions protocols must also relieve applications and other upper-layer protocols (like the bundle protocol from the Delay Tolerant Network architecture) from the need to deal with the characteristics of intervening communications networks and services. In this paper we analyse the impacts of parameters such as loss probability and propagation delay on Licklider Transmission Protocol (LTP) [1], [2] and the newly proposed Licklider Transmission Protocol-(LTP-T) [3] following a comparative study of both the protocols.


This paper assesses the effect on banks' lending activity of accepting illiquid collateral at the central bank refinancing facility in times of wholesale funding stress. We exploit original data on the loans granted by the 177 largest euro area banks between 2011m1 and 2014m12 and on the composition of their pool of collateral pledged with the Eurosystem. During this period, two-thirds of the banks in our sample experienced a sizable loss of wholesale funding. Panel regression estimates show that the banks that pledged more illiquid collateral with the Eurosystem reduced their lending to non-financial firms and households less: a one standard deviation increase in the volume of illiquid collateral pledged corresponded to a 0.6% increase in loans to the economy. This result holds for banks that were and were not run. Our finding thus suggests that the broad range of collateral eligible in the euro area may have helped to mitigate the credit crunch during the euro debt crisis.


Genetic considerations pertaining to planting projects usually emphasize locally adapted source material. However, the amount of genetic diversity in the plant materials is important as well. Genetic erosion is the loss of genetic diversity—often magnified or accelerated by human activities. In native plant populations, genetic erosion results from habitat loss and fragmentation, but it also can result from a narrow genetic base in the original collections or by practices that reduce genetic diversity. Although species-specific guidelines are not available, managers can minimize the risk of genetic erosion by being familiar with the biology of the affected species (including breeding system, mode of reproduction, and pattern of genetic diversity). Narrowly based genetic collections should be avoided, providers of plant materials for revegetation projects should offer information on their collection methods, and nursery managers should endeavor to minimize diversity losses at all stages of nursery culture.


Chronic alcohol use can lead to alcoholic hepatitis. The ALF warns that alcoholic hepatitis may last for years, causing progressive liver damage. The liver may be enlarged, tender, with nausea, fatigue, and jaundiced (yellow) skin and eyes as a result of hepatitis. Dilation of blood vessels beneath the skin's surface may cause spider veins and intense itching. Fluid accumulation around the liver and distention of major blood vessels can cause a hoarse voice and swelling. High blood pressure is common, and can damage the heart and kidneys.When healthy liver tissue is replaced by non-functioning scar tissue, the process of cirrhosis is underway. The normal passage of blood through the liver eventually becomes impossible, leading to the accumulation of toxins. Ammonia builds up in the blood, reaches the brain and the person feels and acts confused. A liver transplant may be necessary for survival. Liver cancer is a possible complication of alcohol-related liver problems, particularly of cirrhosis. Life-threatening congestive heart failure and internal bleeding are further complications of liver failure. With all above reasons & humanity in mind, I have tried my level best to bring this health hazard in a scientific mind to study. Since Alcoholic consumption has reached an alarming proportion I decided to take this research cum awareness to the mind of humanity at large so that my endeavor may bring the change in the thinking of people living in third world.


Commentary on: Etemadi, A, Sinha R, Ward MH, et al. Mortality from different causes associated with meat, heme iron, nitrates, and nitrites in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study: population based cohort study.  BMJ 2017;357:j1957.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer categorised processed meat as carcinogenic to humans in 2015.1 High red and processed meat consumption is positively associated with risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes as well as overall mortality.2 Usually the intake of processed red meat is found to be more strongly associated with disease outcomes than unprocessed red meat, which is thought to be due to preservation methods such as salting, curing and smoking, increasing the concentration of potentially hazardous substances in meat.3

In the US National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retired Persons (NIH-AARP) …


The presence of a physical object (a book, DVD, CD) plays a determinant role in how information products (e.g., commercial copies of computer programs, books, musical recordings, video games, and virtual worlds) are regulated, in contrast with copies of similar information products with no physical embodiment. The presence of a physical object influences how law makers distinguish goods from services, to define a contract of sale or license, to apply the first sale doctrine in copyright law, and to determine which acts reserved to copyright holders are involved in a commercial transaction. In this article, I argue that the emphasis on a physical object is to a large extent arbitrary, leads to double standards, legal and normative incoherence, and ultimately that it is detrimental to recipients of information products and copyright user rights.While law makers' struggles with dematerialization have been discussed in various areas of law, this article looks at those inadequacies as they relate specifically to information products. I describe how the nebulous zone that immateriality creates may be utilized to the advantage of suppliers of information products. As a result, the undue emphasis on a physical object may contribute to accentuate even more the imbalance of power often present between suppliers and recipients of information products. Resorting to property theory, in particular the concept of ownership, and to the interaction between property and contracts, I identify various criteria that should guide law makers in the regulation of information products, independently of the presence of a physical object.


This paper explores the use of the optimisation procedures in SAS/OR software with application to the measurement of e#ciency and productivity of decision-making units (DMUs) using data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques. DEA was originally introduced by Charnes et al. [J. Oper. Res. 2 (1978) 429] is a linear programming method for assessing the e#ciency and productivity of DMUs. Over the last two decades, DEA has gained considerable attention as a managerial tool for measuring performance of organisations and it has widely been used for assessing the e#ciency of public and private sectors such as banks, airlines, hospitals, universities and manufactures. As a result, new applications with more variables and more complicated models are being introduced. Further to successive development of DEA a non-parametric productivity measure, Malmquist index, has been introduced by Fare et al. [J. Prod. Anal. 3 (1992) 85]. Employing Malmquist index, productivity growth can be decomposed into technical change and e#ciency change. On the other hand, the SAS is a powerful software and it is capable of running various optimisation problems such as linear programming with all types of constraints. To facilitate the use of DEA and Malmquist index by SAS users, a SAS/MALM code was implemented in the SAS programming language. The SAS macro developed in this paper selects the chosen variables from a SAS data >le and constructs sets of linear-programming models based on the selected DEA. An example is given to illustrate how one could use the code to measure the e#ciency and productivity of organisations. ? 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Rubber is used in a vast number of products, from tyres on vehicles to disposable surgical gloves. Increasingly both manufacturers and legislators are realising that recycling is essential for environmental sustainability and can improve the cost of manufacture. The volume of rubber waste produced globally makes it difficult to manage as accumulated waste rubber, especially in the form of tyres, can pose a significant fire risk. Recycling rubber not only prevents this problem but can produce new materials with desirable properties that virgin rubbers lack. This book presents an up-to-date overview of the fundamental and applied aspects of renewability and recyclability of rubber materials, emphasising existing recycling technologies with significant potential for future applications along with a detailed outline of new technology based processing of rubber to reuse and recycle. This book will be of interest to researchers in both academia and industry as well as postgraduate students working in polymer chemistry, materials processing, materials science and engineering


The higher incidence of road crashes in rural areas is well-known to safety researchers and practitioners. High rates of rural road fatalities and serious injury crashes are inevitably followed by calls for interventions to lower these tolls. However, interventions that have reduced the road toll in urban areas have not achieved the same successes on rural roads. To develop effective countermeasures and interventions for rural road users, further efforts are required to understand rural drivers' beliefs about their driving risks and abilities. This study used focus groups to explore the views of 58 rural drivers, and compared this information with data obtained from 143 patients hospitalised after a rural road crash and 290 rural drivers interviewed as roadside controls. Focus groups participants inaccurately appraised the risk factors associated with rural road crashes, when compared with information obtained from the patients hospitalised after such crashes. The majority of rural road users in all three groups gave very positive appraisals of their own driving ability. The implications of these findings for rural road safety interventions are discussed.


Trans-splicing has been used to repair mutant RNA transcripts via competition for the spliceosome using pre-trans-splicing molecules, or "PTMs." Previous studies have demonstrated that functional PTMs can be designed for either 3'- or 5'-exon replacement, with a vast majority of the work to date focusing on repair of mutations within internal exons and via 3'-exon replacement. Here, we describe the first use of trans-splicing to target the first exon and intron of a therapeutically relevant gene and repair the mutant RNA by 5'-exon replacement. Our results show that 5'-PTMs can be designed to repair mutations in the beta-globin transcript involved in sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia while providing insight into considerations for competition between trans- versus cis-splicing in mammalian cells. Target transcripts with impaired cis-splicing capabilities, like those produced in some forms of beta-thalassemia, are more efficiently repaired via trans-splicing than targets in which cis-splicing is unaffected as with sickle beta-globin. This study reveals desirable characteristics in substrate RNAs for trans-splicing therapeutics as well as provides an opportunity for further exploration into general splicing mechanisms via 5'-PTMs.


After the Civil War, white Confederate and Union army veterans reentered--or struggled to reenter--the lives and communities they had left behind. In Sing Not War , James Marten explores how the nineteenth century's "Greatest Generation" attempted to blend back into society and how their experiences were treated by non-veterans. Many soldiers, Marten reveals, had a much harder time reintegrating into their communities and returning to their civilian lives than has been previously understood. Although Civil War veterans were generally well taken care of during the Gilded Age, Marten argues that veterans lost control of their legacies, becoming best remembered as others wanted to remember them--for their service in the war and their postwar political activities. Marten finds that while southern veterans were venerated for their service to the Confederacy, Union veterans often encountered resentment and even outright hostility as they aged and made greater demands on the public purse. Drawing on letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, newspapers, and other sources, Sing Not War illustrates that during the Gilded Age "veteran" conjured up several conflicting images and invoked contradicting reactions. Deeply researched and vividly narrated, Marten's book counters the romanticized vision of the lives of Civil War veterans, bringing forth new information about how white veterans were treated and how they lived out their lives. |Marten explores how, after the Civil War, the white Confederate and Union army veterans reentered--or struggled to reenter--the lives and communities they had left behind. Marten's book counters the romanticized vision of the lives of Civil War veterans, bringing forth new information about how veterans were treated and how they lived out their lives.


The teaching known as Dependent Arising is central to understanding what the Buddha taught. Current theories about its structure revolve around rebirth, or moment to moment experience in this life. This paper presents an entirely new theory for the structure underlying the lesson. This structure supports the deepest teachings on the causes of our suffering -- that whatever we relate to self is suffering -- and its cure -- that when we recognize this truth, and understand that what gets built as a result is impermanent, it is then within our control to change the conditions. Recognizing the structure also improves understanding of the finer points made within the suttas about Dependent Arising.


Investigation of the patterns in housing preferences has always been a strong emphasis on spatial analysis literature, mostly to the extent that housing price varies within urban macro form. The purpose of this paper is to examine the variances of housing prices in Istanbul, by using separate determinant sets in separate models, while employing location based investigation referring to distance and/or proximity effect and sector based investigation, referring to land price effect as a most prominent indicator in residential market. GIS-based spatial analyses methods are utilised in these dual models, in order to describe the variances. Distance effect as a part of locational domain in hedonic price model which represent the demand side of housing price. In this model, distance among the bundle of alternative characteristics is assumed to affect any property price, as a retail product. Although this paper does not accomplish a full hedonic price model, it calculates the effect of distance and/or proximity determinants in housing prices in Istanbul. This first model is conducted with a multiple regression analysis with the contribution of independent variables as population density and distance to the CBD, sub-centre, main transportation arteries, and coast. As assumed in the hypothesis, the result indicates that 66.3% of the variance in housing price can be determined by these variables. In the second model, land price effect in the variance of housing price is investigated in order to illustrate the emergence of residential market. Within this investigation residential market is defined depending on land values whether there are areas where land prices are high but housing prices are relatively lower, or vice versa. In other words, if land and housing prices are not in consistency, there may be possibility of changing residential market features, to be interpreted with the inclusion of changing determinants. In this model, geographic weighted regression is conducted and then relative predictive performance is tested by standard residuals which refer to inconsistency of the variances between land and housing price levels. The paper finalizes with a comparison of the results obtained from location and sector based models. Concluding remarks indicate that spatial variations in housing price, predicted within these two models can also estimate the segmented structure of the city, Istanbul and residential market itself. Such a dualistic manner which corresponds to combination of statistical and spatial analysis techniques can be useful in order to comprehend the residential market in a spatial pattern.


THE VERTICAL PROFILE OF PCBs AT THE ESTUARINE TURBIDITY MAXIMUM ZONE IN A COASTAL PLAIN RIVER AND THE INFLUENCE OF SALINITY-INDUCED FLOCCULATION ON PCB CONCENTRATIONS IN PARTICLES Kathleen J. Housman, M.S. George Mason University, 2009 Thesis Director: Dr. Gregory D. Foster Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous, persistent organic pollutants. It is known that this class of chemicals has a high affinity towards suspended particles in the water column based on their hydrophobic properties and relatively high octanol-water partition coefficients (Kow). An estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) is a known region of enhanced concentrations of sediment in suspension. The dynamics of the ETM are driven by multiple variables including tidal resuspension, estuarine stratification, and electrical double-layer influenced flocculation. Because PCBs bind readily to sediments, the ETM is an important zone to study fate, distribution, and transport of contaminants in coastal rivers. The ETM is especially important in the Potomac River because it is located downstream of two major PCB hotspots, including the Anacostia River and Quantico Bay, VA. This region of the Potomac River has not been previously studied for PCB fate, and remains an important missing piece of the puzzle in understanding the downstream transport of PCBs from regions of severe contamination to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Environmental sampling of the Potomac River ETM took place on three occasions during the spring of 2008 and 2009. Potomac River water was sampled along a vertical transect at ~2 m intervals through the halocline of the ETM to 30 m depths using a submersible pump. Both suspended sediment and bed sediments were collected, extracted, and analyzed for PCBs. Water geochemistry parameters such as total suspended matter (TSM) and salinity along with sediment organic matter (OM) were also determined. PCB-bound suspended sediments were found at elevated levels as compared to bed sediments (238 ± 126 compared to 28 ± 13 ng/g), indicating that the ETM is not a likely depositional zone for PCBs in the Potomac River. It is likely that PCB-bound suspended materials are transported farther downstream and are widely dispersed in coastal waters. Because ETM sampling is extremely variable, a controlled laboratory study was performed by flocculating resuspended sediment material that was highly contaminated with PCBs. The goal was to study the influence of salinity-induced flocculation on the concentrations of PCBs in river particles, thus simulating the Potomac River ETM. The salinity-induced flocculation studies were performed on a 20-L scale by first mixing PCB contaminated sediment and water. The large particles in resuspended sediment were allowed to settle, and the salinity of decanted overlying water containing colloid-sized particles was enhanced to promote flocculation. The floc material was filtered, extracted, and analyzed for PCB concentrations. An unexpected trend of decreasing PCB concentrations in floc with increasing salinity was found for both PCBs and OM, indicating that dilution in particles results during PCB flocculation. In addition, evidence was found for the natural PCB homologue fractionation of PCBs along the downstream transect of the Potomac River from the Anacostia River hotpot to the ETM. The higher molecular weight, heavily chlorinated PCBs were more abundant in Anacostia River sediments while less chlorinated congeners dominate ETM sediments. It is clear from the current work that the ETM is a dynamic region and must be more rigorously studied in order to fully understand the dynamics of contaminant transport from highly contaminated regions such as the Anacostia River and Quantico Bay, VA to the Chesapeake.


Twitter has become one of the primary platforms for politicians to interact with the public. Consequently, research into politicians' Twitter usage has proliferated with attempts at measuring increasingly complex concepts such as ideology or policy attitudes. So far, many of these studies either implicitly or explicitly assume that politicians' Twitter accounts are operated by politicians themselves and that politicians are free to present their "true" attitudes and positions. We conducted an elite survey in Germany and present evidence that these assumptions only partially hold true. In our sample, only around a third of Twitter accounts are operated by the corresponding politician alone. In our view, this is a conservative estimate and should further decrease as political elites' social media strategies professionalize over the coming years. We also find that most politicians state that there are no party guidelines regarding Twitter and that their tweets are not checked by a central authority in the party. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on social media in general.


As part of Singapore's smart nation initiative, Moments of Life (MOL) was created as a whole of government mobile application to serve citizens' needs better through technology. A strategic project under the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, National Library Board Singapore (NLB) was invited to develop a metadata framework for the app. From parenting to active ageing and end of life needs, the app consolidates government services for important milestones in a citizen's life. E-government metadata standards and initiatives based on Dublin Core (DC) started as early as 2000s. The European Committee for Standardization CEN/ISSS has provided a methodology in developing an e-government metadata element set. This paper starts with a review of DC e-government metadata standards and initiatives, and the latest application of metadata for digital government. Thereafter, it presents how NLB applied its methodology to develop an application profile and a faceted taxonomy. As a multi-cultural society with 4 official languages, a common vocabulary is important for data to be shared, re-used and searched across agencies by citizens. This will not only help citizens to search for information more effectively, but it will ready MOL content for structured data implementation for Internet discovery. The challenges faced, features of the mobile app such as profiling and filtering, global search and faceted navigation are effectively achieved with the use of Dublin Core as the metadata schema for supporting MOL.


Purpose The aim of this study was to compare intraindividual single and multiple arterial phase acquisitions and evaluate which acquisition method was more advantageous for obtaining high-quality hepatic arterial phase in gadoxetic acid–enhanced liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods Sixty-seven patients who underwent gadoxetic acid–enhanced liver MRIs and had all 3 kinds of acquisitions (single, dual, and triple arterial phases) were retrospectively included. For hepatic arterial phase imaging, controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (CAIPIRINHA) with or without time-resolved imaging with interleaved stochastic trajectories (TWIST) was used. The adequacy of optimal hepatic arterial timing was assessed and respiratory motion artifacts were rated using a 5-point scale, with the highest score indicating the worst image quality. Optimal timing and respiratory motion artifacts among 3 different acquisitions were compared using Fisher exact test and repeated measures one-way analysis of variance with multiple comparisons. Results Optimal timing of hepatic arterial phase was observed in 89.6% (60/67) of single arterial phase acquisitions and 98.5% (66/67) of both dual and triple arterial phase acquisitions (P = 0.015). Respiratory motion artifact was significantly lower in single and dual arterial acquisitions than in triple arterial acquisition (mean score, 1.70 vs 1.90 vs 2.49; P < 0.001), although there was no significant difference between single and dual arterial acquisitions (P = 0.091). Conclusions A 15-second breath-hold dual arterial phase acquisition during gadoxetic acid–enhanced MRI reliably offers well-timed hepatic arterial phase with less respiratory motion artifact. However, a 13-second breath-hold single arterial phase acquisition was most effective in reducing respiratory motion artifact.


Silvicultural operations increasingly aim to achieve desired water‐related ecological services of forests and forest soils. Therefore, the effects of forest stand density, site, and soil depth on the water flow types were studied by conducting dye tracer experiments in two montane beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests located in the Western Carpathian Volcanic Range, Central Slovakia. Prevalent flow types were identified under usual weather conditions. Brilliant Blue FCF dye tracer was periodically applied in powder form on 1‐m2 plots in forest stands with natural and reduced stand densities, as well as in clear‐cuts. When cumulative precipitation reached approximately 100 mm, soil pits were excavated. The dye patterns on the exposed profiles were photographed, and dye coverage, relative dye concentration, and stain widths were determined at various soil depths using image analysis. These patterns were used to discriminate two flow types. Continuous vertical dye plumes were interpreted as an indicator of surface‐controlled flow type, which includes heterogeneous infiltration and macropore flow. The matrix‐controlled flow type includes both homogeneous and heterogeneous matrix flow, as well as fingering. The log‐linear analysis revealed that forest stand density and soil depth were significantly related to the soil water flow type. Preferential flow resulted from heterogeneous infiltration and fingering in the clear‐cuts, from heterogeneous infiltration in the natural stands, and from macropore flow in the shelterwood stands. Distinct humus forms and skeleton fraction played a crucial role for various flow patterns observed in these beech stands.


High-energy protons found in the space environment can induce mutations and cancer, which are inextricably linked. We hypothesized that some mutants isolated from proton-exposed kidneys arose through a genome-wide incident that causes loss of heterozygosity (LOH)-generating mutations on multiple chromosomes (termed here genomic LOH). To test this hypothesis, we examined 11 pairs of nonselected chromosomes for LOH events in mutant cells isolated from the kidneys of mice exposed to 4 or 5 Gy of 1 GeV protons. The mutant kidney cells were selected for loss of expression of the chromosome 8-encoded Aprt gene. Genomic LOH events were also assessed in Aprt mutants isolated from isogenic cultured kidney epithelial cells exposed to 5 Gy of protons in vitro. Control groups were spontaneous Aprt mutants and clones isolated without selection from the proton-exposed kidneys or cultures. The in vivo results showed significant increases in genomic LOH events in the Aprt mutants from proton-exposed kidneys when compared with spontaneous Aprt mutants and when compared with nonmutant (i.e., nonselected) clones from the proton-exposed kidneys. A bias for LOH events affecting chromosome 14 was observed in the proton-induced Aprt mutants, though LOH for this chromosome did not confer increased radiation resistance. Genomic LOH events were observed in Aprt mutants isolated from proton-exposed cultured kidney cells; however the incidence was fivefold lower than in Aprt mutants isolated from exposed intact kidneys, suggesting a more permissive environment in the intact organ and/or the evolution of kidney clones prior to their isolation from the tissue. We conclude that proton exposure creates a subset of viable cells with LOH events on multiple chromosomes, that these cells form and persist in vivo, and that they can be isolated from an intact tissue by selection for a mutation on a single chromosome.


Abstract How do the president's calculations in achieving policy goals shape the allocation of cabinet portfolios? Despite the growing literature on presidential cabinet appointments, this question has barely been addressed. I argue that cabinet appointments are strongly affected not only by presidential incentives to effectively deliver their key policy commitments but also by their interest in having their administration maintain strong political leverage. Through an analysis of portfolio allocations in South Korea after democratization, I demonstrate that the posts wherein ministers can influence the government's overall reputation typically go to nonpartisan professionals ideologically aligned with presidents, while the posts wherein ministers can exert legislators' influence generally go to senior copartisans. My findings highlight a critical difference in presidential portfolio allocation from parliamentary democracies, where key posts tend to be reserved for senior parliamentarians from the ruling party.


We present the results obtained from an all-sky search for gravitational-wave (GW) bursts in the 64-2000 Hz frequency range in data collected by the LIGO detectors during the first year (November 2005 - November 2006) of their fifth science run. The total analyzed livetime was 268.6 days. Multiple hierarchical data analysis methods were invoked in this search. The overall sensitivity expressed in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude h_{rss} for gravitational-wave bursts with various morphologies was in the range of 6 times 10^{-22} Hz^{-1/2} to a few times 10^{-21} Hz^{-1/2}. No GW signals were observed and a frequentist upper limit of 3.6 events per year on the rate of strong GW bursts was placed at the 90% confidence level. As in our previous searches, we also combined this rate limit with the detection efficiency for selected waveform morphologies to obtain event rate versus strength exclusion curves. In sensitivity, these exclusion curves are the most stringent to date.


Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory offers a conceptual map of the most difficult terrain in psychoanalysis as well as a history of its most complex disputes. In exploring the counterpoint between different psychoanalytic traditions, it provides a synthetic perspective that is a major contribution to psychoanalytic thought. The focal point of clinical psychoanalysis has always been the patient's relationships with others. How do these relationships come about? How do they operate? How are they transformed? How are relationships with others to be understood within the framework of psychoanalytic theory? Greenberg and Mitchell argue that there have been two basic solutions to the problem of locating relationships within psychoanalytic theory: the drive model, in which relations with others are generated and shaped by the need for drive gratification and various relational models, in which relationships themselves are taken as primary and irreducible. The authors provide a masterful overview of the history of psychoanalytic ideas, in which they trace the divergences and the interplay between the two models and the intricate strategies adopted by the major theorists in their efforts to position themselves with respect to these models. They demonstrate further that many of the controversies and fashions in diagnosis and psychoanalytic technique can be fully understood only in the context of the dialectic between the drive model and the relational models. The authors are both psychoanalysts in private practice in New York. Jay Greenberg is a training and supervising analyst at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry Psychoanalysis, and Psychology, and a clinical associate professor of psychology at New York University. Stephen A. Mitchell is a supervising analyst and on the faculty of the William Alanson White Institute, and a member of the faculty of the New York University Post-Doctoral Program in Psychoanalysis.


Although lesions of the striate (V1) cortex disrupt conscious vision, patients can demonstrate surprising residual abilities within their affected visual field, a phenomenon termed blindsight. The relative contribution of spared islands of functioning striate cortex to residual vision, versus subcortical pathways to extrastriate areas, has implications for the role of early visual areas in visual awareness and performance. Here we describe the behavioral and neural features of residual cortical function in Patient M.C., who sustained a posterior cerebral artery stroke at the age of 15 years. Within her impaired visual field, we found preserved visual abilities characteristic of blindsight, including superior detection of motion, and above-chance discrimination of shape, color, and motion direction. Functional magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a retinotopically organized representation of M.C.'s blind visual field within the lesioned occipital lobe, specifically within area V1. The incongruity of a well-organized cortex and M.C.'s markedly impaired vision was resolved by measurement of functional responses within her damaged occipital lobe. Attenuated neural contrast-response functions were found to correlate with M.C.'s impaired psychophysical performance. These results demonstrate that the behavioral features of blindsight may arise in the presence of residual striate responses that are spatially organized and sensitive to contrast variation.


Objective: Oxidative stress that damages proteins result in aging and age related diseases. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of tocotrienol rich fraction (TRF) on the expression of proteins in oxidative stress-induced caenohabditis elegans (C.elegans) which has homologous genes to humans. Methods: The worms were treated with TRF prior to, after and continuously in separate groups upon induction of oxidative stress with hydrogen peroxide. The expression of proteins were analyzed with 2D-gel electrophoresis and identified with mass spectrophotometry. Results showed that induction of oxidative stress and TRF treatment separately modulated the expression of 11 proteins. Pre-treatment of TRF altered the expression of 5 proteins while post-treatment and a continuous treatment of TRF in oxidative stress-induced worms affected the expression of 9 and 10 proteins respectively. Results: From these differentially expressed proteins, a total of 12 were successfully identified. TRF was found to increase the expression of glutathione-S transferase but decreased the expression of mRNA cap guanine-N7 methyltransferase, inorganic pyro-phosphatase, enoyle-CoA hydratase, vitellogenin 6 precursor, cathepsin B-like cysteine proteinase 4 precursor, triosephosphatase isomerase, tubulin-specific chaperon B and putative D-amino acid oxidase. In conclusion, TRF modulated the expression of proteins involved in energy metabolism, oxidative stress, proteolysis and biosynthesis of mRNA in C.elegans.


It is quite common to encounter a propeller installed on a trawl that does not develop adaquate
thrust to pull the trawl at a specified trawling speed. The immediate actions usually taken are to reduce
the size of a trawl, change to a new propeller or install a higher powered engine. All these alternatives will
impose a financial strain on the fishermen. Therefore, a simple method of calculation is being suggested
to obtain a spectrum of propeller parameters such as diameter, pitch- diameter ratio, speed, quasipropulsive
coefficient and propeller performance coefficient for a given engine model. The best combination
of parameters can be obtained in order to satisfy a specific trawling requirement. Usually the requirement
is stated in the form of thrust of propeller to overcome total gear drag at a specific trawling speed.
Total gear drag can be determined by a model test or mathematical modelling. Three engine models have
been studied and for each model values of thrusts, propeller performance coefficients and quasi- propulsive
coefficient were calculated. Having known the values of torque coefficient (J.l) and advance coefficient
(¢) the values of pitch- diameter ratios were obtained from propeller performance curve.


Increase in demand for potable water has led to a critical re-appraisal of water resources. Resource planning requires a systematic approach to the development of aquifer systems and, in order to maximise output, conjunctive use with surface reservoirs and rivers has to be considered ultimately. Therefore this can be implemented a complete understanding of the dynamic response of the system must be acquired. Analogue and digital simulation models have been developed for this purpose. A. digital finite difference approximation technique which utilises a backward difference formulation is considered to represent the linear partial differential equations of groundwater flow. A two dimensional model is formulated in which space and time are represented as discrete elements. The resultant simultaneous equations are solved iteratively by a Gauss- Siedal relaxation technique. A Permo-Triassic aquifer sited between the Coalbrookdale and South Staffordshire Coalfields of the West Midlands is studied. A considerable amount of data has to be processed and in order to secure maximum benefit several analytical techniques are developed. The extent and thickness of the aquifer is obtained from consideration of the depositional and sedimentological history of the associated sediments. This, togetb.er with field work exploration and an analysis of the tectonic history of the strata enables the geometrical configuration at'-d hydrogeological boundaries of the aquifer to be depicted. The hydraulic characteristics of the aquifer are determined from graphical and numerical analyses of in situ tests and from 1aboratory investigations. Additional information is obtained from least squares and linear programming solutions to groundwater flow equations compiled from historical records.


Procedurally-generated audio is an important method for the automatic synthesis of realistic sounds for computer animations and virtual environments. While synthesis techniques for rigid bodies have been well studied, few publications have tackled the challenges of synthesizing sounds for soft bodies. In this paper, we propose a data-driven synthesis approach to simultaneously generate audio based on certain given soft-body animations. Our method uses granular synthesis to extract a database of sound from real-world recordings and then retarget these grains of sounds based on the motion of any input animations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this method on a variety of soft-body animations including a basketball bouncing, apple slicing, hand clapping and a jelly simulation.


Recently, multi-radio mesh technology in wireless networks has been put under extensive research. This is because of its potential to overcome the inherent wireless multi-hop throughput, scalability and latency problems caused by the half-duplex nature of the IEEE 802.11. This paper introduces a design and modelling of different elements on a distinct type of multicomputer networks, the dual-radio wireless hypermesh (DIWH), based on SystemC methodology. The hepermesh is a well-known topology that belongs to the hypergraph family of networks. Hypermeshes have been proposed as potential alternatives to the graph networks for the future System Area Networks (SAN). In this work, we consider a two dimensional DIWH network, where each router node is equipped with two radio interfaces and two non-overlapping channels are available for each node. we address the problem of assigning channels to communication links in the network with the objective of keeping overall network latency low and provide a relatively high throughput. The simulations and analysis have shown that our design achieves a significant increase in network throughput with less average network latency for large number of communication nodes, compared with the CSMA shared channel model, which is currently the de facto MAC protocol for most wireless networks. Our simulations have been validated analytically to show the accuracy of the developed model. In addition, simulation results have shown that the wireless hypermesh outperforms shared medium wireless networks under the constant total bandwidth argument, especially in large networks.


Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is a common, autoimmune exocrinopathy distinguished by keratoconjunctivitis sicca and xerostomia. Patients frequently develop serious complications including lymphoma, pulmonary dysfunction, neuropathy, vasculitis, and debilitating fatigue. Dysregulation of type I interferon (IFN) pathway is a prominent feature of SS and is correlated with increased autoantibody titers and disease severity. To identify genetic determinants of IFN pathway dysregulation in SS, we performed cis-expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analyses focusing on differentially expressed type I IFN-inducible transcripts identified through a transcriptome profiling study. Multiple cis-eQTLs were associated with transcript levels of 2'-5'-oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (OAS1) peaking at rs10774671 (PeQTL = 6.05 × 10−14). Association of rs10774671 with SS susceptibility was identified and confirmed through meta-analysis of two independent cohorts (Pmeta = 2.59 × 10−9; odds ratio = 0.75; 95% confidence interval = 0.66–0.86). The risk allele of rs10774671 shifts splicing of OAS1 from production of the p46 isoform to multiple alternative transcripts, including p42, p48, and p44. We found that the isoforms were differentially expressed within each genotype in controls and patients with and without autoantibodies. Furthermore, our results showed that the three alternatively spliced isoforms lacked translational response to type I IFN stimulation. The p48 and p44 isoforms also had impaired protein expression governed by the 3' end of the transcripts. The SS risk allele of rs10774671 has been shown by others to be associated with reduced OAS1 enzymatic activity and ability to clear viral infections, as well as reduced responsiveness to IFN treatment. Our results establish OAS1 as a risk locus for SS and support a potential role for defective viral clearance due to altered IFN response as a genetic pathophysiological basis of this complex autoimmune disease.


ABSTRACT Studies looking at gender and ethnic minority outcomes in China's labour market have generally suggested that women and minorities are separately experiencing a wage disadvantage relative to males and the Han majority, respectively. But, what is the experience of this combined cohort, ethnic minority women? Using data from China's 2005 one percent mini-census, this article discerns ethno-gender labour market outcomes by factoring education, labour force participation, working hours, age, family structure (e.g. married, number of dependents) and geography (e.g. urban/rural, bordering province). It surprisingly finds that ethnic minority women are less disadvantaged in the labour market than Han women. This is largely due to smaller penalties linked to marriage and having children.


This paper illustrates the use of a simulation model to explore ways to decrease idle time due to the lack of available working inventory during the primary phase in the construction of a multi-story building. Two strategies are analyzed: increased frequency of concreting operations and the use of multi-skilled workers who use their additional trade when there is a lack of work in their area, or when there is a shortage of employees in another area in which they are proficient. The work involved field observations in a multistory building to obtain data to build and calibrate a simulation model. In the first strategy, the results show that it would be possible to complete the primary phase using 16% less workers or in 10% less time, if concrete is poured daily instead of every other day. In the second strategy, the results show that, in average, it would be possible to complete the primary phase using 14% less workers or in 6% less time, when 30% of the workers are assumed to be multi-skilled. Upon implementing both strategies simultaneously, the results show it would be possible to complete the primary phase using 22% less workers, or in 16% less time.


Purpose
This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of generic and branded irbesartan for 8 weeks in patients with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension.

Patients and methods
We screened 221 patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension. After exclusion per study criteria, 177 subjects were randomized to receive 150 mg generic irbesartan (n=91) or branded irbesartan (n=86) as the intention to treat set. The primary efficacy endpoint of this study was the change in mean sitting diastolic blood pressure (SiDBP) from baseline to 8 weeks between the generic and branded irbesartan groups. The secondary efficacy endpoints were the change in mean SiDBP at Week 4 from baseline and the change in mean sitting systolic blood pressure (SiSBP) at Weeks 4 and 8 from baseline in both groups. All safety issues were evaluated.

Results
At Week 8, the generic and branded irbesartan groups showed significantly reduced SiDBP (-10.3±8.0, -10.7±7.7 mmHg, all P<0.0001) compared with baseline values, and the mean between-group difference in SiDBP change after 8 weeks of treatment was -0.4±1.2 mmHg, showing the non-inferiority of generic irbesartan vs branded irbesartan. Furthermore, secondary efficacy, which was the mean change of SiDBP from baseline at 4 weeks, was comparable between the two groups (-9.4±8.1 vs -9.9±7.4 mmHg, P=0.69). There were no between-group differences in mean changes of SiSBP after 4 or 8 weeks of treatment (P=0.78, P=0.97, respectively), or in the incidence of adverse effects (16.7 vs 24.4%, P=0.20).

Conclusion
Generic irbesartan treatment in patients with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension has shown effective antihypertensive effects comparable with the branded irbesartan treatment, with similar incidence of adverse effects.


Background: Most nationally standardised quality measures use widely accepted evidence-based processes as their foundation, but the discharge instruction component of the United States standards of Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations heart failure core measure appears to be based on expert opinion alone. Objective: To determine whether documentation of compliance with any or all of the six required discharge instructions is correlated with readmissions to hospital or mortality. Research design: A retrospective study at a single tertiary care hospital was conducted on randomly sampled patients hospitalised for heart failure from July 2002 to September 2003. Participants: Applying the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations criteria, 782 of 1121 patients were found eligible to receive discharge instructions. Eligibility was determined by age, principal diagnosis codes and discharge status codes. Measures: The primary outcome measures are time to death and time to readmission for heart failure or readmission for any cause and time to death. Results: In all, 68% of patients received all instructions, whereas 6% received no instructions. Patients who received all instructions were significantly less likely to be readmitted for any cause (p = 0.003) and for heart failure (p = 0.035) than those who missed at least one type of instruction. Documentation of discharge instructions is correlated with reduced readmission rates. However, there was no association between documentation of discharge instructions and mortality (p = 0.521). Conclusions: Including discharge instructions among other evidence-based heart failure core measures appears justified.


Microbial communities are essential components of natural ecosystems. Of the global oceans, the Indian Ocean remains the least studied in terms of its microbial diversity, despite it being a highly dynamic tropical water body. Metagenomics methods have significantly advanced studies in marine microbial ecology in recent years. Preliminary metabarcoding assessments are recommended to mitigate against the associated costs, prior to the metagenomics study, to give an impression of the diversity expected and determine the sequencing effort required. We report here the first metabarcoding survey of bacterial diversity of the western Indian Ocean (WIO) using samples used for optimizing environmental DNA (eDNA) isolation as pilot experiment for a metagenomic study investigating the coral-reef microbiome of the region. Sampling of water and sediment samples was done near-shore sublittoral and within the coral reef. About 3,000 microbial ribotypes were inferred, from which 41 phyla were uncovered. Sediments registered higher alpha diversity than seawater samples. The phylum Proteobacteria was dominant with its members constituting over 60% of the ribosomal sequence variants (RSVs). The other abundant bacteria were members of Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria phyla. We identified bacterial species with potential broad biotechnological applications, underscoring the WIO's richness and the usefulness of eDNA metabarcoding approaches in bioprospecting as well as monitoring and/or surveying marine ecosystems.


A method is described for reconstructing perspective-distorted film images of geese flying in V formations to allow measurements of wing tip spacing (WTS, the distance between wing tips of adjacent birds perpendicular to the flight path) and depth (the distance along the flight path between birds). Measurements for eight formations are used to test for savings in induced power from wing placement in a vortex field generated by other wings, using the model of Lissaman & Schollenberger (1970) to estimate savings. The median WTS for 55 geese corresponded to an induced power saving of 36%, about half the maximum possible. There was considerable variation in WTS between and within formations. Some birds maintained WTS close to an optimum for saving energy; others maintained WTS with excessive gap. Birds at the apex and those at large depths achieved low energy savings. Savings were enhanced by periodic changes in flight direction in response to variations in the position of the bird ahead. Individuals in some formations adjusted WTS more rapidly when they were displaced a greater distance from the optimum, and some position adjustments appeared to reflect the distribution of savings predicted from vortex theory.


Listed by the DSA as essential reading for the ADI exams, Practical Teaching Skills for Driving Instructors is an indispensable guide for all new and established driving instructors. Fully revised to cover all changes to the ADI exams in 2016/17, it also provides all the necessary advice for the conscientious instructor keen to communicate effectively with their pupils.Containing essential guidance on teaching, communication and coaching skills, Practical Teaching Skills for Driving Instructors is ideal for both existing and trainee driving instructors. It investigates how and why people learn and the different teaching and learning processes that are involved. With sections on structuring lessons and problem solving, it covers the whole teaching process, from early stage lessons to the final practical test. The companion title to the popular best-seller, The Driving Instructor's Handbook, this is your practical guide to developing and improving your ability to teach driving as a lifetime skill.


The current financial crisis has not come about by chance. It is the result of a system that has emerged over the last 30 years and which Keynes may well have called the 'casino economy'. The dominance of finance over real economy characterises the financial crisis, while finance itself is dominated by the all-encompassing target of maximum profit at all times. Other aims of economic activity such as job creation, social welfare and development have fallen by the wayside. In response, new actors are surfacing, e.g. the institutional investor (hedge funds, private equity funds, etc.), while new instruments are leading to highly leveraged and destabilising derivatives. The casino system has been promoted by governments and intergovernmental institutions to liberalise and deregulate financial markets. Although developing countries have not participated in the casino system, they have been suffering most from the spill-over into the real economy. The main lesson learnt is that the casino has to be closed.


Alexander the Great is probably the most famous ruler of antiquity, and his spectacular conquests are recounted often in books and films. But what of his father, Philip II, who united Macedonia, created the best army in the world at the time, and conquered and annexed Greece? This landmark biography is the first to bring Philip to life, exploring the details of his life and legacy and demonstrating that his achievements were so remarkable that it can be argued they outshone those of his more famous son. Without Philip, Greek history would have been entirely different.Taking into account recent archaeological discoveries and reinterpreting ancient literary records, Ian Worthington brings to light Philip's political, economic, military, social, and cultural accomplishments. He reveals the full repertoire of the king's tactics, including several polygamous diplomatic marriages, deceit, bribery, military force, and a knack for playing off enemies against one another. The author also inquires into the king's influences, motives, and aims, and in particular his turbulent, unraveling relationship with Alexander, which may have ended in murder. Philip became in many ways the first modern regent of the ancient world, and this book places him where he properly belongs: firmly at the centrestage of Greek history.


Members of orthopaedic industry commit a significant amount of funds each year to support research and education programs that are directly related to their product(s). In addition, industry supports organizations such as the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation. The relationship between the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation and industry began in the early 1980s. The support to the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation from industry primarily has come in the form of unrestricted grants. These grants best can be looked at as an investment rather than a contribution. This form of giving, once called corporate philanthropy is more accurately referred to as strategic philanthropy. Members of industry make these investments to enhance their reputations, build brand awareness, market their products and services, improve employee morale, increase customer loyalty, and establish strategic alliances. The specialty of orthopaedics is among the leaders in medicine in the amount of funding raised within the specialty for research and education programs. This is because of the amount of support from members of industry and the surgeons. During the past 15 years, 40% of the annual support to the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation has come from industry and the balance has come from surgeons and members of lay public. Future industry support of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation and other organizations within the specialty of orthopaedics will be dependent on the continued demonstration of tangible returns in areas described.


Accumulating evidence indicates a potential role for bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the overactivation of the immune response during SARS-CoV-2 infection. LPS is recognised by Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in innate immunity. Here, we showed that LPS binds to multiple hydrophobic pockets spanning both the S1 and S2 subunits of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein. LPS binds to the S2 pocket with a lower affinity compared to S1, suggesting its possible role as an intermediate in the TLR4 cascade. Congruently, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation in vitro is strongly boosted by S2. In vivo, however, a boosting effect is observed for both S1 and S2, with the former potentially facilitated by proteolysis. Collectively, our study suggests the S protein may act as a delivery system for LPS in host innate immune pathways. The LPS binding pockets are highly conserved across different SARS-CoV-2 variants and therefore represent potential therapeutic targets.


Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a group of viral pathogens that infect mammals and birds. The presentation in humans is typically that of a mild upper respiratory tract infection, similar to the common cold. However, in recent years, dramatic attention has arisen for more lethal members of this viral family (e.g., severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS-CoV], Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS-CoV], and coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]). The epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of these viruses are discussed in this review. Importantly, new guideline tables from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the World Health Organization are provided at the conclusion of the review.
This review contains 12 tables, 3 figure and 48 references.
Keywords: Coronavirus, severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), COVID-19, respiratory infection, antiviral, real-time polymerase chain reaction


Rainwater harvesting to irrigate small-scale gardens enhances food self-sufficiency to overcome rural poverty. So far rainwater harvesting is not encouraged by the Namibian National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy nor supported financially by the Namibian government. This study proposes two rainwater harvesting facilities to irrigate gardens; one collects rain from household roofs with tank storage, the second collects rain on a pond roof with pond storage. The aim of this paper is to assess the benefits of rainwater harvesting-based gardening and to propose policy and financing implications for the Namibian government. We investigate the benefits of rainwater harvesting through a literature review, a cost–benefit analysis, monitoring of project pilot plants and a comparison with the existing irrigation and drinking water infrastructure. The results indicate that rainwater harvesting offers numerous benefits in technological, economic, environmental and social terms. The facilities have a positive net present value under favourable circumstances. However, material investment costs pose a financing problem. We recommend that government fund the rainwater harvesting infrastructure and finance privately garden and operation and maintenance costs. Integrating these aspects into a national rainwater harvesting policy would create the conditions to achieve the benefits of an up-scale of rainwater harvesting based gardening in Namibia.


We present a scalable sequential Monte Carlo algorithm and its greedy counterpart for models based on Kingman's coalescent. We utilize fast nearest neighbor algorithms to limit expensive computations to only a subset of data point pairs. For a dataset size of n, the resulting algorithm has O(nlogn) computational complexity. We empirically verify that we achieve a large speedup in computation. When the gain in speed is used for increasing the number of particles, we can often obtain significantly better samples than those of previous algorithms. We apply our algorithm for learning visual taxonomies of birds on 6033 examples, a dataset size for which previous algorithms fail to be feasible.


Classic film noir was Hollywood's "dark cinema" of crime and corruption; a genre underpinned by a tone of existential cynicism which stripped bare the myth of the American Dream and offered a bleak, nightmarish vision of a fragmented society that rhymed with many of the social realities of forties and fifties America. Mean Streets and Raging Bulls explores how, since its apparent demise in the late fifties, the noir genre has been revitalized during the post-studio era. The book is divided into two sections. In the first, the evolution of film noir is contextualized in relation to both American cinema's industrial transformation and the post-Depression history of the United States. In the second, the evolution of neo-noir and its relation to classic film noir is illustrated by detailed reference to representative texts including Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974), Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975), Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976), Blood Simple (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1984), After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 1985), Sea of Love (Harold Becker, 1989), Resevoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), and Romeo is Bleeding (Peter Medak, 1994).


In this paper, two scenarios have been considered for millimetre wave base station configuration. In the first scenario, the approach of Distributed Base Station (DBS) with remote radio units (RRU) is chosen as the envisioned architecture for future 5G network. This approach is compatible with cloud radio access network (C-RAN), as it has easier scalability and compatibility with future network expansions and upgrades. RRU has been used in this work as a way to sidestep the limited coverage and poor channel condition, which characterise millimetre wave band. This will minimise the number of required sites installation for the same quality of service (QoS). The results of this approach have shown significant improvements in terms of User Equipment (UE) throughput, average cell throughput, and spectral efficiency. In the second scenario, optimising antenna element spacing is considered in the base station array. The results show significant improvement in the network performance and provide better performance for cell-edge users in terms of data throughput.


Network virtualization introduces two concepts: slice (i.e., virtual network), which consists of virtual nodes and links, and slice developer, which is the third role in networks. Slice developers can introduce new network services by using slices. A method for introducing new types of virtual nodes and links for new services into the slice-definition language and the virtualization infrastructure by evolving physical nodes (i.e., "virtualization nodes" or VNodes) is proposed. This evolution consists of two stages: the experimental stage and the operational stage. In the experimental stage, data and control plug-ins are developed and tested by the operator or vendor by using experimental sliver definitions. In the operational stage, which is focused on in this study, the plug-ins are integrated into original components in the infrastructure and are available for slice development by using normal sliver definitions. By mapping type names to plug-in identifiers and parameters, the proposed method enables abstract and simple definitions of slices by slice developers and authorization of plug-ins by the operator, but it remains the loose integration of the new function, i.e., the plug-in architecture used in the experimental stage. Prototyping and evaluation demonstrates that this method greatly simplifies both slice developers' tasks and operators' tasks.


The Busview-X project constructed and demonstrated the use of an advanced public transportation system (APTS) to show the viability of providing real-time transit information to transit riders. This project (1) designed an advanced graphical transit information system using data from King County Metro Transit's existing automatic vehicle location (AVL) system and the Puget Sound's regional intelligent transportation systems (ITS) backbone; (2) created a World Wide Web (WWW) page to launch the application; and (3) demonstrated the system's viability by providing real-time transit coach locations to personal workstations on the University of Washington campus. As a precursor to an APTS for the Puget Sound region, Busview-X was designed to (1) provide real-time coach location information to the test group; (2) enhance King County Metro's existing investment in AVL technology without disrupting existing operations; (3) evaluate AVL accuracy; (4) encourage increased ridership, modal change, and productivity; and (5) be compatible with federal efforts to develop a national ITS architecture. Busview-X was constructed in an open systems model that supported a distributed computing environment. It used the X-windowing system for graphical support. Busview-X was used 2,490 times over a period of 670 days from November 1995 to September 1997. During the Seattle Smart Trek Model Deployment Initiative, the ideas developed in the campus-based version of Busview-X were used to create a new version, Busview, that could be widely supported on the Internet. Busview was written in the Java programming language so that graphical representation of transit information could be available anywhere on the Internet. The incorporation of a graphical toolkit into Java and its inclusion in widely available WWW browsers allowed the researchers to replace the X-window system with WWW browsers as the graphic user interface. Both versions were well received by users. Comments from Busview-X were used to improve the design of Busview during the Smart Trek deployment. Refinements to Busview are ongoing.


New England relies less on user charges for its state and local revenues than any other region of the country. As a result, some policymakers maintain that increases in user charges would correct an "imbalance" in the region's revenue mix. However, the national mix of state and local revenues is not necessarily the best mix for the states of New England. The degree to which a state should rely on u. ser charges depends on the priorities of its policymakers among competing principles of taxation, the conditions under which each principle favors user charges over taxes, and the extent to which these conditions exist within the state. Since each state has its own distinctive values and traits, the role of user charges in financing state and local government should vary across states. ; This article explores the conditions under which user charges compare favorably to taxes according to the principles of efficiency, equity, and exportability. The author finds that, given conditions peculiar to New England, the region's low dependence on user charges makes sense in terms of ~11 three principles. Moreover, in several instances where New England states do rely heavily on user charges to finance a particular public service, circumstances favor user charge financing.


Rupture risk of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) based on wall stress analysis may be superior to the currently used diameter-based rupture risk prediction [4; 5; 6; 7]. In patient specific computational models for wall stress analysis, the geometry of the aneurysm is obtained from CT or MR images. The wall thickness and mechanical properties are mostly assumed to be homogeneous. The pathological AAA vessel wall may contain collageneous areas, but also calcifications, cholesterol crystals and large amounts of fat cells. No research has yet focused yet on the differences in mechanical properties of the components present within the degrading AAA vessel wall.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


We present a framework for fast target detection in real-world robotics applications. Considering that an intelligent agent attends to a task-specific object target during execution, our goal is to detect the object efficiently. We propose the concept of early recognition, which influences the candidate proposal process to achieve fast and reliable detection performance. To check the target constraints efficiently, we put forward a novel policy which generates a sub-optimal checking order, and we prove that it has bounded time cost compared to the optimal checking sequence, which is not achievable in polynomial time. Experiments on two different scenarios: 1) rigid object and 2) non-rigid body part detection validate our pipeline. To show that our method is widely applicable, we further present a human-robot interaction system based on our non-rigid body part detection.


Parental involvement as a predictor of student achievement is a widely studied topic and current focus of education reform. However, findings have been inconsistent as researchers have conceptualized parental involvement differently across studies and often failed to account for racial-ethnic background. In addition, little is known about the influence of parental involvement among children of immigrants. Using the model of social and cultural reproduction, I examine student achievement and parental involvement levels across seven immigrant nationalities: Cambodian, Cuban, Filipino, Laotian, Mexican, Nicaraguan, and Vietnamese. I then analyze the relationships between five parental involvement types and GPA, while controlling for student, family, and school characteristics. Finally, I test for interaction effects to examine variations across groups. Results point to parent expectations as a strong predictor of student success, though the effects vary with nationality.


The diet of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby, Petrogale penicillata, was studied at two sites on the central coast and tablelands of New South Wales over a 12-month period of below-average rainfall. Diet was assessed by microscopic analysis of faeces. Particles within the faeces were identified to broad categories of vegetation: grasses, sedges, forbs, parallel-veined shrubs, reticulate-veined shrubs, and ferns. Diets were similar at both sites despite considerable differences in annual average rainfall (1330 v.577mm) and vegetation. Grasses constituted 35-50% of the diet, forbs 25-40%, and browse 12-30%. Ferns and sedges were of minor importance or were absent from the diet. Preferences for particular plant categories (measured as abundance in diet divided by abundance in habitat) were greatest in summer. Parallel-veined shrubs and trees and forbs were most preferred at one site; grasses and shrubs and trees at the other. Ferns were preferred least.


Start every game with confidence! The two greatest challenges for beginning chess players are not only to survive the openings phase, but also to choose appropriate attack and defence formations in the process. Winning Chess Openings shows players how to do both. In Yasser Seirawan's entertaining, easy-to-follow style, they are shown formations that can be used with other White or Black pieces. Winning Chess Openings explains how to: *Build a safe house for a king *Estimate losses of ten moves or fewer *Utilise the elements: time, force, space, and pawn structure *Plan strategy based on time-tested opening principles of play *Employ a defence for Black against any White opening *Apply an opening for White used by World Champions Winning Chess Openings will help readers develop a solid understanding of opening principles that can be applied to every game they play--without having to memorize a dizzying array of tedious and lengthy opening lines.


We perform fluctuation analyses on the data from the Spitzer GOODS survey (epoch one) in the Hubble Deep Field North (HDF-N). We fit a parameterised power-law number count model of the form dN/dS = N_o S^{-\delta} to data from each of the four Spitzer IRAC bands, using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling to explore the posterior probability distribution in each case. We obtain best-fit reduced chi-squared values of (3.43 0.86 1.14 1.13) in the four IRAC bands. From this analysis we determine the likely differential faint source counts down to $10^{-8} Jy$, over two orders of magnitude in flux fainter than has been previously determined. From these constrained number count models, we estimate a lower bound on the contribution to the Infra-Red (IR) background light arising from faint galaxies. We estimate the total integrated background IR light in the Spitzer GOODS HDF-N field due to faint sources. By adding the estimates of integrated light given by Fazio et al (2004), we calculate the total integrated background light in the four IRAC bands. We compare our 3.6 micron results with previous background estimates in similar bands and conclude that, subject to our assumptions about the noise characteristics, our analyses are able to account for the vast majority of the 3.6 micron background. Our analyses are sensitive to a number of potential systematic effects; we discuss our assumptions with regards to noise characteristics, flux calibration and flat-fielding artifacts.


Introduction Health utilities of tuberculosis (TB) patients may be diminished by side effects from medication, prolonged treatment duration, physical effects of the disease itself, and social stigma attached to the disease. Methods We collected health utility data from Thai patients who were on TB treatment or had been successfully treated for TB for the purpose of economic modeling. Structured questionnaire and EuroQol (EQ-5D) and EuroQol visual analog scale (EQ-VAS) instruments were used as data collection tools. We compared utility of patients with two co-morbidities calculated using multiplicative model (UCAL) with the direct measures and fitted Tobit regression models to examine factors predictive of health utility and to assess difference in health utilities of patients in various medical conditions. Results Of 222 patients analyzed, 138 (62%) were male; median age at enrollment was 40 years (interquartile range [IQR], 35–47). Median monthly household income was 6,000 Baht (187 US$; IQR, 4,000–15,000 Baht [125–469 US$]). Concordance correlation coefficient between utilities measured using EQ-5D and EQ-VAS (UEQ-5D and UVAS, respectively) was 0.6. UCAL for HIV-infected TB patients was statistically different from the measured UEQ-5D (p-value<0.01) and UVAS (p-value<0.01). In tobit regression analysis, factors independently predictive of UEQ-5D included age and monthly household income. Patients aged ≥40 years old rated UEQ-5D significantly lower than younger persons. Higher UEQ-5D was significantly associated with higher monthly household income in a dose response fashion. The median UEQ-5D was highest among patients who had been successfully treated for TB and lowest among multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) patients who were on treatment. Conclusions UCAL of patients with two co-morbidities overestimated the measured utilities, warranting further research of how best to estimate utilities of patients with such conditions. TB and MDR-TB treatments impacted on patients' self perceived health status. This effect diminished after successful treatment.


The number of days of absence from work associated with mental illness has risen dramatically in the past 10 years in Germany. Companies are challenged by this issue and seek help for the physical and mental health of their employees. Supported Employment concepts such as the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model have been designed to bring jobless persons with mental disorders back to work. In the randomized, controlled SEplus trial, a modified IPS-approach is tested concerning its ability to shorten times of sick leave of persons with mental distress or a mental disorder and to prevent them from losing their job. The trial is outlined in this study protocol.


Deriving the proper density to achieve the region coverage for random sensors deployment is a fundamentally important problem in the area of wireless sensor networks. Most existing works on sensor coverage mainly concentrate on the two-dimensional (2D) plane coverage which assume that all the sensors are deployed on an ideal plane. In contrast, sensors are also deployed on the three-dimensional (3D) rolling surfaces in many real applications. Toward this end, we study the coverage problem of wireless sensor networks for the rolling terrains, and derive the expected coverage ratios under the stochastic sensors deployment. According to the different terrain features, we investigate two kinds of terrain coverage problems: the regular terrain coverage problem and the irregular terrain coverage problem. Specifically, we derive the general expression of the expected coverage ratio for an arbitrary surface z=f(x, y) and build two models, cone model and Cos-revolution model, to estimate the expected coverage ratios for regular terrains. For irregular terrains, we propose a digital elevation model (DEM) based method to calculate the expected coverage ratio and design an algorithm to estimate the expected coverage ratio of an interested region by using only the contour map of this region. We also conduct extensive simulations to validate and evaluate our proposed models and schemes.


We analyze the propagation of equatorial Kelvin waves from the troposphere to the stratosphere using a new filtering technique applied to ERA‐Interim data (very similar results for Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) temperatures) that allows separation of wave activity into number of waves and wave amplitude. The phase speed of Kelvin waves (order 20 m/s) is similar to the magnitude of zonal wind in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL), and correspondingly, we find that the seasonal and interannual variability of Kelvin wave propagation is dominated by the variability in the wind field and less by tropospheric convectively coupled wave activity. We show that local relations between wave activity and zonal wind are ambiguous, and only full ray tracing calculations can explain the observed patterns of wave activity. Easterlies amplify and deflect the eastward traveling waves upward. Westerlies have the opposite effect. During boreal winter, the strong dipole of zonal winds in the TTL centered at the dateline confines wave propagation into the stratosphere to a window over the Atlantic‐Indian Ocean sector (30°W to 90°E), which casts a lasting "shadow" into the lower stratosphere that explains the remarkable zonal asymmetry in wave activity there. During boreal summer, the upper level monsoon circulation leads to maximum easterlies, and wave amplitude (but not number of waves) maximizes over the Indian Ocean sector (30°E to 90°E). Interannual variability in wave propagation due to El‐Niño/Southern Oscillation, for example, is well explained by its modification of the zonal wind field.


This paper consists of three case studies of the emergence of three successful export activities in Mexico: avocado production, the manufacture of catheters, and call center outsourcing. Each case study discusses how companies, associations, and governments at various levels have addressed market failures and facilitated the provision of public goods necessary for each activity. The case studies additionally profile first movers in each activity and describe the positive externalities they provide to imitators, particularly diffusion of export knowledge. Also include in each case study is a counterfactual case of a less successful activity (mangos, stem cell banking, and other types of business process outsourcing, respectively) and a section on policy implications.


The South African constitutional social justice commitment and equality duty requires that everyone is treated with equal consideration, but also tilts the scales in favour of the most disadvantaged. This paper explores the challenge of utilising publicly available data to promote social justice in resource distribution and fair access to essential services during crisis regulations, and explores Small Area Estimation (SAE) as a method to overcome some of these data challenges. The paper evaluates the strengths and limitations of the primary South African datasets that were available to inform fiscal and resource relief efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis. The potential to use SAE was found to be limited due to data constraints but statistics were generated at a district council level from data statistically representative at national level. This demonstrated stark disparities in hunger, access to medical products and piped water - all critical equality considerations during a pandemic. However, the level of disaggregation achieved with SAE is shown to be ineffective to represent the geographical disparities indicative of the true South African population, where extreme inequalities manifest in much closer proximities. This supports the need for improved statistical tools and more targeted and resolved data gathering efforts, to inform fair, social-impact conscious and equality-congruent regulatory impact, as well as just fiscal relief during crisis. Particularly, this work proposes the development of such tools and repositories outside of crisis times, to facilitate awareness of equality and justice issues during the tensions of national crisis.


In the fall 2008 the program Halal-tv, where three young, Muslim women discussed Swedish society and culture, caused several debates in Swedish media. This article analyzes the first debate taking place in op-ed articles in the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet and blog posts linking to these. The analysis focuses on the understandings of the place of religion in public discourse expressed in the debate. The authors conclude that the debate, on the one hand, confirms a polarized understanding of Swedish values as opposed to religious values. On the other hand, there are indications that Halal-tv opened up a space for negotiations of the role of the media in representing religion, and the place of religion in Swedish culture. In analyzing perspectives and issues brought up in the debate this article can contribute to further research on media as arena for negotiations of the place of religion in post-secular society.


In the course of studies directed toward the synthesis of 7,8-disubstituted 1,2-dihydroxyindolizidines as analogues of the proapoptotic iminosugar lentiginosine, marked reactivity differences of diastereomeric spiro[cyclopropane-1,2′(3H)-pyrrolo[1,2-b]isoxazolidines] precursors were observed. While one minor diastereoisomer gives the Brandi–Guarna rearrangement to indolizidinone very smoothly, and also easily undergoes fluorination of the primary alcohol, the main diastereoisomer behaves in a rather different way. The thermal rearrangement is less efficient and fluorinating agents mainly induce an unexpected cyclization to a highly strained tetracyclic derivative that, in turn, rearranges to form the uncommon 2-oxa-8-azatricyclo[6.2.1.04,9]undecan-5-one system with good yield. In this last process a remarkable macrocyclic dimer has been isolated that sheds light on an unprecedented different aspect of the Brandi–Guarna rearrangement.